February 19, 2014

On Charice-Rex Smith Incident

Let me start by saying that I am a Charice fan. I also like the songs Simply Jessie and You Take My Breath Away although I did not know the name of their singer—Rex Smith—until the incident during a sound check for a corporate show at a hotel in Cebu on February 11, 2014 came up in the news last week.

Another thing, I was not there when it all happened … and neither were you, dear readers, unless you are Smith or the musical director of Charice. I wanted to say, "or Charice" but one report claimed she was never there.

The fact that I am a Charice fan may give the impression that I am biased in this post. Maybe I am, but maybe I am not. My thoughts and opinions here are based on what have been shared to the public by both camps of Charice and Rex Smith.

If you have already read the news reports from ABS-CBN and Manila Bulletin and the official statement of Ovation Productions, you may opt to scroll down to the sub-heading "My Thoughts."




ABS-CBN News

ABS-CBN online news reported in the afternoon of February 13, 2014 that Rex Smith insulted Charice while she was rehearsing for a corporate show in a hotel [Radisson Blue Hotel] in Cebu.

In an interview, Charice's manager, Glenn Aldueza, told ABS-CBN, "We went there on time (2 p.m.)" and that Charice was doing the sound check with her musical director [Troy Laureta] when suddenly a foreigner [Rex Smith] went up the stage and pointed a finger at Charice and said, "Can you please stop what you are doing." Then Smith argued with Laureta because the latter said, "Can't you see somebody is rehearsing?" Aldueza added that when Smith left the stage, he said the F-word.

Charice's manager noted that the singer was shocked saying that no one had done that to her, especially American artists who have high respect for her.

According to Aldueza, someone from the Ovation Productions [the outfit in charge of the corporate show] apologized to them and said that Smith would personally say sorry to Charice but Smith's apology did not happen.

Aldueza also said that Charice did not want to make an issue out of it, but as a manager, he thought they deserved an apology.

ABS-CBN updated their report in the same news post later that day, February 13. They added the statement of Renen de Guia of the Ovation Productions.

According to De Guia, it was a case of misunderstanding. He said that Smith was not even aware that there would be another act [Charice] before him. He narrated that Smith entered the backstage, went straight to the stage and made a comment about the set-up. "He was suddenly shouted at by this guy who turned out to be Charice's Fil-Am musical director," De Guia said.

De Guia added, "Rex loves Filipinos immensely and Filipinos love him back. I went to Charice and her group to sincerely apologize about the incident and we really didn't know that she was doing a sound check."


Manila Bulletin News

On the same day, February 13, 2014, Manila Bulletin online news ran an article with the heading, "Rex Smith's camp refutes singer insulted Charice."

Danee Samonte, Smith's Asian manager, spoke on behalf of the singer. He said that Charice was not there. He told Manila Bulletin that there was a heated argument "but it was guy-to-guy" and not with Charice and insisted that she was never there.

From the narration of Samonte, they were informing the technical crew about a problem with the setting of the drums on stage. Smith was concerned about it so, he went to the stage. Samonte added that he went with the singer and therefore, he was a witness to what happened.

Samonte continued saying that there was a man on stage who was adjusting something on the keyboard. Smith went up the stage, thinking there was no one doing a sound check. There was a minus one playing and Smith said to the man, "Can you please turn the music down? I want to talk to the technical people." Samonte noted that the man turned out to be Laureta. He continued that Laureta told Smith "point blank" with the line, "You are disturbing a sound check, get off my stage!"

According to Samonte, Smith was shocked at Laureta's outburst and the two had an argument. He said he pulled Smith to avoid it from becoming worse. Samonte added that he later talked to Laureta to say it was a misunderstanding and that he said sorry to Charice's musical director.

In the news article, Samonte denied the occurence of Smith's insulting Charice. He said partly in Tagalog, "To what was said that Rex insulted Charice--there was no one there... Rex will never do that because he's a perfect gentleman. I've been working with him for 10 years, he's never (shown) any attitude like that."

Although Samonte admitted that Smith made a mistake (in going to the stage), he said that the yelling of "Get off my stage! Get off my stage!" by Laureta ignited the argument. Samonte reiterated, "but the argument was between two guys, because Charice was never there."


Ovation Productions Official Statement

At 11:19 p.m. on February 13, 2014, Ovation Productions posted its official statement on the incident on its Facebook account. Below is a copy of the statement, captured from the FB page.



My Thoughts

This is a matter of "He said. He said. He said." Yes, there are three versions of what happened. One version is from Charice camp courtesy of Glenn Aldueza and two versions are from Rex Smith camp courtesy of Ovation Productions/Renen de Guia and Danee Samonte.

The two camps' statements were contradicting in their information on who provoked who, and who went overboard during the incident. This is something that only those present at the scene would know for sure who was the cause of the untoward incident.

There is, however, one disturbing "how-could-it-be" detail. I call it "how-could-it-be" because the statements of the two representations of Smith are glaringly contradicting each other. Based on this one detail, even if I was not a witness to the incident, I could easily choose which side to believe.

Was Charice present or absent at the scene?

    1. Ovation Productions/De Guia: "He was suddenly shouted
        at by this guy who turned out to be Charice's Fil-Am
        musical director. We were all shocked! It was only then
        that we realised Charice was having a sound check."
        
       "...we really didn't know that she was doing a sound 
        check."

        So, CHARICE WAS PRESENT THERE.

    2. Samonte: "but the argument was between two guys,
        because Charice was never there."

        So, CHARICE WAS NOT PRESENT THERE.

How could Charice be present and absent at the same time, at the same place? These contradicting statements came from the two representatives of the same camp—the Smith camp. So, how could I believe their camp with this huge inconsistency?


Reasons / Motives

But just the same, after reading their versions, I tried to give the Smith camp the benefit of the doubt, so, I asked myself one question. What could be the reason or motive of Charice's manager for telling ABS-CBN about the sound check incident? Could it be to put the public attention on Charice because she has upcoming concerts? I do not think so. She has the Sunday noontime show ASAP and guestings on TV and radio programs that are already giving her the airtime for plugging them. To my thinking, she does not need this kind of news-turned-controversy. Now, if —I said "if"—Aldueza had any ill-feelings towards Smith or anyone in his camp, I do not think he would use Charice for his own personal gain. I believe that Aldueza only wants the respect that Charice deserves be given to her.

As for the reason or motive of the representatives of Smith for their versions of the incident, my thinking was that they wanted to save his reputation after the ABS-CBN news came out in the afternoon of Feb 13, 2014. They had to defend their artist. Netizens had started making hate posts against Smith most especially because of the reported pointing of a finger at Charice. It also happened in the Philippines and the reported person in the wrong was a foreigner. So, Smith's camp had to put the focus away from Charice. Samonte even said that she was never there. Next, they emphasized that Smith was a perfect gentleman. Having Charice in the scene would be a slap on his most-guarded image. So, they made her musical director, being a guy involved in the incident, the focus and the one that should take the blame for the untoward incident.

Note: In the Philippines, pointing a finger at someone is a big no-no. Pointing a finger is not a degree less than derogatory remarks. Sometimes, it is taken as worse. It is an outright insult and disrespect. It is rude.


My admiration and more questions

It was admirable of Samonte for doing his job as Smith's Asian manager. He must be attending to all of his artist's needs. He even went with Smith to check on the set-up on the stage. He also made sure that the argument would not become worse so he pulled Smith away from the scene and then, personally said sorry to Laureta.

That was admirable of Samonte for apologizing to Laureta even if for him, the latter started it all. The same goes to De Guia who went to the group of Charice to explain about the misunderstanding and to say sorry. 

I have some questions, though. Why would Samonte and De Guia apologize if Laureta was the one to blame for the untoward incident? Why would Aldueza think that Smith should apologize to Charice when it was Laureta who started it all? If Laureta, who is part of the team of Charice, started it all, why would Aldueza initiate bringing the matter to the attention of the public via ABS-CBN news? Did he not consider that the Smith camp would eventually react to the news? If Charice was never there, Aldueza should have asked Smith to apologize to Laureta and not to Charice. 


Little details

1-- In the ABS-CBN news article, Aldueza said, "We went there on time (2 p.m.)"

It seems that the time of the incident was significant. I wonder why Aldueza had to make mention of the time (2 p.m.) and that they were there on time. Was there any problem/misunderstanding on the schedules of the sound check/use of the stage for rehearsals? Did Smith think it was his turn to use the stage that was why he asked Charice to stop what she was doing?

2-- In the Manila Bulletin news article, Samonte said Laureta shouted, "Get off my stage! Get off my stage!" while in the official statement of Ovation Productions, Laureta shouted, "GET THE FUCK OFF MY STAGE!" 

Why, again, were there different details in their statements? Was Samonte being polite in the interview and opted not to use the F-word or did Ovation Productions add the F-word? 

3-- De Guia said, "He [Smith] was not even aware that there will be another act featured before him which was Charice."

Although both Samonte and Ovation Productions did their job in protecting the image of Smith, they failed in one department—letting their artist know what was going to happen outside of his own act. They did not inform Smith that another international singer would be performing before him. Did they not consider it vital in their own artist's act? I could not believe that Samonte and De Guia, being not new in the business and actually having years of experience in handling professional/international artists, could make this kind of oversight.


Philanthropy and Gentleman

Both Samonte and Ovation Productions/De Guia emphasized that Rex Smith was a perfect gentleman and had an immense love for the Filipinos. They added the information that he was in the country to raise funds for the supertyphoon Yolanda victims.

I cannot question his charitable causes and I am thankful to him just like I am thankful to all, public figures or not, who have given their help in terms of finances, goods, services, and prayers to the Philippines. But his being a philanthropist does not have any bearing on the Cebu hotel incident, unless, one sees all this as a why-put-him-in-a-bad-light-when-he-gives-donations thing.

I have doubt, however, about his being a perfect gentleman. On February 14, at 8:24 a.m. PH Time, hours after Ovation Productions had posted its official statement on Facebook, Rex Smith made the tweet below.



I could have let this tweet pass if there was no recent incident made public through the broadcast and online news to which netizens had poured in their reactions, and if there was no official statement from his camp that was also made public. Smith's use of "Official" comes to me as a mockery, especially because he added "You may now return to your regularly scheduled life...."

Valentine's Day had just started in the Philippines and had not in the USA (where he is from) when he tweeted the above. So, what was he referring to with his "You may now return to your regularly scheduled life...." line? 

If you can consider this tweet as an act of a perfect gentleman, dictionaries should be re-written and families, schools, and societies should re-teach the children (and adults) the acceptable decorum associated with the term, complete with its "leniency."  These must be done so that we can all have the same understanding of what a "perfect gentleman" really is. Let's avoid misunderstandings. 

---------------
Note: One anonymous reader has pointed out, in the comment section below, what he/she thinks about Rex Smith's tweet above. So, may I add the following statement to my post:

If the above tweet is not at all a mockery, then, I apologize to Rex Smith and to the readers of this post for my misinterpretation of the said tweet.


4 comments:

  1. >>> 1. Ovation Productions/De Guia: "He was suddenly shouted
    at by this guy who turned out to be Charice's Fil-Am
    musical director. We were all shocked! It was only then
    that we realised Charice was having a sound check."

    "...we really didn't know that she was doing a sound
    check."

    So, CHARICE WAS PRESENT THERE. <<<

    No, "Charice/she" in those context doesn't mean they were saying she was physically there.

    >>> As for the reason or motive of the representatives of Smith for their versions of the incident [assuming they were lying that Charice wasn't there], my thinking was that they wanted to save his reputation after the ABS-CBN news ... Smith's camp had to put the focus away from Charice.. <<<

    If Charice really was there, do you think they'll claim that Charice wasn't there when they should know that if Charice gets interviewed she will say that she was there? That would be a pretty bold move for them, don't you think?

    >>> Why would Samonte and De Guia apologize if Laureta was the one to blame for the untoward incident? <<<

    Really? smh, I don't understand how people don't get this. Their apology was for the part where Mr Smith unintentionally disturbed their soundcheck.

    >>> "GET (THE FUCK) OFF MY STAGE!" <<<

    My opinion here is like you said, minor detail. Not much of difference really whether there's fuck in there or not, it's rude.

    >>> Philanthropy and Gentleman <<<

    I agree his being a philanthropist does not have any bearing on the Cebu hotel incident, you have to imagine their claim though: Charice was doing her soundcheck and Rex Smith comes up to the stage and started pointing fingers to her and yelling at her to stop what she's doing. That's outrageous, especially for somebody who has no history of behaving like that (afaik). Suddenly insulting Charice and telling her to stop what she's doing, in such a rude way is what I take they're claiming? That's close to someone insane if you ask me.

    >>> Rex's tweet <<<

    Did not take that as mockery at all whatsoever. He could have written that same exact tweet whether the incident happened or not. You could just be giving it negative meaning that it doesn't have.

    ReplyDelete
  2. >>> What was he referring to with his "You may now return to your regularly scheduled life...." line? <<<

    Simply just that, that you may now return to your regularly scheduled life (after he just made his greeting for the holiday). Not his fault if you want to put negative meaning into it and somehow think that that makes him less of a gentleman.

    ReplyDelete