Tuesday, October 21, 2008

NOLLYWOOD STARS CONVERGE AT PA RUNSEWE’S BURIAL

It was another gathering of celebrities last Friday (17th Oct, 2008) in Lagos as notable personalities in the Nigerian showbiz industry converged to pay their last respect to the late PA BANKOLE RUNSEWE. Venue was the NPA SPORTS GROUND, off Bode Thomas st, Surulere-Lagos and in attendance were Nollywood divas and blokes like Shan George, Franca Brown, Bimbo Akintola, Ayo Adesanya and her husband, Goriola Hassan, Ace comedian Ali Baba, Bob-Manuel Udokwu, Kanayo O Kanayo, Larry Kold-Sweat and others.


ABOUT THE DECEASED

The late old man, Pa Bankole Runsewe, was a retired civil servant and an accomplished businessman during his life time. He’s the father of OTUNBA SEGUN RUNSEWE, the indefatigable DIRTECTOR-GENERAL of NIGERIA TOURISM DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION (NTDC), Abuja. He died at the age of 80.


WHY THE ARTISTES WERE THERE

It is not everyday you get to see Nigerian artistes attending Owambe parties of this nature but in this particular one, they were there in large numbers. As expected, not a few people were pleasantly surprised. Well, let me quickly tell you that the NTDC, led by Otunba Runsewe recognizes Nollywood as a potentially huge tourist attraction in the country. The Corporation therefore has a working relationship with the movie practitioners. And of course, many of them have benefited generously from the NTDC largesse as a result of this working relationship. This explains their impressive turnout at the event.
Below are the pictures as captured by Sola Folowosele.
Otunba Segun Runsewe and his wife(below)

Larry KoldSweat and Bob-Manuel Udokwu(below)
Ali Baba and Sir Shina Peter(below)
Bisi Olatilo(below)
Femi Adesina(Editor, Sun Newspaper) & Dr. Reuben Abati(Guardian)(below)
Otunba Segun Runsewe(middle) with Isaac& Nneka Moses of Goge Africa(below)
KOK,Nneka, Bimbo, &Franca Brown(below)
Ayo Adesanya and hubby, Gori Hassan(below)
Gbemi, Kemi & Tinuke(below)
Bola Wellinton(below)


NOW, THE GIST

AGE BECKONS ON SHAN GEORGE
Shan George was supposed to be the coordinator-in-chief of her fellow artistes attending the event. She played the role for a while but after welcoming a few artistes she quietly arranged with one of the usherettes to stand-in for her while she took the backside to sneak out to God-knows-where. She didn’t return until the tail end of the event when everything was almost over. Anyway, that is not even the main gist here, what caught my attention was the fact that the beautiful Shan George of old is now aging rapidly. Though she still maintains her smart physique but you could see signs of old age telling easily on her face. I hope all is well with this ‘serial lover’ of Nollywood, because by my reckoning Shan is supposed to be around 40. PIX: Shan George before she disappeared


ALI BABA
TURNS PAPARRAZZI

Nigeria’s undisputed king of comedy, Ali Baba, was all over the place with his digital SLR camera snapping anything on sight. The way he operated you would think he’s covering the event for Ovation Magazine. He sat in the midst of other artistes and treated them to several rounds of ‘free’ jokes. After the event, he drove away in his sleek red DODGE RAM 1500SLT Buick. PIX: Ali & his camera, (2) Ali & his ride


BOB-MANUEL UDOKWU, THE MASTER ENTERTAINER

This suave actor is one guy after the heart of many. This is because Bob knows his art! During the party, SIR SHINA PETERS (SSP), the Afro-Juju singer who was performing on stage called Bob-Manuel to the podium to and come sing (probably with the intention of making a joke out of his voice). When Bob got to the rostrum and collected the mic from SSP, he did not only sing well, he actually sang better than SSP the owner, commanding the band just like SSP himself. This attracted a loud round of applause from the crowd. Infact, so good was Bob-Manuel on the mic that he forced SSP to commit another grammatical gaffe as SSP said “Haha! You want to overtake me?” instead of “…overthrow….”. Na wa for SSP oh! 18 years after his first stray bullet “…soonest recovery”. PIX: Bob-Manuel & SSP trading dancing tackles


FRANCA BROWN
BATTLES OVERWEIGHT

Believe me, veteran actress Franca Brown is now 50cl OROBO’. ( 50cl is the parlance for excess fat in Nigeria, it was adapted from the size of the biggest Pepsi drink which is 50cl a.k.a Orobo). When I saw her at the party, I had to take a second glance to actually ascertain that she’s the one. She’s now robust and fleshy like a typical “Iya Monsura”. I overheard her asking for 'diet coke' from one of the service boys. But in fairness to her, she looks fresher and beautiful. May God answer that her “prayer”. Amen!



AYO ADESANYA
, HUBBY FLAUNTS WICKED TATTOO

“I-am-happily-married” actress, Ayo Adesanya-Hassan and funky hubby, Goriola Hassan got quite some attention at the event. This was on account of the wicked tattoos etched on their upper left arms. It read “NO FEAR”, whatever that means?
The couple displayed so much affection openly like a newly-wed that on-lookers couldnt help but marvel. But I just hope it’s not fake. PIX: husband and wife flaunting their tattoos


ON BIMBO AKINTOLA’S
SMOKING HABIT

The cigarette-smoking habit of this talented actress Bimbo Akintola is now assuming an alarming proportion and I think the babe needs urgent help. During the party, Bimbo sneaked out to the car-park to smoke Benson & Hedges inside Ali Baba’s car (Ali gave her his keys). I saw her with my ‘korokoro’ eyes. This is inspite of the Health Ministries' warning that “SMOKERS WILL DIE YOUNG”. I even heard that Bimbo smokes the “elder brother” of cigarette. When it was time for her to leave, she left in a rickety yellow taxi negotiated for her by her PA and hordes of areaboys who trailed her from the party gate to the main road on Bode Thomas st. Na wa for Bimbo. PIX: (above-up)Bimbo at the party,(above-down),Bimbo(see red arrow) being escorted to the yellow Taxi by area boys


K.O.K,
WHICH ‘HOLY GHOST’ WAS THAT?

The man who died was a Yorubaman and the gathering was predominantly Yoruba as expected. Though there was also the presence of a few Igbo group led by Igwe(Dr) Martin Ezeh, The Idu 2 of Igbo-Ukwu, Anambra state. When all Nollywood stars were invited to the rostrum for recognition by Bisi Olatilo the anchorman, Kanayo O Kanayo was given the mic to speak on their behalf after Larry Koldsweat had spoken. To the surprise of many, KOK made his speech in Igbo, claiming that the ‘Holy Ghost’ instructed him to speak Igbo. I was surprised but when I took a look at the table where KOK stood up from, I saw 31/2 bottles of Gulder and a half-empty bottle of Moet. I now perceived that it must have been ‘Gulder Ghost’ that actually instructed him.

19 comments:

Chris Ogunlowo said...

For reasons I can't explain, I like Bimbo Akintola. Nope, i don't watch 9ja movies. The day i watched her perform at the National Stadium (Virginal Monologue) I felt like.... this is a born actress.

... and she is smoking HOTT!!!

Lati said...

looooooooooooooooooool! too funny!!!!!!! i just cant stop looooooooooool!! Gulder Ghost!!!! loooooooool!!!

AustynZOGS said...

Sola,
You go kill person with this your wicked postings.Meen,Your site is HOT!!!A good fine combination of pictures and stories.Really interesting.Keep it on...

Anonymous said...

loooool....Sola Na you biko.

I don't think Sir Shina Peters, made any 'grammatical ibons' or whatever you call am. There's nothing wrong in saying 'overtake', professor.

Shan should just take things easy, especially with all these man wahala. Dem no worth all that headache. Age certainly shows on all of us, men and women. Noone stays young forever abeg. Even all these Hollywood weirdos do countless of botox and plastic surgeries to stay young.

I don't see what's wrong with Franca Brown either. She should be in her 50s now, if i'm correct. If i can recollect, she's always had a 'big behind' since seeing her on Behind The Clouds. I love her the way she is. She's an African beauty.

Bimbo, pls stay away from those fags o. They're killers, remember your lungs. You're a big girl, you don't need those to add to your statue pls.

Ayo Adesanya & her husband scare the pants out of me, especially her husband. Really miss her on-screen.

Yewande Atanda said...

This blog is the bomb...

I just can't stop laughing...

'Gulder ghost'

You can see that u're also a gossip.

Sola Folowosele said...

@aloofar-lol@smoking HTT--that'z a nice one!good play on words.love Bimbo's art too..only that..

@latifa--brilliant & beautiful babe (bbb), thanks for stopping by

@austnzogs--big thanks!

Sola Folowosele said...

@wienna--i stand corrected, yr excellency..but that sounds like a semantic error..lol@franca brown-chineke!she don old reach like that?.na wa oh! she never..ma..how she go do am now?
-@bimbo-help me tell bimbo make she hear o.

Sola Folowosele said...

@yewande atanda-hahaha.. na wa for u oo..u that u won THE BEST GOSSIP OF THE YEAR award in a whole department of 150 students.

Eyin'ju Oluwa said...

I love your blog, update more often plx.Thanks

Lmao@Gulder ghost, alcohol is useless

Yewande Atanda said...

Nice post, just increase your posting rate sir.

Sola Folowosele said...

@omosewa--thanks, i will do that..somehow difficult to drop comment on yr latest post yesterday, what happened?

@yewande atanda--thanks dearie..i will try

Eyin'ju Oluwa said...

Not too sure why. Have a lovely weekend!

Okey.Chukbyke C. said...

What a nice blog you have!!!!!!
Nice social pictures though I do not know anyone in the Nigerian social circle.
I have linked your blog to one of mine.
You can check on some of my public on line albums through the links in my blogs.
Nice meeting you. have a nice sunday.
Charles
http://chukbyke.blogspot.com/

Lati said...

ive read this article 3 times now...and it still cracks me up!! loooooooooooool!! too funny! some funny stuff!!

Yewande Atanda said...

your blogs have these creative and professional touches that one can't ignore. i still need to learn a lot from you. hope u won't mind sha.

Sola Folowosele said...

@yewande atanda-thanks babe! i dont mind jare, get in touch any time you are ready

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Anonymous said...

quite interesting post. I would love to follow you on twitter.

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