ADIEU GARY COLEMAN (ARNOLD)

Due to my peanuts salary, it was ages before I was able to afford this month's Internet subcription. I've missed this blog so much that I could'nt wait to go back to it. But I hadnt counted on the lastest post being another obituary.

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I heard the news of Gary Coleman's death yesterday and  I was and am very, very sad.
The sitcom he starred with Todd Bridges (Willis), Conrad Bain(Phillip Drummond) & Dana Plato(Kimberly), Diff'rent Strokes was a never to be missed programme as a child, I could never stop laughing at their antics- especially Gary's character, Arnold. The last time I saw them together again, minus Bain, was on VIBE in 1999 with Sinbad and I was so psyched seeing them all grown up and nostalgia hit hard when some memorable scenes were played on the show. 



Words just can't express my sadness; years back Dana died at the young age of 34- it's amazing and frightening just how life is unpredictable and fragile. It was just yesterday that I was watching the show and laughing at the three of them. It's true they had their problems long after the show wrapped up but then again it's one of  the harsh realites of life. But now and always, Gary will always be Arnold just as Dana would always be Arnold and Willis' loving, warm hearted sister; Kimberly. 
May Gary's Coleman's soul rest in peace and may Almighty God grant him and Dana His infinite Mercy. AMIN.

Tu O Nadie: The fourth version






Last year, a fourth version of Tu O Nadie (No One But You)  was made; Sortilegio, which means ‘Love Spell’.  Andres Garcia and Lucia Mendez's 2009 successors are  Alejandro ‘Alex’ Lombardo (William Levy) and Maria José Lombardo (Jacqueline Bracamontes) , the villain is called Bruno (David Zepeda).

The story line here is the same with major differences:



-The story is set mostly in Merida, in  the free and sovereign state of Yucatan, instead of Acapulco like the previous versions.


-Alex and Bruno have the same father. Victoria’s first husband, Samuel was friends with Alex’s father, Antonio. She and Antonio fell in love and had an affair, which Samuel found out about. Samuel, out of spite, refused to divorce her and they moved to Europe. She gave birth to twins; Bruno and his sister Raquel. Samuel died when the twins were six, so Vicky was finally free to marry Antonio, now widowed. 
However, Alex was made the principal heir to the estate, because- although Antonio tried very hard to raise the twins well- Bruno and Raquel, (Bruno especially), caused him and Victoria nothing but trouble. 
No one except Antonio, Victoria and the housekeeper Felipa  knew that Bruno and Raquel were not Samuel’s children. Victoria told a very shocked Alex years later; by then Antonio was dead and he and Bruno were enemies.

-Raquel grew to fall in love with her handsome stepbrother; not knowing he was actually her half-brother. She settled for a loveless marriage with Roberto, who is actually bisexual.

-Alex’s ‘accident’ was a car accident. Bruno paid his two accomplices to ram their truck against his car, causing it to somersault off the road. The car burst into flames after Alex was flung out.



Alex’s  best friend, Fernando,  in a sub-plot, fell in love with Victoria, Alex’s stepmother. At first she’s astonished that such a handsome, young man (he’s Alex’s age) was interested in her but fell for him too. However, they had to keep their relationship secret for a while. (Weird, but that’s what happened folks.)





-The scene where Alex and Maria José made love for the first time, was the most erotic of all the versions of Tu O Nadie; their subsequent love scenes all through the telenovela the same way.

-Maria José’s sister, Paula got a job in Alex’s company. They have another sister they knew nothing about at first- Maria Jose's twin Sandra. Their father Pedro was not a widower; his wife Elena  abandoned them years back for a rich man but took Sandra with her. In order for M.J and Paula not to think badly of Elena, Pedro made them believe she was dead, including having them visit a fake grave. Sandra grew up a spoiled party girl who later died from a drug overdose.


-Bruno murdered the judge before Alex and Fernando could question him. They were shipwrecked on an Island for months and it was assumed they were dead. But they made it home just in time. Maria José was already heavy with child and she fainted when he surprised her in their bedroom. He was right there in the delivery room when she gave birth to their son, named after his late father, Antonio.



-Alex appeared to be more religious than the previous heroes (Antonio, David, Tony); he constantly wore a rosary with a crucifix round his neck. He later took it off and slipped it under Baby Tony’s pillow in the cot, for protection.


-Bruno and Maura conspired to kidnap Maria José. Her memory was erased, which caused her to forget  Alex and their baby Tony. Alex patiently helped nurse her to health after dragging her back home until her memory slowly came back; thanks to pills given to her by the family doctor.

-Maura’s sister, Lisette came up with a joke to invent a fictitious name- Mario Aguirre-  and say he’s Maria José’s lover but repented after she was diagnosed with cancer. 

- Maura later ended up in prison for her part in Maria José’s kidnap &  for fraud.

-Bruno was shot to death by his accomplice, Erik when he was trying to kill Alex on the beach. 

- Bruno’s funeral was shown.


Alex formally asked Maria José to marry him.




They actually had THREE weddings;



A civil wedding at the mansion


The traditional Mayan ceremony




...and the formal church wedding! 



Honeymoon

-The last scene was of the happy couple making love on the beach, decorated like the Garden of Eden, complete with wooden animals.


                  

TRIVIA...

-William Levy is from Cuba, and the youngest actor to play the main character originated by Andres Garcia (who was 44 during Tu o Nadie), being 29 years old at the time. 

- Mexican actress and former beauty titleholder  Jacqueline Bracamontes is a year older than her co-star, William Levy

- David Zepeda is 5 years older than   Jacqueline Bracamontes and 6 years older than William Levy

Guillermo Zarur- the actor who played the Lombardo family's head butler, Ezequiel- played the head butler of the Lombardo family, Ramon,  in the original version of this telenovela-  Tu O Nadie (No One But You) in 1985. 

Chantal Andere- the actress who played Bruno's twin sister and Alex's half sister Raquel; played Aide who was  Lorena's rival for David's affections in a previous remake  of Tu O Nadie; Acapulco, Cuerpo y Alma (Acapulco Body & Soul) in 1995. 


That's all on Tu O Nadie, folks. Thanks for staying till the very end. Yours in blogship...

Honey 💞

Tu O Nadie: The English (second) version

 



The second version of Tu O Nadie,  released in 1995 is  Acapulco Bay;  a joint venture of Televista and Fox TV. The story is also  set in Acapulco but with both American and Hispanic  actors and actresses and the names anglicized versions of the Spanish names of the main characters. 


Here, Antonio is Tony Stockdale (Anthony Newman), Raquel is Rachel Swanson Stockdale (Raquel Gardner), and Maximilian Albeniz is Max Hauser (Ash Adams but credited as "Jason Adams" at the time). 


                                                         DIFFERENCES...



The false wedding between Max and Rachel was conducted by a clerk, not in Guadalajara but in San Francisco.

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Rachel’s father, Peter Swanson, walked with a cane.





 Tony and Rachel nearly made love for the first time, on the night of their first date. 

 








The night Tony confronted Rachel to tell him the truth; he had to stop her from committing suicide first- she tried to drown herself in the ocean.




 Tony and Rachel didn’t go out on the yacht, they had a picnic on the beach and went skinny dipping 





Tony’s personal assistant  Charles was old enough to be his father.



-Tony and Rachel’s daughter, was shown sleeping in an incubator.

- Max was shot dead in the final episode, but NOT by Tony.  

Click here to read Episode 1's recap. 







Tu O Nadie: The fifth version

Did you know that the beloved 1985 telenovela " Tu No Nadie" (No One But You)   has a 5th version? I recently discovered this by ...

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