THE best show biz news this month is Sharon Cuneta?s decision to finally lose weight to get back into ?fighting? trim, after several years of allowing herself to slide into ?ample? mode. Sharon says she?s already lost more than 17 pounds?a testament to her determination and will power.

Before her decision, Sharon joked about her added girth and said she didn?t want to lose weight because ?sexy stars might find themselves out of work.? For our part, we?ve been urging Sharon to lose weight, at the risk of ticking her off, because it?s no joke and is in fact a health issue.

We certainly don?t want the well-loved star to have to deal with medical problems as she hits middle age. Besides, if her latest weight loss succeeds, and we have every expectation that it will, Sharon can inspire many people to similarly opt for health instead of heft.

Sharon?s fans are doubly blessed by her decision, because she specifically made it in order to get ready for her new movie project with Vilma Santos. The prospect of a Sharon-Vilma screen tandem is truly exciting, so we hope it will materialize before the year is over.

Uniquely affecting
Another bright spot on the local scene is child actor Zaijian Jaranilla?s new TV starrer, ?Noah,? a good follow-up to his hit role in ?May Bukas Pa.?

After that show finally ended, we worried that Zaijian?s next major assignment might not match the hit show?s level?but, the good news is that Zaijian also comes on strong, albeit in a different way, in ?Noah,? where he shares stellar billing with Piolo Pascual.

In ?Noah,? Zaijian is cast as a ?wild child,? a boy spirited off to a mysterious island where he grows up with apes. No, this isn?t the ?Tarzan? story on its nth retelling, it?s more like a local ?Avatar? in its concern for the environment and the unfortunately often inimical relationship between man, nature and its other creatures.

In particular, Zaijian comes on strong in the new series, because his character is so different from the boy he played in ?May Bukas Pa.? He?s still a waif, but ?Noah?s? island setting is uniquely affecting, and viewers are quickly drawn to the ?monkey boy? because he?s torn between his love for his adoptive family in the wild and his real father (Piolo), who?s been looking for him for a long time.

Bouncing back
Finally, we?re so glad that, after taking time out for his (unsuccessful) vice presidential run, Edu Manzano has bounced back from that disappointing experience to relaunch his TV career, this time on GMA 7. Edu?s likeliest comeback vehicle will be a new game show, which he can do well even with his eyes closed.

But, we continue to maintain that Edu?s best suit on TV is as a talk show host. So, we trust that, aside from the game show, GMA 7 will line up a new TV talk fest for Edu.

What makes Edu an exceptionally good talk show host is his unusual combination of the requisite gift of gab, intelligence, genuine interest in his interview subjects and the topics up for discussion and a breezy sense of humor.

That unique combination is difficult to come by in these parts, so we hope that GMA 7 will showcase it soonest.