Joem Bascon’s career has progressed by leaps and bounds since being given the Breakthrough Performance by an Actor award at this year’s Golden Screen Awards for his realistic portrayal as Iza Calzado’s Ivatan husband, Rico, in the movie “Batanes”. Since then, he has been signed in by Folded & Hung as its newest celebrity endorser and he even had his own billboard along EDSA (which, unfortunately, had to be taken down) . That same billboard has elicited positive response from some people but has spawned outrage from some groups due to being deemed too “hot” for the location. However, Joem claims that there are reports of the controversial billboard’s return to the Makati skyline. I hope Folded & Hung people reconsider puting it back. That would translate to more sales for the clothing company as well as more projects for the young Joem.

At present, Joem appears in “Hush Hush”, a drama series about the lives of celebrities and showbiz personalities, aired over the newly revamped TV5 network. In the show, he plays the role of Andy a young man from the province who dreams of being a popular actor. And starting tomorrow, September 8, 2008, we will be seeing him in “I Love Betty La Fea”, the Philippine adaptation of the popular Colombian series “‘Yo soy Betty La Fea”, as Mario Collantes, the womanizing friend of Armando Solis (played by John Lloyd Cruz), Betty La Fea’s boss-turned-love interest. Joem explains that there would be no schedule conflicts for his two shows. His taping days for “Hush Hush” are on weekends, while his taping days for “I Love Betty La Fea” are on weekdays. Joem has also finished shooting for the film “Kalayaan”, a movie about the Spratly group of islands, where he is cast opposite Thai actor Ananda Everingham.

It seems like a really busy last quarter of 2008 for the goodlooking young actor.