Steven Gilfeather, New Director Of 'It Takes Gutz To Be A Gutierrez, Season 3', Has Some Revelations About The Gutierrez Familly

STEVEN GILFEATHER is the new director of “It Takes Gutz to be a Gutierrez” for its upcoming third season. Steven was born and raised in Scotland to a family of journalist. His dad was a talk show host. At 18, he went to London and was accepted as a utility boy in the famous British Broadcasting Corporation where he rose up the ranks to eventually be a researcher, writer, producer and director, handling a big show where he got to rob elbows with big Hollywood stars like Angelina Jolie and George Clooney.

More than three years ago, he moved to E! Channel and is now based in Singapore to do shows for the Asian region. Among the shows he handled are reality shows like “Big Brother”, “Biggest Loser” and “Strictly Come Dancing”. For E! News Asia Specials, he did half hour documentary stories on Filipino celebrities like Anne Curtis and Piolo Pascual.

“We followed them for a week,” he says. “Doing their stories gave me a good introduction to Pinoy entertainment culture.”

Season 2 of “It Takes Gutz” was originally offered to him. “Initially, I was afraid of Anabelle Rama because of what you read about her in the papers, but she turned out to be one of the kindest persons I’ve ever met. She has a big heart, treats me like a son and I told her I want to be adopted by her. She asked me to direct Season 2 but I was then so busy with three other shows I had to beg off. This time, I’m available to do Season 3 and I promise to take the show to a new level because audiences in Asia already know the family. Season 3 will definitely be the biggest season ever and it’ll be more exciting as we will be having a wedding in the family.”

Will it be between Richard and Sarah Lahbati? “We can’t reveal anything at this point. It’s going to be a big surprise. Just wait for the new season to start airing in July. We have already taped five episodes and will be taping five more.”

He has started covering their activities when Ruffa, Richard and Raymond Gutierrez went to Kuching, Sarawak in Malaysia to act as presenters in the Asean International Filmfest. “We also covered their recent family vacation in Bali. Their reality show is a big hit in Asia so they’re recognized by a lot of people there. It’s not surprising as all the Gutierrezes are very charismatic people. Good talent runs in their family. I was initially intimidated by them, but they turned out to be so easy to work with. When Ruffa walks into a room, her presence can be overwhelming. I’ve interviewed a lot of big Hollywood stars and she has one of the strongest charismas I’ve ever seen. I take my hat off to Annabelle because you can see she’s the boss, she calls all the shots and pulls all the strings. She’s very professional and she even makes me feel special.”
What can he say about the fights between Ruffa and her mom? “At first, I thought it’s just for publicity but it’s not. I found oout it’s true. I think Annabelle is just misunderstood. She gets mad because as a mom, she really cares for Ruffa as her only daughter.”

The 36-year old Steven enjoys working in Manila and now has his own flat in Makati. “Everyone is so friendly. I’m really amazed that the stars are so friendly with the press.”

He has met a lot of other local stars and he’s currently enamoured with Jessy Mendiola. If he’s given the chance, he’d certainly would like to woo her, so he was certainly so disappointed when he learned that she has already reconciled with ex-BF JM de Guzman. When asked if he’d like to do an E special on a top actor right now, Steven says: “But he cannot speak English.” How about another top young actor? “Oh he speaks very bad English.” He can be quite a snob, isn’t he?