Mailing List for The One and Only Superstar, Miss Nora Aunor (Nora C. Villamayor)

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MANILA, March 21, 2004 (STAR) STARBYTES By Butch Francisco - ICON. They couldn’t have chosen a better acronym. ICON stands for International Circle of Online Noranians.

I say it’s very appropriate because Nora Aunor, after all, is a major icon in Philippine cinema.

ICON is actually a sister Nora Aunor fan club of GANAP or Grand Alliance for Nora Aunor Philippines (with different chapters all over the country) and the Federation of Nora Aunor Followers (umbrella organization of all Nora Aunor fans clubs organized since 1967). It’s a different composition, however.

Its members obviously are all computer-literate. And unlike most other movie fans who would scream their lungs out and get into catfights in defense of their screen idols, ICON members are mostly well-mannered corporate people – yuppies, actually.

And, looking at how this group evolved into the formal aggrupation that it is today, you can say that the roots of ICON is what you’d call in showbiz lingo as sosi. Its seeds, believe it or not, were planted in New York. This was in 2001 through a Noranian by the name of Leonel Escota.

Escota actually put up a Nora Aunor website and soon after, Noranians from all over the globe (Filipinos are everywhere, you know) started logging in to get the latest tidbits about their movie idol.

Late last year, however, Nora Aunor Internet surfers decided to get together once and for all because of an untoward incident that happened in Sharon that even Nora herself doesn’t care to discuss anymore. For the members of ICON, they are just too happy that what happened in Sharon served as a catalyst for them to formalize this new group (during the Nora Aunor fans’ day last January).