FUNFARE By Ricardo F. Lo 
January 28, 2010 12:00 AM

Have you seen the Drill dance formation performed by the Cebu City Jail inmates, to the tune of the Michael Jackson song They Don’t Really Care About Us, and now drawing record viewers on the YouTube, with over one million hits in only two days?

It’s eye-popping, especially the ending where the inmates formed a giant “peace” sign.

The flag-bearer in the video is none other than Pinoy Big Brother graduate Will Devaughn who got into it by chance.

“My manager, Dondon (Monteverde), invited me to watch the shoot,” Will told Funfare. “Before I knew it, kasali na ako. And I enjoyed it very much!”

Main Cast, the new company formed by Dondon and friends Ross Misa and Ernest Escaler, was commissioned by Sony Pictures to do the video with the now world-famous inmates as material to plug the release of This Is It, the Michael Jackson DVD now in the market. The inmates rehearsed the Drill dance for two days under Travis Payne, MJ’s trainer, with the cooperation of Byron Garcia, the jail warden who organized the inmates into a dance group which first gained world notice when their MJ dance was shown around the world at the time of MJ’s death. (So far, the inmates have mastered 30 dance routines.)

Ernest, who was the negotiator with Sony Pictures, asked Dondon to invite a local celebrity to join the Drill as flag-bearer. Will was there, so why not him?

In a jiffy, Will was on camera with the inmates together with Travis himself, “imported” dancer Daniel Celebre and Dreys Reid (one of the dancers in the This Is It film). No, Will didn’t dance, hampered as he was by a torn ligament in his knee.

“It was difficult saying goodbye to the inmates,” said Will, “kasi we bonded with them during the short time we were together. We were all crying and hugging while saying goodbye to one another.”

Meanwhile, Will will soon be seen as one of Judy Ann Santos’ co-stars in the ABS-CBN soap Habang May Buhay which is two years in the making. It’s Will’s first major soap (following his appearance in the Regal movies Desperadas 1 and 2) but something strange happened along the way. He was supposed to be a lead, along with Derek Ramsay but in the plug the one highlighted (with Juday and Derek) is Joem Bascon. What happened? Will is clueless.

He was also supposed to co-host a show on TV5 but Will ended up holding an empty bag, with the job landing on the laps of Victor Basa and somebody else. What happened? Again, Will is clueless.

Win some, lose some.

“Maybe those things were not meant for me,” said Will. “I’m happy, though with my role (as the cancer patient encouraged to fight on by Juday’s character, a nurse) in Habang May Buhay.”

Oh well, maybe Will doesn’t have the right, ehem, “connections?”

Clue: “Unseen hands” are doing the magic tricks. Magkano ba ang commission?