Maria Isabel Lopez

Maria Isabel Pagunsan Lopez—Melrod (born 14 September 1958) is a Filipino actress and beauty pageant titleholder. Lopez won the Binibining Pilipinas Universe 1982 and represented the Philippines in the 31st Miss Universe Pageant in Lima, Peru.

She became known as the first beauty queen and actress appearing in Sex in film. Lopez was married to Hiroshi Yokohama, and then later married Jonathan Melrod in the United States. She is a mosaic artist and has appeared in various roles in Philippine cinema and television.

Pageantry
Lopez was born in Cagayan de Oro to Benjamin Lopez and Crescencia Pagunsan. She was baptized at the Saint Augustine Metropolitan Cathedral. She had three immediate siblings and was later raised in Sampaloc, Manila by a single mother due to her father having a mistress and extramarital children.

Before joining beauty pageants, she worked as a fashion designer at The SM Store and Rustan's department store. She also modeled for various fashion salons, including that of LGBT fashion designer, Mr. Rodolfo Fuentes (1950–2011), who encouraged her to join Binibining Pilipinas. In 1982 (aged 24), she joined the pageant as candidate number #15 and won the Binibining Pilipinas Universe title.

She was almost dethroned of her title because of the eventual discovery her previous work as a lingerie sexy model in a Girard Peter fashion show by the clothes designer Mr. Gerardo Reyes, which accordingly violated an immorality clause set by pageant director Stella Araneta. Lopez maintains that she was pressured to resign but she refused to do so, citing the assistance of her personal manager and Viva Films to counteract dethronement.

During her national competition, Lopez gained notoriety when she was asked (mistakenly) about virginity by Philippine judge and actress Margarita “Rita” Gomez (1935–1990). In actuality, the question was given for Janet Sales of Manila and was falsely spread in association to Lopez. During her national competition, she was asked by American drummer Alphonse Mouzon regarding the independence of women. At her coronation night, her name was initially mispronounced as Maricar Isabel Lopez, later corrected.

Film work
Lopez became controversial when she appeared in highly sexualized roles in movies, which was not usually expected of a beauty queen titleholder. Her first movie Sana, Bukas Pa ang Kahapon (English: "Hoping Yesterday is still Tomorrow") in 1983, starred Hilda Koronel, Lorna Tolentino, Dindo Fernando, and Jay Ilagan, and was directed by Romy Suzara. She was in the original cast of Working Girls (1984), a comedy film directed by National Artist Ishmael Bernal, where she starred as a young office worker who entered sex work at night to gain more income. In 1988, Lopez was hired as a commercial sexy model for White Castle Whiskey.

During the height of her popularity, Lopez appeared in more sexual and romantic movies, including the following:


 * Silip: Daughters of Eve — by Elwood Perez (1985)
 * Isla (English: "Island") — by Celso Ad Castillo (1985)
 * Hubo sa Dilim — (English: “Naked in the Dark”) (1985)
 * Mga Nakaw Na Sandali — (English: “Stolen Moments”) (1986)
 * Dingding Lang ang Pagitan — (English: “Only Thin Walls in Between”) (1986)

She won the Golden Screen Award Best Supporting Actress Award for Kinatay (English: “Butchered”) (2009). Lopez walked the red carpet at the Cannes International Film Festival in France for Brilliante Mendoza's award-winning film, Kinatay (2009). Lopez again walked the red carpet at the Cannes International Film Festival in France for Brilliante Mendoza's award-winning film, Ma'Rosa (2016).

Lopez was the line producer for Tulak (2009), and HIV: Si Heidi, Si Ivy at Si V (2010). She was cast again in the 2010 remake of Working Girls, produced by GMA Films under the helm of Jose Javier Reyes. Lopez was one of the castaways in GMA Network's Survivor Philippines: Celebrity Doubles Showdown (2011–2012), in tandem with her daughter, Mara Lopez, who was also an actress. She played the mother of Sid Lucero in GMA-7's prime time series, Legacy (2012).

List of controversies
In 2009, Lopez became the center of controversy when she was not given a complimentary ticket for the Binibining Pilipinas 2009 pageant, an oversight she strongly resented in public. During this year, the 18th Miss Universe gave her a pageant entrance ticket though she was not designated to sit in the reservation box allotted to former beauty titleholders.

In 2010, Lopez became involved in a conflict with various Philippine journalists, including Ricky Lo, who implied in tabloid newspapers that Lopez strongly desired the passing of Stella Araneta. Lopez vehemently denied the allegation, but maintained the accusation that Araneta is an elitist who refuses to address people of impoverished backgrounds due to her grandiose ego. Lopez maintains that Araneta has never forgiven her for making sexualized films after her reign as Miss Philippines 1982.

In 2016, Lopez gained notoriety for a green pageant gown she wore in the 2015 Cannes Film Festival because she compared her evening gown to the one used by the 64th Miss Universe.

In January 2017, Lopez revealed on the morning show Unang Hirit the strong discrimination against dark-skinned contestants during her time as a beauty queen. She noted that during the Miss Universe 1982 visit at the Presidential Palace in Peru, the former first lady Pilar Nores de García was dismissive of the dark-skinned contestants, namely Miss Papua New Guinea and Turks and Caicos.

In November 2017, Lopez was penalized for removing traffic cones and illegally driving on the lane reserved for the delegates of the 31st ASEAN Summit that was hosted in the Philippines. She posted her actions on Facebook, which prompted the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority to recommend to the Land Transportation Office to suspend or cancel her driver's license. Lopez later claimed that seeing other vehicles using the ASEAN lane prompted her to drive on it as well. The office later revoked her license and barred her from reapplying and reacquiring her license for the next two years. She was also fined ₱8,000 (US$160) for ignoring traffic signs, reckless driving, and violating the Anti-Distracted Driving Act. Lopez accepted the charges and issued a public apology.

Personal life
Lopez first married Hiroshi Yokohama, a former DHL executive in 1990. The couple wed and lived in Edogawa, Tokyo, Japan then later moved to the Philippines. They separated in 2006 due to claims of abuse and infidelity which later resulted to a marital annulment formalized in 2010. They have two children, Mara Lopez, an actress, and Kenyo Yokohama, a civil engineering graduate of De La Salle University. On 9 June 2019, Lopez married a Jewish—American former human rights lawyer, Jonathan Melrod and now residing in Sebastopol, California.

Lopez studied at the Holy Trinity Catholic school in Sampaloc, Manila and later studied Fine Arts at the University of the Philippines Diliman. She is a member of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. She served as Secretary of the Committee on Visual Arts in 2011–2013. Lopez also completed art classes in the Chicago Mosaic School and the Institute of Mosaic Art in Berkeley, California. In 2015, she toured UNESCO Italian mosaics in Ravenna, Italy as part of her interest in mosaics.