KATRINA HALILI:'I love myself more'

CEBU, Philippines - From Kapuso to Kapamilya to Kapuso again. Manny Pacquiao’s flip-flop has everyone confused. It began with his surprise announcement that he was parting ways with Solar Entertainment and partnering with ABS-CBN for the airing of his fight with Ricky Hatton on May 2. That left GMA-7, which has a contract with Solar to carry the fight, flabbergasted. Solar executives had to fly to California to clear things up with Pacman. After just one meeting, it seemed that Solar and Manny had sorted things out. Just like that, he was back as a Kapuso, apologizing to his fans for the confusion he caused. He explained that he had asked ABS-CBN to hold his announcement until he gave his go-signal, but that the network violated the embargo and aired it anyway.

ABS-CBN defended the airing, saying that Pacquiao had approved it and that he taped two more announcements reiterating that his fight with Hatton would be seen exclusively on ABS-CBN.

GMA-7 heaved a sigh of relief. The network’s CEO, president and chairman Felipe Gozon was quoted in a statement from GMA-7 that “it took a lot of courage to tell the truth over what happened, even if in doing so, some quarters may fault him.”

ABS-CBN decided not to pursue the issue further, and even wished Pacman good luck.

The question remains: What spurred the People’s Champion to suddenly switch sides and then change his mind? Money? Politics? No one seems to know, not even his closest associates. His lawyer said nobody in his camp had a clear picture of what was happening.

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Gina Pareño won the best supporting actress award in the Asian Film Awards in Hong Kong for her role in Serbis. In the indie movie, Gina plays the matriarch of a dysfunctional family that runs a dilapidated cinema house where prostitution thrives. The movie, directed by Brillante Mendoza, earned a measure of international acclaim last year, when it was entered in the competition proper of the Cannes Film Festival. Only two other Filipino films made it to that category: Jaguar and Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim.

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Katrina Halili freely admits that she gained a few pounds and she blamed it on eating a lot of rice. “I didn’t eat rice before. When I started to eat rice, I couldn’t stop. I’m beginning to enjoy eating without limitations,” confessed Katrina at a presscon last week.

She added 10 kilos to her weight and it was beginning to show. “When you’re happy, you can’t help but eat.”

She’s began to cut down on her rice intake. I’ve stopped eating rice again. If at all, I eat rice only in the morning, and not as much as before.”

Katrina also bought some home gym equipment and a bike. She said she’s lost eight pounds since but would like to lose five more.

She has to shape up, now that she’s been launched as an endorser for Bench. She’s also promoting Flawless, which is partly owned by Dr. Vicki Belo.

The topic switched to her love life, and we were eager to find out about Kris Lawrence, the Fil-Am singer who’s supposed to be her current flame. But Katrina was quick to deny that she has a thing going with Kris. “I can’t call it a relationship. Sure, we draw inspiration from each other, and we support each other. But we decided that we should focus on our careers.”

Whom did she love more, Kris or Dr. Hayden Kho? “Myself,” was Katrina’s quick reply.

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Jessa Zaragoza and Dingdong Avanzado’s eight-year marriage has hit a bumpy stretch. Jessa admitted to Philippine Star entertainment columnist Ricky Lo that they’re having problems, but they have not broken up.

Jessa refuses to say what – or who – brought on the problem. But the buzz is that Rachel Alejandro, Dingdong’s ex, has been texting him even during the middle of the night. Dingdong and Rachel did a concert together recently.