Sec. Hillary Clinton reveals celebrity crush

CEBU, Philippines - It wasn’t all political talk at yesterday’s televised forum with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on the second day of her visit to the Philippines.

Dubbed “Hillary Clinton: The Manila Forum,” the ANC Channel-sponsored round-table, which was held at the University of Sto. Tomas and attended by students from different universities, had one question breaking the politics-heavy Q&A as it queried Clinton if she had crushes other than her husband, former US president Bill Clinton.

The question drew a laugh from Clinton who answered that, as a teenager, she also used to have crushes on entertainers. “When I was a lot, lot younger, I used to have a crush on singer Fabian,” she said.

Fabian was an American teen idol of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He rose to national prominence after performing several times on American Bandstand. In total, he charted 11 hit singles on the Billboard Hot 100 with songs like “Hound Dog Man,” “Turn Me Loose,” and “Tiger.”

“I was the president of the Fabian fans club, and there were like only three of us in it.”

Clinton also said that she was a huge fan of the legendary Brit group The Beatles, particularly Paul McCartney. But that it was her mother, who is now 90 years old, who idolized McCartney more. She said that personally introducing her mother to McCartney was the most important gift she has ever given her.

Other questions from the students included, “When will the US have its own female president?”. It will be remembered that in the 2008 US election, Clinton was a leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, and was viewed as the first serious female contender to the US presidency before conceding to now US president Barack Obama.

Clinton replied that she hopes that will happen, but she is now honored to be serving Obama, the first African-American president of the US. She added, “The Philippines is way ahead of us as it had two female presidents already. I should be asking you, what’s your secret here?”

Most of the questions in that forum were asked by its ANC broadcasters who served as the forum’s moderators, led by news head Maria Ressa.