Robin & Mariel's Dizzying Love Story

CEBU, Philippines - What a tangled web Robin Padilla and Mariel Rodriguez have woven! It is more convoluted than a Korean telenovela.

First Robin quits Pilipinas Win na Win to fly to India to spend Ramadan there. A few days later Mariel also leaves the show and heads to India too.

Rumors spread that the couple got married in India. When the two return, they look like happy newlyweds. But they deny they were wed.

The buzz subsides, but several days later another juicy morsel bobs up. Robin and Mariel reportedly tie the knot in Baguio, in an Ibaloi ceremony, on September 13. Ibaloi? Isn’t Robin a Muslim? Yes, but Robin’s mom Eva Cariño is an Ibaloi. Uh, okay.

The ceremony is complete with a wedding dance, the drinking of rice wine and the dabbing of the couple’s faces with pig’s blood. Pig’s blood? Don’t Muslim consider pigs unclean?

Felicitations are showered on the newlyweds by colleagues and friends. But Robin spoils everything by saying that no wedding took place in Baguio. It was some kind of Ibaloi rite but not a marriage ceremony, Robin explains lamely.

Then Binoe drops the big one: He and Mariel did get married in Agra, India. So what was the Baguio thing all about? A part of a movie or TV series he is filming. Uh, alright.

Now the Ibaloi priest who performed the ceremony is furious. He insists he married Robin and Mariel, and that the ritual was for real, not for reel.

But wait, there’s more. A certain Jack Cariño of Baguio validates Robin’s story that no wedding took place. Jack says the ceremony was a ritual to bless an adopted relative. He explains that he and his family have accepted Robin as an “honorary cousin.”

Honorary cousin? The way Jack told GMA’s 24 Oras, Robin had been trying to locate relatives on his mother’s side in Baguio. Jack wasn’t sure that the actor was a relation but his family decided to make him one of their own anyway.

Mariel further muddles the issue, saying the dance they performed during the Baguio ceremony was not a courtship dance. “It was a war dance,” she explains.

A war dance? Was she and Binoe preparing to take up arms against an unidentified foe?

“We didn’t tell a lie,” Mariel insists. Uh, okay.

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Japanese immigration turned away Paris Hilton, who had arrived in Tokyo to promote her line of clothes and scents. Japan has a standing policy not to let in foreigners who have been convicted on drug charges.

Tough luck for Paris who had pleaded guilty to a drug charge in Las Vegas just two days earlier.

After being questioned by immigration authorities at the airport, the celebrity socialite took the next plane out of Tokyo.

“I'm going back home, and I look forward to coming back to Japan in the future,” the unflappable Paris told reporters.

Perhaps she could take heart in the fact that other megacelebs had also been denied entry to Japan but were later allowed in. Among them were the Rolling Stones and ex-Beatle Paul McCartney.

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Jennifer Lopez and Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler are the new American Idol judges. The two, who were introduced in a presscon last week, will join the hugely popular talent show following the exit of Simon Cowell, Ellen DeGeneres and Kara DioGuardi.

Randy Jackson is the last original judge remaining in the show.

Jennifer gave notice that she won’t be the new Simon. “I believe in tough love, but I don’t think I will ever, as an artist myself, be cruel to another artist. I think there are definitely better ways to say things,” she said.

Tyler said his bandmates were jealous that he’s been named an Idol judge. “With the band -- we have been married for 40 years. They are worse than women...At first they were jealous. They heard it through the press and not from me...I am sure they are real happy for me.”