Bruno Mars wows Cebu

CEBU, Philippines -  Cebuanos simply love Bruno Mars. Last Thursday they packed the Waterfront Hotel for the Fil-American singer’s concert. They were up on their feet as Bruno performed such hit songs "Billionaire," "Just the Way you Are” and “Grenade."

There was a surprise reunion when Bruno’s mom, Bernadette Hernandez, showed up at the concert. She said she was glad that her son has never forgotten his roots.

"He's seen a lot of places he'd never seen before, and I'm glad he got to see where I came from," Bernadette said.

The following night, Bruno played to another sell-out crowd, this time at the Araneta Coliseum.

In between shows, the young singer found the time to get to know Filipinos better. He visited ABS-CBN Foundation’s Bantay Bata 163 where it was the children’s turn to sing for him.

Filipinos certainly had an impact on Bruno because he wants to return to the Philippines. Who knows, he might even settle down here, marry a Pinay. “Bruno Mars is single,” the Grammy Award winner declared. “One day a Filipino girl will make my heart beat.”

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The fallout from what the Unicef describes as the “humiliation and ridicule” of a six-year-old boy in “Willing Willie” continues to spread.

Last week, several sponsors of the show announced that they were pulling out their commercials in the wake of the controversy.

The other week, the show’s host Willie Revillame had boasted that the sponsors who were threatening to take out their ads faced a boycott of their products. Apparently the sponsors were willing to take that risk than to continue having their brands identified with the show.

Also last week, three members of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board’s (MTRCB) Hearing and Adjudication Committee inhibited themselves from the investigation of allegations of child abuse occurring in the March 12 episode of “Willing Willie.”

Lawyers of TV5 had claimed that Leah Navarro, Eric Mallonga and Eugenio Villareal were biased against Revillame. They said Navarro had come with out with a statement on the internet against Revillame. The wife of Villareal, on the other hand, is an employee of ABS-CBN, which has a long-running feud with Revillame, and Mallonga heads Bantay Bata, a foundation of ABS-CBN.

MTRCB Chairman Mary Grace Poe-Llamanzares said she had accepted the voluntary inhibition of the three adjudication committee members “in order to dispel any doubt as to their impartiality."

Llamanzares explained that “the change in the composition of the committee is to assure the public that the Board will only be guided by established facts and the law in the disposition of this case. This is also to avoid any attempt to further delay the expeditious resolution of the case."

The chairman said she will soon announce who will take over from the three members.

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Krista Ranillo is once again in the limelight. No, it’s not because of the long-running controversy linking her to People’s Champ Manny Pacquiao. It’s because she gave birth to a 6.6-pound baby boy last Tuesday.

Ever since she married Jefferson Nino Lim in the US last year, the actress has dropped out of the public radar. Before that, rumors that she was having an affair with the Pacman had hounded her. She and Pacquiao have both denied they were lovers.

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Carmi Martin is living proof that it is never too late to finish college.

Besides being an actress, the 47-year-old Carmi can now proudly add to her resume a degree in interior design from the Philippine Women’s University. She marched as a graduate last week. Now she is preparing for the board exam slated in October. If she passes, she will be a full-fledged interior designer.

Congratulations Carmi!