Why Tita Cory calls Kris ‘my Teddy Girl’ - FUNFARE by Ricardo F. Lo

Something not-so-funny happened to Kris Aquino last Wednesday when she went to Glorietta with bosom buddy Pops Fernandez to buy a gift for Deo Endrinal, their manager, who was celebrating his birthday that day.

The two were at Armani Exchange when guess who would walk in holding hands with a woman – yes, Kris’ former beloved Phillip Salvador! The chance encounter caught both Phillip and Kris – and Pops, too – by surprise. All Kris could say was, "Really!?!" As soon as Phillip saw Kris, he and the woman made a quick and quiet U-Turn.

Anyway, that’s not why her Mom, Tita Cory, calls Kris "my Teddy Girl." No, Phillip has nothing to do with it.

Remember that impassioned and well-applauded speech Tita Cory delivered Saturday last week at the EDSA Prayer Rally? The next day, the broadsheets quoted that speech – and that of Cardinal Jaime Sin – extensively and Kris was flattered to the bone. Why? Well, Kris happened to be Tita Cory’s co-writer of that speech.

"My Mom showed me the rough draft and I kind of added my own thoughts into it," said Kris. "My Mom loved it so much that she told me, ‘From now on, I’ll call you my Teddy Girl!’ You see, Teddy Boy (Locsin) used to be my Mom’s speech writer. Now she has a Teddy Boy and a Teddy Girl."

The next time you listen to Tita Cory deliver a speech, you should know who’s "partly" behind it.

Take a bow, Teddy Girl, er, Kris!

Mystica and Stella L.

Ask Mystica what her style is and she’ll tell you that it’s a cross between Gladys Knight and Bonnie Tyler. But her ability to split (even on national television) is strictly her own.

"It’s an art," said Mystica who’s making her movie debut in Starlight Films’ Ang Gusto Kong Lalaki where she plays the role of a maid molested by her boss’ son. "I learned it when I was in the States."

You probably won’t believe it but Mystica graduated from the John Casablanca Modeling College in Vancouver where she stayed for more than a year while married to a wealthy Canadian from whom she’s divorced, getting a fat alimony that can make her – and her 10-year-old love child by the son of a stage comedian – live in luxury for the rest of their lives without working. At Christmastime, her house in a Quezon City subdivision is a sight to behold. Mystica puts up multi-colored lights all around and all over it, including the aircon reinforcement and even the garbage cans. Neighbor Ai-Ai delas Alas exclaimed, "Tourist attraction ang bahay ng bruha kapag pasko!"

When she broke up with the Canadian, Mystica stayed for a few years in L.A. in pursuit of her own "American Dream." She was eyeing Hollywood but the farthest she reached was that huge H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D sign on that hill around L.A. "So I came back," said Mystica, "frustrated."

Mystica is joining the movies fully prepared (Ang Gusto Kong Lalaki is inspired by her hit song). Also in Canada, she starred in two stage plays, Mutiny en the Minsk and A Christmas Carol, and in a movie called The Song of Vergeven.

In L.A., she produced her own two albums, The Mystic Dancer and I’ll Bring You Back to Life, carrying her own compositions.

"I may look weird to some people but actually I’m not," said Mystica. "I’m just funny in a crazy kind of way. My life hasn’t been a bed of roses. When I was 10, my father, a politician back in our town, was killed by his enemies. I was forced to marry the Canadian several years later for his money, so we could pay off my father’s debts."

Like all comedians, the laughter of Mystica is laced with tragedy.

"My life story isn’t funny at all," she said.

Appearing with Mystica in Ang Gusto Kong Lalaki is Stella L. who used to be known as Ingrid Mendoza when she did her first three movies for Viva Films (one of them, Scorpio Nights 2, featured her as the lesbian lover of Joyce Jimenez). Stella L. ("L" as in love or lust?) was a former stewardess at Saudia Airlines, quitting after two years when she was discovered for showbiz through the half a dozen commercials she appeared in.

Correction, please!

A concerned reader sent the following "erratum" to a Funfare item about "Emy Munji having separated from Brunei’s Sultan Bolkiah" and is now often seen with Franco Laurel:

She’s actually Ayen Munji and Emy Munji happens to be her father. Ayen is the proprietress of SK Entertainment which produced Rama at Sita in 1998. Ayen also carries the name Ella Lopez-Miller, who co -directed the show One For the Soul at the Folk Arts Theater where Franco shared stellar billing with Jaya, Zsa Zsa Padilla and Robert Seña. She also produced Franco’s one and only concert at the Music Museum last year.

Ayen was a former struggling theater actress before she became one of the wives not of the Sultan but of Prince Jeffrey Bolkiah of Brunei, whom she is now separated from.

But since Ayen got a son with the prince, she is sustentado for life.

Ayen is producing a "very private" musical revue at the GSIS Theater next week starring, of course, Franco, III of a Kind, May Bayot, Michael Williams, The CompanY, under the script of Floy Quintos.