Exposed: Who’s Troy’s real girlfriend? - FUNFARE by Ricardo F. Lo

Curtain-raisers:

• Reacting to yesterday’s banner item about Gel Santos-Relos having been "left out" in the ABS-CBN (rat)race (Gel is migrating to Minneapolis, USA, to join her doctor-husband who’s based there, along with their children), a Funfare reader pointed out that Gel isn’t alone. "There’s also Ces Oreña-Drilon," noted the reader. "Di ba ‘left out’ din siya, excluded from the station’s reformatting/reorganization, with only one show (Pipol) and confined to newscasting on ABS-CBN’s ‘lesser’ sister station, ANC Channel 21."

• Leandro Muñoz suffered a few bruises and a sprained shoulder when the car he was riding on the way back to Manila from Laguna after a taping for Tabing-Ilog skidded on the wet pavement and bumped into another car. Leandro was dozing off at the back seat when the accident happened. He and the driver didn’t require hospitalization.

• What do Carmina Villarroel and her alleged lover Zoren Legaspi, and Al Pacino, 60, and Beverly D’Angelo, 49, have in common? Well, the two star couples became parents to twins on Jan. 6. The names of Carmina and Zoren’s twins, a boy and a girl, were taken from the Bible while those of Pacino and D’Angelo are Anton and Olivia.

* * *

This little piece of news should come as a big surprise to showbiz-watchers who have been speculating on who the "real" girlfriend of Troy Montero is. No, it’s not Pops Fernandez even if Pops has been merrily riding on the rumor and, during a TV interview, even hinted that she and Troy might "get married" this year.

Funfare never gave Pops and Troy even the benefit of the doubt because their "romance" was too phony and too "put-on" to be credible, unlike that of Troy and Charlene Gonzales (who’s swapping "I do’s" with Aga Muhlach on May 28 in Baguio City) which had a semblance of truth though carefully hidden behind the cloak of friendship.

The girlfriend of Troy is – tantadadantantantantantadadan! – Nikki Valdez who, at 21, is nine years Troy’s junior. But then, does age gap matter when two people are in love?

The Funfare DPA said that the choosy Troy got terribly smitten with Nikki when he saw her in a two-piece swimsuit two months ago in Boracay. Since then, Troy had been dreaming (fantasizing?) about Nikki, presumably with the two-piece swimsuit on, until he gathered enough guts to actually court Nikki and eventually win her heart.

"Troy must really be in love this time because he cut short his recent planned two-week vacation in the States," added the Funfare DPA. "He stayed there for only two days and came back post-haste to be with Nikki."

In the past when he was romantically linked to this and that girl, Troy was mum about the matter, evasive when asked about them (Pops, Charlene, etc.). But this time, Troy is "very open" (according to the Funfare DPA) with his relationship with Nikki and the feeling seems to be mutual.

Troy is described as the "Brendan Fraser of the Philippines" and Nikki, the "Britney Spears of the Philippines." Do they make a perfect match, a handsome pair? Do take another closer, more serious look at them.

Meanwhile, Roselle Nava is said to be hurting over the Troy-Nikki romance. Why, is Roselle harboring any romantic feelings for Troy? Not at all. Roselle is hurting for her brother who is – was? – Nikki’s immediate past boyfriend.

"You can’t blame Roselle for feeling sore at Nikki," concluded the Funfare DPA. "Paano naman, nakipag-steady si Nikki kay Troy without even breaking up with Roselle’s brother."

The Case Of The 2 Enriquezes

Because they are both surnamed Enriquez, Jocelyn Enriquez and Joy Enriquez are often confused for each other, with their identities all mixed up.

Jocelyn Enriquez is the Filipina singer making good in America who’s often mistaken for a Latina while Joy Enriquez is the upcoming Latina singer who’s often mistaken for a Filipina (although she does look like a Filipina).

Featured in The STAR recently, Joy Enriquez is the beautiful voice behind the theme song (of Anna and the King) Why Can I Not Love You which is included in the self-titled debut album (released locally by BMG Records) which she launched two weeks ago in Singapore. Joy also sang for the soundtrack, together with Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, of the Barbra Streisand movie Prince of Egypt. She’s a Latina born and bred in California.

Without any publicity, Jocelyn came home three weeks ago (she left the other day) from the US where she’s based not to promote her third album (released locally by Universal Records) but to visit her ailing 90-year-old grandmother in Manaoag, Pangasinan, where the Enriquezes hail from. Jocelyn arrived incognito and left incognito, traveling with her tall and handsome husband, Alain (also a Filipino who grew up in California where he’s a veejay), and their one-year-old son.

Like Joy, Jocelyn has also penetrated Hollywood, even doing a cameo role in Studio 54 (in the disco scene where she sang a song) and doing a number for the sound-track of the recent Glenn Close starrer 102 Dalmatians.

So far, Jocelyn is the only Filipino talent who has truly made it as a recording star in America (the rest did so only according to their own "press releases"). She’s now finishing her third album which she hopes to promote here maybe early next year.

"All the time I was here," said Jocelyn during a brief chat with Funfare, "I stayed most of the time in the province, seldom coming to Manila. I wanted to be by my grandma’s side. She’s very sick, weakened by old age, and she might go anytime now."

Unfortunately, Jocelyn suffered a bad case of allergy when she ate green mangoes with bagoong. Her face got swollen, making her look like, according to Jocelyn, "a battered woman." When Funfare talked to Jocelyn, her allergy was gone although there were still little traces of it around her mouth.

She said that she hasn’t met Joy Enriquez but she has heard about her – and vice-versa (Joy admitted having heard of Jocelyn during The STAR interview). The two Enriquezes (no relation) sound so good that they should do a duet – for the record (which isn’t possible because they belong to different labels).

"Good idea," said Jocelyn. "Why not?"