At home in Beverly Hills - FUNFARE by Ricardo F. Lo

Taking time off from the press junket for the Angelina Jolie starrer Lara Croft: Tomb Raider in L.A. Friday night last week, Bulletin’s Cris Belen and I sneaked out of the Four Seasons Hotel, located right in the heart of Beverly Hills, for a quick visit – and quick lunch consisting of Chinese food delivered from a nearby restaurant – with Ruffa Gutierrez who was in-between TV-hosting assignments from her company, Century Productions.

Ruffa was taking it easy at the Gutierrezes’ cozy condo unit on South Spalding Drive a few blocks away from the Four Seasons. On the night Cris and I dropped by, Ruffa was dressing up for a party, garbed in sexy shirt (over a denim mini-skirt) she said she had bought for $250 earlier that afternoon at Rodeo Drive. She refused to reveal who her date was.

It couldn’t have been her Turkish boyfriend Yilmaz Bectas because, according to Ruffa, "We’re into our ‘off’ period," meaning it had been two months since they broke up although Yilmaz would ring her up regularly, as usual.

"When he called yesterday," related Ruffa while resting on her bed, "he was trying to make up and reconcile with me, all because, he said, a fortune-teller in Istanbul told him that his Asian girlfriend (that’s me!) would bring him good luck. I’m his lucky charm daw, according to the manghuhula," added Ruffa with a laugh, "and if he reconciled with me daw, he’d be able to buy a big house in France and another one in Europe. We’d get married pa raw and have two children. But then, we’d break up after three years."

Asked if she was moved by Yilmaz’s pleadings, Ruffa said she told him, "Do you want to reconcile with me only because of what the fortune teller told you?" And then she laughed, meaning she wasn’t taking him seriously. Who knows, by and by, they might be into another "on" period in their "off-and-on" romance.

But that Friday night, Yilmaz was the least of Ruffa’s concern; the party was.

Living with her in the two-bedroom unit were her younger brother Raymond (whose twin, Richard, was in Manila) and yaya Norma with her nine-year-old son considered by the Gutierrezes as part of the family.

On June 24 when she turns 26, Ruffa will be in London for a TV-hosting assignment and she was planning to celebrate her special day there before she’d fly back to L.A. for a longer R&R

The phone rang. Ruffa’s mom, Annabelle Rama, was on the line, making her regular check-up call from Manila (it was around 10 p.m. in L.A. and 1 p.m. Saturday in Manila).

"She calls all the time," said Ruffa, "so you can imagine how much her phone bill is."

The Gutierrezes bought the condo unit more than a decade ago and its value is now double what they paid for. It’s located one block away from the Beverly Hills High School where Raymond studies.

As Ruffa’s Tita Mary Ann drove Cris and me back to Four Seasons, we could only wonder what a fun time Ruffa was having at the party, enjoying herself like a private citizen, a "freedom" she couldn’t hope to enjoy in Manila.

Postscript: Yesterday, Ruffa texted me to clarify a news story that came out in the papers here (STAR, June 5 issue, Metro section) about a drunken American named John Robert Macauley, 34, who was deported with his male companion upon their arrival at the NAIA due to his rowdy behavior. Macauley dropped Ruffa’s name, saying Ruffa was his former girlfriend.

Ruffa’s texted message: "I’m disappointed that my name was brought up in that story. John Robert Macauley was never my boyfriend; he was just a friend whom I met two years ago in Tokyo when I did a series of shows there with Gabby Eigenmann. Macauley is an American trader connected with the Chase Manhattan Bank Tokyo. The last time I saw him was in New York more than a year ago."