What Jay hates most

Unlike in the past when he, so to speak, simply rolled with the punches, these days Jay Manalo becomes deliberately tongue-tied if you ask him about rumors that have been recycled and replayed like, ho-hum, a broken record, such as:

1) His playing golf in Intramuros with a businessman ("I play golf in Intramuros, all right, but it’s usually with my brother and friends");

2) His children (six of them, by different women), excluding the one who died (a blue baby) only weeks after he was born; and

3) His past girlfriends (including Joyce Jimenez), not one of them ever married to him.

"But it’s okay if they hit me, that’s part of the trade," said Jay who’s in the cast of Hubog, Regal Films’ 2001 Metro Filmfest entry where he plays a ruthless and violent henchman ("A perfect role for Jay," said the movie’s director, Joel Lamangan). "But the moment they start hitting my family, napipikon talaga ako. One time, muntik ko nang sugurin ’yung writer who wrote something negative about my child who died."

In Hubog, Jay "double-romances" the characters played by sisters Assunta and Alessandra de Rossi (the latter as a mental retardate). Asked if he had ever courted the two sisters in real life, Jay smiled. "It has never happened." What about, uh, a mother and her daughter? "Hindi pa rin nangyayari," Jay blushed.

Hubog is only Jay’s third movie this year, following Abandonada and Balahibong Pusa.

"Not that I am slowing down," said Jay. "Namimili lang ako ng roles. Less hubaran and more acting."

A semi-regular on the GMA drama series Sa Dako Pa Roon (about paranormal experience, with Jaime Licauco as narrator), Jay was dropped from the cast of the ABS-CBN soap Pangako Sa’yo (his character was made to die in a car accident) not because, according to reports, he was reporting to the set late but because, according to Jay, "the company was cutting costs."

Quitting his Management studies at San Sebastian College, Jay is now enrolled at the Philippine College of Criminology, attending classes four days a week, taking 21 units as a third-year irregular student. Why, does he want to be a cop someday (just like Robin Padilla who has discontinued his studies in the same school)? "Maybe," said Jay.

The one topic that Jay loves to talk about is his tattoos (eight all in all, count ‘em!) in different parts of his body: A sun on his head (covered by hair so you have to look closely), a Celtic symbol around his wrist, Chinese characters across his left biceps, another one across his right biceps, the "male sign" near his navel and three more on his legs (a snake, a fishbone and the phrase "Life is a gamble"). He also wears a tongue ring which should be useful for some purposes.

Hollywood’s ‘100 Most List’ of 2001

I just got my regular supply of US movie magazine from my New York-based friend Raoul Tidalgo (entertainment editor and columnist of The Filipino Reporter). One of them, Movieline, carries The Fourth Annual Hollywood Most list, a very interesting article, topped by Tom Cruise’s estranged wife Nicole Kidman as Most Lusted-After Single Female.

Here are some of the other "awards":

* Benicio del Toro – Most Lusted-After Single Male

* Julia Roberts – Most Likely To Be In Love Again By The Time You Read This

* Demi Moore – Most Gorgeous Semi-Retired Actress

* Robert Downey, Jr. – Most Lost

* Matt Damon – Most Reserved

* Jennifer Aniston – Most Perennially Popular

* Charlie Sheen – Most Likely Never To Marry Again

* Zhang Ziyi – Most Beautiful Ass-Kicker

* Jay Hernandez (introduced in Crazy/Beautiful) – Most Charismatic Newcomer

* Angelina Jolie – Most In Love With Her Tattoos

* David Duchovny and Tea Leoni – Most Intelligent Couple

* Jude Law – Most Reluctant Celebrity

* Benicio del Toro – Most Mysterious

* Al Pacino – Most Incapable of Slowing Down

* Sandra Bullock – Most No-Nonsense Actress

* Anthony Hopkins – Most No-Nonsense Actor

* Steven Seagal – Most Indestructible

* Christina Ricci – Most Self-Effacing

* Johnny Depp – Most Likely To Be Around 40 Years From Now

* Cher – Most Likely To Be Mistaken for a Drag Queen

* Jean-Claude van Damme – Most Likely To Be Caught Adoring His Naked Body in The Mirror

* Daniel Day-Lewis – Most Underemployed

* Catherine Zeta-Jones – Most Photogenic

* Madonna – Most Likely To Win on a Celebrity "Survivor"

* Mark Wahlberg – Most Blue-Collar Sexy

* Barbra Streisand – Most Often The Subject of Head-Scratchingly Bizarre Gossip

* Mandy Moore – Most Delightful New Teen Spirit

* Jim Carrey – Most In Need of Getting His Oscar Already

* Leonardo DiCaprio – Most Stuck in a Quarter-Life Crisis.