Vilma, Ralph and family US-bound

Curtain-raisers:

• Nakakaaliw, nakakabaliw. These two adjectives aptly describe the riotous team-up of Ogie Diaz and Winnie Cordero who are hosting DZMM’s Careful, Careful (2:30 to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday) while Inday Badiday is on sick leave. Ogie and Winnie are such a delight to listen to because they are funny, witty, lively and not at all negative. They should have a permanent slot of their own. Shouldn’t they, Peter Musngi (a.k.a. Peter Rabbit, DZMM station manager)?

• Melissa Mendez and J.C. Carlos are, according to Melissa, getting married in June next year – if, and that’s the Big If, they’re still "on" by then. Knowing Melissa to be indecisive when it comes to love, I’m afraid she shall have found somebody new when June, 2003, comes around. But then, who knows? Let’s wait and see.

• Several days after that Bench show at the Araneta Coliseum, everybody is still talking about Wendell Ramos as the one with the sexiest butt. "P.C." should be mighty proud of Wendell.

* * *

It’s vacation time for Lipa City Mayor Vilma Santos and Sen. Ralph Recto and their family who are leaving for a month-long bakasyon grande in the US (Los Angeles and San Francisco) on July 1. Vilma and Ralph are traveling with their children Lucky and Ryan Christian, Vilma’s sister Emelyn and brother Sonny, along with other companions. All in all they’re 10 in the entourage.

Ralph will have to come back ahead of the group in time for the next Congress on July 22.

It has become an annual tradition of the Santoses/Rectos to travel as a family. Two years ago, the whole brood spent one month in California with Vilma’s folks (Mom Milagros Santos and sister Winnie). Later that same year, Vilma and Ralph went to Singapore. Last year, they chose Bangkok as hideaway, tagging along Nancy Castigleone who’s currently on a "cooling off" period with boyfriend Lucky.

Vilma will resume shooting for Star Cinema’s Dekada ’70 as soon as she comes back first week of August. She still has five shooting days to go for the movie (directed by Chito Roño from Lualhati Bautista’s Palanca-winning novel) intended for the Metro Filmfest in December. Vilma’s leading man, Christopher de Leon, has himself just come back from the US where he attended the graduation (from high school) of his and Sandy Andolong’s eldest son Sandino.

The Santoses will have the rare chance for a family reunion while they’re in L.A. The last time they were all together was a few years ago when Winnie and her family came home, with Mama Santos.

No, Nancy Castigleone isn’t joining the trip even if she’s now virtually a member of the family. Mama Vilma is vocal about her approval for Nancy as, why not, a future daughter-in-law. Nancy is busy with her promising showbiz career, drawing people’s attention with her acting (not to mention her beauty) in the Joyce-Piolo movie I Think I’m in Love and in the GMA Sunday afternoon soap Kahit Kailan.

Whatever happened to Vivian?

If you’re wondering why broadcast journalist Vivian Zalvidea has been off-screen for quite some time now, it’s because she has been in California for about a year now, not only writing for the upscale Filipino American magazine Filipinas, but more importantly happily re-united with her first love, college sweetheart Ronnie Araullo, an import agent in a San Francisco-based Japanese firm.

After 12 years of nonstop work in Philippine television (first as reporter in ABS-CBN, then newscaster for ABC-5 and EDSA-Dos correspondent for ABC News-American), Vivian decided to take a break.

"I really never thought that Ronnie and I would meet again. Ronnie was always at the back of my mind all these years, measuring others against him. I thought it was just me longing for the good old days. But, as it turned out, it was the same for him. Now, we know why we were thinking of each other all this time, even though we had lost track of each other."

Ronnie and Vivian got married last month in San Francsico where they are now happily settled.

Incidentally, Vivian’s former boyfriend, ABS-CBN’s Patrick Paez, married his own girlfriend, Daphne Oseña (co-host of F), at about the same time Vivian and Ronnie did.