Why ‘Anna Dizon is Anna Dizon’

"Anna Dizon is Anna Dizon" is a running gag in showbiz talk shows and even in catty private conversations among movie people.

But who really is Anna Dizon and why are some members of the entertainment profession so nasty to her even if – as some people can attest to – she has shown only kindness and generosity?

Ah, I witnessed her generosity myself when she was starting out in the business in 1999. I remember she was going to be interviewed in Startalk by Lolit Solis who introduced her to me on the set of our show. Since I had my hands full with other celebrity guests, I just said hello, turned around and went on with my business. But I couldn’t help but notice how everyone swarmed around her – movie reporters, photographers and studio hangers-on. After the interview, she stood up and – like a mother hen with day-old hatchlings – was trailed by everyone on her way out. In a flash, the studio was deserted – with only Lolit, Rosanna Roces, myself and the staff left behind to absorb the cold air emanating from an air-conditioning unit turned on full blast.

As it turned out, she distributed cash (although I am not sure how much) to everyone or anyone who cared to escort her on the way to her car – including people from maintenance who must have been alerted by colleagues about the presence of this female off-season Santa Claus.

Although I admired her for being charitable, I still looked at her with suspicion. She reeked of wealth, so I was told – a fortune that supposedly had been made in Japan. So rich was she that she was able to produce her own album – complete with an MTV. But even if everyone fawned over her, in my eyes, she was merely a bored woman who craved media attention. The next time she was in Startalk, I don’t even remember having said hello to her.

Then, a few months ago, when nothing – absolutely nothing – was happening in the usuallly very colorful world of show business, all the talk shows had to go down practically to gutter level to thresh out the issue of Mystica, Madame Auring and Anna Dizon fighting over a man – a struggling actor named Kevin Monteverde.

Mystica came to my show twice and cried buckets in my segment and Madame Auring also made the rounds of talk shows. Even Kevin Monteverde talked to anyone who cared to listen.

But while everyone was verbally stabbing each other in this free-for-all, one person remained silent. Anna Dizon. In that filthy real-life soap opera, she turned out to be the most decent character. From then on, she earned my respect and admiration.

A few days ago, I finally met with Anna Dizon supposedly for dinner (which I missed anyway due to another engagement) and had a chat with her in her New Intramuros home in Quezon City. One of the first things I asked her was how this "Anna Dizon is Anna Dizon" joke came to be. She no longer remembers its etymology. From my end, however, I think she was asked one time in an interview how she is different from other showbiz celebrities – like Vilma Santos, for instance. Her response – if I remember it correctly – was, well: "Vilma Santos is Vilma Santos and Anna Dizon is Anna Dizon." Writers for television immediately jumped on that and now it’s used to add humor to all sorts of TV spiels at the expense of Anna Dizon. But she doesn’t get offended, she insists. As they say in this business, publicity – whether good or bad is still publicity.

In person, she’s petite and fair and, well, has this habit of talking about herself in the third person – which obviously is the very root of the existence of the phrase "Anna Dizon is Anna Dizon" in local showbiz language.

From her I found out that she came from a very poor family and had to sell vegetables in the Balintawak market at the age of nine. But thanks to her dreams and Bella and the Bellestars talent agency, she made it to Japan initially on the strength of her ability to cut the rug and, later, as a singer.

With an enviable knack for business, she eventually put up a string of businesses that all flourished: a fashion boutique, a recruitment agency, a training school that prepares entertainers for abroad, a hog house in Jaen, Nueva Ecija, a resort in Mindoro and a gym in their subdivision.

It was in this gym where she met Kevin Monteverde, who was then a mainstay in a now defunct soap opera on Channel 2. Kevin had to pump iron there because he was then staying with Mystica in the next subdivision, North Susana.

While Kevin immediately professed his love for Anna, Anna promptly told him to hold back. She knew that that her suitor was still in a relationship with Mystica and she wanted him to clean his act first. In fact, she insists that she even asked him to work things out with Mystica and try saving whatever there was to save in that crumbling relationship. When things didn’t work out with Kevin and Mystica, Anna accepted Kevin as the new man in her life and tomorrow, they will be married in church rites at the Sta. Maria della Strada parish with a reception at the Shangri-La Hotel in EDSA.

Anna is aware that people are talking about how he could only be after her money. She knows that she had been fooled into doling out cash by all sorts of showbiz creatures big and small. ("Alam kong niloloko lang nila ako, pero tulong ko na lang sa kanila ‘yon," she claims.) But this time, she swears on her wedding invitation card that she’s no fool to enter a situation as serious as the sacred matriomony without knowing the man she is marrying and that she has chosen to marry Kevin because – among her suitors (she says that there was a doctor and a businessman) – it was only him who volunteered and suggested to sign a pre-nuptial agreement.

And what kind of a man is Kevin Monteverde? A native of Donsol, Sorsogon, his real name is August Flor. He comes from a family of teachers on his mother’s side. However, he wanted to follow in the footsteps of his father (a chief engineer of a shipping line) and took up Nautical Science in a maritime school in Legazpi City in Albay. His profession as a sea adventurer has brought him to various parts of the world, including Japan and Australia.

For their honeymoon, the couple originally planned to see the world, but the world is at war and they may have to wait until this global crisis is resolved peacefully by Bush and Saddam.

From my end, my wish for Anna is peace (and love) in her married life. But she cannot attain peace yet because she has to go on a media blitz after the wedding in time for the launching of her second album, Anna Dizon Reborn, and should therefore expect another volley of verbal brickbats flying in from all directions.

She can’t give up singing because she loves it, along with – whether or not she admits it – the media attention, which can often be hopelessly intoxicating.

Although she’s going to be fair game again the minute she makes herself visible in showbiz, she insists she’s prepared for the repercussions. With confidence, she says that after all the storms she’s been through, no one at this point of her life can still put her down. And we might as well believe her. After all, Anna Dizon is Anna Dizon.