So what have I been up to?

Sorry for missing two weeks. I was recuperating from cosmetic procedures (full details in a future column) the first week and I was taping Game KNB in Baguio last week (pictures and details of that next week).

I got invited to two international press junkets, one for this weekend, and another one for next weekend. Unfortunately for me, I could not miss my live episodes of Morning Girls so the assignments went to my Buzz co-hosts, Boy Abunda and Ricky Lo, respectively.

Boy left last night for Los Angeles to interview Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck for their film, Gigli. I’m a total J. Lo fan, and this was really a missed opportunity for me. Boy already had the opportunity to interview her for Maid in Manhattan. He made the sacrifice of skipping Buzz and his weekly salary, which will go to our guest co-host (as of this writing I was told that it would be my "friendship", Ai Ai delas Alas) because we did not want viewers to get the impression that all the prime interviews with international stars was going to our competition.

The truth is, humility aside, 90 percent of the time, Boy and I get first crack at the invitations for international junkets. We are just extremely loaded with work that is normally scheduled months in advance, that’s why we are forced to decline. Viewers are unaware of this and unfortunately they might mistakenly believe that we are no longer the premier authority for exclusives, local and foreign.

Tito Ricky will leave next Friday also for Los Angeles and he will interview the whole cast of the film SWAT, topbilled by Samuel L. Jackson and Colin Farrell. Colin is Hollywood’s latest bad-boy heartthrob, and he was very impressive in both Daredevil and Phone Booth. But I was truly impressed that he was able to hold his own in his scenes with Al Pacino in The Recruit.

Doris Torres of Columbia Films called me personally for SWAT. My boss at ABS-CBN, Tita Cory Vidanes said that it would be better for me to decline because Morning Girls does best when Korina and I are live. Plus she said that it is definite that both Game KNB and Morning Girls will be having US specials during the last quarter of this year, so it would be practical for me to not go abroad just yet. I’m a very obedient contract star, so I stayed put!

I’m writing this column on my new Powerbook G4. I am in love with the 17-inch monitor of this titanium laptop. I tried my best to get used to a PC laptop, but once an Apple lover, always an Apple loyalist. No matter how hard I tried to get comfortable with that laptop, I kept wishing to go back to the Powerbook. I’ve long been used to the Operating System of the Mac, and I just could not get used to Windows. Finally, I succumbed and decided to give in to my heart’s desire and bought my dream laptop.

I bought the JBL sub-woofer and mini speakers that are compatible with this Powerbook, and I already feel like I’m watching DVDs in a mini theater inside my dressing room. I don’t claim to be a computer genius, but with a computer this aesthetically and technologically superb, I feel the urge to at least learn enough to take full advantage of everything this laptop is capable of doing.

Lastly, a lot of people have been asking me about my "kissing scene" which will be aired on all channels next week, on July 27. If you guessed that it was for a toothpaste or a mouthwash, try again. The commercial was shot over two days, and the story board is one of the most glamorous I’ve ever done. The shots were a grown-up version of my past Lux ads. It feels like I’ve really matured because it was half a lifetime ago that I did my first Lux commercial at 16 years old. At 32, I am very proud of this ad, and I’ll have to end it with that because I’m not allowed to reveal more because of our confidentiality clause.