Ang bold starlet na nawawala sa sarili

Anytime now, a disgruntled talent manager might drop his new bold starlet alaga like a hot potato. Ouch!

You see, the bold starlet seems to be "lost," as in nawawala sa sarili, all because of love (or lust?).

She has fallen madly in love with a Fil-Am cager rumored to be married but whose wife is abroad – at the expense of her budding career (her first movie was shown only a few weeks ago).

The well-meaning manager rented a decent condo (P15,000 a month) for the bold starlet but she never lived in it. Instead, she packed her things and moved in with the cager at his Mandaluyong City condo. "Okay," the cager told the bold starlet, "but only until you find a new place of your own."

And, he stressed, only until before Christmas when his wife is expected to come here for the holidays.

Okay, fine, whatever. She’s in love (more with him than vice-versa) but does she have to do so by neglecting her duties and obligations as a starlet?

One time, she stood up no less than Comedy King Dolphy during the taping for an episode of Home Along da Airport where she was a guest. Reason: She was at the games, wildly cheering for her cager-boyfriend.

"She has been unprofessional," complained the manager, "madalas ma-late sa taping at kung minsan hindi pa sumisipot. Siya ang babaing nawawala sa sarili."

That’s why anytime now, the manager might drop the bold starlet and let her roll down the drain. Serves her right!

What if, just if, she’s still at her cager-boyfriend’s condo when the guy’s unsuspecting wife arrives?

You guessed it: Bedlam! (Maghahalo ang balat sa tinalupan!)

Sizzling News From America

So what’s going on on the US showbiz scene? Here’s Mario Bautista to tell us what:

Dear Ricky,

We've been here in Woodbridge two weeks and it's gotten colder so we are now using the heater. The leaves of trees have started falling, too, and they say it's gonna be an early winter.

Next weekend, we'll drive to my cousins in Washington D.C. so they can see my daughter Hannah's baby, Louise, who can now speak a lot of words. Tumatanda na talaga ako because I get easily tired running after her.

Pinoys here can't believe Davide got impeached. Dito naman, there have been so many revelations I've been reading lately from autobiographies and magazine interviews.

After Richard Chamberlain, another 1950's heartthrob, Tab Hunter, is set to reveal in his memoir that he is gay. Now 72, Hunter says: "For anyone curious to know my story, I wanted to be sure they get it straight from the horse's mouth." Hunter was a champion ice skater, a singer with a number one hit entitled Young Love in 1957, and was last seen in the movie Lust in the Dust in 1985.

In Radio Times Magazine, Colin Farrell (whom you interviewed for SWAT) confessed he was on a regimen of drinks and drugs before he gained fame. "I ended up on a shrink's couch," he says. He was taking up to 20 tablets of Ecstacy, four grams of cocaine, six grams of speed, half an ounce of hash, three bottles of whisky, and 12 bottles of red wine weekly, plus 40 cigarets a day. "I was self-destructive," he adds. "I still am. Boringly."

Grabe, ano? This prompted a director he worked with to comment: "It's a mistake for him to be that honest because it'd be more expensive to insure him in future films."

In her autobiography, Ordinary Girl, Disco Queen Donna Summer revealed she tried committing suicide in 1976, depressed about an abusive relationship. She climbed up the sill of her hotel room. "I hoped the weight of my loneliness would send me crashing 11 stories to the sidewalk below," she says. But just as she's about to do so, her room door swung open. "In walked the chambermaid," she adds. "Flooded with shame, I was shocked back to reality."

Another singer, Chaka Khan (real name: Yvette Marie Stevens) reveals in her book Through the Fire that she was also into drugs supplied to her by her lover.

She also had a white husband once, Richard Holland, and her celebrity friends rejected him, sending her into depression.

A new biography on Sammy Davis Jr. exposes his sexual dalliances. In Black and White by Will Haygood reveals that after Sammy saw the porno classic Deep Throat, he arranged to have frequent sex with its star, Linda Lovelace, with the approval of his third wife, Altovise. It adds that Sammy travels everywhere with an entourage of strippers and porn stars. "Their unashamed freedom excited him," says Haygood.

The new Harper’s Bazaar's cover is Meg Ryan as promo of her new movie, In the Cut, where she goes daring for the first time. She looks like she just had a facelift. Sobrang mukha siyang bata. Her ex-husband, Dennis Quaid, whom she dumped for Russell Crowe, has found a new romance in a bank exec named Kimberley Buffington.

Wonder kung relative siya noong ex-hubby ni Jaya. Di ba his name is Andrew Buffington?

Regards to everyone,

– Mario B.

Magnifico Vies In 3 Filmfests

Violett Films’ Magnifico, directed by Maryo J. delos Reyes, may not have made it to the Oscar’s Best Foreign Language Film competition next year but it continues to win rave reviews abroad and compete in various film festivals. Funfare’s Toronto-based "international correspondent" Ferdinand Lapuz tells us how:

After competing at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival last July and successful screenings at Montreal, Fukuoka and Pusan International Film Festivals, Magnifico is set to conquer the US.

The Hawaii International Film Festival, sponsored by Louis Vuitton from Oct. 30 to Nov. 8, is presenting the US festival premiere of Magnifico.

Although the HIFF is on its 23rd year, the festival started giving its Golden Maile Award only in 1994. We are fortunate that the festival has selected Magnifico as one of the five feature films competing for HIFF's highest award. Direk Maryo is attending the Nov. 5 and 8 screenings of his film.

Two other Filipino films are screening in the Filipino Experience section, Chito Roño's Dekada ’70 and Marilou Diaz Abaya's Noon at Ngayon. A Filipino-American film, Lumpia, is also screening in this section.

From Hawaii, Magnifico will go to the Kerala International Festival in India (Dec. 12 to 19) and then will compete at the Festival International du Film pour l'Enfance et la Jeunesse de Sousse (Tunisia) in late December.

For its festival opening in 2004, Magnifico has been invited to compete in the ASEAN competition section of the 3rd Bangkok International Film Festival. It has also been officially invited to the Cleveland International Film Festival in March 2004 and Cairo International Film Festival in Oct. 2004.

Magnifico will open at Toronto's Carlton Cinemas on Nov. 14 and we have scheduled a press preview for Toronto critics on Nov. 4 at the Varsity Cinema. I am helping Vagrant Films Canada in the Canadian distribution.

Picture This Entertainment, a Los Angeles based distribution company, will handle the US distribution of Magnifico.

After its successful screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival, Erik Matti's Prosti is an official selection at the Tokyo International Film Festival this month.

Direk Gil Portes' Munting Tinig (Small Voices) had a one-week run at Canada Square in Toronto last week. The film received good reviews from Toronto critics. It was reviewed in all Toronto dailies: Toronto Sun, Toronto Star, National Post, Globe and Mail and Metro, as well as Extra and Now magazines.

(E-mail reactions at [email protected])