What Heart will do for love

Her parents couldn’t have picked a better name for her. When it comes to love, it’s all or nothing for Love Marie Ongpauco, or Heart Evangelista to you and me. She fights for her man, even if it means locking horns with her dad, or anyone else for that matter. If it means doing a you-and-me-against-the world, so be it.

Thus, when the then 17-year-old Heart fell in love with John Prats in-between their tapings for G-Mik, Trip, Berks and others and shooting for My First Romance et al., she thought the relationship will last beyond what turned out to be a one-year-three-month span. Never in her wildest dreams did she think it will end in a snap of a finger that terrible day when she called up to confront him about another girl being linked to him (John denies there was a third party).

John’s answer was short but far from sweet: "I just want to have fun."

Heart’s world came crumbling down that very minute. It was a bitter pill to swallow, and the tears flowed easily for months. John, after all, was her first love.

The feeling, it turned out, was as mutual as can be. In an interview during the presscon of his upcoming movie, D’Anothers, John said he himself agonized over the separation. True, it was he who asked for a cool-off after he felt the relationship was getting nowhere. But he suffered as much as Heart did.

"I asked my director if I could take a one-week leave from the TV show I was taping because I simply had to go away and heal my wounds. My friend and I went to Hong Kong," reveals John.

His performance in his favorite sport – basketball – also suffered. John reports he felt so bad he injured himself on the hardcourt.

Now, both have moved on, with Heart saying she has become wiser, more wary.

Suitors came and went. One of them was Bryan Dy, son of Isabela Mayor Paul Dy. But the wounds in her heart have yet to heal. Heart said she let him go, even if he’s the type of guy any girl would like to bring home to Daddy.

Take your time, she now tells her heart. Your knight in shining armor: God-fearing, with a direction in life and the courage to fight for you will one day come your way, Heart further tells herself.

Heavy words these. Does that mean John didn’t fight for her when he had to?

Again, John rushes to explain: "Her mom knows how much I love Heart. In fact, during one of our fights when Heart threw my cellphone and broke it into four pieces, I told her mom that I really love her daughter. As for letting her dad know, I was about to do that, but the separation got in the way."

Yes, he wanted to reconcile with her. But John said Heart didn’t give him another chance.

They still talk as friends. In fact, John called Heart up when he read articles quoting her as saying he didn’t fight for her.

Far from turning bitter, Heart continues to hope her One Great Love is waiting just around the corner. She even became all the better for it. Now, Heart has learned to be more patient and to set higher standards in choosing Mr. Right.

Bury herself in her work she did, and amply rewarded she became. Heart landed the plum role of Panday’s (Jericho Rosales) leading lady in the ABS-CBN fantaserye months back. Now, she hosts the new reality TV show CloseUp to Fame: The Search for the Next CloseUp Couple (Saturdays, 4:30 p.m.) with Geoff Eigenmann on ABS-CBN. The first-time teamup between the CloseUp endorser and Gina Alajar and Michael de Mesa’s second son is untried and untested. But they’re expected to talk about something else rather than work and the toothpaste brand behind the show.

"We both love animals," says Geoff, who owns Siberian Huskies himself. This, he figures, will keep the conversations going between him and Heart during taping lulls. This way, the required rapport between two hosts trading spiels for a full hour while the 24 CloseUp model finalists slug it out in the show, will come naturally for them. This way, Heart and Geoff’s repartee will hopefully sparkle with wit and feel-good lines as they describe how each finalist measures up to the judges’ criteria of what a killer smile, self-confidence, brains, projection and others consist of.

The contestants are as raw as can be, coming as they do from all over the country. Thousands of them flocked to audition centers in Metro Manila, Naga City, Cebu City and Metro Davao, where they faced a panel of judges that narrowed down the choices to the 24 who will appear in the show.

Now that they are on the final leg of the contest, the aspiring models face challenges that will test their mettle and survival capabilities. They will undergo makeover workshops under former Bb. Pilipinas-Universe Nina Ricci Alagao. They will also be asked to remake popular CloseUp commercials through the decades. At stake for the winning couple are P1-M worth of prizes and the kind of CloseUp commercial that introduced the likes of Gabby Concepcion, Richard Gomez, Dawn Zulueta and Mariel Rodriguez to televiewers.

CloseUp personality Plinky Recto and Lino Cayetano will grade their every move and provide 40 percent of their final score. The rest will come from televiewers who may text in their votes via Close_Up <name>, <sticker code>, <contestant’s number> and send to 2256. Each vote doubles as a raffle entry attributed to a specific mobile number, with each pack size having a corresponding number of votes. Text promo winners stand to get a pair of shades, wrist watches, cellphones, ipod Shuffle, digital camera, videocam, PDA, laptops, and – for the grand draw – a Mazda 3.

"The challenge," says a network executive, "is turning virtual unknowns into confident personalities who will one day take a crack at stardom." Today’s shy, self-effacing contestant can be the toast of the TV screens tomorrow. This new reality TV show strives to equip them with the tools of the trade, knowing that someday, these will prove handy for them, the way it did for many celebrities who made the big leap from commercials to showbiz fame.