Curtain-raisers:
• Is Snooky Serna, a.k.a. Kate, two months pregnant by her new boyfriend, band member Niño Mendoza? That’s the wild rumor neither confirmed nor denied by the sweethearts on their recent guesting on The Buzz. According to Jun Lalin, Snooky’s publicist, the rumor is not true. "Tita Annabelle (Rama, Snooky’s manager) asked Snooky about it and Snooky denied it." Jun said that Snooky is not supposed to be pregnant because she’s cast in the new GMA teleseries Captain Barbell, with Richard Gutierrez in the title role. Snooky’s marriage to Ricardo Cepeda was recently annulled. The un-couple has two daughters.
• Could it be true that under a new executive producer, ABS-CBN’s early morning show Magandang Umaga Pilipinas (MUP) is undergoing a gradual reformatting? I’m a follower of the show and what I miss is the wake-upper tandem of Ogie Diaz and Niña Corpuz who have a way of dishing out juicy showbiz news that go well with your sinangag, hot tsokolate, fried egg and daing na bangus. I hope the new MUP executive producer will bring back Ogie and Niña for my sake and those of other Ogie-Niña watchers.
• If you’re a James Bond follower (like this one), do tune in to Star Movies Saturday nights starting at 9 o’clock. Since last Saturday, April 29, Star Movies has been showing James Bond movies, starting with Never Say Never Again and Diamonds Are Forever. Entitled Absolute Bond, The Complete 007 Collection, the series also includes The Living Daylights (with Timothy Dalton), (Sean Connery), Moonraker (Roger Moore), The Spy Who Loved Me (Roger Moore), etc.
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Something funny happened to comedienne Giselle Sanchez Friday night when she wandered into the Havana restaurant in Makati. Guess who Giselle bumped into, surrounded by several beautiful girls? Yes, basketball’s Bad Boy Dennis Rodman no less!
"I was cracking jokes nearby, so I must have caught Rodman’s attention," Giselle told Funfare Sunday night after the presscon for Regal Films’ new "howlarious" offering entitled Manay Po, directed by Joel Lamangan, which is the story of three gay brothers (Polo Ravales, John Prats and Jiro Manio) and their side-splitting misadventures. "Then, he started kind of flirting with me."
What followed was an exchange of sexually-explicit repartee too "pornographic" to be reproduced here.
Suffice it to say that, from Giselle’s account, Rodman was inviting her to, well, bed.
"He was ignoring the girls (non-showbiz) around him and I don’t know what he saw in me," said Giselle who remained unfazed (undaunted?) by the Rodman’s proposition, done in a playful, joking manner, accompanied by a suggestive gesture of his right hand around his bicep.
Rodman mentioned something about, hmmmm, size. Giselle said she shook her head, playing up to Rodman’s joking mood.
"Then he told me, ‘Did you know that Madonna wanted to have my baby but I turned her down?’ I just shrugged it off."
Then, Rodman, still in playful/joking mood, asked Giselle to open her mouth and then he teased her by putting his hand inside it – well, whatever that gesture meant.
Giselle was invited by Rodman’s group for some bar-hopping that brought them to Prince of Jaipur bar/restaurant and then to Embassy where they bumped into Keanna Reeves and company.
Did Rodman make the same naughty proposal to Keanna?
"I don’t think so," said Giselle. "Keanna and company didn’t stay long at Embassy."
Before they parted, according to Giselle, Rodman reminded her that he was going back to the States Tuesday night (that’s tonight) after playing in exhibition games in Cebu (over the weekend) and at the Araneta Coliseum (last night).
"‘Remember,’" Giselle quoted Rodman as saying, ‘You have up to Tuesday (that’s today!) to live up to the challenge.’"
Back home, Giselle related her funny encounter with Rodman to her husband, Emil Buencamino (with whom she has been married for five years; they have a two-year-old daughter, Lia) and they had a good laugh about it.
The encounter happened before Rodman and his teammates flew to Cebu. First on their agenda was a courtesy call on Cebu City Mayor Tommy Osmeña. According to one account, Rodman was left at the mayor’s office by his teammates who proceeded to another room for a late lunch consisting of local delicacies that included a dish wrapped in banana leaves. Rodman’s teammates were briefed on how to eat the delicacies. When Rodman arrived, obviously hungry, he proceeded to eat the delicacies, wrapper and all, making people around laugh and giggle. Probably still having jetlag, Rodman reportedly started to sulk and retreated to his room at the Waterfront Hotel.
I’m not sure if Rodman finally met his father, who has been based in Pampanga and hasn’t seen his estranged son for decades. The older Rodman separated from his son’s mother when Dennis was small.
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The Philippine bet, Maricarl Canlas Tolosa (now Mrs. Francis Cabel; she was 2001 Bb. Pilipinas-International), was among the 10 semi-finalists in the 2006 Mrs. World contest held last Saturday, April 29, at the Oktyabrskaya Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia. Named winner was Mrs. Russia Sofia Arzhakovskaya in an affair marked by controversy.
Here’s the full account by Funfare’s "beauty experts" Felix Manuel, Joey Cezeare, Gery Yumping and Francis Calubaquib:
The Mrs. World pageant was again controversial. After last year’s pageant where many were disappointed that Melanie Marquez failed to bag the crown; this year proved to be no exception. A winner was mistakenly announced and got replaced immediately, prompting many of the delegates to walk out in disgust.
In a text message minutes after the pageant, Maricarl said that she was very proud to have represented the country very well. The pageant became controversial when Mrs. Costa Rica, Andrea Bermudez Romero, was announced as the winner, after which the pageant’s owner rushed to the stage. "We were already hugging Andrea with her crown and all when they announced that Mrs. Russia was the real winner and Mrs. Costa Rica was first runner-up. Many girls felt awful and left the stage, throwing and ripping their sashes."
Many girls were intimidated with the hometown girl, according to Maricarl, because she rarely attended rehearsals and always had three bodyguards in tow. Apparently, the 18-year-old stunner is married to one of Russia’s richest men.
Maricarl has maintained her whistlebait figure of 35-24-35 even after she gave birth. She is 27 and statuesque at 5’ 9". Aside from being the representative in the 2001 Miss International pageant in Japan, she was a semi-finalist in the 1998 Mutya ng Pilipinas pageant, SM Supermodel first runner-up in the same year, Miss Centro Escolar University and one of Mondragon’s Magica 8 both in 1997. She was also Miss Dominican College during her senior year in high school in 1995.
Unknown to many, she suffered from Idiopathic Thombocytopenic Purpura ( a blood disorder affecting the platelets in the body resulting from immunologic platelet destruction which made her prone to bleeding). She was devastated especially when her face bloated as a side effect of the medications she was taking. "I really felt low during those times but my faith in God made me stronger," she enthused. While working as a flight attendant for Philippine Airlines in 2003, she met her husband Francis. She considers her daughter as the greatest miracle in her life because after she gave birth to Kathryn, her platelet level became higher even up to this day.
Maricarl appeared in three films. It would not be a surprise if she joins the industry once again.
• The Philippine bets to the Mrs. World pageant include:
1986 – Rosita Capuyon Liwag (1983 Bb. Pilipinas-Universe), semi-finalist and best costume winner
1987 – Evangeline "Bing" Pimentel Eigenmann
1988 – Florian Mangcucang Villasenor
2000 – Maricel Morales Espinosa (1995 Mutya ng Pilipinas), first runner-up
2001 – Aurora Halili Laurel
2003 – Joanne Santos Primero (1995 Bb. Pilipinas-Universe)
2005 – Melanie Marquez Lawyer, semi-finalist
• Mrs. World Winners:
1984 – Bernardine Rose Ramanayake Senanayake -Sri Lanka (she was 1981 Miss Asia)
1985 – no pageant
1986 – Astrid Elena de Navia, Colombia
1987 – Barbara Riley, New Zealand
1988 – Pamela Nail, USA
1989 – Lucia Boggiano de Zoeger, Peru
1990-94 – no pageants
1995 – Marisol Soto de Volio, Costa Rica
1996-1998 – no pageants
1999 – Starla Kay Stanley, USA
2000 – Aditi Govitrikar, India
2001 – Nicole Brink, USA
2003 – Pavadee Vicheinrut Muangkroot, Thailand (1995 Miss Thailand-Universe)
2004 – no pageant
2005 – Sima Bakahr, Israel
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E-mail reactions at rickylo@philstar.net.ph