The beauty queen is a funny girl

Miss International Precious Lara Quigaman may look eternally poised and regal. But don’t let those calm and collected looks deceive you. That queenly pose hides a kooky personality that makes her break out in song at a time when you least expect it (e.g. when everybody around her is in a no mood to crack a joke).

At least that’s what her mom revealed as I sat beside her at the presscon of Kapag Tumibok ang Puso (Not Once But Twice).

"She may be the eldest of my four children. But she can behave like the youngest because of her wacky ways. She’s my panganay na bunso," reveals the UK-based Mrs. Quigaman, who is here on vacation.

Translation: that prim and proper bearing, thanks to her beauty queen stature, is for Miss International purposes only. The real Precious Lara is uncomfortable in serious projects like drama. If she had her way, she’d rather let her hair down in comedies where she can be herself, not a product of an image she’s supposed to live up to.

Never mind if she has to deglamorize herself and make faces – like she did in Kapag Tumibok ang Puso (Not Once But Twice) – to make people laugh.

She’s even grateful to Gretchen Barretto, the original choice for the role who backed out after getting a forwarded text message that said, "If you were Lani (Mercado, Bong’s wife), would you entrust your husband in a movie with Gretchen?"

Gretchen’s loss became Precious Lara’s gain.

"Drama depresses me. I felt down and out after watching my life story dramatized on Magpakailanman. It reminded me of my late dad," she explains her preference for comedy.

That rumor about her checking in with a guy at Galleria Suites gave her the shock of her life. It’s absolutely false, she insists.

It’s torture for the very private beauty queen who refuses to even give a clue on who the nonshowbiz guy in her life is.

Baseless talks, Precious Lara insists, make her feel like bidding showbiz goodbye. As it is, she’s already having second thoughts about going full blast in tinseltown. Nothing is definite yet, though. Bong Revilla’s wife and Inah Revilla’s mom in Kapag Tumibok ang Puso (Not Once But Twice) is still testing the waters and has yet to make up her mind about an acting career.

All she can say for now is, "Nothing (not even intrigues?) can stop me once I’ve made up my mind on something."

Wenn Deramas, her director in Kapag Tumibok ang Puso (Not Once But Twice), sees a lot of promise in the showbiz newcomer.

"She grasps instructions well," direk Wenn relates. Precious Lara has one request, though: no kissing scene, please. It could be the dalagang Pilipina in her, or her nonshowbiz boyfriend keeping her from locking lips with her leading man.

Whatever it is, she says "I just feel uncomfortable in a kissing scene." Period.

Wearing a swimsuit the way she did in Bb. Pilipinas and the Miss International tilts is fine. But not a kissing scene, thank you. Wish granted. Lara doesn’t have a single kissing scene in her movie debut, produced by the Revillas’ Imus Productions.

Direk Wenn may have spared her from a kissing scene, but no way can Precious Lara escape intrigues that hound any showbiz personality. She must either learn to live with it, or avoid showbiz like the plague.

Showbiz shows no signs of letting her go for now. The dusky beauty’s next movie is the mystery drama Umuulan, Umaaraw, with Ryan Agoncillo.

She has an offer to do a Chinese TV series in October, a month after she wraps up her reign as Miss International. But before that, she leaves for the US, China and other countries to fulfill her duties as Miss International. The job will take her away from the country for five months.

When she returns, Precious Lara would have made up her mind about whether she will join showbiz or not. When that time comes, she can be sure of one thing: she looked before she leapt.