Yes, it’s true: Criselda is richer by 2 million!

Curtain-raiser:

Here’s a little poem called Believe in Angels by Barbara Cage, sent to Funfare by an unnamed reader and which I’d like to share with other readers out there:

There’s an angel

Always by your side.

Whether male or female,

It’s there to be your guide.

It rejoices with each sunrise,

The beginning of each day,

Knowing that you’re safe, indeed,

For in God’s hands you stay.

And when the evening comes

And the darkness makes its cover,

Your angel settles

In the coming night

And above your head it hovers.

Believe in angels –

You have your very own,

Because you are God’s special child

And you’ll never be alone.

* * *

More than a year after 10-year live-in partnership with Cris Villanueva ended in an ugly fight waged largely on national television, Criselda Volks is flashing a million-peso smile. Oops! That’s two million pesos, not the two million dollars she said in a TV interview being offered to her by a porno producer whom she turned down because, according to Criselda, she was being asked to...go all the way?

A few days ago, Criselda won P2 million at the Casino Filipino Mimosa in Clark Field, Angeles City, one million in a baccarat game and one million on the slot machine.

"She was alone," said the Funfare DPA, "and not with the very rich Chinese said to be her ardent suitor."

Lucky girl? Yes, more than just in the casino where, Criselda clarified, "I play for fun," denying rumors that she’s a casino addict.

In love, Criselda is just as lucky, never mind if she has just survived a stormy live-in arrangement (with Cris, previously married to somebody else and who got married to another girl barely two months after he and Criselda broke up).

"I was only 14 when I agreed to live in with Cris, my first ever boyfriend," Criselda told Funfare. "I was new here, fresh from the States, and I didn’t know anybody. Neither did I know any relatives here," added Criselda whose mother is former LVN actress Marietta Sanz (who quit showbiz at 17 and married a German from Chicago). "I was also a battered child. Cris was like a father, a brother, a friend and a lover to me, all rolled into one. I was so in love with him that when we broke up, I thought my world had ended. He was everything to me."

Criselda talked about having been "battered" (by Cris) both physically and emotionally, and, in desperation, attempting to kill herself a few times.

"Crazy, ‘no?," Criselda now laughed at those attempts at self-destruction. "Now I know that there’s another world, a better world, after those 10 years of ‘captivity’."

With her six-year-old love child Rafa (by Cris), Criselda has picked up the pieces of her shattered life (after wallowing in self-pity for several months following the break-up) and is moving on beautifully.

She said she has discovered the many other things she could do (besides acting), such as selling high-end condo units (she’s renting out two of her own) and expensive cars. She and Rafa live in a beautiful house with a swimming pool.

No wonder she’s wearing that million-peso smile.

"Imagine what I would have missed if I succeeded in killing myself!," smiled Criselda (a deadringer for Angelina Jolie, also gifted with naturally-luscious lips – not enhanced, huh!), promising never to do it again. (She better not!)

Thanks, thanks, thanks!

Since nobody else will, I would do the flaunting myself.

I just got a copy of the survey on the Top 30 Late-Night Programs (Non-Cable Household Ratings), AGB NMR Mega Manila (for the Sept. 17 to 23, 2006 period) and we guys behind the GMA Saturday late-night show Showbiz Stripped can’t believe that, ehem, we’re No. 1. Thanks, thanks, thanks to all out there who stay up late Saturday nights to catch the show (never mind if some people say the host is – ouch, ouch, ouch!!! – "trying- hard"...could be true... He, he, he!).

Here’s the Top 30

1. Showbiz Stripped (Truth, Lies and Consequence), GMA 7, 11.5 percent
2. Sunday Night Box Office (Local Specials), GMA 7, 10.6 percent
3. SOCO (Scene of the Crime Operatives), ABS-CBN 2, 9.2 percent
4. Saksi (Liga ng Katotohanan), GMA 7, 9.2 percent
5. 100% Pinoy, Channel 7, 7.1 percent
6. Emergency, GMA 7, 6.3 percent
7. GMA Flash Report Special Edition, GMA 7, 6.1 percent
8. Reporter’s Notebook, Channel 7, 6.1 percent
9. Sports Unlimited, ABS-CBN 2, 5.9 percent
10. I Witness, GMA 7, 5.8 percent
11. Sunday’s Best (Local Specials), ABS-CBN 2, 5.5 percent
12. The Correspondents, ABS-CBN 2, 4.8 percent
13. Noypi! Ikaw Ba ‘To?, ABS-CBN 2, 4.4 percent
14. PROBE, ABS-CBN 2, 4.1 percent
15. Mirada de Mujer, ABS-CBN 2, 3.6 percent
16. Trip Na Trip (Dos), ABS-CBN, 3.3 percent
17. Debate with Mare at Pare, GMA 7, 3.3 percent
18. The 43rd Daejong Film Festival (Dubbed), QTV 11, 3.3 percent
19. Walang Tulugan with the Master Showman, GMA 7, 2.9 percent
20. The Final Cut The Next David’s Salon Creative Stylist, QTV 11, 1.9 percent
21. UZ (Urban Zone), ABS-CBN 2, 1.8 percent
22. Irene Replay, QTV 11, 1.7 percent
23. Pinoy Dream Academy Uplate, ABS-CBN 2, 1.5 percent
24. Diyos at Bayan, GMA 7, 1.3 percent
25. Justin Timberlake Future Sex/Love Sounds, ABC 5, 0.9 percent
26. The 700 Club Asia, QTV 11, 0.8 percent
27. The Working President, RPN 9, 0.8 percent
28. MYX Live!, Studio 23, 0.8 percent
29. Jesus The Healer, QTV 11, 0.7 percent
30. The 700 Club, ABS-CBN, 0.7 percent
There. Stay tuned!

(E-mail reactions at [email protected])