Katrina’s ‘touchy’ title

In showbiz, there are "king" and "queen" titles (for whatever they’re worth, if any), among them Denial King/Queen (self-explanatory), Tuhog King/Queen (one who goes to bed with two or more siblings), Bukol King (vested on somebody with the biggest bulge, which could be, uh, "padded"), Casino King/Queen (one who wallows in the casino and emerges from it shirtless, empty pockets turned inside-out), Taray Queen (a woman who can kill with the venom of her tongue), Durogista King/Queen (hooked on prohibited drugs) and Umbag King (a man who turns his girlfriend or wife into a punching bag).

And then there’s the Hipo Queen (one who catches a guy unaware by touching, as in hipo, his private part), said to be – drum roll, please! – Katrina Halili, FHM magazine’s 2006 No. l sexiest and the star of Gigil, the new sizzler from Regal Films. She earned that "title" when she reportedly "touched" Paolo Contis on the set of Atlantika (the GMA 7 fantaserye they’re starring in), prompting Paolo’s girlfriend, Isabel Oli, to pull Katrina’s hair.

Flattered by the "title"?

"Of course, not!" said Katrina in a one-on-one with Funfare. "Why would I do that? When that rumor came out, Paolo and I had not even shot together for Atlantika. Isabel and I are friends."

Katrina is wondering who’s behind what she called "a smear campaign" against her.

"Somewhere out there," she added, "somebody is out to destroy me. What he or she doesn’t know is that instead of being discouraged, it challenges me to improve myself and prove him/her wrong. Doing your best is the best defense, isn’t it?"

Some people accuse her of spreading the rumors to generate publicity and gain public sympathy.

"Huh!?! Why would I do that? If I were to create an issue about me, why be a Hipo Queen?"

She’s also tagged as the Iyak Queen with Eat, Bulaga!’s Sugar Mercado as co-"title"-holder) because she sheds tears even without provocation. Crocodile tears?

"I really cry easily," admitted Katrina. "If somebody comes to me and says, ‘Uy Katrina, ganyan ka raw!’ I would say, ‘Hindo po!’ and if he/she insists, ‘Hindi, ganyan ka raw, eh!’, hayun, maiiyak na ako. Watch NUTS Entertainment (next Wednesday, Nov. 22, on GMA 7) and you will see what I mean. They teased me and I couldn’t stop crying."

More rumors: That she has lesbian tendencies. Victim: Sandara Park.

"I did kiss Sandara but I was just teasing her," explained Katrina. "If you know Sandara, she is super kulit. She’s like a child. So I teased her that she’s my ‘type’ and I kissed her."

Is somebody "out there" envious of her because of her being FHM’s No. 1 sexiest (she’s also the star of the new Tanduay Rhum commercial)?

"Maybe. I believe in karma so whoever is behind all this should watch out."

But Alfred Vargas, leading man of Katrina in Gigil (directed by Jun Lana, where she plays a call center girl dumped by her boyfriend on their wedding day, an incident that made her wild), swore that Katrina is all-woman.

"We have several kissing scenes in the movie," said Alfred who plays a dive master, "and she reacted like a real woman should. In our longest love scene, shot for almost three hours, we got so carried away that we didn’t realize we were undressing little by little."

That’s the farthest Katrina would go – so far.

"I’m not ready to bare all," said Katrina who posed in transparent clothes in the FHM 2006 calendar. "Not even my butt."

(Note: To know Katrina more intimately, check out the Katrina Halilli’s Fantasies VCD/DVD, available in Video City outlets, AstroPlus, Astrovision, SM Malls and video stores nationwide.)

Briefly noted

• Funfare’s "beauty expert" was invited by Lorraine Schuck and Jojie Felix Velarde of Carousel Productions, organizer of the Miss Earth contest, to sit as one of the judges during the contest’s preliminary swimsuit competition held at the Trace Aquatic Center, Trace College, Los Baños, Laguna, over the weekend. "The girls (more than 80 of them) were divided into three groups which are currently touring the country’s different scenic spots. Twenty-seven girls from Group 3 competed in two-piece swimwear before hundreds of spectators," reported Felix. "The top five girls in the batch will compete with the winners from groups one and two at the final swimsuit competition on Nov. 18 at the Fontana Leisure Park and Casino in Pampanga." The lucky five are: Bolivia’s Jessica Anne Jordan, USA’s Amanda Pennekamp, Poland’s Francyz Barraza Sudnicka, Thailand’s Patra Rungratansunthorn and Venezuela’s Marianne Pasqualina Puglia Martinez. The finals will be held on Nov. 26 at the National Museum, Manila.

• The Rizal High School Class of l961 will have a reunion on Nov. 25 (Saturday), 8 a.m. onwards, at the RHS Alumni Hall, Barangay Caniogan, Pasig City. For particulars, call Mars Ochoa at 641-6075 or 641-0055, or Benny Umagat at 627-5855.

• Food for thought for today (from Joji Dingcong): You’ll never know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Said Joji, "That quotation from Atticus (a character in To Kill a Mockingbird) changed my perspective in life."

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