Cesar to Borgy: Shouldn’t you know ‘who’?

Wasn’t he himself when he said all that?

That’s the general reaction of most showbiz folks to Borgy Manotoc’s no-holds-barred answers to the 40-plus "forbidden questions" thrown at him by pa-controversial host Mo Twister on his Magic 89.9 radio program Good Times with Mo Twister (Monday through Thursday, 6 to 9 a.m., with the Forbidden Questions segment done only every Wednesday)?

To recap:

Borgy named Vina Morales as one of the three famous women he has gone to bed with, including German model Lana Asanin and Victoria London, Rustom Padilla’s co-host in the defunct ABC 5 game show Wheel of Fortune and not The Price is Right as Funfare wrongly reported. (Vina vehemently denied having gone to bed with Borgy and she’s demanding for an apology from Borgy and has consulted her lawyer for the possibility of filing a case against him.)

Borgy named Pops Fernandez not as the worst-dressed celebrity (Gwen Garci was "it") but as the one he thought had gone under the knife (for some "lifting" and "enhancement").

Borgy named his half-brother TJ Manotoc and Christian Bautista (not the worst singer as Funfare wrongly reported) as two of the celebrities he’d rather not work with.

And, here’s the rub: Asked who he thought was the worst would-be actor-politician, Borgy named – drum roll, please! – Cesar Montano.

Oh my, of all people!?! It’s true that there were "feelers" and speculations that Cesar was being wooed to be Sen. Ping Lacson’s running-mate in the Manila mayoralty race in next May’s elections but in fairness to Cesar (star of Ligalig, his own company’s 2006 Metro Filmfest entry which he himself wrote and directed) he has made it loud and clear that, no thank you, he doesn’t have any plans of jumping into the political arena.

Asked for his reaction to Borgy, Cesar furnished Funfare a brief but meaty answer: "Borgy should know who the country’s worst politician is. Has he forgotten his lolo?"

Ouch, ouch, ouch!

Anyway, the good news about Cesar is that he has just come back from L.A. where he had a meeting with Lawrence Vender, producer of the Quentin Tarantino action thriller From Dusk Till Dawn. Cesar won’t reveal just yet details of what they talked about.

Rita loses her ‘miracle’ baby

Three weeks was all Rita Avila and her husband, TV director Erick Reyes (the ABS-CBN soap Maging Sino Ka Man?) had with their first child, Elia Jesu, a blue baby who died after a delicate heart surgery on Saturday night.

The baby was born on Nov. 10. Two weeks later, Rita brought him to her OB-GYNE for a regular check-up and his heart was diagnosed to have a murmur which made his breathing labored.

"It was a complicated heart ailment," Rita told Funfare. "Surgery was the only hope. Sadly, it wasn’t successful."

Rita called Elia Jesu a "miracle" baby because she really prayed hard for it (especially to the Sto. Niño in green vestment) after she lost her first child in a miscarriage, prompting Rita to "adopt" two dolls which she named Popoy and Nimay.

"It was all part of my therapy upon the advice of my doctor," explained Rita for the sake especially of those who thought that her miscarriage had affected her mentally. "My doctor said it was part of my mental preparation for the coming of another baby."

And now, this.

The "miracle" baby was cremated at the Christ The King Church (in Quezon City) yesterday afternoon.

"I didn’t want to see his little body inside a coffin," said Rita who opted not to attend the cremation. "I couldn’t bear to see him in that state."

Ready for Matt Monro Jr.’s show

Does the son sound like the father?

That’s what fans of Matt Monro are curious about as Matt Monro Jr. stars in the concert Matt Sings Monro: One Story, A Thousand Memories, set for Dec. 6, 8:30 p.m., at the New PAGCOR Grand Theater at the Casino Filipino-Parañaque, with a dinner-show slated for Dec. 9, 9 p.m., at Hard Rock Café in Makati City.

I guess most of you out there can sing straight from the heart such Matt Monro enduring songs as Born Free, Before You Go, From Russia With Love, Yesterday, Can This Be Love?, Softly As I Leave, Walk Away, Portrait of My Love, Strangers In The Night, My Way, The Impossible Dream, My Love and Devotion, Fly Me To The Moon and many others.

How will the junior interpret the senior’s songs? The same way, let’s hope.

"My father’s death (in 1985) shattered my dream of sharing the stage again with him," Matt Jr. was quoted as saying. (When he was 13, Matt Jr. did a duet with his father onstage.)

Produced by Steve O’Neal Productions, Matt Sings Monro is part of Matt Jr.’s ongoing tour which spun off with a successful 40-day British concert series into a global tour that also covers Australia, South Africa and the Caribbean.

"Through this tour," added Matt Jr., "I hope to preserve my father’s legacy."

(Note: Priced at P2,500, P1,800, P1,200 and P800, tickets to the PAGCOR show are available at Ticketnet outlets at National Bookstores, Tower Records, Ayala Malls and Robinsons Malls. Or call 891-9999. For tickets to the Hard Rock show, call 893-4661 to 64.)

Carlene Aguilar is 2006 Miss Internet

BREAKING NEWS: Carlene Ang Aguilar beat more than 100 other candidates to win the 2006 Miss Internet title. Continent winners were Miss Czech Republic (Miss Internet Europe), Miss Namibia (Miss Internet Africa), Miss Montego Bay (Miss Internet Caribbean) and Miss Venezuela (Miss Internet Americas).

This was announced by the Miss Tourism World Organization which is behind the beauty contest whose winner is voted by people around the world via the Internet.

According to Funfare’s "beauty experts" Felix Manuel, Joey Cezeare, Gery Yumping and Francis Calubaquib, as the new Miss Internet, Carlene was invited as a VIP to guest-judge in the forthcoming Miss Bikini World 2006 World Finals in Taipei sometime this month.

"Carlene was a runaway winner," said the "beauty experts."

Last year, Carlene as 2005 Bb. Pilipinas-World competed in the Miss World contest where she was a semi-finalist.

Briefly noted

• Juaquin Garcia will have his first concert (after bringing home some medals from the World Championships of the Performing Arts held in Hollywood several weeks ago) on Dec. 10 at Metro Bar (West Avenue, Quezon City), with Radha as co-performer. Billed as Echoes, the show is a rare combination of ballads (Juaquin) and R&B songs (Radha, granddaughter of Lolita Rodriguez, dubbed by MTV Asia as the Philippines’ Country Soul Enchantress; she’s the former lead singer of the breakthrough group Kulay). Produced by Muse de Asia Entertainment, Inc., the show also features The Exile Dancers, Choreographer is Hermie Cortez, musical director is Bobby Velasco and writer/director is Pat F. Perez, with Wowie Roxas and Takanori Kato as executive producers.

• Condolence to Claire dela Fuente (photo) whose husband, businessman Moises "Boy" de Guzman, died of liver caner at age 58 Saturday afternoon. His remains are at the Loyola Memorial Chapels in Sucat, Parañaque City. Besides Claire, Boy is survived by sons Gego and Mickey. Claire said that the interment will be announced later.

• The UST Faculty of Medicine and Surgery will hold its grand alumni fellowship night and dinner dance at the Makati Shangri-La on Dec. 17. Registration starts at 6 p.m. on that day. Batch members are invited.

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