Shaina: Like Vina, unlike Vina

If Guy & Pip (Nora Aunor and Tirso Cruz III) could have a "love doll" — remember Maria Leonora Teresa, immortalized in a song by Pip himself but now rotting away in a bodega, abandoned by her "parents"? — why can’t Shaina Magdayao and Rayver Cruz have their own?

But instead of a "love doll," the new loveteam being launched in Regal Films’ Happy Hearts have a "love dog" named Rain, a combination of their first names.

"Rain is a Chihuahua," said Shaina, Vina Morales’ younger sister who’s turning 18 on Nov. 6. (Rayver, whose mom Melody Cruz is the cousin of Pip and a member of the Cruz family band 747, is going on 17.) "Rayver gave Rain to me as a gift. We treat Rain like our baby. He even has his own little bed at sinusuotan pa namin ng disposable diapers. Nasa akin si Rain," Shaina added with a laugh, "but Rayver enjoys ‘visiting’ rights."

Rain is symbolic of Shaina and Rayver’s relationship which is not exactly serious love but more of puppy love.

Asked if she and Rayver (whose real surname is Ilustre; one-time sexy actor Gino Ilustre, a former PAL flight attendant, is Rayver’s stepbrother) are "on," Shaina laughed even more while admitting, "No. But he’s courting me."

How soon will she answer him?

"I don’t know," said Shaina. "Maybe after my debut?"

In Happy Hearts, a delightfully "howl-arious" comedy written by Dado Lumibao and directed by Joel Lamangan, Shaina plays the daughter of a university owner (played by Tirso Cruz III); she falls in love with Rayver who plays the son of a university professor (Rustom Padilla), a closet queen who’s in a menage-a-trois with Wendell Ramos and Jean Garcia. Because her father has already paired her off with a rich guy (played by Alwyn Uytingco), Shaina is keeping her relationship with Rayver a secret; Rayver, in turn, is keeping his "dysfunctional" family background from Shaina’s strict father.

"No," smiled Shaina, "in real life, I wouldn’t keep my relationship with a guy from my family. They will be the first to know."

But before any "relationship," Shaina’s immediate concern is her debut.

"I’m gonna have a big party with the traditional 18 candles and 18 roses but I don’t want it to be formal and stiff. I don’t want my guests to sound as if they’re memorizing what they’re saying to me. I want the affair to be personal. And as a gift to myself, I want to go to Europe. Ever since, ayoko talaga ng debut na en grande. I just want to go to Europe."

A veritable child of cinema, like her Ate Vina, Shaina started in showbiz when she was six years old.

"Did I miss out on my childhood? Maybe a bit but then again, I don’t think that I did. I love what I’ve been doing. I have the passion for it and I continue learning. Whatever I must have missed has been more than compensated for. Compared to non-showbiz girls, I’ve made many friends as I grew up in showbiz. I didn’t forget my studies. I’m graduating from high school this year."

In college, Shaina plans to take up BS Psychology preparatory to a course in Medicine.

"I’ve always wanted to be a doctor," she confessed. (The only showbiz guy who’s a doctor is Nonoy Zuñiga. Kuh Ledesma and US-based Susan Valdez are nursing graduates, Dan Fernandez is an optometrist and Vivian Foz, Laurice Guillen’s sister-in-law, is a dentist.)

Shaina described herself as "like my Ate Vina and unlike my Ate Vina."

And what has she learned from her Ate Vina?

"A lot. Things about career and love life and about life in general. When it comes to my career, she always reminds me na marami talaga ang babatikos sa akin but she said that if I keep on improving my craft, nobody will succeed in putting me down. I believe her when she told me that my biggest competitor is myself. Which is good because that way, you keep on challenging yourself so you keep on improving."

And when it comes to her love life?

"Huwag daw muna. And if ever, huwag ko daw pababayaan ang career ko. I want to be like Ate Vina. She’s the reason why I entered showbiz. Pero may pinagkaiba kami. She entered showbiz because she wanted to be a singer; I entered showbiz because I wanted to be an actress.

"Also, magkaiba ang taste namin ni Ate Vina sa guys. I prefer mestizos while Ate Vina is attracted to the ‘bad-boy’ type. But Ate Vina is really my role model."

As a child actress, Shaina starred in several movies, highlighted by her performance in Tanging Yaman which won her a Best Child Performer award in 2000. She played Gloria Romero’s granddaughter (with Hilda Koronel as her mother) and all she said was, "Hindi po ba siya nalilito?," referring to God while she and Gloria were talking in church. "I didn’t expect that scene to touch the moviegoers. That scene helped make me win the award."

Serenity Prayer not by St. Francis of Assisi

From Edmund Sicam, this letter:

Hi Ricky!

In your March 8 column, the prayer that you say Chiz Escudero quotes every morning is not by St. Francis of Assisi. The author is Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), an American theologian. It is called the Serenity Prayer and is used by Alcoholics Anonymous and other support groups. Here is the complete prayer:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

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