Who's Richard's new girl?

Curtain-raisers:

• While they continue to deny “vehemently” that they are “on,” Rhian Ramos and Mo Twister are not shy about being lovey-dovey in public. At the wedding of Vernon and Happee Go over the weekend, an eyewitness said that Rhian and Mo “were holding hands all the time” and then they left together in Mo’s car. Action does speak louder than denials.

• Lourdes Medel and husband Jaime Llora have decided to move back to the Philippines for good from Australia where they lived for more than three decades. They will settle down in Davao where Lourdes comes from. Their two children have opted to remain in Australia with their respective families. Asked if she’d be interested in doing a soap, Lourdes, who was one of LVN Pictures’ popular stars in the ‘60s, said that she wasn’t sure, although she should be perfect for mother/grandmother roles.

• Newly-separated STAR/Leisure columnist Mons Romulo-Tantoco will soon host a talk show on TV5 with Lucy Torres-Gomez, Joy Ortega and Marjorie Barretto, to be produced by Bong Sta. Maria and directed by Bert de Leon. The format is similar to that of The View in which one of the lady anchors is Barbara Walters.

* * *

The tall, pretty girl is half-French and half-Filipina but she’s not Solenn Heussaff who has been persistently rumored to be the girlfriend of Richard Gutierrez, although both of them have consistently denied it, claiming that they are, hmmm, “just friends.”

The “mystery” girl was seen as Richard’s date at last Friday’s concert of Bruno Mars at the Araneta Coliseum. In their company were Richard’s siblings Ruffa and Raymond Gutierrez and some friends.

The Funfare VDPA (Very Deep Penetration Agent) happened to hear Richard and the “mystery” girl talking, sometimes in English and Taglish, and then in French. Yes, Richard does speak a bit of French and, added the VDPA (who was seated behind the group), “quite well-versed in other things French.”

Could she be the “mystery” girl Richard has been hiding (until now only successfully)?

After the concert, the VDPA said that the Gutierrez siblings invited the “mystery” girl to the Gutierrezes’ home (I’m not sure which one) and “played games” until the wee hours of the next morning.

I won’t be surprised if, like Solenn, also a good friend of the Gutierrezes, the “mystery” girl will be prodded upon to also venture into showbiz.

In defense of Willie

Here’s another opinion on the unresolved Willing Willie controversy, from reader Ivy Contreras (no address given):

Dear Ricky,

I would like to share my thoughts about the Willie scandal that hit the Philippines like a tsunami. I will not mention the name of the child that got used for the sole purpose of destroying Willie Revilliame because I felt bad for him because after this his name will be equated with abuse. His name, video and pictures (with some website used it in a very malicious way very different from what really happened) will be in the world wide web that he will forever remembered in a bad light. That for me is what you call child abuse! The people who made judgment must have watched only the spliced videos posted on the Net, obviously edited to make it show like Willie bullied the child.  But if you watch the whole episode it is not at all like that. The child was clearly got afraid with Bonel Balingit that why he cried while dancing.That child was used by some people who would like to destroy the career of Mr. Revillame. For me, those who posted the video and branding it as an abused should be the one to be hunted down and sue for child abuse! Also, those who used the name of the boy over and over again should be shamed because clearly they maligned the child by equating it already with negative tag.  

The situation should be properly given a trial in court and not trial by publicity. And the advertisers should know better. Don’t they know the power of branding by using the social networking nowadays? They should know that this incident is like branding a product. The video was posted with a very catchy name that people got interested and, alas, got half a million hits! They should know better that spliced videos shouldn’t be taken seriously, they should know the power of editing! They should know that anybody can comment in this social networking site but not all comments come from different people if you know what I mean.

I would like to end this letter by asking people to take off the video from YouTube because the child doesn’t deserve this.He might get stigmatized and never live a normal life again, just because some people used him for their own benefit. Also, stop using the child’s picture on their blogsite (that picture really looked bad).  People should broaden their mind and see who is the loser here. And why? Because they want to put down a person whose objective is just to help people who are in need.

Thank you and more power to you.

— IVY

Incidentally, while other advertisers have been pulling out their ads from Willing Willie, a spokesperson for GlutaMax said that they want to take care of the relationship between the company and the show, “to prove to the public that unlike other brands that want to play safe and just pull out and not honor commitment, we will continue to stand behind Willie Revillame.”

(E-mail reactions at [email protected] or at [email protected]. You may also send your questions to [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare.)