Nora: Will she, won't she?

Hold your bets just yet. The guessing game is not over, not until 6:30 tomorrow morning (July 21) when PAL PR 103 from Los Angeles lands at the NAIA.

Will Nora Aunor be there? Will she not be there?

I won’t tell you what I’m betting on but I assure you that I will win.

Anyway, Funfare reported yesterday that Nora is “finally (finally?)” coming home to replace Vilma Santos in the role as Gen. Emilio Aguinaldo’s second wife in El Presidente which Laguna Gov. ER Ejercito is producing. Reports said that ER will foot the bills for Nora’s airfare, hotel accommodation and food during the estimated seven to 10 days shoot. After that, it’s presumed that Nora will be on her own.

Here’s the rub: San Francisco-based “beauty impresario” (who relayed the story about Nora’s homecoming to Funfare after talking to Nora) called long-distance yesterday morning to report that “Nora has changed her mind” and has decided to call off the trip — “Even when there have been a few despedida parties held in her honor and in one of them nalasing pa nga siya,” adding, “ay naku, hindi pa rin siya nagbabago!”

A check with PAL confirmed that Nora is indeed listed (under her real name Nora Villamayor) among the “business class” passengers of PR 103 which is leaving at 10:30 tonight (July 19, L.A. Time; 1:30 p.m. July 20 Manila Time).

German “Kuya Germs” Moreno, an unapologetically avid Noranian (cut his arm and the blood that will flow will spell N-O-R-A A-U-N-O-R), also called, denying that Nora was coming but adding that she just might, not now but “maybe second week of August” because she is committed to appear at “a nationalistic Filipino event” in L.A. on Aug. 8.

But a Funfare informer said that Nora might be having “second thoughts” about leaving the US because she might get into trouble with the US Immigration (“And risk being put on ‘secondary’,” whatever that means) upon her return to the US because of “her drug case.”

Gov. ER didn’t return Funfare’s text and call. Oh well, maybe he’s the last to know. Or doesn’t he care at all?

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American Idol Live! Tour at Big Dome on Sept. 20 

BREAKING NEWS: The Top 11 finalists of American Idol Season 10 will perform at the Araneta Coliseum on Sept. 20 (a Tuesday), starting at 8 p.m.

This was confirmed to Funfare by etc, Jack TV and Ovation Productions which are behind the concert.

It’s a “first” in Asia for AI finalists Casey Abrams, Haley Reinhart, Jacob Lusk, James Durbin, Lauren Alaina, Naima Adedapo, Paul McDonald, Pia Toscano, Stefano Langone and Fil-American Thia Megia, together with Season 10 winner Scotty McCreery.

Usually only the Top 10 of the season go on tour but due to a “save” by judges Randy Jackson, Steven Tyler and Jennifer Lopez, Casey Abrams is included in the tour.

Performing all on one stage, the Top 11 cover a wide range of musical genres from country, pop, jazz to rock. They will perform fan favorites from the show, duets and medleys of today’s hottest hit songs as well as a few original singles from their individual solo projects.

(Media partners for American Idol Live! Tour 2011 are 2nd Avenue, DIVA Universal, Universal Channel, Talk TV, BTV and Solar Sports. Ticket prices are P12,000 VIP, P11,500 Patron A, P10,000 Patron B, P7,500 Lower Box VIP, P5,500 Lower Box Regular, P3,500 Upper Box A, P1,500 Upper Box B and P700 General Admission. Call Ticketnet at 911-5555 or online at www.ticketnet.com.ph)

Ed Westwick on CNN’s Talk Asia

I’ll tune in to CNN’s Talk Asia tonight at 6:30 (with replays throughout the week) for the interview with Ed Westwick (of Gossip Girl) which was done on the same day that The STAR interviewed Westwick when he was here to shoot as endorser of Penshoppe (billboards are now all over the metropolis). The interviewer is CNN senior correspondent Anjali Rao.

Five years of playing American bad boy Chuck Bass on Gossip Girl have made British actor Westwick one of the biggest names on US television.

Gossip Girl is shot on location in the heart of New York City and is based on a popular series of young-adult novels by Cecily von Ziegesar that explore the lives of a group of privileged adolescents. The show’s popularity has seen its stars become idols across the globe. But for Westwick, a problem with his working visa led to his almost being dropped from the show before it even started.

Penshoppe endorser Ed Westwick reveals more of himself in the interview with CNN

Said Westwick, 24, who’s British, “I don’t think I allowed myself to panic too much, because if I would have done, I don’t know, the whole world would have crumbled down around me. Fortunately what happened is I had a fantastic immigration lawyer, who met me in Toronto, which is apparently the place you go to get quickie visas!”

(Highlights of Ed Westwick’s interview with CNN’s Talk Asia will be available online at www.cnn.com/talkasia after the first airing.)

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