What's the truth about Princess?

The usual cliché question when an actress is rumored to be, hmmmm, pregnant (out of wedlock): Is she or isn’t she?

That’s the question every Internet user is now asking about StarStruck graduate Princess Snell and the “usual suspect” is said to be a world-famous Filipino celebrity who is currently in the news.

In an exclusive interview to be aired this afternoon on Startalk, Princess confronted the issue head-on, without blinking. I will leave it to you to find out the identity of the famous celebrity who is identified in the interview. All I can tell you is that, as expected, Princess vehemently denies the nasty rumor and even says “So sorry” to the very much married man and his wife (herself a celebrity in her own right) for having been dragged into the mess.

“I can face them or anybody with a clear conscience dahil wala akong ginawa,” Startalk quoted Princess as saying, meaning she’s not guilty as charged. She then stood up to show her flat tummy, half-joking, “Ito ba ang buntis?”

Princess added that she has a boyfriend and they’ve been going steady for one year now. She described him as “foreigner na Filipino” who is now in Spain.

The rumor linking Princess to the famous celebrity must have started two years ago when she was invited to the man’s birthday party at Embassy by the man’s right-hand man.

“I’m a fan of his (the famous celebrity) and I even had my picture taken with him,” said Princess. “Pero hanggang doon lang ‘yon.”

(Note: For the full story, tune in to Startalk this afternoon on GMA right after Eat, Bulaga! Other juicy features: Interviews with Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, an interview with Pacquiao’s wife Jinkee as Belo endorser, a funny close encounter with Rowan Atkinson a.k.a. Mr. Bean who talks about his latest movie, Johnny English Reborn, and many more.)

Pinay nurse ‘heroine’ still haunted by 9/11

Ten years after the destruction of the World Trade Center, Fil-Am nurse Rebecca Canalija still remembers vividly the sight, the stench, and the cries and moans of the burned being rushed to the emergency room of NYU Downtown Hospital on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001.

“With suffocating thick ashes and dust covering the hospital located three blocks from the collapsed Twin Towers, Canalija served beyond the call of duty as she helped minister to casualties,” said Funfare’s Big Apple correspondent Edmund Silvestre in his report recalling that earth-shaking event.

Rebecca recounted to Edmund that in two hours after the WTC collapse, the hospital was swamped with 500 patients — many of them in serious condition. “It was really overwhelming,” she recalled, “especially when the power went out. Thank God there was a generator.”

Rebecca Canalija poses with her life-size photo at Time Warner Center in NYC

In a tie-up interview with the Filipino Reporter (of which Edmund is news editor) and Funfare, Rebecca confided that she’s still affected by the tragedy a decade later, as she tries to suppress emotions that overtake her especially during 9/11 anniversary — when it’s in the news all over again.

“There are times when I couldn’t focus and I become emotional,” she disclosed. “I get easily startled even by small things.”

In a 2002 interview on the first anniversary of 9/11, Rebecca sat with the Reporter and recalled the horrors she had endured on that fateful day.

“I can’t forget three victims who looked like burned woods but were still alive and moaning,” a teary-eyed Rebecca said. “Then there was this patient we carried and I could feel his brains when I held his head. I wasn’t afraid at all. My main concern was how to help these patients survive.

“The hardest part was when families of the victims started coming to the hospital, looking for their missing loved ones. They were helpless, crying and carrying pictures, asking me if I saw their spouse or parent or child. All I could do was promise them that I would contact them once we find their loved ones.”

But like other 9/11 heroes and Good Samaritans, the disaster brought out the best in Rebecca and other Filipino nurses who worked and still work in New York, one of them my Boholana friend Betty Veloso-Garcia who also attended to several victims brought to the New York hospital where she works up to now.

“The smell of death was all over,” said Betty. 

Rebecca was trained in trauma with 20 solid years of nursing experience after graduating from Velez College in Cebu City. Her superiors and colleagues at NYU Downtown Hospital witnessed how she remained calm and in control — and a source of courage and strength for everyone in the ER.

“I just did what I had to do like anybody would have done if they were in my position,” Rebecca said then, humbly. “Don’t call me a hero, I was just doing my job.”

Her bravery and dedication —with the hospital’s strong recommendation — landed her in Time, Inc.’s Faces of Ground Zero: Portraits of the Heroes of Sept. 11, 2001.

As the only Filipino and nurse in the tribute’s roster, Rebecca was honored in 2002 with other 9/11 heroes, including former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, with solo images of life-size portraits by Life magazine’s multi-awarded lensman Joe McNally who also contributes for National Geographic.

On the 10th anniversary of 9/11 this year, Time Warner Center is presenting a free exhibition of those images, featuring the original life-size Polaroids, along with new digital images and exclusive video interviews shot with Nikon D-SLR cameras revealing where the subjects are today and how 9/11 affected their lives. The exhibit is open to the public from Aug. 24 to Sept. 12 on the ground and first floors of Time Warner Center on Columbus Circle in Manhattan.

Rebecca told Edmund that nothing much has changed in her life since 9/11 except that her nine-year-old daughter Sarah is now a 19-year-old student at Hunter College, that she has moved to a new condominium in downtown Manhattan, and that she’s now a member of the executive board of the Philippine Nurses Association of New York. 

“Just last May,” said Edmund, “Rebecca received a Clinical Nursing Leadership Award from her hospital, a clear testament to her consistent excellence all these years.”

The sixth of 10 children, the Pagadian City-born Rebecca said that the images of 9/11 victims will forever haunt her. But aside from her emotional and psychological well-being, she said she’s also on the lookout for 9/11’s effects on her physical condition.

Ten years later, Rebecca said that she’s physically fine, but can’t be too sure in the future. With all the toxic dust and ashes she accidentally inhaled at the NYU Downtown Hospital, Rebecca signed up with the WTC Health Registry of the NYC Health Department.

The registry helps those who were exposed to the WTC attacks and their aftermath assess and monitor their health for problems like post-traumatic stress disorder or respiratory ailments, among other things, and provide them with treatment and compensation should the need arise.

Nearly 3,000 people perished in the WTC collapse — 18 of them Filipinos and Filipino-Americans. Three more Filipinos were killed on board the commercial jetliners that terrorists hijacked and crashed.

The 18 WTC victims were Grace Alegre Cua, Cesar A. Alviar, Marlyn C. Bautista, Cecile M. Caguicla, Jayceryll M. de Chavez, Benilda Pascua Domingo, Judy Hazel Fernandez, Ramon Grijalvo, Frederick Kuo Jr., Arnold A. Lim, Manuel L. Lopez, Carl Allen Peralta, Maria Theresa Santillan, Rufino Conrado (Roy) F. Santos, David Marc Sullins, Hilario (Larry) S. Sumaya, Hector Tamayo and Cynthia Betita Motus Wilson. The three who lost their lives in the jetliners were Ronald Gamboa, Ruben Ornedo and Manolito Kaur. (See related story in Starbytes, Page C-3.)

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