Curtain-raisers:
• If the career of a talent-search winner seems to have hit a snag, he has nobody to blame but himself. Just when things were coming up roses and he was able to make his family live comfortably, he developed several vices such as drinking, smoking (including taking prohibited drugs?), and just being careless and carefree. One time, he sang at a show and he squeaked (pumiyok). Served him right. “Matigas kasi ang ulo niya, eh,” said his manager who is now taking care of a new, also a talent-search winner. Moral lesson? Don’t take (initial) success for granted. Remember, there are many other as, if not more, talented as you are queuing up behind you. The pasaway singer’s first name has an “o,” an “i” and a “v”; and his surname also has an “o,” an “i” and a “v.”
• An upcoming singer told movie reporters that she has no time for love and is focused on her career. The truth is that she has been going steady with the son of a 2010 presidentiable, her classmate at an exclusive school, and her parents approve of the guy who is quite and reserved, very nice and stands 5’10’, good-looking enough to be an actor. When the girl’s family went on a vacation in Hong Kong, the girl invited her boyfriend who begged off. The girl’s name has two “z’s” and the guy’s surname sounds like a popular pendant cultured inside a shell.
• Could it be true that a certain hunk used to be given as a “gift” to rich gays, one of whom supported the guy when he came to stay in Manila from the south? The guy left his first gay benefactor when he bumped into another, richer gay. Anyway, the guy is said to have “been there, done that,” and is now said to be happy with a new love — a girl this time. The guy’s surname has three “a’s.”
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When the rumor leaked out that Andrea del Rosario has given birth to a love daughter, whom she named Beatrice, showbiz-watchers suspected that the father was Hollywood actor Vin Diesel (whose twin brother is married to a Filipina). Yes, it’s true: Andrea did meet Vin in L.A. and I myself confirmed it when I interviewed Vin a few years ago in Hollywood. I asked him if he knew a Filipina actress and he broke into a wide smile and said, “Yes, her name is Andrea.” That silenced detractors who accused Andrea of resorting to a gimik using Vin. Watch full video
During that junket, Miriam Quiambao was with me. When she interviewed Vin, he jokingly asked Miriam to sit on his lap and Miriam good-humoredly declined, saying, “I have a boyfriend back home.”
Not long after that, Andrea surfaced in TV talk shows happily announcing that she had found a new boyfriend, a handsome French. So, if not Vin, could the French be the father of Andrea’s one-year-and-a-half-old daughter?
That was the first question I asked Andrea when she opened up to Funfare in an exclusive joint interview with Startalk (aired last Saturday). Andrea blushed, she was speechless for a while, and then she whispered, “No, he’s not.” She didn’t identify the man but somebody told Funfare that “it” is a public servant who was also linked to another actress.
Our interview was done at Longganisa Sorpresa located at the Sky Garden of SM North EDSA which Andrea put up two years ago before she flew to California to give birth.
The sad thing is that Andrea’s baby suffered from a congenital defect (her small intestines were short, only half a foot long) so she needed to undergo surgery barely two months after she was born. The baby now wears a tube on her side for elimination of waste.
“I’m not losing hope,” said Andrea. “I know God will take care of my baby and she’ll grow up normal like other babies.”
The good news is that Andrea is in tip-top shape, back to her old sexy self during her Hot Babe days. One of her last movies was Lupe (a sex drama with Leandro Muñoz and Jordan Herrera), directed by Elwood Perez.
As the cliché goes, Andrea has bounced back — with a vengeance.
Between her studies (Entrepreneurship) at an exclusive school and hands-on motherhood, Andrea is determined to revive her rudely-interrupted career.
Asked if her beloved has imposed do’s and don’t’s, Andrea smiled, still careful so as not to make a slip of the tongue and “accidentally” name him.
“He’s liberal-minded and he understands the demands of a showbiz career,” said Andrea.
(E-mail reactions at entphilstar@yahoo.com. You may also send your questions to askrickylo@gmail.com. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on www.twitter/therealrickylo.)