Mga Halu-Halong Hula-Hula, 2012

Did you know that 2011 is a Leap Year? That means it’s okay for the ladies to do the running after and for the guys to do the running away (from unwanted chasers), isn’t it?

As I look into my highly-credible crystal ball for my annual (2012’s) Mga Halu-Halong Hula-Hula, I can see actresses jumping out of their shells for a chance (that comes only every four years) to try to bag the men of their dreams. Happy hunting!

The New Year (of the Dragon which starts on the Chinese new year on Jan. 23) is four years old and before it gets any older, let’s take a look at what the next 12 months may have in store for our favorite stars.

As usual, I have to dust off my imaginary crystal ball and my tarot cards which are the gadgets used by manghuhula to prey on the gullible showbiz folk. Easy does it: Recall what you’ve read in movie magazines and what you’ve seen in showbiz talk shows and, voila, manghuhula ka na!

The Wide-Awake Items

• With his Kapamilya contract expiring in February, Derek Ramsay is seriously weighing the pluses and minuses of moving to another network… Kapuso or Kapatid? According to my crystal ball, Derek will say yes only to an offer if the price is right. It’s being practical and wise in an industry where it doesn’t pay to be loyal.

• The road has been beautifully paved for indie films that have been winning awards and plaudits both here and abroad. More indies are being produced (cheaper and, thankfully, better-crafted with better stories and cast members who flesh out their roles with unquestioned credibility) that they could become “mainstream”  and vice-versa.

• Sorry, folks, but some of the high-profile couples professing undying love and hinting at marching down the aisle may not survive the year. Right, Luis Manzano and Jennylyn Mercado, Dennis Trillo and Bianca King, Bea Alonzo and Zanjoe Marudo, Heart Evangelista and Daniel Matsunaga, Angel Locsin and Phil Younghusband?

• Pia Guanio will start having morning sickness middle of the year and it will make her husband Steve Mago very happy. A possibility: Jolina Magdangal will also make her brand-new husband Mark Escueta very happy by breaking to him the good news that she’s “expecting”…but that’s after they come back from their planned honeymoon in Europe before summer.

• The stork, which was kept busy with starry deliveries in 2011, might pay Richard Gomez and his wife, Leyte Rep. Lucy Torres, a long-delayed visit (the couple’s daughter Juliana is turning 12 in September).

• Kris Aquino will remain loveless (and therefore celibate?) and so will Ruffa Gutierrez (who, if ever, will prefer a foreigner to a local because she has been “burned” in her tumultuous relationship with John Lloyd Cruz). But Kris will continue to look for “possibilities” after she junked her “special friend” Diether Ocampo.

• Dr. Vicki Belo and her beloved Hayden Kho will make “an important announcement.” My crystal ball is not sure what it’s about and only hints that it will be headline stuff.

• Precious Lara Quigaman has announced that she’s getting married to Marco Alcaraz at a beach wedding in October this year. My crystal ball is praying (er, showing signals) that she and Marco should work hard at their marriage so they may break the jinx about marriages cemented on the beach hitting the rocks, including those of Nora Aunor and Christopher de Leon, and Miriam Quiambao and Claudio Rondinelli.

• Piolo Pascual will recover from the relentless storms of 2011, with his career intact (because he’s a good actor and a good person and, it’s true, you can’t put a good man down). But next time, he should weigh things seriously where affairs of his heart are concerned. And his ex-girlfriend KC Concepcion? She’ll find a new boyfriend sooner than expected. You bet?

• Absent from the showbiz scene for months (malingering somewhere in America?), Bebe Gandanghari will resurface with a revelation far more shocking than his identity change. Hold on to your seats and take a deep breath. Ready?

The Blind Items

• So far, there are three big networks  Kapuso (GMA 7), Kapamilya (ABS-CBN) and Kapatid (TV5). Stay tuned: An influential group (read: with millions of followers) is ready to join the race. Will it be called, uhm, Kapanalig?

• A big star will give a big network a big headache.

• Before the year ends, showbiz denizens will announce their intention to join next year’s election, one of them an action-drama actor who’s deadset on running for vice mayor of Mandaluyong City. Will he run under the banner of a big-time man related to his (the actor’s) former girlfriend?

• A TV executive will retire but the executive (look, I didn’t say if a “he” or a “she”) will not completely slip out of the scene. The executive might resurface in another (rival) network.

• Something “troublesome” will again rock the marriage of a celebrity couple who have so far survived domestic “temblors” (that reached alarming intensity in the Year of the Rabbit). This time, they might seriously think about living apart.

• A widowed actress will find a new love. In fact, she has started dating. She deserves a second happiness. Another widowed actress (oops! Not Susan Roces huh!) spring out of her prolonged grieving and, why not, find a new partner.

• A comedienne(?) will be weighed down by his head that is growing much too big(ger!) for comfort… unless he stops being arrogant and learns how to be humble.

• Another young actress will get pregnant out of wedlock. Like Andi Eigenmann, she will not resort to any drastic act. But unlike Andi, she will voluntarily reveal the identity of the baby’s father.

• Two showbiz couples will separate (but I hope against hope that they don’t) due to, sigh, financial troubles (for one couple) and suspicions of infidelity (for the other). However, if well-meaning relatives and friends prevailed, the break-up might be aborted.

• An actor and his actress-wife will bid showbiz goodbye and, together with their children, try to start a new life abroad. But like their predecessors, they will eventually come back with their American Dream shattered.

More weddings in the past year

Missed out in last Sunday’s 2011 roundup were the weddings of Rachel Alejandro and Carlos Santamaria and Roxanne Guinoo and Elton Yap. Rachel and Carlos are now based in New York. Roxanne is making a showbiz comeback. Also not included among those who gave birth were Danica Sotto (Mrs. Marc Pingris), who’s again pregnant, and Carlene Aguilar (her first child by her non-showbiz husband Yo Ocampo). Also among those who bade farewell was John Apacible who died of gunshot wound.

(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.)