They are on a merry-go-round

Curtain-raisers:

Sad to learn that a popular (and quite controversial) young singer has started selling some of her properties, including a car and a vacation house somewhere near Metro Manila. Has she, like most of us, started to feel the economic pinch? Or is it a sign that her marketability and popularity are going down? If so, she has nobody to blame but herself for letting fame and fortune weigh her down. Or is it fate’s way of knocking her back to her senses (after she kind of “rejected” her Filipino-ness)?

The family of a pretty show host must have (even grudgingly?) given its blessing to her May-December romance with a co-host twice her age. You see, every time there’s a family gathering, her father would replay the episode many years ago when she competed in a kiddie contest on the show she and her beloved are now hosting. As soon as the precious videotape starts rolling, she very quietly slips out of the room, leaving the family members with amused smile on their faces.

How can you tell if a “couple” (take note, in quotation marks) is straining hard to make the public believe that whatever it is between them is for real (and not, actually, “for show”)? Well, they resort to PDA (Public Display of Affection) by making sure that they are seen having lunch or dinner at a popular A-list restaurant, holding hands in public, being lovey-dovey when people are looking or posting their pictures on Facebook during their “private moment” on the beach. Name the “culprits”? You can easily spot them, can’t you?

A merry-go-round is in progress, or haven’t you noticed?

Gerald Anderson is being tagged as Tuhog King because he’s deemed to have strung together three friends (as chefs do with barbecue) — Kim Chiu, Sarah Geronimo and Maja Salvador.

Even if there was “something” between Gerald and Kim, it was more a network gimmick to tickle the imagination of fans (the Kimeralds, right?). Besides, it seemed obvious that Kim was more in love with Gerald than the other way around. Then, the split, with poor Kim crying a river.

When they did a movie together, Gerald was reported to be “eyeing” Sarah in an imagined ideal romance nipped in the bud by Sarah’s strict parents who suspected that Gerald has a non-showbiz girlfriend from Cebu.

Now come Gerald and Maja who have both admitted that, yes, they were together (with a group daw) on a weekend holiday at the elite Misibis resort in Albay, the same place where Zac Efron spent a few days when he was here late last year. On The Buzz last Sunday, Gerald admitted being “smitten” (who wouldn’t be?) by Maja and, given the chance, he would court her because, after all, he’s single and so is Maja (who has broken up with Matteo Guidicelli).

Meanwhile, Kim felt betrayed because Maja happened to be the friend on whose shoulder she cried every time Kim and Gerald had an LQ (Lovers’ Quarrel). But pray, what’s wrong if Gerald and Maja do get together when they’re not stealing other people’s partners (never mind if 2013 is The Year of the [Water] Snake)?

Who benefits from this merry-go-round? Yes, of course, the ABS-CBN soap Ina Kapatid Anak which is topbilled by Kim and Maja. (You deduce your conclusion from that.)

(Postscript: A Funfare DPA said that Gerald’s true love is non-showbiz who is an Economics Major? From what school? The DPA was mum.)

Incidentally, Derek Ramsay denied through Funfare that there’s “something” (it’s the in-word these days, isn’t it?) between him and Cristine Reyes who admitted also on The Buzz that she and Rayver Cruz have been off for a year now. “We’re just friends,” said Derek, hiding behind that over-used euphemism. “In fact, I don’t have a girlfriend now,” not even the non-showbiz girl being linked to him.

More tidbit from the romance department: Valenzuela City Councilor Shalani Soledad and Pasig City Rep. Roman Romulo are marking their first wedding anniversary this month quietly. “We’re both busy visiting our respective constituents,” said Shalani who’s running for Congress this May. And the baby? “None yet,” added Shalani with a little blush. “We’re too busy with the campaign for that”…yet? After the elections, then!