The day Karen met her idol Diane Sawyer

As a seasoned journalist who has interviewed celebrities of all types (from politics, business, sports and showbiz), Karen Davila is the paradigm of cool and composure, graceful under pressure. You wonder, is there anything, or anybody, who would leave her starstruck?

“I thought so,” Karen told Edmund Silvestre, Funfare’s Big Apple correspondent who is her good friend.

That is, until Karen came face to face with Diane Sawyer during Karen’s recent visit to New York City, right in the studio where the well-loved and respected American TV icon anchors ABC News’ flagship program, ABC World News.

“Meeting Diane Sawyer, who is my idol and role model was the highlight of my US trip this year; it was a moment of inspiration,” gushed Karen during a friendly chat with Edmund for Funfare over steak, pasta and red wine at Sant Ambroeus on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. Karen was in the Big Apple for her annual family vacation with her husband, DJ (TV5’s news operations head), and their young sons David and Lucas.

“I felt at home like I was talking to a girlfriend,” a wide-eyed Karen recalled. “Wala siyang ere, walang kiyeme. She’s so radiant, elegant and down-to-earth.”

According to Edmund, the meeting that lasted for several minutes was made possible by Nina Pineda, a popular Fil-Am broadcast journalist with ABC New York, and whom Karen met through good friend Carissa Villacorta, a rising publicist and media specialist who travels back and forth between Manila and New York.

Karen said she’s so thrilled that Diane was gracious to meet her and treat her like a colleague as they compared notes about their lives as wives and career women.

“I am a news anchor so my role models are journalists, producers, reporters, correspondents who have become anchors,” she said. “I first knew about Diane Sawyer early on in my career when she did an investigative report for the show 60 Minutes on finding germs and bacteria in the kitchen and that was one of my inspirations for Brigada Siyete when I was still in GMA. How she approached that report really fascinated me. I was only in my mid-20s then. Diane kept laughing when I told her about it. I think she really appreciated it that I followed her work.”

Prior to their meeting, according to Carissa, Diane was briefed by Nina and the ABC World News staff about Karen, herself a host of her own shows Headstart on ANC (described by many TFC viewers as “addictive”) and the heartwarming and inspiring My Puhunan on ABS-CBN, and co-anchors the late-night Kapamilya newscast Bandila. Karen, who has one million Twitter followers, also co-anchors a daily radio program, Pasada 630, on DZMM.

Commented Edmund, “No wonder Diane even invited Karen to attend the ABC World News story conference the next day.”

Related Karen, “Diane told me what she remembers most about the Philippines is Cory Aquino and that’s a good thing to remember the Philippines by. She said she traveled to the Philippines and interviewed Cory whom she described as a very respectable lady.”

During their 11-day vacation, Karen and family visited a number of tourist attractions (especially for the kids’ pleasure) including the Statue of Liberty and the Museum of Natural History. They also dined at Zagat’s top-rated restaurants and caught Broadways musicals like Spider-Man and Wicked. 

Said Edmund, “They even managed to squeeze in time to consult their eldest son David’s DAN (Defeat Autism Now) doctor in Connecticut. David was diagnosed with high-functioning autism when he was three and a half years old.”

“DJ and I have always been very committed to David, who’s been on the casein/gluten-free diet for nine years now, biomedical treatment, and stem cell therapy,” Karen confided to Edmund. “David has undergone two stem-cell therapies, one in Germany and one in the Philippines with Dr. Aivee Aguilar-Teo, which was very effective. It’s stem cell from my fat, from the mother. We’re very grateful that David at 11 is blooming and he’s speaking well.”

The family’s Big Apple sojourn also gave Karen and DJ a chance to get reacquainted with prominent Fil-Am leaders including businesswoman and political activist Loida Nicolas Lewis, who hosted the family for a weekend at Loida’s beachfront mansion in East Hampton, dubbed as New York’s playground for the wealthy.

“Our East Hampton stay was a super-fabulous experience, even our kids loved it,” Karen noted. “Seeing the life of Loida Lewis up close, she’s such a humble, family woman. She’s so gracious and she made us feel at home, and she talked proudly about the Philippines. Being in the East Hampton was an experience in itself. You’re in front of the Atlantic Ocean. But above all, the conversations with Loida and her kids and their friends were very stimulating, very dynamic. Where in the world do you meet these kind of people that are so well-versed about the world and are so kind and grounded at the same time?”

Among Loida’s guests was American investment banker AJ Agarwal, who is all praise for the beauty of the Philippines.

“We were in the Hamptons and they were talking about the islands of the Philippines,” Karen pointed out. â€œAJ said he’s surprised the Philippines is still poverty-stricken when it has rich natural resources and an English-speaking population, and is located in a booming region.”

As in all other conversations she had with various Fil-Am figures, Karen said everyone was noticeably intrigued by widespread corruption in the Philippines that hampers the country’s growth and progress. And she responded to them without sugarcoating.

“I tell them the truth that corruption is a serious matter in the Philippines and that frankly people should go to jail,” Karen remarked. “That’s the frustrating part and sadly it does happen. But I told them we have a president who has a very clean reputation and is doing his best to address corruption.”

Karen also met power couple Jerry Sibal and Edwin Josue of Park Avenue, who both made it big in NYC from humble beginnings in the Philippines.

Jerry is one of America’s top event designers and floral artisans (his best-selling book An Event To Remember is available on Amazon.com). Carissa said Jerry, dubbed as the Filipino Preston Bailey (wedding planner to the stars), counts the Vanderbilts as among his clients. On the other hand, Edwin is an accomplished real estate broker with Halstead Property. Both Jerry and Edwin, along with Loida, are behind the opera Noli Me Tangere which will be staged in New York City this October.

“They’re so down-to-earth despite their success,” Karen said of Jerry and Edwin, who hosted a dinner for her at their swanky pad overlooking Manhattan. “They have a great Park Avenue apartment and have dealt with famous personalities. But more than that, their hearts are still close to the Philippines. They still remembers are still involved and are concerned about issues back home.”

Next year, Karen and DJ are eyeing Greece for their next bonding trip. But Karen said there’s so much more to explore in the Big Apple that she might convince DJ to go back next year for their 13th wedding anniversary.

“DJ and I have been married for 12 years,” Karen said, “but we were together six and a half years before that. So technically we’ve been together for 18 years. Kaya 18 years na niya ako tinitiis, hahahahahaha! DJ and I are committed to spend a major family vacation with our kids every year. Our family really bonded and we became closer since we went to Germany and France last year. This year it’s New York and the kids love it. The truth is I never get tired of New York because everything, as in everything, is there.”