Alden on bashers: Words can hurt

Contrary to the subhead (Why is Maine not in the book?) of yesterday’s Funfare story about Alden Richards’ book (In My Own Words), Maine Mendoza is, indeed, in the book, with one chapter (4) titled Meet #Maiden devoted to her. But unlike the JaDine book Team Real co-authored by James Reid and Nadine Lustre, Maine didn’t co-write Alden’s book because, according to Alden, Summit Books made the offer early last year, a few months before AlDub was born.

Maybe Maine can also write her book solo, to be called Maine Mendoza: (Also) in My Own Words…and devote one chapter to Alden? Why not?

When Alden graced the book launching last Sunday at the Robinsons Galleria’s Activity Center, he was still recovering from jetlag after traveling with Maine to Morocco for an exclusive pictorial for Mega magazine supervised by One Mega Group CEO Sari Yap and directed by Mike Carandang. Alden’s manager Gigi Santiago-Lara, one of the heads of GMA’s Artist Center, showed me Alden and Maine’s pictures taken in Morocco but so sorry, they couldn’t be published yet. You have to wait for Mega’s October issue.

“We spent two days traveling to and from Morocco, and three days for the pictorial,” recalled Alden, home ahead of Maine who decided to stay for a few days to see more of Morocco. (Trivia: Is it true that Maine’s next destination is New York where she’s going to meet up with the “Mysterious M” in her life?)

In her social-media account, Sari posted this: “What I really think after three days of working with her? The girl is a riot a minute. She is quiet for a while until she gets to know you. She is oblivious to fame, which is why fame hounds her. The @mega_magazine team is missing her now that she is on the way home.”

From Mike: “Traveling around Morocco with @mainedcm and @aldenrichards02 is Epic. I can’t wait for everyone to see the documentary. PS: Very attentive ni Alden to Maine’s needs. Sweet sya.”

Anyway, asked how he felt about social-media bashers, Alden said, “At first, it hurt. But I have learned how to block them emotionally. Social media is free kaya hindi naman bawal mag-post. But social-media users should be careful with the words that they use. Words can hurt people. Words can affect people. If you continue on defending other people without looking at yourself, parang unfair naman yata ‘yan.”

And here are excerpts from the chapter on Maine:

“Sabi nila, si Alden mabait ‘yan, gentleman, at maalaga sa babae, so ‘yun ‘yung first impression ko sa kanya. Hindi naman ako na-disapppoint.” — Maine

“Maine is the perfect definition of F-U-N.” — Alden

“When we’re alone together, we talk about things we don’t get to talk about during shoots. It’s nice because we really get to know each other. Happy ako na nakilala talaga namin and isa’t-isa.” — Maine

“I don’t pretend to be something I’m not whenever I’m with Maine.” — Alden

So what’s the real score between them?

Read between the lines.

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