Spelling Donita Rose
April 21, 2002 | 12:00am
We, here at the Young Star office, decided to change the alphabet, in favor of the hottest female in Asia. The letters D-O-N-I-T-A-R-O-S-E won’t mean the same again, as we use them in the context of the most sizzling TV personality and in-demand commercial sensation. She’s the newest face of the sporting apparel line Fila where, this summer, she’ll trade her stilettos for a much comfier rubber pair.
In the next 10 letters is a woman of sublime beauty, talent, and achievements who will keep you scorched the whole summer over and even long after. So, are you ready to burn?
D for deep personals…info you may not know just yet.
Born in December 5, 1974 (she’s 27 years old, to cut the counting time) inside a Utah airforce base where her dad, a US Airforce Civil Engineer and her mom, a Filipina school teacher, lived, Donita was christened as Donita Rose Ramos Cavett after her two grandmas, Donita and Rosario. Five years after her birth, the whole family went back to the Philippines where she lived in Angeles, Pampanga for 14 years. She’s the eldest of four siblings.
Her first name, Donita, means "little lady" in Italian. She decided to use her first two names as her screen title, dropping her last name, which strikingly sounds like the word, "kabit". But she answers to Dee, Donitz, Mei Kuai, or Donuts on any regular day.
She stands 5’5" sans the platform shoes and weighs 112 lbs. on her better, exercise-heavy and food-deprived days. She speaks fluent English, Filipino, and Pangasinense (thanks to her mom), while she dabbles on a little Cantonese (due to her Singapore stint) on the side.
She had her share of homeworks at Brent International School and became a very well-known La Salle University campus face.
O for once upon a time...tales on Donita childhood years.
Donita spent her restless growing-up years in her big clan’s busy compound in Angeles City, having adjoining rooms in their backyard. She lived with 30 of her extended families, including 11 of her cousins. Patintero, hide and seek, swimming, and kick-ball became her after-school routine. And, you guessed it, she was tagged as the mermaid or princess on their make-belief games. She recalls regular lunch and dinner times as an everyday feast.
Those years became her rather informal training period for her showbiz stint and MTV reign. Her mom, who was then a director of school plays, encouraged her, her sibs, and her cousins to make their own performances in front of the huge clan, while they were videotaped by her dad.
Surprisingly though, being an actress or a VJ wasn’t part of her career wish-list then. She dreamt of being an astronaut, a marine biologist, or a computer scientist. The closest thing she’s got on those career descriptions are rare scuba-diving sessions. But then again, who needs to go to the moon, study fish, or work the computers when she could be a star.
N for no turning back…a background on her rise to stardom.
It had been more than a decade since the promdi Donita went to visit her mom’s dentist. It was 1988, she was 14 then, and was there, bluntly bored. To perhaps put a smile on Donita’s face, the dentist suggested taking her to a taping of a noon-time variety show. There, the cameraman caught Donita’s beautiful face. She decided to come back in the afternoon to watch That’s Entertainment. During that time, she was asked to audition for the show and quickly, became a part of the now-defunct TV show’s Friday group.
That opportunity opened windows for Donita Rose. Since that time, she’s had 30 movies (including an international movie with David Hasselhoff) and two new ones, "Hesus Rebolusyonaryo" with Mark Anthony Fernandez, and "Nine Days" with Piolo Pascual. A
As proof of her showbiz success, she’s won a FAMAS for Most Promising Actress, Star Awards’ Best Actress, and most recently, the second-ever awardee for FAMAS’ Ciriaco Santiago Memorial Awardâ€â€an award given to Pinoy showbiz biggies who have succeeded abroad and never failed to put the country in the "known-zone".
Donita was formally asked to join the world’s most popular channel in July of 1998 after doing a week-long dry-run. Unlike everyone else, though, she didn’t get the chance to attend the final VJ hunt auditions due to a strict telemovie taping. She was personally asked by MTV Asia six months after the search to do a try out, and the rest is history. And that history could as well be summarized to four years of career bliss for Donita.
However accidental it seems, she believes that God has put her there for a reason, to make the needed impact on the Asian youth, challenging them to reach their full potential without compromising to worldly standards.
Toppling-off Sharon Cuneta as the modern-day endorsement queen, to date Donita has done countless ads here and in Singapore. A decade after her first-ever commercial for Rejoice Shampoo, she is now known as the most effective and diverse image model, endorsing a feminine wash, deodorant, pizza, shampoo, cell phone, mini-disc, soda, and now sports apparel…. all stamped with her sure-sales name.
As though those aren’t big achievements, she’s also landed on the cover of Time Magazine, the second Filipina ever (next to former president Cory Aquino), in December 1999. She appeared twice on CNN, first on a 30-minute interview on CNN Talk Asia with Dalton Tanonaka, and the next was a five-minute convo with CNN News’ Veronica Pedrosa. She also hosted MTV and CCTV’s Mandarin Music Honors, shown in 90 million household all over mainland China. And the icing on her popularity cake are her royal encounters with Queen Elizabeth when she was invited to be the muse in a polo match in England.
Now, due to her MTV stint, she is currently based in Singapore where she spends much of her weekdays, living in a one-bedroom apartment in the country’s prestigious Orchard road. She goes home every weekend, where, workaholic as she is, more projects await.
I for independent in Singapore…a look on her home-alone blues.
Reminiscent of the Macaulay Culkin movie, Donita is now home alone. With her family based all over the worldâ€â€her dad, sister and grandma live in Oklahoma, her mom and youngest brother in Okinawa, while her brother Paul is currently studying engineering in San Francisco.
Donita’s space is simple and basic. She designed it to be so, being the neat-freak that she is. She is a technophile, putting up a class-A entertainment systemâ€â€complete from CD, VCD, and DVD players to a camcorder, TV, and amplifiersâ€â€all by herself.
Matching her comedy videos collection (from past Friends episodes to Chris Rock movies) is her equally wide array of candles. She confesses that the only thing you could find on her nightstand is a Bibleâ€â€no hubby pics nor knick-knack clutters.
And while the Lion City has already been claimed the nightlife capital of Asia, Donita fails to get her slice of its gimmick scene. Although partying was once her trip, she’d rather spend her free nights with her pastor, doing Bible studies.
T for TLC, the Donita way…how she kissed dating goodbye.
Bad news for the whole male population: Donita bade her "meantime" farewell to the dating front two years ago after she closed the door on her last boyfriend (a Singaporean). She’s patiently waiting for a guy who matches her spiritual convictions and moral views.
And how would she describe that soul mate? She wants him to be well-rounded, less on the confidence but more on the self-security; someone who has a clear determination in life. He should have the uncanny ability to make her laugh. He could have resemblance whatsoever to her former childhood crush Karate Kid Ralph Macchio, but he has to be the man who’d make her the most extra-ordinary woman in the world.
A for athletics and fitness…Donita works on a sweat.
She could’ve been an X-games mainstay with all the extreme sports that makes up her athletic pursuits. Wakeboarding, bungee jumping, scuba-diving, and even skydiving, how a guy could catch up? She’s also hooked on volleyball, soccer, softball and tennis, and a lot of dancing on the side.
But then again, she admits of failing to get enough exercise to compensate her food obsessions for pinakbet, sinigang, and kare-kare.
She has two gym instructors, one in Singapore and another here in Manila just to catch up on the needed buffing and boosting.
But to at least maintain her good figure, she gears up on the veggies and the fruits, as she eats everything in moderation. Could a Donita fitness video be on the way?
R for religious regimen…the pious side of the youth’s icon.
Donita always claims that VJ-ing is just part-time job, then what makes her life occupied full time? Church work. A devout Christian, she never fails to spread the gospel to anyone who has the ears to listen. But more important than that, she makes her life as her prime preaching material, her testimony to God pretty much in full view. She had already turned her back on the things that once tested her convictions, her love life being the biggest and the hardest, and she carefully chooses her projects, particularly movies and commercials, to support her beliefs.
She also took Bible and Discipleship classes so as to more effectively share the "Word" to other people. She also keeps her favorite Christian Music CD with her all the time, to keep her stress-free and spiritually in-tune. Her favorite song, being "(In God) All Things Are Possible," might as well become her personal motto of what she achieved and is still achieving with God. Reason enough that once you’re in-tune with the Supreme Being, all things, be it stellar level, are attainable.
O for obsessive shopper? A peek in the closet of the country’s most popular cover girl.
You could easily define her style as simple and basic, applying that minimalist outlook on her home and very much on her closet. But then again, you’d be surprised of how many jeans and shoes she has, and where she shops.
Being the typical denim dame, she has a count of 30-40 pairs in her closet, some of them are identical. The centerfold of her shelf becomes her extensive collection of designer shoes, which, despite the bulk, she keeps neatly boxed, with Polaroid snap shots labeling each one. She is no Imelda Marcos, but she is just a normal woman, with a shoe fetish completely inscribed in her DNA. And to add to her jet-setting lifestyle is her trans-continental shopping routine. She shops in the States, checking out stores like Marc Jacobs (currently America’s hottest designer) and Earl Jeans, hopping to Hong Kong to get some of the cheap, good stash the place is known for. In Singapore, she used to blow-off her paychecks on Future State, Ice Lemon Tree, and Tomix Jeans.
S for summer styling…Donita’s to-do list to beat the heat.
And while her busy schedule dictates otherwise, Donita spends her summers, two of them, actually, the best way she knows how. Around March to May, she uses her scuba know-how in Anilao’s shores or even as far as Palawan (although she admits of being scared of going there now that she is canceling it in her destination list). During the months of June to August, on the other hand, she usually spends it with her family in San Francisco, driving by L.A. and going to Magic Mountain and Six Flags. She goes to Canton Lake in Oklahoma where the Cavett family goes boating, wakeboarding, and jet skiing.
She could be spotted in the beach sporting a two-piece bikini and a sarong for a sexy yet classic look. She goes heavy on the sun-block, boosts on the toner, and stays away from makeup since there is no way she could use moisturizer (since her face breaks out easily). To keep her flawless face from drying, she goes heavy on the H20, and cleans it regularly with facial soap and makeup remover. And have you ever noticed the perfect pair of brows directly on top of her equally beautiful eyes? Well, they’re professionally done, by her. It used to be bushy, but then again, vanity had her way and gave Donita the tricks to perfect brows…and voila!
But then again, every pretty girl needs her tan so her best compromise is frequenting Singapore’s tanning salons.
E for entertainer par excellence… from star VJ to commercial queen to consistent cover girl to www.hearthrob.
Relatively new on the net scene, Donita’s www.donitarose.com has been recently nominated in the people’s choice celebrity site category of the Philippines Webby Awards. From her bios to her complete career postings, not to mention the interactive Chat, SMS, and E-mail with who else but Donita herself. She tirelessly checks on the site, answering all the e-mails, texts, and chat requests of often outrageous queries like "Will you marry me?" being one of the most popular.
In the next 10 letters is a woman of sublime beauty, talent, and achievements who will keep you scorched the whole summer over and even long after. So, are you ready to burn?
D for deep personals…info you may not know just yet.
Born in December 5, 1974 (she’s 27 years old, to cut the counting time) inside a Utah airforce base where her dad, a US Airforce Civil Engineer and her mom, a Filipina school teacher, lived, Donita was christened as Donita Rose Ramos Cavett after her two grandmas, Donita and Rosario. Five years after her birth, the whole family went back to the Philippines where she lived in Angeles, Pampanga for 14 years. She’s the eldest of four siblings.
Her first name, Donita, means "little lady" in Italian. She decided to use her first two names as her screen title, dropping her last name, which strikingly sounds like the word, "kabit". But she answers to Dee, Donitz, Mei Kuai, or Donuts on any regular day.
She stands 5’5" sans the platform shoes and weighs 112 lbs. on her better, exercise-heavy and food-deprived days. She speaks fluent English, Filipino, and Pangasinense (thanks to her mom), while she dabbles on a little Cantonese (due to her Singapore stint) on the side.
She had her share of homeworks at Brent International School and became a very well-known La Salle University campus face.
O for once upon a time...tales on Donita childhood years.
Donita spent her restless growing-up years in her big clan’s busy compound in Angeles City, having adjoining rooms in their backyard. She lived with 30 of her extended families, including 11 of her cousins. Patintero, hide and seek, swimming, and kick-ball became her after-school routine. And, you guessed it, she was tagged as the mermaid or princess on their make-belief games. She recalls regular lunch and dinner times as an everyday feast.
Those years became her rather informal training period for her showbiz stint and MTV reign. Her mom, who was then a director of school plays, encouraged her, her sibs, and her cousins to make their own performances in front of the huge clan, while they were videotaped by her dad.
Surprisingly though, being an actress or a VJ wasn’t part of her career wish-list then. She dreamt of being an astronaut, a marine biologist, or a computer scientist. The closest thing she’s got on those career descriptions are rare scuba-diving sessions. But then again, who needs to go to the moon, study fish, or work the computers when she could be a star.
N for no turning back…a background on her rise to stardom.
It had been more than a decade since the promdi Donita went to visit her mom’s dentist. It was 1988, she was 14 then, and was there, bluntly bored. To perhaps put a smile on Donita’s face, the dentist suggested taking her to a taping of a noon-time variety show. There, the cameraman caught Donita’s beautiful face. She decided to come back in the afternoon to watch That’s Entertainment. During that time, she was asked to audition for the show and quickly, became a part of the now-defunct TV show’s Friday group.
That opportunity opened windows for Donita Rose. Since that time, she’s had 30 movies (including an international movie with David Hasselhoff) and two new ones, "Hesus Rebolusyonaryo" with Mark Anthony Fernandez, and "Nine Days" with Piolo Pascual. A
As proof of her showbiz success, she’s won a FAMAS for Most Promising Actress, Star Awards’ Best Actress, and most recently, the second-ever awardee for FAMAS’ Ciriaco Santiago Memorial Awardâ€â€an award given to Pinoy showbiz biggies who have succeeded abroad and never failed to put the country in the "known-zone".
Donita was formally asked to join the world’s most popular channel in July of 1998 after doing a week-long dry-run. Unlike everyone else, though, she didn’t get the chance to attend the final VJ hunt auditions due to a strict telemovie taping. She was personally asked by MTV Asia six months after the search to do a try out, and the rest is history. And that history could as well be summarized to four years of career bliss for Donita.
However accidental it seems, she believes that God has put her there for a reason, to make the needed impact on the Asian youth, challenging them to reach their full potential without compromising to worldly standards.
Toppling-off Sharon Cuneta as the modern-day endorsement queen, to date Donita has done countless ads here and in Singapore. A decade after her first-ever commercial for Rejoice Shampoo, she is now known as the most effective and diverse image model, endorsing a feminine wash, deodorant, pizza, shampoo, cell phone, mini-disc, soda, and now sports apparel…. all stamped with her sure-sales name.
As though those aren’t big achievements, she’s also landed on the cover of Time Magazine, the second Filipina ever (next to former president Cory Aquino), in December 1999. She appeared twice on CNN, first on a 30-minute interview on CNN Talk Asia with Dalton Tanonaka, and the next was a five-minute convo with CNN News’ Veronica Pedrosa. She also hosted MTV and CCTV’s Mandarin Music Honors, shown in 90 million household all over mainland China. And the icing on her popularity cake are her royal encounters with Queen Elizabeth when she was invited to be the muse in a polo match in England.
Now, due to her MTV stint, she is currently based in Singapore where she spends much of her weekdays, living in a one-bedroom apartment in the country’s prestigious Orchard road. She goes home every weekend, where, workaholic as she is, more projects await.
I for independent in Singapore…a look on her home-alone blues.
Reminiscent of the Macaulay Culkin movie, Donita is now home alone. With her family based all over the worldâ€â€her dad, sister and grandma live in Oklahoma, her mom and youngest brother in Okinawa, while her brother Paul is currently studying engineering in San Francisco.
Donita’s space is simple and basic. She designed it to be so, being the neat-freak that she is. She is a technophile, putting up a class-A entertainment systemâ€â€complete from CD, VCD, and DVD players to a camcorder, TV, and amplifiersâ€â€all by herself.
Matching her comedy videos collection (from past Friends episodes to Chris Rock movies) is her equally wide array of candles. She confesses that the only thing you could find on her nightstand is a Bibleâ€â€no hubby pics nor knick-knack clutters.
And while the Lion City has already been claimed the nightlife capital of Asia, Donita fails to get her slice of its gimmick scene. Although partying was once her trip, she’d rather spend her free nights with her pastor, doing Bible studies.
T for TLC, the Donita way…how she kissed dating goodbye.
Bad news for the whole male population: Donita bade her "meantime" farewell to the dating front two years ago after she closed the door on her last boyfriend (a Singaporean). She’s patiently waiting for a guy who matches her spiritual convictions and moral views.
And how would she describe that soul mate? She wants him to be well-rounded, less on the confidence but more on the self-security; someone who has a clear determination in life. He should have the uncanny ability to make her laugh. He could have resemblance whatsoever to her former childhood crush Karate Kid Ralph Macchio, but he has to be the man who’d make her the most extra-ordinary woman in the world.
A for athletics and fitness…Donita works on a sweat.
She could’ve been an X-games mainstay with all the extreme sports that makes up her athletic pursuits. Wakeboarding, bungee jumping, scuba-diving, and even skydiving, how a guy could catch up? She’s also hooked on volleyball, soccer, softball and tennis, and a lot of dancing on the side.
But then again, she admits of failing to get enough exercise to compensate her food obsessions for pinakbet, sinigang, and kare-kare.
She has two gym instructors, one in Singapore and another here in Manila just to catch up on the needed buffing and boosting.
But to at least maintain her good figure, she gears up on the veggies and the fruits, as she eats everything in moderation. Could a Donita fitness video be on the way?
R for religious regimen…the pious side of the youth’s icon.
Donita always claims that VJ-ing is just part-time job, then what makes her life occupied full time? Church work. A devout Christian, she never fails to spread the gospel to anyone who has the ears to listen. But more important than that, she makes her life as her prime preaching material, her testimony to God pretty much in full view. She had already turned her back on the things that once tested her convictions, her love life being the biggest and the hardest, and she carefully chooses her projects, particularly movies and commercials, to support her beliefs.
She also took Bible and Discipleship classes so as to more effectively share the "Word" to other people. She also keeps her favorite Christian Music CD with her all the time, to keep her stress-free and spiritually in-tune. Her favorite song, being "(In God) All Things Are Possible," might as well become her personal motto of what she achieved and is still achieving with God. Reason enough that once you’re in-tune with the Supreme Being, all things, be it stellar level, are attainable.
O for obsessive shopper? A peek in the closet of the country’s most popular cover girl.
You could easily define her style as simple and basic, applying that minimalist outlook on her home and very much on her closet. But then again, you’d be surprised of how many jeans and shoes she has, and where she shops.
Being the typical denim dame, she has a count of 30-40 pairs in her closet, some of them are identical. The centerfold of her shelf becomes her extensive collection of designer shoes, which, despite the bulk, she keeps neatly boxed, with Polaroid snap shots labeling each one. She is no Imelda Marcos, but she is just a normal woman, with a shoe fetish completely inscribed in her DNA. And to add to her jet-setting lifestyle is her trans-continental shopping routine. She shops in the States, checking out stores like Marc Jacobs (currently America’s hottest designer) and Earl Jeans, hopping to Hong Kong to get some of the cheap, good stash the place is known for. In Singapore, she used to blow-off her paychecks on Future State, Ice Lemon Tree, and Tomix Jeans.
S for summer styling…Donita’s to-do list to beat the heat.
And while her busy schedule dictates otherwise, Donita spends her summers, two of them, actually, the best way she knows how. Around March to May, she uses her scuba know-how in Anilao’s shores or even as far as Palawan (although she admits of being scared of going there now that she is canceling it in her destination list). During the months of June to August, on the other hand, she usually spends it with her family in San Francisco, driving by L.A. and going to Magic Mountain and Six Flags. She goes to Canton Lake in Oklahoma where the Cavett family goes boating, wakeboarding, and jet skiing.
She could be spotted in the beach sporting a two-piece bikini and a sarong for a sexy yet classic look. She goes heavy on the sun-block, boosts on the toner, and stays away from makeup since there is no way she could use moisturizer (since her face breaks out easily). To keep her flawless face from drying, she goes heavy on the H20, and cleans it regularly with facial soap and makeup remover. And have you ever noticed the perfect pair of brows directly on top of her equally beautiful eyes? Well, they’re professionally done, by her. It used to be bushy, but then again, vanity had her way and gave Donita the tricks to perfect brows…and voila!
But then again, every pretty girl needs her tan so her best compromise is frequenting Singapore’s tanning salons.
E for entertainer par excellence… from star VJ to commercial queen to consistent cover girl to www.hearthrob.
Relatively new on the net scene, Donita’s www.donitarose.com has been recently nominated in the people’s choice celebrity site category of the Philippines Webby Awards. From her bios to her complete career postings, not to mention the interactive Chat, SMS, and E-mail with who else but Donita herself. She tirelessly checks on the site, answering all the e-mails, texts, and chat requests of often outrageous queries like "Will you marry me?" being one of the most popular.
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