Why is Dennis so quiet?

Column: FUnfare Update
Author: Ricky Lo

Wake-uppers:

• Congratulations to Jaclyn Jose for winning the Audience Award Best Actress for Sarung Banggi at the just-concluded Phuket International Film Festival. Other winners include: Mark Hefti, Best Actor for Tomorrow is Today (also the Best Picture winner); and James Franco, Best Director for Goodtime Max, his directorial debut. Meanwhile, the indie film Signos bagged the Best Foreign Film award at the Lone Star International Film Festival in Fort Worth, Texas. The movie was directed by Aloy Adlawan and stars Luis Alandy. Both didn't make it to Texas.

• Reader Alexander Ramirez of San Francisco, California, is asking whatever happened to Aljo Bendijo and for a brief info about Henry Omaga-Diaz. (Note: After quitting ABS-CBN, Aljo dropped out of the TV scene and resurfaced as newscaster on RPN 9. He has again “disappeared.” Aljo is now happily married, with a child. Henry is 48, a graduate of Lyceum of the Philippines and married with one child.)

• Oh yes, of course, Christian Bautista and Rachel Ann Go who recently announced via Funfare Update last Monday that they have broken up, did admit that they were going steady on The Buzz in April 2006, contrary to what Funfare Update claimed that, like most showbiz sweethearts, they never did and only admitted that they were ever on when break-up time came. Thanks Shinlan Global Friends for the reminder. In fact, recalled SGF, Christian and Rachel guested together in other shows, including Homeboy, Y Speak and Boy & Kris.

* * *

Why is Dennis Trillo so intriguingly quiet?

While his girlfriends Carlene Aguilar, mother of his love child, and Cristine Reyes are at each other's neck, the man of their tug-of-war is mum — safely hiding under the wings of his over- and (sometimes unreasonably)-protective manager Popoy Caritativo?

After Carlene confronted Cristine a few days ago at the Broadway Centrum and reportedly whispered to her, “Ako ang mahal ni Dennis; sex lang ang gusto niya sa'yo,” Cristine, accompanied by her Ate Ara Mina, filed an oral-defamation and grave-slander suit against Carlene in a Quezon City court. Sources said that Carlene is ready for the court battle.

Could it be true that Carlene also confronted Rufa Mae Quinto who was once romantically linked to Dennis? Then, she should be conferred the Sugod Queen crown.

Why would Carlene be so possessive about Dennis when Dennis admitted on national television that they had broken up before he learned that she got pregnant? Carlene later told friends that she and Dennis were trying “to work things out.”

But I really admire Carlene for single-handedly braving the media “ambush” when she flew back from the US with her baby. Still reeling from jetlag, Carlene didn't know whether to smile or to cry or to laugh or to scream for help when she was met by TV cameras at the airport, not knowing whether to push the stroller to the left or to the right or right ahead while muttering, “Ang baby ko, kawawa naman ang baby ko!”
Where, oh, where was Papa Dennis when Carlene and their baby needed him most to shield them from the media? Shouldn't he have been at the frontline, facing the “enemy” like a real man? Or was he, presumably upon the “well-meaning” advice of his manager, worried that doing so (protecting his mag-ina in public) would destroy his “image?” Has Dennis lost his b—ls?

Somebody asked Funfare Update, “Does Dennis really love Carlene?”

I said I don't know, “But I'm sure that he loves his career more than anything or anybody else.”

Meanwhile, sa korte na lang sila magkita-kita!

Briefly Noted

• Even if our bet Jeanne Harn didn't make it to the semi-finals, Filipinos feel like a winner because the tall and lovely girl from Canada, Jessica Nicole Trisko, is half-Filipina. I agree with Funfare's “beauty experts” Felix Manuel, Joey Cezeare, Gery Yumping and Francis Calubaquib that Jessica was a standout in the field of 89 candidates from beginning to end with her statuesque beauty and intelligence. Standing 5'10" and measuring 35-26-37, the 22-year-old, 153-pound beauty is a Political Science student in Montreal. She was a semi-finalist in the 2007 Miss Universe-Canada pageant.

• Also from the “beauty experts”: Maggie Wilson, our bet in the ongoing Miss World contest in Sanya, China (grand finals slated for Dec. 1), was among the Top 20 bets chosen during the Beach Fashion Show, topped by Miss Dominican Republic. The “beauty experts” said that the show is one of the “fast-track” events, winner of which got plus points in making it to the semis or the finals. There are 106 beauties competing for the only world beauty title not won by a Filipina.

(E-mail reactions at rickylo@philstar.net.ph)

Source: The Philippine Star