Ruffa stumbles during Tuscan shoot

By her admission, Ruffa Gutierrez’s present love life is boring. As in zero.

But that doesn’t seem to bother Ruffa at all. She spent her summer in Europe and enjoyed every minute of it.

She was in Tuscany, that fabulous tourist haunt on Italy’s western coast, doing a cover shoot for Metro magazine. It was a dream pictorial for her, says Ruffa during a chat at the Prive club in Bonifacio Global City recently. She got to wear her favorite designer brands – Gucci, Emporio Armani, Salvatore Ferragamo, Bottega Veneta, and Furla – during the shoot.

The pictorial, done in a vineyard, went smoothly except for one kink: Ruffa slipped and fell! But she quickly recovered her poise and continued as if nothing happened.

The shoot also attracted some men who kept following the actress-host wherever she went. But Ruffa’s already used to stalkers.

They continued shooting in the city of Florence, with its beautiful piazza and historic bridges.

From Italy, Ruffa proceeded to London. “Every summer I usually go on vacation with friends, but this year I wanted to do something different so I decided to enroll at Kings College in London and take a short course,” she said in an interview for Metro.

“You never stop learning. It doesn’t matter what age, you can be a student and the universities are always there. I want to instill those values in my daughters because I wasn’t able to do it, because I was so busy with my career. And I’m looking forward to experiencing university life.”

And her course? Modern Espionage and Intelligence. Hmm, does Ruffa plan to be a secret agent?

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When it comes to her relationship with Paulo Avelino, LJ Reyes is as tight as a clam.

I couldn’t pry anything from her regarding rumors that she and Paulo, with whom she has a child, have gone separate ways.

She did deny that she has something going with JC de Vera. “How can that be?” LJ says. “Maybe somebody saw us together. But there’s nothing wrong with that. JC and I have been friends since our GMA 7 days.”

She will be playing the villain opposite Kris Bernal and Aljur Abrenica in the GMA 7 series “Prinsesa ng Buhay Ko” which starts this month.

Is she happy with bad-girl roles? “I never dreamed of getting a lead role. I’m happy enough as long as I have work.”

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Don’t get confused by the titles of Ogie Alcasid’s debut show on TV5 and Anne Curtis and Sam Curtis’ starrer for Viva Films.

Ogie’s show is titled “The Gift.” Anne and Sam’s movie is titled “The Gifted.”

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There have been lots of spooky stories about the Diplomat Hotel, that abandoned building on top of a hill that overlooks Baguio City.

But those stories never bothered Gretchen Barretto one bit when she spent several days at the place shooting scenes for “The Diplomat Hotel,” an entry in the recent Cinemalaya directed by Christopher Ad Castillo, who is following in the footsteps of his revered father, Celso Ad Castillo.

Greta plays a reporter who is doing a documentary on the hotel. While digging around the old structure, she discovers eerie circumstances that had led to the death of several people inside the hotel. Will she become a victim herself?

The crew and Gretchen’s co-stars said they sensed some things that made their hair stand on end during the filming. But not Greta. She was focused on her job. “It’s my first indie movie so I had to give it everything!” she said.

“The Diplomat Hotel” will start its commercial run Sept. 4 in Metro Manila theaters.