Pinoy stars in the US - STAR BYTES by Butch Francisco

Despite the horrible typhoons, the worsening economic crunch and especially the political turmoil, it still feels great to be back home after spending almost a month in the United States where I worked on my immigration papers.

Fall was at its peak when I left the US and the colors of autumn were at their brightest in the New England states.

In Los Angeles, I still caught the Halloween celebrations and, mercifully, there were no untoward incidents – unlike what happened a couple of years ago when a bunch of kids were badly hurt after eating nougats spiked with safety pins that were placed there by some sick minds.

During this most recent trip to the US, I was able to touch base with Pinoys living in the West Coast. Through the expats there I found out that Kuh Ledesma had already sold her fabulous LA home (yes, the one with the elevator) and made a really cool profit out of this sound investment. Sharon Cuneta also has a house in the posh Calabasas area and continues to maintain it to this day.

Isabel Rivas – worried about the situation here in the Philippines – has just purchased a townhouse for herself in the LA area. Sisters Sharmaine Arnaiz and Bunny Paras, meanwhile, are waiting out the ongoing slump in the local entertainment business by vacationing in Glendale. Recently, they just came back from a trip to the Grand Canyons in Arizona.

A lot of retired Filipino actors living in the US apparently have grown so contented with the American way of life that they’ve allowed themselves to get big sideways – among them, Raul Aragon, Leila Hermosa and Jennifer Cortez, who can no longer fit – no, not by any stretch of imagination – into the swimsuit she wore when she was crowned Binibining Pilipinas – Universe in 1978.

Cecilia Lopez, cinema’s most beautiful face in the ’50s, is also in LA and entertains herself by occasionally joining bingo games organized by the Filipino communities there.

At the East Coast – in Boston – socialite Minnie Osmeña has decided to return to the groves of academe by enrolling herself in a special course at the Harvard University.

Former singer Marilen Martinez (the one with the husky voice) is now a preacher and – not so long ago – even organized her own religious community which, sadly, collapsed when her followers reportedly lost their faith – no, not in the Lord, but in Marilen’s leadership.

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The other Sunday, I also got an invitation to attend the Miss Asia-USA beauty pageant which was held at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. This contest is a competition among US-based girls with Asian backgrounds. Among the 35 contestants, more than half a dozen were of Filipino descent – which shouldn’t really come as a surprise since the organizers of this pageant are mostly Pinoys. The other contestants were Koreans, Japanese, Indians and Vietnamese.

Like any other Filipino-organized affair, the Miss Asia-USA pageant started half an hour late. Never mind if this was being held on American soil.

The motif of the crudely-built stage in the middle of the hotel ballroom definitely was not Asian. It was actually Egyptian-inspired and – if I may say so – a big insult to all those who built the pyramid since the whole thing really looked like one hell of a mess reminiscent of the big earthquake in San Francisco in the early 1900s.

The contest began with the parade of national costumes. The costumes from different nations were very colorful, but the presentation of this segment was not. It was dull and boring. Any funeral rite at the Forest Lawn cemetery could have easily upstaged this lifeless portion of the competition.

Most of the contestants really looked stunning and radiant. But there were also those who looked like mutants. One was so short, she probably should have been sent to the Little Miss Philippines contest in Eat Bulaga. Then there was one who was so tall, she was almost mistaken for an NBA player. Well, given her masculine looks, she probably would have been better off wearing a pair of jersey shorts rather than a swimsuit.

In the swimsuit competition, majority of the girls were rally shapely. But there were still one or two who should have been shipped first to the Philippines where liposuction is so much cheaper.

From the swimsuit segment, the pageant went on to the evening gown competition, which I no longer bothered to see. At that point, my companions and I already got so bored and restless, we decided we’d get better entertainment watching the jueteng hearings at home on the Filipino channel.