Is Vina sleeping at Diether’s place?

Curtain-raiser:

• Could it be true that singer R has left his wife and children to live-in with sexy singer M? While they are for sure making beautiful music together, guess what the poor wife is saying – yes: Aray, aray, naku!

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Yeah, you too must be wondering – or asking: Is it true that Vina Morales is sleeping at Diether Ocampo’s place?

The news item came out a few days ago in a tabloid while Vina was in Hawaii for a show and it caught a lot of people (this one included) by surprise. There hasn’t been any rumor that Vina and Diether are an item, is there? And even if they are, it’s still a bit shocking to read a story about Vina passing the night – two nights, actually, according to the tabloid tsismis – in his house.

True or false?

Shrugging off the story, Vina said, "It’s not true! Why should I sleep in Diether’s house, or any other man’s house for that matter, when I have my own house (at North Susana Subdivision, Quezon City)?"

No, Vina added, "Diether isn’t courting me."

Asked if she has been to Diether’s house (a new well-appointed condo somewhere in Quezon City’s "scout" area), Vina said yes, she has, but she was with several people and only for a look-see.

Diether has been rumored (which he flatly denied) to have, well, taken home a few girls to his house (the old one), maybe for a "friendly" look-see (among them a brown-eyed theater-movie actress whose name starts with the letter "L"), but he told Funfare that Vina has never slept there, not for one night nor even for a minute.

Now, who could be the Vina Morales "lookalike" who was seen at Diether’s place?

I’ll give you three guesses.

Not another Vanessa

True to her surname, Michelle Bayle is a good dancer as you must have seen her doing the opening number for MTB. A native of Toronto (like Vanessa del Bianco), Michelle has had formal lessons in ballet, street-dancing and other forms of dance. At the St. Francis High School (Toronto), Michelle was a cheer leader (she also took up formal lessons in cheer-leading) which was what she did for a TV show out there.

Michelle is the daughter of former Miss Manila Maricel Quintos (the idol of Maria Isabel Lopez who, as a girl, would watch her neighbor Maricel in Sampaloc, Manila, and daydream that she, too, would be a beauty queen which Maria Isabel did a few years later when she won as Bb. Pilipinas-Universe). Michelle and a sister are in the custody of their mom who is divorced from their father (now married to somebody else).

She was taking up Advertising at Humber College (Toronto) when she was spotted by Dave Fabros (of the ABS-CBN Talent Center) at the Miss Toronto 2000 contest in which Dave was among the judges. He made an offer Michelle couldn’t refuse – a promise of stardom in Manila.

Barely a year in showbiz, Michelle has done several guestings in ABS-CBN shows (both variety and drama) and she’s now in the cast of Star Cinema’s Bakit ’Di Totohanin? as the girlfriend of Piolo Pascual who topbills the Boots Plata-directed romance-comedy-drama with Judy Ann Santos.

Now, will she follow in the footsteps of fellow Toronto-bred Vanessa del Bianco?

Michelle only gave a shy smile – meaning "no"?

Well, she could be a good dancer like Vanessa, but other than that...

Mariah Carey’s ‘breakdown’

Funfare readers have been asking if it’s true that Mariah Carey has suffered a nervous breakdown due to pressures from rivalry with such younger singers as Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. Yes, it’s true that Mariah did have an "emotional" (not "nervous") breakdown but for another reason. It happened last July 25, the same day Mariah was admitted to a New York hospital, forcing her handlers to cancel the promo tour for her new album and for her movie, Glitter.

Here’s how Time magazine reported the incident:

The tabloids said Carey entered the hospital with her hands bandaged, as if she had attempted suicide – an account denied by the ambulance driver who took her there.

The official version is that in her penthouse suite at the Tribeca Grand Hotel in Manhattan, Carey became severely agitated and tossed crockery about; that she stepped on the shards and cut her bare feet; that she asked to be taken to the suburban home of her mother Patricia; that once there she spiraled into a nervous breakdown; that her mother dialed 911 and got Mariah to the hospital, where she was treated for exhaustion. She is now resting in a Connecticut psychiatric facility. "She is improving daily," her publicist Cindi Berger said.

Mariah, divorced from Sony Music boss Tommy Mottola (who got married to Thalia early this year) is going steady with Latin singer Luis Miguel. It was Mottola who helped make Mariah a star.

Continued the Time story: The split was bitter, and Carey came to suspect that Mottola was trying to defame her – to make Mariah a pariah... "My client had a belief there is a negative campaign against her," said a San Francisco-based private eye hired by Mariah.