The invitation, made through the phone, was for an intimate dinner at the Summer Palace of Shangri-La EDSA Hotel, good for only three tables, so imagine how surprised the well-wishers were when more than a dozen tables were spread out, occupying almost half of the Chinese restaurant!
But everybody who came was a friend of everybody else, so the lauriat was gobbled up with delicious servings of – what else? – tsismis, most of which was not supposed to see print.
That’s the nice thing about having a party among real friends, stars and otherwise. Everybody could talk freely without fear of being misconstrued or misinterpreted. In short, there was absolute freedom of speech at Mother Lily’s birthday bash which was planned by her husband, Remy Monteverde, and their children (and spouses) Roselle, Meme, Dondon and Goldwyn.
The celebrator, all smiles throughout the night, showed up in a fetching cheongsam which she must have bought in China from where she flew in that morning after a brief respite there.
The well-wishers came from both showbiz and politics. Susan Roces, whose husband Ronnie Poe (the FPJ) was celebrating his own birthday the following day, shared a table with Senate Minority Floor Leader Ed Angara and Sen. Kiko Pangilinan (whose temperature was running into the high 30s) but wife Sharon Cuneta hopped from one table to another, regaling everybody with an update on the break-in (the second, actually) at their Wack-Wack house.
Sharon corrected the tabloid story that the suspect, wearing a stocking over his face, was intending to molest daughter Kaycee Concepcion; it wasn’t true that he broke into Kaycee’s room which was being renovated, that’s why Kaycee is sharing sister Frankie’s room. Kaycee did come face-to-face with the suspect who scampered away when he noticed that other members of the household had been alerted to his very unwelcome presence.
"Let him try to do it again," warned Sharon, "and I will kill him. If not, our newly-electrified fence will get him or whoever attempts to do the same (break-in)."
As soon as we saw Sen. Loren Legarda, we jokingly asked for a piece of Nokia 3210 cellphone (you know that fantastic "Ador revelation" at the Senate two days before the Shangri-La EDSA salu-salo) and Loren replied in jest, "I would have ordered an extra piece if I knew that you needed one." Loren was on the same table with Executive Secretary Bert Romulo and his wife Lovely (true to her name!); their daughters Mons, Lupe and Berna; sons-in-law Sander Tantoco (a restaurant owner) and Dave Puyat (a lawyer); and son Roman (also a lawyer).
Armida "Tita Midz" Siguion-Reyna was "starving" for showbiz tsismis, so she moved to the "press" table with Ronald Constantino, scriptwriter Roy Iglesia, direk Mel Chionglo, Douglas Quijano (who later transferred to the table of Lucy Torres-Gomez, minus husband Richard, and company including movie writer Nell de Guia), direk Boots Plata and wife Dolor Guevarra, with Eric Quizon joining the group before he called it a night.
Piolo Pascual and Judy Ann Santos left early (for another appointment) and we learned that, at the lobby, they bumped into Pops Fernandez (in the company of Deo Endrinal and Deo’s other talents Diether Ocampo, Carlos Agassi, with Joyce Jimenez in tow). We didn’t bother to check if Piolo and Pops exchanged kisses (friendly kisses, yes) or if Judy Ann and Pops gave each other a hug.
Jomari Yllana, minus wife Aiko Melendez (Quezon City councilor), came straight from Cebu where he participated at a Bench fashion show for the opening of a new wing of Ayala Center and attended the opening of Randy Santiago’s Ratsky where Rustom Padilla danced naked from the waist up, much to the wild approval of the crowd. (Could it be true that John Estrada and Vanessa del Bianco, two of Randy’s many guest stars, shared the same room at the Cebu Plaza Hotel? Nothing wrong – is there? – because they’re friends, aren’t they?)
Other well-wishers included direk Maryo delos Reyes, Star Cinema Managing Director Malou N. Santos, Ara Mina, Cool Dudes Cogie Domingo (who came with his parents, Human Rights Lawyer Rod and Mrs. Domingo) and Danilo Barrios, theater magnate Ng Meng Tam, De Rossie sisters Assunta and Alessandra, Tempo Entertainment Editor Nestor Cuartero, Rudy Fernandez and Lorna Tolentino, direk Chito Roño and the new "Regal Triumvirate" of Paul Daza (soon to make his directorial debut at Regal), scriptwriter Andrew Paredes and Cool Dudes director Ruel Bayani.
The "joker" of the night proved to be Sharon Cuneta who was "begging" everybody to link her to a younger actor, proceeding to pose for souvenir photos with the likes of Cogie Domingo (who has been vocal about his admiration for Sharon’s daugther Kaycee and at the same time saying he’s "scared" of even attempting to court her) and Danilo Barrios. I’m sure that if Piolo Pascual was around, Sharon would have included him as a "prospect."
It was a fun evening, as I was saying, and there was not one killjoy present. It was a real party for friends.