How long will the ‘runaway singer’ keep

By this time – that is, if she hasn’t gone home yet – a popular (well, "in her own right") singer should have moved to another hotel after staying – "hiding" is more like it – at a three-star Quezon City hotel amidst a raging passionate drama in her love life.

You guessed it: She’s, in a sense, a "runaway girl" and the man she’s running away from is her own lover. Stranger than fiction? Stay tuned.

The singer has embarked (against her will) on this "misadventure" after she and her lover clashed in the latest of their frequent fights. It seems that the singer has discovered that her lover prefers, well, "his own kind" (if you know what that means) and she wanted to break up with him. No way, he told her. Over his dead body?

The singer tried, unsuccessfully, to drive the man away, after all it’s her house they’re living(-in) together and the man said, "No way." In exasperation, the singer decided to leave and, since then, she has been moving from one hotel to another, "hiding" from her lover who is presumably hot on her trail.

"She’ll go back home only if the man isn’t there anymore," according to the Funfare DPA. "She’s virtually a ‘TNT,’ Tago Nang Tago."

Guess how this tragic love story will end...

And now, the boys from Tabing Ilog

A few issues ago, Funfare featured the four Tabing Ilog girls (Kaye Abad, Desiree del Valle, Jodi Sta. Maria and Paula Peralejo). Let’s now highlight the four Tabing Ilog guys, namely Paolo Contis, John Lloyd Cruz, Patrick Garcia and Baron Geisler.

The four guys have a lot in common. All of them are early starters (in showbiz) and all of them prefer older women (in "principle," not in "practice"). They are definitely not greenhorns as far as relationship with girls/women is concerned. In fact, Patrick is romantically linked to a woman, Cutie del Mar (one-time TV newscaster and movie starlet), several years his senior. But Patrick is quick to deny the rumor. "Cutie is my sister Cheska’s friend kaya close ako sa kanya," while admitting that he and Cutie sometimes go out on a foursome date with Troy Montero and Nikki Valdez. Patrick doesn’t allow the tsismis to affect their friendship.

Now 19, Patrick was a Best Supporting Actor awardee (for Batang PX with Zsa Zsa Padilla as his mom) when he was barely 15, doing his first-starring role in Nagbibinata when he was 16 and appearing as the ward of Sharon Cuneta in Yaya’s Boy (part of the 10-episode package currently telecast on ABS-CBN to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Charo Santos-Concio’s Maalaala Mo Kaya), his second appearance with Sharon who was his mother in Madrasta.

Patrick had his first girlfriend (not identified) at 13 and his second, at 17 (also unidentified), claiming that he’s, at 19, fancy-free while at the same time vehemently denying that he and Cutie are an "item."

His role models are Aga Muhlach and Richard Gomez.

Paolo Contis, turning 18, was a four-year-old cutie when he played Lani Mercado and Christopher de Leon’s son in My Other Woman on the set of which, Paolo recalled, "Kinakarga-karga ako ni Tito Boyet (Christopher)." Paolo now towers at 5’10" and Boyet will think twice about trying to carry him again, I’m sure.

His father, Renato Contis, is pure Italian (from Sardenia, Italy) who runs a travel agency (Bayan Ko) here. His mom, Jean Tusi, is a Filipina from Virac, Catanduanes.

A "veteran" of 25 movies so far, Paolo was nominated as Best Actor in the Asian Television Awards (held in Singapore) for his role as a negro sampaguita vendor. He likes doing bida-kontrabida roles (like the one in Tabing Ilog and in the Star Cinema movie, Trip, he’s currently working on, directed by Gilbert Perez of Kahit Isang Saglit fame).

Although his past girlfriends were almost his age (Carol Banawa for two years and Desiree del Valle for two years and four months), Paolo thinks older women are the ideal, the likes of Jackie Lou Blanco, Sylvia Sanchez, Dexter Doria and Jean Garcia.

His role models are Cesar Montano and Richard Gomez.

A member of Star Circle Batch 5, 18-year-old John Lloyd Cruz (5’11; not related to the showbiz Cruz clan) has been showing his thespic talent more in TV dramas (Katapat: Mayor Lim, Maalaala Mo Kaya, etc.) than in movies (Ikaw Pala ang Mahal Ko, Mystrio and Nagbibinata, among them). He’s seen regularly (aside from Tabing Ilog) in the ABS-CBN soap Sa Puso Ko, Iingatan Ka (with Judy Ann Santos and Piolo Pascual).

He’s the youngest among three children (the eldest is in New York with his wife and kids, with the second soon to follow suit, leaving John by his lonesome here with their parents).

He’s not going steady with his Tabing Ilog leading lady, Kaye Abad, although they’re on an "MU" (Mutual Understanding) kind of special friendship. He feels that he’ll have a better relationship with all older woman, somebody like Cherrie Pie Picache.

John Lloyd’s role models are Diether Ocampo, Jericho Rosales and "especially Aga Muhlach who got married at the right time and whose career was hardly affected when he had a love child (Iggy Boy, with Janice de Belen)."

Half-German (his father is Donald Geisler) and half-Filipino (his mom is Grace Bayonito, from Naga City), Baron, 19, was born at the former Clark Airbase in Pampanga where he and his older brother, Taekwondo enthusiast Donald, and their three sisters grew up.

"I idolize my kuya," smiled Baron, "because he always gets the girls, leaving me empty-handed."

Well, not quite.

He had his share of girlfriends, one of them Matet (Nora Aunor’s "prodigal" adopted daughter).

Of the four Tabing Ilog guys, Baron is said to be the most daring and the "most experienced." Has he ever received any "indecent proposal" either from a rich bored matron or an aging rich gay?

"None so far," laughed Baron. "But if ever there would be, I’d name my price – $22 billion. Too much? It’s intentional. I know that nobody would be foolish enough to buy my body for that amount."

In his five years in showbiz, Baron considers his role as Vilma Santos’ son in Anak as his most memorable. Besides Tabing Ilog, he’s also in another ABS-CBN soap, Recuerdo de Amor, playing the son of Pinky de Leon.

His dream role is a psychotic/neurotic character or like the character played by Ed Norton in The Fight Club.

"Role model? I don’t have any. I want to create my very own identity."