Pia files for annulment

Curtain-raisers:

• No, neither John Estrada nor Ai-Ai delas Alas has quit MTB due to a reported rift between them. John has been busy taping for the ABS-CBN soap Kay Tagal Kitang Hinintay because co-star Lorna Tolentino and husband Rudy Fernandez were going to San Francisco as guests in an affair of the Filipino community there. Ai-Ai also left for the US as co-performer in Pops Fernandez’s concert series.

• No, Karen Davila hasn’t quit as host of ABS-CBN Headlines, with Pia Hontiveros pinchhitting for her. Karen went to New York to shoot for a TV special on the first anniversary of 9/11. She should be back on Headlines Monday (Sept. 2).

• No, Jules Ledesma is not letting his girlfriend Assunta de Rossi go to Toronto alone for the filmfest (where her starrer, Hubog, will be exhibited along with Gil Portes’ Munting Tinig, starring Assunta’s sister Alessandra, also her Hubog co-star). Jules is leaving with Assunta on Sept. 7. Will they, uh, get married in Toronto? They don’t have to because their plan is to get married here in 2004.

* * *

It turned out that Pia Pilapil has been watching over Wendell Ramos on the set of his movie (not the taping of his GMA 7 sitcom) not because she’s a "fan" of Wendell’s as Funfare wrongly speculated yesterday but because, yes, she and Wendell are an "item."

Pia has been fancy-free for two years now after she separated from her husband, the vision-impaired Gerry Gonzalo, by whom Pia has three beautiful children. The couple has been breaking up and making up, and breaking up and making up, and… ho-hum!… until two years ago when they broke up for good.

Pia is living with their children at the house of her mom, Pilar Pilapil (who married a pastor last May) while having her Antipolo home, a gift from Pia’s dad Doy Laurel, renovated. Gerry has gone back to his own family.

The separation is final. In fact, Pia has already filed a petition for the annulment of their marriage, solemnized in the early ’90s.

What caused the break-up?

"Masyadong personal," said the Funfare DPA. "Huwag na lang."

Wendell himself is separated from his wife with whom he has a small child. Will Wendell also file a petition for annulment so he and Pia can legalize their relationship? Who knows?

It’s a case of two people finding to their great surprise that, yes, indeed, love can be lovelier the second time around – with brand-new partners.

Loren is Mother’s pet

During an exclusive birthday dinner Sen. Loren Legarda hosted at Tower Club (Makati) for the Regal Matriarch, Mother Lily Monteverde (who turned sixtysomething last Aug. 19), the Birthday Girl "proclaimed" Loren as her bet for Vice President in 2004, without saying who Loren’s running-mate would be.

Mother Lily has proven to be a "lucky charm" to several politicians who sought her help during the campaign and eventually won, including (besides Loren) Senators Gringo Honasan, Ed Angara, Ralph Recto and Kiko Pangilinan; former President Fidel Ramos for whom Mother Lily hosted two movie presscons (movie writers, as I’ve been saying, are effective in popularizing not only movie stars but politicians as well because movie articles are avidly read by people from all levels of society); and some politicians who ran in the local elections.

If Mother Lily herself would run, she would win hands down, I bet you. But no, she’d rather act as the "wind beneath the wings" of Loren, her favorite protégé who is, I tell you, a presidential material (give her time and you will see).

I agree with Mother Lily. If and when Loren does run for Vice President, she’ll be unbeatable whoever her running-mate might be, whether "it" be Angara, Raul Roco or, why not, FPJ (that is, if he can be persuaded upon to run).