I dined with Drew at Chin Chin on Sunset Strip

It happened three weeks ago when I was in L.A. for the press junket of the suspense-thriller Gothika (a joint venture of Warner Bros. and Columbia Pictures), starring Halle Berry, Penelope Cruz and Robert Downey, Jr. (more on them in future issues) – yes, our unscheduled late lunch with Drew Barrymore and her boyfriend Fabrizio Moretti at the Chinese restaurant Chin Chin on Sunset Strip.

Taking time out from the rounds of TV and print interviews, I accepted my friend and fellow Waray Rose Lluz-Zatz’s last-minute invitation to a quick lunch at her and her American husband’s favorite restaurant (he wasn’t around). Rosario/Rose, known simply as Sayong back in Northern Samar when we were younger, was with my nephew Jerome Lluz when she fetched us (Raymond Lo, another nephew, and his friend Anselmo Manosca) at the L’Hermitage Hotel in Beverly Hills where the Gothika interviews were held and where the entertainment journalists from around the world were booked.

L’Hermitage is one of the two favorite hotels in Beverly Hills of Hollywood stars, the other being Four Seasons Hotel four blocks away. Filipinos working in those hotels told me that if you linger for as short as only an hour at the lobbies or driveways of both hotels, chances are that you can watch stars coming and going up close. If you’re "daring" enough, you can "accidentally" – literally! – rub elbows with them right at the entrance by pretending to be rushing in the opposite direction.

I’ve done that – linger at the driveway but not the "rubbing elbows" act – several times at Four Seasons during previous trips and I’ve seen ’em stars almost in their bare essentials. One time, the elevator opened and guess who walked into it in his running outfit–yes, Enrique Iglesias who I would see a year later, this time waiting at the driveway for the valet parker (a Filipino, you guessed it) to bring in his car. Enrique was in casuals, with his girlfriend, tennis star Anna Kournikova beside him, standing a few breaths away. No, you don’t just say "Hi!" to them out of the blue or, worse, ask for their autographs (a "crime") or have your picture taken with them (a bigger "crime").

Out there, the stars would rather that you don’t make a fuss over them; they prefer to be treated casually, like ordinary mortals; they want to be left alone and enjoy their privacy.

At other times, I watched wide-eyed as Larry Flint (Penthouse owner-publisher), smug on his gold wheelchair, was gently "pushed" out of the lobby by his bodyguard who glared at me when I got carried away and I said, "Hi, Larry!" Besides the stars involved in the press junkets, I’ve seen such other stars come and go as Queen Latifah, Brendan Fraser, Jon Voight and many others who never fail to excite the movie fan in me.

"Britney Spears often comes here for massage," the Filipino valet parker told me (lucky guy, you!). "I’m the one who parks her car!" (Ayan naman, nang-iinggit pa!)

That Sunday afternoon while waiting at the L’Hermitage lobby for Rose Zatz and Jerome to arrive, we spotted Jennifer Connelly walk in, carrying her baby, with a Filipino-looking baby-sitter heavy with what looked like "baby things" (feeding bottles, diapers and other paraphernalia inside a transparent bag) following them.

When we reached Chin Chin, not a single table was available both on the sidewalk in front of it and inside. Would we mind sitting at the bar, asked the usherette? The five of us did and Rose ordered Shrimp with Lobster Sauce, Chicken Oriental Salad, Tofu and Fried Rice, downed with iced tea, Coke and mineral water.

Then, just when we were about to burp, in walked Drew Barrymore and her boyfriend. All tables were taken, remember, so they gladly (like us) agreed to sit at the bar–right beside us...me! Drew looked like a little girl out for a Sunday stroll, in jeans and sleeveless-shirt and wearing a cap. Her boyfriend was in similar casuals.

They ordered – surprise, surprise! – the same items that we did, with Evian for Drew and Mango Iced tea for the boyfriend. For a while, as the couple waited for their food to be served, I was tempted to ask Drew to take a bite from our plates.

That chance encounter was reminiscent of the one that happened at Lake Louise in the Canadian Rockies back in 1996 when travel agents and I stopped over for lunch. The travel agents "dared" me to approach a very familiar couple – yes, Kim Basinger and Alec Baldwin who were still married then – and introduce myself as a movie writer. I did. Kim and Alec were very nice, listening to me as I gushed over their movies I told them I’d seen over and over again on videotapes (a white lie), until I asked if I could have their autographs and have a picture taken with them. "Oh, now," growled Alec, "we don’t do that!" Alec is notorious for his temper (sparked by pesky paparazzi), so I bade them a hasty goodbye and mumbled "Thank you!" and rushed back to rejoin my companions.

After we ate, we made small talk with Drew on our way out. She was game, smling while answering our questions and saying, "Thank you!" when I told her that she was, like her co-stars Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu, good in Charlies Angels. No, I have no photographic "proof" of that chance encounter. We had our Instamatic, all right, but, as I’ve said, (Hollywood) stars frown on such intrusion into their privacy. The fact that Drew talked to us and kept my calling card in her hip pocket was more than enough.

The Sunset Strip lunch "date" reminded me of the late Julie Fe Navarro with whom I and Bulletin’s Shirley Pizarro went to Hong Kong two years ago to interview Tom Cruise for Mission: Impossible. After the presscon/interview, Julie and her companion took a dip at the pool of The Peninsula and found Tom at the other end simply relaxing (not swimming). When we came back, Julie bannered in her People’s Tonight column: I swam at the pool with Tom Cruise.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was how I dined with Drew Barrymore at the Chin Chin on Sunset Strip and filed this kind of story.

Danita a big girl now

Only yesterday (was it only yesterday?), she was just a toddler holding on the skirt of her mom, Daisy Romualdez. Did I blink so long that I didn’t notice Danita Paner grow up?

She’s now 5’4" tall, just turned l4 (last April 2) and a high school sophomore at O.B. Montessori (Greenhills). You must have seen her at age four in the Janno Gibbs starrer Pedro Penduko or as Alice Dixson’s daughter in The Jessica Alfaro Story or as the daughter of Dawn Zulueta in To Saudi with Love.

Now, as a young lady, Danita plays the daughter of Joel Torre in Golden Lions Films’ Chavit (the bioflick of former Ilocos Sur Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson). Joel plays the best friend of Chavit (played by Cesar Montano).

Carlo J. Caparas, writer-director and co-producer (with wife Donna Villa, in a joint venture with Starmax International and Velcor Films), has other plans for Danita and he has told Mom Daisy so.

Besides acting in the movie, Danita also sings the theme song, Ti Ayat Ti Maysa Nga Ubing (The Love of a Young Person), in fluent Ilocano.

As of now, acting and singing (she has done concerts with her Ate Tina Paner, with Dulce and did a song-dance number at the concert-tribute to Gloria Romero in December last year) are just a hobby for Danita, until she finishes college. "After that," said Mom Daisy, "she can go full-time into showbiz if she wants to."

Called "my little girl" by Mom Daisy, Danita took up voice lessons at the Center for Pop Music Philippines. Among her favorite singers are Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera (The Voice) and Kelly Clarkson (A Moment Like This).

First winners of LimpBizkit promo quiz

Four LimpBizkit militia have already won VIP tickets to the most-awaited rock event this year, LimpBizkit Live in Manila, part of the band’s They’ll Eat You Alive world tour on Tuesday, Dec. 9 at the Ultra Open Field. This heart-thumping experience is presented by Tribal Gear in cooperation with Magic 89.9 DWTM, 103.5 K-Lite, 99.5 RT, NU 107, RX 93.1 and Joey 92.3.

The answer to last week’s question, "Limp Bizkit ’s latest hit Behind Blue Eyes from the album Results May Vary was originally done by which rock band?" is The Who.

Here are the winners: Francis Leo Valencia from Makati, Raphael D. Torralba from Tandang Sora, Quezon City, Maricel Figueroa from Tondo, Manila and Rachelle Therese F. Gonzales from Pasay City.

Keep winning VIP tickets to this mega-rock event, by simply answering this week’s question: Name three songs from LimpBizkit’s latest album Results May Vary.

(And guess what? Get a 10 percent discount on this best-selling album with every P1000 purchase of Tribal Gear. Tribal stores are located at SM Megamall, SM North Edsa, SM Manila, SM Sta. Mesa, SM Southmall, SM Bacoor and Sta. Lucia East Grand Mall.)

Send your answers via e-mail at [email protected] or fax it to 8160014. Include your name, age, address and contact number. Four lucky winners with the correct answer will be picked each week and will receive one ticket each. Winners must present their ID when claiming tickets at Tribal Gear store in SM Manila, every Monday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Look for Carla Salazar or call tel. no. 5281976 for inquiries.

(E-mail reactions at [email protected])