Osang & Lolit: How the war began

I’m supposed to have a gag order and had been forbidden to speak to the press about the raging quarrel between my Startalk co-hosts Rosanna Roces and Lolit Solis.

However, wherever I go, friends and even total strangers plead to me to tell them what happened, what is happening and what will happen to Rosanna, Lolit and to the show and I’m tired, tired, tired of telling the same story over and over again.

From now on, I will just refer anybody who asks about the issue to this column as I trace the series of events that led to this fight of the millennium.

A week before Rosanna and Lolit fired verbal shots against each other on Startalk, no one had an inkling that there was trouble – oh, big trouble – a-brewing in Startalk. Why, they even exchanged sweet letters to each other during their joint on-air birthday celebration last May 22.

After our last gap, Rosanna pulled Lolit, our director Floy Quintos and me aside to tell us that her daughter Grace might be – stress on the might be – pregnant. (It turned out to be untrue.) She then told us to keep it a secret. Of course, I was going to abide by that. (For a talk show host, believe me, I can keep secrets – and Rosanna knows that.)

The following day, Lolit left for the States to be with her family. But before she left, Dr. Vicki Belo supposedly called her up to ask why Rosanna looked so distraught during her birthday celebration. Now, I can’t print verbatim exactly the words exchanged here because this was a private conversation between Lolit and Dr. Belo. According to Lolit, however, she had to tell Dr. Belo about "Grace’s delicate condition" practically as a plea for Dr. Belo not to press charges against Rosanna anymore. Rosanna was already going through so much. Maybe she could be spared of being dragged to court and face charges as a result of her earlier verbal tirades against Dr. Vicki Belo.

Unfortunately, Rosanna doesn’t buy this kind of reasoning from Lolit and thinks that the whole thing was premeditated. It is difficult to ascertain the truth here and I’d rather solve the which-came-first – the chicken or the egg theory if you ask me.

The following day was eventful. Early in the evening, Dr. Belo was hosting dinner for the press at her fabulous home in Dasmariñas Village. During the dinner – and this is second-hand information because I wasn’t there – somebody asked Dr. Belo if she was still suing Rosanna Roces. It was supposedly at this point when Dr. Belo said that maybe not anymore because Rosanna is already problematic and then, that famous line – "Is it true that Grace is pregnant?" I’m sorry I don’t know the exact words.

Later that evening, Rosanna was also celebrating her birthday party at her Club 102 bar and restaurant in Kalayaan Avenue. (It doubles as an automotive shop at daytime.)

I was there and Yes Magazine editor-in-chief Jo-Ann Maglipon and I kept each other company because we were probably the only two people in that place who didn’t smoke. Some members of the press who were there didn’t smoke either, but they were huffing and puffing to interview birthday celebrator Rosanna Roces about the controversial Startalk one-on-one chat she had with son Onyok. Then, the group that came from Dr. Belo’s dinner arrived and one of them obviously puffed the news to Rosanna about the conversations that transpired in the famous dermatologist’s house.

The next day, I got a text message from Rosanna telling me it was Dr. Belo who told the press about Grace’s pregnancy and that it was Lolit who told the doctora. Immediately, I knew there was trouble in paradise. The problem was, this had to happen while Lolit was away in the US. Had she been here, maybe – just maybe – they could have resolved that between them in an amicable manner.

Meanwhile, the tabloid press was having a field day feasting on the issue. Lolit arrived from the US Wednesday morning, but remained incommunicado. Late in the afternoon, I saw lying on my kitchen counter a box of Krispy Kreme (which I’m not sharing with anyone) and my two bottles of Nyquil cough syrup. Lolit had obviously sent her driver to deliver the goodies to my house. Thanks, Lolit! I had already asked the Veronican sisters in Parañaque to pray for your problem – no, not Osang – but for the reason why you had to leave for the States.

The day before last Saturday’s edition of Startalk, the staff was in a quandary. They had gotten word that Rosanna was not showing up on Startalk. Although Alma Moreno had already been brought in as guest co-host, she was actually filling in Lolit’s place in the show. The show still needed Rosanna to show up. But nobody knew if she was showing up or not.

Startalk executive producer Reylie Manalo then called me up to ask for my help in locating Rosanna. When I finally got hold of her, she told me she really wasn’t up to it. But I kept badgering her to come to the show. Eventually, she said yes, but trying to recall it now, it would look like she just said that to get me off her back. She was a no-show the next day.

Startalk was like an orphan last Saturday. There was no Lolit, no Osang and no director (Floy Quintos was doing the stage play Temptation Island). To make matters worse, most GMA 7 officials – including Wilma Galvante – were away attending the LA Screenings (a TV industry event in Los Angeles where television people all over the world converge to buy properties and basically study the trends in the TV business). Basically, there was no person in authority from top management to decide on Startalk’s multi-layered problems last Saturday.

That wasn’t really the first time Lolit and Rosanna left me alone to run the show. But when they did that in the past, at least, they weren’t at each other’s throats.

Thank heavens for Alma Moreno. She took care of the other hosting chores, while I was running around the studio talking separately to Lolit Solis long distance and Rosanna Roces from her house off Commonwealth Ave.

The most difficult part was when I had to talk to Osang via phone patch.

Since I was the only person Osang was willing to talk to, I had to place the call myself – and that had to be done in the control booth on the second floor! From the studio on the ground floor, I had to pass through a maze-like path, climb an iron and steel staircase to get to the booth where there was a landline. After getting Osang on the line, I had to run back downstairs, take the same circuitous route and interview her on the air. Whew! We survived last Saturday’s episode somehow. However, I have no idea what will happen this afternoon. Lorna Tolentino is coming in to help us out (bless her).

But there’s word that Rosanna is also reporting for work – and she has every right to do that because Startalk is still her show. But I wish I knew what would happen if she comes face to face with Lolit.

If you ask me, it is my fervent desire to see them settle this issue between them peacefully. But is it possible? Not at this point. Too many hurting words had already been exchanged and lawsuits are flying from all over – with the first one filed by Dr. Vicki Belo last Monday.

However, I do understand where Osang is coming from because this issue involves her daughter. As a mother, she can be like a tigress who will fight for her cubs to the very end. Whatever her decision is, I will respect that.

Unfortunately, I have yet to talk to Lolit as of this writing and I still have to get her side. Our last conversation was that phone patch last Saturday. Hopefully, we’ll have the chance to talk to each other this afternoon and I say hopefully because I can imagine that it is going to be bedlam in the studio.

But my word of advice to both of them is to please be rational at this point when making decisions. I hope you two don’t mind my saying so, but bear in mind that there are other ways of settling an issue – no matter how grave – without necessarily destroying each other in the process.