Robin confesses: I’m courting Liezl again

Curtain-raisers:

• It’s breaking-up time, ushered in by Arnell Ignacio and his wife Frannie. Or haven’t you heard? Rica Peralejo and Bernard Palanca have called it quits after going steady for three years and five months, despite Bernard’s public pronouncement that he would marry Rica. Bernard’s younger brother Mico Palanca is said to have also broken up with Joyce Jimenez although the two have never admitted that they were going steady. Pops Fernandez herself has admitted that she and Brad Turvey have ended their romance.

• Hoy, guessing: I won’t give any hint who this showbiz couple was and when they broke up, but could it be true that the cause of their separation was the wife’s being over-sexed? The actor-husband was very busy with his career so he couldn’t always please his sexually-insatiable wife who suspected that when he wasn’t in the mood (actually, he was dead tired) he was doing, uh, monkey business with somebody somewhere else.

• After a long silence, Daisy Reyes has come out in the open that, yes, during her absence, she gave birth in the US to her and her non-showbiz boyfriend’s love child. The father is reportedly very rich and he can make Daisy live like a princess without her ever working again. But Daisy hates being idle so she has put up her own band and they’ve been having gigs. Now, did Daisy ask her very private boyfriend’s permission before she decided to "tell all?" Or is something the matter between them?

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If you start missing Robin Padilla sometime next month when his ABS-CBN teleserye Basta’t Kasama Kita with Judy Ann Santos (finally) comes to an end, don’t suspect anything fishy. Robin is just going to rejoin his family – wife Liezl Sicangco and their four children – in Queensland, Gold Coast, Australia, for a highly-personal "mission": To resume "courting" Liezl.

You see, Robin and Liezl’s long-distance marriage was adversely affected by rumors linking Robin to Judy Ann, forcing Robin to make a quick trip to Australia to reassure Liezl (who threatened to split from Robin) that the rumor wasn’t true and that Liezl is the one and only woman in his life (even if, as a Muslim, he’s entitled to four wives provided the first wife agrees, and so on and so forth).

"Liligawan ko uli si Liezl," Robin said half-joking after the presscon the other day at Annabel’s Restaurant for Dutch Boy paint, the new product he’s endorsing (besides Beer na Beer, Restolax, Islander Slippers and Smart Padala, making him the new "Commercial King").

The couple’s wedding anniversary was last July 5 but Robin made it to Australia only on July 13. Better late than never.

"Dapat napasagot ko siya," added Robin who will have to come back in November to start shooting Unitel Pictures’ Republic of Penitensya in which he’ll be nailed to a cross, directed by Mark Meily (of Crying Ladies fame). It’s Robin’s first movie after Kulimlim (the box-office fate of which Robin described as "makulimlim"), produced by Viva Films for last June’s lackluster Manila Filmfest.

Then, he’ll go right back to Australia and prepare for a family Christmas holiday in Italy.

When he comes back early next year, Robin will bring along their eldest daughter Queenie, now 13, who wants to start a career as a singer.

"I can’t stop Queenie from doing so," said Robin. "Hilig niya talaga, eh. If our other children decide to also join showbiz, I won’t stop them, pero saka na sila. Isa-isa lang muna."

At the presscon, Robin refused to divulge how much he’s being paid to endorse Dutch Boy paint (I surmise the talent fee runs to multi-million). All he said was that the Dutch Boy paint owners have agreed to his request to have a mosque in Taguig City repainted. The repainting is part of the Liwanag ng Kapayapaan Foundation of which Robin is one of the leaders. The mosque is one of the biggest in the country and, according to Robin, it used to be a tourist attraction.

"We want it to be restored to its old glory," he said.

Robin is also converting his house on Maple St. in West Fairview, Quezon City, into a school for his brother Muslims.

The Dutch Boy commercial will be shot in Brunei, to be directed by Jeric Soriano (son of the late Nestor de Villa and director of the ’80s Viva bagets flick Hotshots). The paint used in painting the Sultan’s palace in Brunei is reportedly Dutch Boy, so the paint’s makers got the permission to shoot the commercial there.

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