Lani back for a while but not for good

Curtain-raisers:

• Christine Bersola is inviting mothers and their (especially little) children to the launching of her new (second) children’s book, Basura Monster, 3 o’clock this afternoon at Bridges Bookstore at V-Mall (formerly Virra Mall) in Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila. There’ll be a book-reading session, after which Christine will autograph books. "This book is a timely endeavor because of the global warming and the garbage crisis the world is facing," said Christine. "The good news is that the DECS and the DENR are formally endorsing my book and they gave very good reviews which are included in the back page of my book." Basura Monster is available at all Goodwill Bookstore outlets.

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She hardly showed any signs of jet lag even when she flew in from L.A. barely six hours that day on an early-morning PAL flight. In fact, Lani Misalucha was wide awake, as if eager and excited to make up for her absence.

"This time, I’m staying for about a month," she told Funfare during a one-on-one Saturday afternoon at the coffee shop of the Linden Suites in Ortigas Center where she’s billetted.

It’s her fourth visit since she and her family migrated to Las Vegas in 2004. The first was in May last year, with her husband Noli, and then in July again with Noli and their two children (Lauven, turning 16 in April; and Lian, 13). Late last year, she was here but barely had time even to say "Hi!" to relatives and friends because she had to fly to Hong Kong for a corporate event sponsored by PLDT/SMART. "Parang nag-stopover lang ako," Lani laughed.

Besides promoting her eponymous album by Universal Records, Lani is here for a major concert on March 7 at the Araneta Coliseum, her first post-Las Vegas.

Jasmine Trias is pinchhitting for Lani in her shows with Society of Seven (SOS) at The Flamingo in Las Vegas, which opened in August last year and closed early January, but extended effective three weeks ago until end of the year. (Their first series of shows, good for six months, was held at another venue but they were so good that their contract was renewed for nine more months.)

The SOS has two new members, Mark Escueta (one-time member of Rivermaya and was once romantically linked to Karel Marquez and then Danica Sotto who’s getting married to basketball player Marc Pingris on March 3) as replacement of Gary Bautista who died in January last year during a performance at a wedding-anniversary reception in L.A. (for Mendrei Leelin and his wife Cecille of Goldilocks L.A. who produces Lani and the SOS shows with partners Edwin and Lani Raquel), and Vince Mendoza as replacement of Randy Abellar, the drummer who retired after 18 years.

Last Sunday, Lani showed up at the ABS-CBN noontime show ASAP 07 instead of GMA 7’s S.O.P. which she used to co-host before she left for Las Vegas. Even then, there were rumors that she was being "lured" by ABS-CBN, but Lani remained mum and non-committal.

So, has she finally "succumbed" to maybe an ABS-CBN offer she couldn’t refuse?

"Well, it’s not actually a transfer," explained Lani. "My appearance on ASAP, for three more consecutive Sundays, and other ABS-CBN shows, is only in connection with my album promo and my concert. It was my producers who made this arrangement. In fairness to GMA, I’ve been with the station for so long and I really miss my S.O.P. co-hosts. I’d like to work with them again."

Has she ever regretted her decision to leave the Philippines when she was at the peak of her career?

"No regrets," said Lani. "You know, ‘yung pagpunta namin sa America was by accident. It wasn’t planned. Our plan was to migrate to Canada and we had all our papers prepared. Then, I was offered a US concert tour by the Leelins and the Raquels and nakita namin ni Noli that the opportunities in America were just as good and promising as those in Canada."

Luckily, Lani’s application for an extraordinary-ability visa was approved in record time, thanks to her lawyer, Polly O’Reilly.

"I like the set-up in the US," added Lani. "Here, we have a driver or two or three maids. There, kami-kaming apat lang. We do everything — the cooking, the laundry, doing the beds and the dishes, everything. Mas gusto ko ang ganoon. In that sense, I can say that we have been ‘Americanized’."

There’s also the thrill of having superstars (who usually show up incognito) in the audience during her shows, one of them reportedly Celine Dion who herself does a series of shows also in The Strip.

Jokingly called The Higa Queen here (because of her impersonation while reclining on the sofa), Lani still includes that smash-hit act in her Las Vegas repertoire and how the audience, composed not only of Filipinos but foreigners as well, love it!

In Las Vegas, Lani has ceased to be just a Higa Queen. Two foremost critics described her as The Siren of The Strip.

Lani Misalucha is living up to that title — and how!

No ‘walkout’ at Mr. Phils.-World contest

No, not one of the 17 candidates "walked out" of the 2007 Mr. Philippines-World contest held Saturday night (actually, Sunday morning) on German Moreno’s late-late-night GMA show Mr. Showman, Walang Tulugan.

"The biggest surprise was that favored candidate Iago Raterta stayed on even when he didn’t make it to the semi-finals," reported Funfare’s "beauty experts" Felix Manuel, Joey Cezeare, Gery Yumping and Francis Calubaquib. "Everybody expected Iago to be a finalist, if not the winner. Iago was a bit controversial because he joined the contest despite his having competed in last year’s Manhunt International search. A contest rule bars a candidate who has joined a similar contest."

But Iago won two special awards: Mr. Physique and Mr. Bacchus Energy Drink.

The big winner was dark horse Emmanuel Balon Mago, 25 and 6’3" tall, a cager from the Emilio Aguinaldo College. The tall, dark and handsome Bicolano will represent the country in the 2007 Mr. World contest in Sanya, China, on March 31. A deeply religious person, Emmanuel rushed to the Baclaran Church before he and the other candidates checked into the Manila Pavilion, official home of the Mr. Philippines-World contestants.

First runner-up was commercial model Jayson Fulgencio and second runner-up was Claude Jean Bocquet, half-French/half-Filipino actor from Davao (featured in the indie film Rome & Juliet).

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