. What's Willie's favorite number, 5 or 7? . Mariel follows boyfriend Robin to India

Let’s play the ending game which is very popular in the provinces --- you know, if you’re lucky, your P10 bet could win P50,000 or even P100,000. No kidding! I know a Waray who was able to build a sari-sari store with his ending winnings.

But you don’t have to bet (well, unless you really want to) on today’s “ending game.” It’s a multiple choice. The question is: What is Willie Revillame’s (of the defunct Wowowee which was recently “cremated”) favorite number: 5, 7 or none of the above?

If you bet on No. 5, you win P80-M per month with a five-year guarantee, plus control of whatever “business” you want to put up. In short, you’re the boss, you call the shots and you are not beholden to anybody but yourself.

If you bet on No. 7, you win P70-M per month but you become just a partner of the “business” if ever you decide to invest your “winnings” on it.

Both are very tempting, isn’t it? It’s the kind of situation that calls for you to weigh the pros and cons very carefully.

Sorry but the equation automatically eliminates the “none of the above.”

My VDPA Code Name 2 (Very Daring Paki-Alamero, to be distinguished from VDPA Code Name 1 who is Very Deep Penetration Agent) said that Willie is in Boracay relaxing on his yacht with his own counterpart of the Hyatt 10 (the cabinet members who resigned en masse in protest against former Pres./Now Rep. GMA) which is composed of the 10 dancers who quit the new ABS-CBN noontime show Pilipinas Win na Win (PWNW, which has been reduced to a one-hour show to accommodate the Showtime slot which has been extended to 2 p.m. Monday through Saturday) in sympathy with Willie. According to the VDPA Code Name 2, also with the group are the 29 Wowowee guys (writers, etc., led by Jay Montelibano, business unit head of Wowowee and PWNW) who also quit their jobs to be with Willie.

Willie has changed his celfone number, so I couldn’t ask him if it’s true that he has, as a wild rumor goes, closed a “multi-billion deal with TV5” which has been promptly denied by the network through a statement texted to Funfare by TV5 PR consultant Peachy Guioguio: TV5 denies reports confirming that Willie is all set to do Wowowee on TV5.

What my VDPA Code Name 2 knows is that Willie is negotiating with both networks, so “secretly” that either network neither confirms nor denies it.

Questions (not included in our “ending game”): If Willie surfaces on the Kapatid network (TV5), will it be for a noontime show or a primetime one? If he surfaces in the Kapuso network (GMA), will it be for a show tandem with that of new Kapuso Edu Manzano, sandwiching 24 Oras?

Mga Kapamilya, ano sa tingin n’yo?

Funfare contacted ABS-CBN boss Charo Santos-Concio and the network’s Corporate Communications head Bong Osorio if they have any new “official statement” but neither of them replied.

After Willie’s presscon last week that he was ending his contract (good until Sept. 2011) with ABS-CBN, the Kapamilya network issued an official statement to the effect that, as far as it’s concerned, Willie’s contract is binding.

Meanwhile, which of the two numbers do you think will hit the jackpot, 5 or 7?

Spin a win!

* * *

The song says, …can’t forget, can’t regret what I did for love.

Will Mariel Rodriguez be singing that song (What I Did For Love) a few years from now?

Yes, Mariel is undeniably, terribly, deeply, madly and overly in love with Robin Padilla who is, after his divorce from Liezel Sicangco, local filmdom’s Most Eligible Bachelor. Otherwise, why would Mariel follow in Robin’s footsteps and also go on indefinite leave from all her shows on ABS-CBN, including Pilipinas Win Na Win which Robin co-hosted (also with Kris Aquino, Pokwang and Valerie Concepcion) for one week before he quit, citing the ongoing Ramadan as an “alibi?”

Mariel flew to India the other night (that’s why she was missing in PWNW effective yesterday) to join Robin who is on another spiritual journey in his favorite hideaway.

According to Funfare’s VDPA Code Name 1 (Very Deep Penetration Agent), “Mariel is willing to leave everything behind for Robin.”

That is, everything including her career and some of her endorsements, one of which is for Globe which Mariel has inherited from Willie Revillame who didn’t renew his contract.

“Mariel said that she has found true love, at last, and she’s not about to let it go of it,” added the VDPA 1. “You know, she was only two years old when her parents separated and she was left in the care of her grandparents. Mariel was starving for (the) love (of a man), something she didn’t find in her former boyfriend Zanjoe Marudo…until Robin came along and swept her off her feet. Ayan, kasalukuyan siyang nakalutang sa Cloud 9.”

In India, Robin will bring Mariel to Agra and show her the Taj Mahal.

“Taj Mahal is a symbol of a great, undying love,” said the VDPA, “and Robin wants Mariel to realize how much he loves her,” a love that he showed on national television when he gifted Mariel with a P1.2-M diamond ring (although a jeweler estimated that the ring couldn’t be worth more than P700,000) on the ABS-CBN show E-Live! “There, the lovers will do their pledge of love” (which, according to an Edgar Mortiz song, cannot be broken). How romantic, ‘no!

Meanwhile, Robin’s ex-wife Liezel (now married to a New Zealander) clarified that what she’s against is not Robin’s romance with Mariel (“Dahil may ibang asawa na naman ako at silang dalawa naman ang magsasama”) but the way Robin seems to be neglecting (especially) their son Ali. Liezel revealed that the boy nearly died from a ruptured appendix four weeks ago. Liezl is asking Robin to let Ali, even if not their daughters Queenie and Kylie who are of age anyway, again live with her in Australia.

Approved, said Robin in a statement he issued through his manager/confidante Betchay: Ang Ramadan ay buwan ng pagaayuno, pagpapatawad at pagmamahal. Ako ay nakikiisa sa Islam sa pagbibigay halaga sa MGA INA. Sapagkat ang PARAISO ay Nasa paanan lamang ng Mga INA, kaya’t ako mismo ang kakausap sa aking mga anak na umuwi na sa kanilang ina. Kung ako man ay may pagkukulang bilang ama, ako’y mapatawad ng Allah, ni Liezel; at ng mga bata. Eto po, maraming salamat po.

Cheloy and Zach: A love to last a lifetime

While we are on the topic and love --- falling in and out of it --- I might as well congratulate Cheloy Ignacio and Zachariah Moyes for having found each other, promising to love and to hold, for better or for worse, till…

Over dinner at her Rawvolution resto (in Kamuning Road, (Quezon City), Cheloy recalled how she and Zach met at a hotel in Las Vegas when the 29-year-old , 6’4” ex-Hollywood actor planted a kiss on Cheloy, the Raw Food Chef and Lifestyle Coach, on their first meeting.

The couple blend beautifully well. Cheloy is into raw food diet while Zach is into meditation. Together, they nourish body and soul not only of themselves but those who attend Cheloy’s regular seminars (one is scheduled on Aug. 28, with Dr. Roger Salindong; call 687-1121 or 0917-3868277 for inquiries).

Here for a visit from the States where he’s based, Zach (who has German, Irish, and American-Indian blood) is looking into the possibility of putting up his own business here.

Manskee a surprise hit on the Web

When Manuel “Manskee” Nascimento II uploaded his self-titled CD on the web, he never thought that it would be a big hit in no time at all.

“I wrote all the songs on the CD,” said Manuel whose late mom, Lilian Margarejo, was second first runner-up to Miss UE Clarinda Soriano in 1966, the same year Clarinda was crowned Bb. Pilipinas-Universe and represented the country in that year’s Miss Universe pageant where she finished one of the semi-finalists.

The 13 songs on Manskee are: Heartbreaker, Limbo (A Love Lost), What’s With the World, A Long Distance Affair, The Promise, Intertwined (Instrumental), At Fault, Chasing Fire, This High, Nocturnal Desire, The One, Of Stereos and Music Videos and The Promise (Acoustic).

The CD is subtitled Love, Death and Everything in Between.

Wrote Manskee on the CD’s back cover: After sleepless nights, spontaneous creativity, constant resourcefulness and a continuous passion for music driven by true, unpretentious emotion, I, along with the aid of some great friends, have finally come up with a collection of what I consider as a raw approach to recently tapped artistic side portraying both aspects of my life, light and darkness.

The work compiled on my debut was born from tragedy…tragedy that turned into blessing in the form of poetry and sound, combined with my life’s roller-coaster of experiences. The emotions and context are as genuine as the passion I have for audible art.

Music will always be the driving force of my life as much as the woman who keeps my mortal heart beating.

A special thanks to Ramiro Montanez (www.rami-ro.com) for the cover art, Aaron Bradley, Brandon Wall and Amanda Estantino.

You can listen to the songs on iTunes. If you want to order a copy (as Lea Salonga did, according to Manskee), call him at 0916-6465342.

I will let you find out for yourself what the Manskee sound is all about.

Besides Lea, Manskee said that he would like to thank Nicole Laurel Asensio and the General Luna Band, Paolo Manuel Soler and the Philippine Surfing Academy team, Marc Lopez and the Trinidad Band, Bid Pambid, Kris Kaudal, Yong Tayag, Pat Tirano of Toi, Francis “Brew” Reyes of NU107FM, Mikey Abola of 105.9FM, Richard “DJ Buddah” Raymundo.

 One of the songs on Manskee’s CD is on NU107’s countdown. I think it’s Nocturnal Desire which is the most listened-to selection on the CD.

(E-mail reactions at [email protected] or at [email protected])