Is Valerie 'altar' ready?

The picture of Valerie Concepcion on this page as a happy bride (with a model identified simply as “Marc G”) is not for real; it’s a photo release for the Major! Major Weddings & Debuts 2011 Fair set for Feb. 18 and 20 at the Megatrade Halls 1, 2 and 3 put up by The Wedding Library which is one of the biggest players in the bridal market as a tribute to some of the successful entrepreneurs during the love month.

The old year closed with the beach wedding of Regine Velasquez and Ogie Alcasid and the new year opened with the secret likewise beach wedding of Oyo Sotto and Kristine Hermosa on Jan. 12 (Oyo’s 27th birthday), to be followed by that of John Estrada and Priscilla Meirelles end of February also on a beach in La Union.

Asked if she’s joining the “altar bandwagon” in what is turning out to be the “marrying-est” year in showbiz, Valerie said with a serious tone, “I’m ready, but…”

The Wedding Library will arrange the event, in cooperation with those participating in the Bridal Fair, with the wedding gown to be designed by her good friend Edd Sy, the accessories provided by AMI Jewels and the reception to be catered by Juan Carlo. But…

Valerie Concepcion (with model Marc G) as endorser of the Major! Major Weddings & Debuts Fair set for Feb. 18 and 20 at the Megatrade Halls 1, 2 and 3. Inset: Valerie’s ‘special friend’ San Miguel shooting guard Dondon Hontiveros.

“…there’s just one important thing missing,” added Valerie, breaking into a laughter, “the groom. I still have to look for one.”

True, Valerie admitted that San Miguel shooting guard Dondon Hontiveros is her “special friend” but he, too, is not ready to settle down.

 Not now when she’s keeping a happy balance between her love life and her career.

On a forced vacation after the closing of the short-lived ABS-CBN show Pilipinas Win Na Win (PWNW) which replaced Willie Revillame’s Wowowee, Valerie as a single parent is spending quality time with her six-year-old daughter Fione (whose father is the nephew of Ali Sotto) before she starts work on a soap and a segment of Umagang Kay Ganda (UKG), both on Kapamilya ABS-CBN.

Meanwhile, her home studio is letting her do guestings on TV5 (Untold Stories and as judge in Talentadong Pinoy). Valerie said she’s not transferring to the Kapatid Network.

(Note: See related story about the Weddings & Debuts Fair on Page C-9.)

Solenn cries ‘Foul!’

Solenn Heussaff: Showbiz’s new ‘It’ Girl

Survivor Philippines castaway Solenn Heussaff is showbiz’s newest “It” Girl --- I mean, she’s a “hot” media copy, the same adjective (“Very hot!”) used by her rumored boyfriend Richard Gutierrez in describing her. Solenn is one of Richard’s leading ladies in My Valentine Girls, a pre-Valentine movie co-produced by Regal Films and GMA Films (also with Eugene Domingo, Rhian Ramos and Lovi Poe).

Solenn recently spent the New Year with Richard (and company) in Boracay where a French TV crew shot a documentary called Gangsters, Drug Lords and Bimbos, and she’s crying “Foul!” Why not when Solenn, whose father Louis-Paul Heussaff is French and mother is Filipina (former Bayanihan dancer Cynthia Adea), not only volunteered to help in the shoot but also appears in the docu.

Here’s Solenn’s official statement:

I was very offended since my Dad and I helped them organize the docu shoot here, including transport and other facilities. They wanted to film several sides of the Philippines and they just totally exaggerated the difference between the poor and the rich, and they made my friends and me sound like totally spoiled brats and uneducated, and made us look like we don’t work and all we do is live the lifestyle. All my friends are very well-educated, respected, accomplished, down-to-earth and successful women. I was offended by the way they edited the docu, not to mention its title.

Lani’s Vegas dancer brutally murdered

FLASH: A back-up dancer for Filipino belter Lani Misalucha’s highly-acclaimed Las Vegas show Voices was strangled to death last month, with her dismembered body discovered only last Jan. 7 in downtown Las Vegas more than three weeks after she was declared missing.

Debbie Flores-Narvaez (far right) with Michael Jackson’s dad, Joe Jackson (third from left).

This piece of sad news was relayed to Funfare by my Big Apple correspondent Edmund Silvestre.

The victim, Deborah “Debbie” Flores-Narvaez, 31, performed for months in Voices and was said to be close to the famous Filipino diva. She was reported missing on Dec. 14 last year when she didn’t show up for the Dec. 13 staging of Fantasy, the nightly burlesque show at the Luxor Resort. It would have been the debut of R&B singer Sisqo in that show, with Sisqo and Debbie set to perform together Sisqo’s naughty dance hit Thong Song.

Misalucha is currently in Manila and has not issued any statement on the tragedy.

Edmund sent Funfare one of the photos released by Crime Stoppers in Sin City when Debbie was still missing showing her with Lani who is dubbed in Vegas as the “Siren of the Strip.”

Debbie was last seen alive on Dec. 12 during the final rehearsal for Sisqo’s debut in Fantasy. Debbie and Sisqo were said to be friendly with each other and had danced together before in performances in Debbie’s hometown of Baltimore, Maryland.

Reported Edmund, “Police have arrested Debbie’s ex-boyfriend, dancer Jason ‘Blu’ Griffith, 32, and charged him with one count of murder. Jason, a cast member of Cirque du Soleil’s The Beatles LOVE show at The Mirage Resort & Casino, is being held without bail at Clark County Detention Center.”

According to Las Vegas Weekly, a female acquaintance of Jason reportedly contacted police Jan. 7 to report that Jason tried to leave Debbie’s body, which was cemented in a plastic tub, at her residence on Dec. 15. Jason and his roommate, Louis Colombo, left the woman’s residence when she “freaked out” after being told Debbie’s body was in the tub, according to a police report.

The woman told investigators she hesitated to immediately notify police because she didn’t want to believe Debbie was dead and that she was afraid of Louis Colombo.

Lani Misalucha (center), after one of Voices shows at Las Vegas Hilton last year. Right: Debbie (inset) behind Lani during one of the Voices’ performances.

Here’s the rest of Edmund’s report which is being jointly published by Funfare and The Filipino Reporter (circulated in the US East Coast, with Edmund as News Editor):

Debbie and Jason had a violent relationship with three previous reports of domestic violence, according to police. Last October, Jason was arrested for battery domestic violence and coercion after Debbie claimed he attacked her, pushed her to the ground, kicked her and pulled her hair. She also told police she was pregnant with his child.

Detectives said Louis told them Debbie came to the house he (Louie) shared with Jason the night she disappeared and got into a violent fight with Jason. Louie said he “had to pull Jason Griffith off of Debbie Flores-Narvaez because he was choking her with his hands around her neck,” according to the police report.

When Louie returned to the house later that night, Jason reportedly confronted him at the front door and led him to Debbie’s dead body in another room.

The two then mixed concrete and poured it over the corpse in a plastic tub. The next day, they rented a U-Haul truck and tried to store the body at an apartment belonging to Louie’s friend. When that didn’t work, they eventually decided to leave the tub at the house of Louie’s friends, who were then out of the country.

At some point, the tub began to leak. Louie told police Jason returned a couple of days later with new plastic tubs, a sledge hammer, a handsaw and cleaning supplies from Walmart. The two broke Debbie out of the concrete, and Jason allegedly dismembered her body before placing it in two separate tubs and filling them with concrete.

Before leaving the residence, they sealed the closet doors and the tools in another room, police said.

After interviewing Louie, police executed a search warrant at the apartment, where they found the plastic tubs as described by Louie, according to the report.

Police met Jason at The Mirage as he left work late Friday night (Jan. 7). Jason denied any involvement in the death of Debbie when questioned by police that night and into Saturday morning.

When police arrested him after the interview, Jason allegedly told a detective en route to the Clark County Detention Center that Debbie’s death was “not a premeditated thing.”

According to an arrest report obtained by People magazine, Jason told detectives the death of Debbie was a “heat of the moment thing,” and that Louie helped stash the victim’s dismembered body. Louie has not been arrested so far.

According to the Clark County Coroner’s Office, the victim had been choked to death before being dismembered.

“The Coroner’s office medical examination determined Debbie Flores-Narvaez died from asphyxiation due to neck compression,” says a statement from the office.

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