Karel says, 'No regrets!'

Curtain-raisers:

•  In case you haven’t noticed, there’s an emerging baby boom in showbiz. Last March 3, Joyce Jimenez (right) gave birth to a girl in California where she’s based with her husband Paul Ely Egbalic and their first daughter. Joyce texted Funfare that she and Ely will try again until they have a boy. On March 7 at exactly 9:46 a.m., Paolo Contis (left) and girlfriend Lian Paz welcomed their second child, also a girl they named Xalene Abriana, delivered by Caesarian section at St. Luke’s Medical Center in Quezon City. The couple is good at timing. March 7 is also the birthday of their first child, Xonia Aitana.

• Two months in the family way is Carlene Aguilar (photo), her and husband Yo Ocampo’s first child. Carlene has a love son, Calix, by former boyfriend Dennis Trillo (whose real surname is Ho). No, Carlene is not changing Calix’s surname (Ho) to Ocampo. She also smarted at insinuations that she’s having another love child. “May asawa ako,” said Carlene who conceded that having a baby out of wedlock was a mistake.

• Kapuso Ryza Cenon (photo) denied a tab headline that she’s infanticipating. She told Funfare that when she was in Bangkok, she suffered from food poisoning and she kept on throwing up. “When I landed at the NAIA,” said Ryza, “I was taken straight to the hospital. Whoever saw me must have concluded that just because I was vomiting I was pregnant.”

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A few days ago, Annabelle Rama invited some movie writers to witness the contract-signing of four additions to her growing stable of talents (her children Ruffa, Richard and Raymond Gutierrez among them).

They are Jay Manalo, James Blanco, Bearwin Meily and Karel Marquez who gamely answered “intriguing” questions from the press. However, Jay begged off from making comments on what he called “recycled” issues (playing at the casino, etc.) and clarified that he has 10 (“Ang anim sa kanila panganay”) and not just eight children by different women. With the strict Annabelle as manager, Jay promised to “behave” from now on, meaning he would be punctual on the set, and devote heart and soul to work.

For the nth time, James denied that a filthy-rich gay benefactor is supporting him and his family, insisting that he has a flourishing business and his (non-showbiz) wife has a well-paying job.

Very reluctantly, Karel (who’s in the cast of Babaeng Hampaslupa) explained that she disappeared from the showbiz scene because she got married to a non-showbiz guy and had two children. Sadly, the marriage didn’t work for reasons that Karel politely refused to divulge. Suffice it to say that Karel has learned a good lesson from the experience which she said she didn’t regret at all.

“I married him because I loved him,” said Karel (take note of the tense... past!).

Actually, it wasn’t a marriage in the strict sense of the word; the union wasn’t legal or official.

“We simply went through the ritual,” said Karel who, in truth and in fact, has been single all the while. So there’s nothing to annul. Watch full video

Bearwin himself has an interesting story to tell. But you have to wait for Bearwin to “tell all” in a “body talk”.

The inside story about Mandy’s Oscars dresses  by Monique Lhuillier

Did you know how much work and how much material went into the making of the two show-stopping dresses that Mandy Moore wore at the recent Oscars?

An article in the latest issue of People magazine has the answers in a little sidebar titled Mandy’s Dressed by the Numbers:

• More than 2,500 citrine crystals, gold beads and matte gold sequins

• The labor of 10 workers over 550 hours

• Three fittings in a four-week period

• More than 40 yards of tulle

• 75 hand-rolled silk satin organza rosettes

Hollywood-based Filipino designer Monique Lhuillier works on the two dresses that Mandy Moore wore to the recent Oscars — Photos reprinted from People Magazine

The dresses were designed by Monique Lhuillier, the Filipina couturier based in Hollywood, who also made the dress Mandy wore to the Golden Globes. That makes Mandy’s “Pinoy connection” doubly stronger. She has confirmed having a brief teenage romance with Pinoy singer-dancer Billy Crawford, hasn’t she? (By the way, could it be true that Billy’s career abroad has prematurely gone pffft that’s why he has stayed home longer than expected?)

On the red carpet, Mandy wore what she described as “a fairy-tale fantasy dress” which, maybe unknown to her, Monique’s mom Amparito Llamas-Lhuillier (former Miss Caltex finalist) had worn just days earlier to a party in Cebu.

At the Oscars during her performance of the Tangled’s Best Original Song nominee I See the Light with co-star Zachary Levi, Mandy wore a blue dress which was, according to Monique, “that quintessential big, full dress... it almost feels like a big cupcake — but in the best way possible.” The People mag story noted that Monique incorporated elements of three dresses that Mandy simply loved — “the cobalt-blue color, the full skirt and the corseted top.”

Incidentally, who do you think wore the “fairy-tale fantasy dress” better, Amparito or Mandy?

Next question, please!

Briefly noted

• Glad to see Lollie Mara (photo) back on television not just in a commercial (remember her as the haughty donya snorting at the scared-stiff maid who dares elope with the señorito?) but in a soap, GMA’s Nita Negrita in which she plays the mother of Zoren Legaspi, Bubbles Paraiso and Rachelle Ann Go, and grandmother of Lexi Fernandez (daughter of Maritoni Fernandez). In the presskit, Lollie is described as “mayaman, maganda, very smart-looking, over-protective sa mga anak, perfectionist and sets high standard on family.” Hmmm, Lollie is, well, almost 50 percent like that. Hehehehe!

• Jericho Rosales (photo) is invited by director Francis dela Torre to the Newport Beach International Film Festival in California on April 30 for the first international premier screening of Subject I Love You where Jericho plays the lead. Expected to attend are Dean Cain (Superman), Brianna Evigan (Step Up 2), Kristin Bauer (True Blood), apl.de.ap of Black Eyed Peas and Fil-Am actor Dante Basco (Hook). Gary Valenciano, who did a cameo in the movie, is also invited.

•  Good news for chocolate-lovers (from a medical bulletin published in one of Time’s recent issues): Not only can your favorite indulgence improve your overall cholesterol levels, but researchers now know why it works that magic. Japanese investigators have found that polyphenols in cocoa attach to genes in the liver and intestines, activating the ones that produce HDL, or good cholesterol, as well as those that help suppress LDL, or bad cholesterol.

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