To be young and...

Gab Fab

Jet Valle

Ex-Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) teen housemates Nicole Usiuseng, Robi Domingo and Josef Elizalde join the cast of My Girl, which airs weeknights on ABS-CBN. The three gained fame when they joined the second Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition, with Nicole and Robi making it to the top four. Inside the house, Robi and Josef were first introduced as best friends even if they came from rival schools as part of a challenge. Meanwhile, Josef became close to Nicole.

In My Girl, Nicole plays Hannah, the long-lost granddaughter of Lolo Greg, while Robi and Josef are Vincent and Samboy, respectively, the two boys fighting for the affection of Hannah.

Among the three, Robi, you seem to be the most anxious. When they showed the trailer of you in the show, you looked fidgety.

Robi: I’m just so excited. It’s my first time to act. I feel I look funny, I look so awkward....

Now that you’re in showbiz, does this mean you’re kissing your studies good-bye?

Robi: No. I’m still enrolled in Ateneo. It’s just a matter of balancing your schedule and priorities.

How do you guys feel about landing a project even before the grand winner, Ejay?

Josef: I feel happy, but I know they also have plans for Ejay. I know they’re still planning it. Of course, it’ll be different for him because he’s the big winner. ABS-CBN is preparing something big. It just so happened that there were available roles in My Girl that they felt would fit us.

Josef, how do you feel that a lot of people are against your tandem with Nicole?

We’re not in a “relationship” and I am not courting her. We’re happy with our closeness as friends, and we decided to leave it that way. We want to concentrate on our work and our studies. We have a lot to do and we don’t want a relationship to jeopardize anything.

So I’m sure Nicole’s mom is breathing a sigh of relief because she was worried about your closeness.

I guess so. Nicole’s mom is very nice. What she saw between us was the same thing that everyone saw. Nicole and I are close, but it doesn’t mean we’re an item.

Nicole, they say you’re the next Kim (Chiu) since you both have Chinese features and you’re both from Cebu and joined PBB Teens.

Nicole: Wow! I feel flattered. Kim is my idol and she’s very nice and very helpful. She and everyone in My Girl.

But some of her fans don’t like you....

I’ve heard that they think I’m a threat. I don’t think I am. I am not competing with her. I cannot say no to My Girl because I am just a talent and I follow what they tell me. But Kim and I are OK. We talk and what’s nice is that we’re both Bisaya. I hope people don’t taint our friendship.

HEATH LEDGER (1979-2008)

A Crowning Last Act for a Character Actor

Heath Ledger died at an age when many gifted actors first reach lift-off. At 28, he had achieved acclaim, popularity and riches. But he was just beginning to define himself as an actor and a star. In Todd Haines’s I’m Not There, he played a tortured big-screen idol, ill at ease with conventional accomplishment and fame, in the manner of Bob Dylan—or James Dean. When Ledger succumbed to an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in January, Dean provided an inevitable point of comparison. They both died young (Dean was even younger, 24), and each had big movies in the can—Dean, Rebel Without a Cause and Giant, and Ledger, The Dark Knight, which opens Friday. (It opened in Philippine theaters on Thursday, July 17—Ed.)

Gab Fab: To be young and...

Ex-Pinoy Big Brother (PBB) teen housemates Nicole Usiuseng, Robi Domingo and Josef Elizalde join the cast of My Girl, which airs weeknights on ABS-CBN. The three gained fame when they joined the second Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition, with Nicole and Robi making it to the top four. Inside the house, Robi and Josef were first introduced as best friends even if they came from rival schools as part of a challenge. Meanwhile, Josef became close to Nicole.

Ready for more ‘Runway’?

‘Project Runway,’ entering its fifth season, offers something few other reality competition shows do: creativity.

‘THIS is Project Runway,” says Heidi Klum, and without further ado we are into Season 5 of the gold standard of reality competitions—winner of a Peabody Award!—and the possibly soon-to-be-extracted jewel in the Bravo diadem: Subsequent to a day in court, it is slated to move next year to Lifetime, into whose gynocentric Weltanschauung it will less compatibly fit. (Side note: only one female winner in four seasons.) But I would guess that the fans will find it, wherever it is.

Fermentations: A Matter of Balance

IT was four years ago when I brought home the two empty bottles of Seña—souvenirs of an enjoyable lunch and the great wine that had made it memorable. That was the time I met Nicolás Saelzer, regional director of Caliterra, producer of the celebrated Seña, Chile’s first iconic wine. Many developments have taken place since then, said Mr. Saelzer, over the impromptu luncheon Tita Trillo hosted, as I had missed the recent welcome dinner for him—and his presentation of the latest from Viña Caliterra.

‘Mojito Bonito Guapito’

Many moons ago in ‘Cook Magazine,’ we did a feature on the mojito. It was a fairly new drink in town (by that, I mean not everyone knew what the drink was all about), so we were testing some recipes. A little white rum here, some lime there, a little more rum, some soda, more lime, crushed mint leaves, a lacey stream of syrup...a little more soda...oops, too much soda...more rummmm....

A generous serving of American-Italian

IT seems that the number of restaurants located in shopping malls has increased exponentially over the last decade. Think of a particular cuisine or dining motif and you’ll surely find it in any of the shopping establishments in Metro Manila. Take al-fresco dining, for instance. There are now a lot of them. Unfortunately, only a few are worth patronizing—and one of them is Italianni’s, where people find delectable American-Italian fare and an incomparable level of service.

Too-Busy Teens Feel Health Toll

FOR Jessica Huey, the circumstances preceding the episodes she calls her “nervous breakdowns” were always the same: She was exhausted, it was 1 a.m. and she still faced a mountain of homework due when school started at 7:20 the next morning. “I would look around and think, ‘I can’t possibly get this all done,’ and then burst into tears,” said Huey, 17, who is scheduled to start her senior year at a Maryland high school next month. Even while she was weeping, Huey recalled, she felt she was wasting valuable time.