Who will follow James?

A Philippine Star columnist yesterday named Kris Aquino, Hillary Clinton and Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as three of the gutsy women he admires. I don't agree with him, I mean, he shouldn't have lumped them together because Kris is surely a head above the others. Did Hillary Clinton speak out and spill her guts when her husband was embroiled in that Monica affair? No, she didn't, she bore her pain in silence, and we never heard any talk about their separating, her sending him away, or leaving him in the White House.

***

As for GMA, she looked angry when all those stories about a certain businesswoman and her husband came out, but she never aired her dirty linen in public. Yes, she did let him go away on "voluntary exile" in the U.S. but that did not count because he came home quite often, and it was clear they were in touch. The "exile" seemed to have braced him a lot because he developed a fighting mood when he came back, filing charges left and right, and mostly against media people. And everything looks fine in the family.

***

But Kris, as earlier mentioned, ah, she's a cut above them both, and all others. Would Hillary and GMA be gutsy enough to keep going back to TV to narrate all the sordid details of their partners' indiscretion of perceived indiscretion? Of course not. Can you imagine Hillary telling the whole of America that Bill infected her with some horrible disease? Remember how Kris squeezed every drop out of that parting with erstwhile lover Joey Marquez?

***

Ever the colegiala, the daughter of Diosdado and Eva Macapagal would still be the lady who would give the public no satisfaction or opportunity to chew her private life up in every gathering. Let them imagine, let them speculate, but she would not feed them morsels herself. But Kris, in the new drama in her life, seems to be Channel-hopping while lashing out at people she perceives to be making the revelations purposely to make her suffer. The family's niña bonita, who is forgiven for everything, being amazingly savvy in the art of showbiz and publicity, is now delightedly regaling her audiences with vivid stories of how she suffers, how she almost lost her baby, what injections she has been given, oh, the details are all there to be lapped up by her followers who are legion.

***

At this point, however, sympathy seems to be turning towards poor James Yap who is absolutely no match for his articulate and, well, yes, gutsy wife. How could he ever get a word in edgewise when there is Kris, letting it all hang out, and making him unsure of whether he is in our out. Maybe it serves him right for marrying a woman 11 years his senior. He did not realize that she could never be his mother figure. Between you and me, don't you suspect that she could be using this as an excuse to get rid of him, the way she did with Philip Salvador and Joey Marquez? Who will be the next conquest? If I were to offer some unsolicited advice, I'd tell her to, next time, pick somebody as old or older than her father. What's that saying again - "Better to be an old man's darling than a young man's slave"?

***

As for that hopeless Hope who seems to delight in imitating the adventures or the tales of that Qantas airline stewardess who blabbed to everybody how she and actor Fiennes seduced each other in the toilet while the plane was aloft, her parents in the province seem to be very embarrassed about what she is doing, but obviously she is just too happy basking in the limelight. Maybe she hopes to become another Kenna Reeves who "confessed" to her dalliances with solons and later got noticed by TV and the movies.

***

As for Kris, this could also be one way of keeping her fans on their toes so that they will not forget her when she goes on maternity leave. Despite her popularity, she might still be harboring fears that being out of sight, she might also be out of mind to her audiences. I can just imagine how it will be after she gives her birth to James Junior. Will we be hearing all about every gasp during labor, how the umbilical cord was cut, and how the placenta came out? Because it's Kris, I won't be surprised.*

back to top