Hair Asia , through its indefatigable publisher and event organizer Ms. Evelyn Alvaran-Cruz, has shown all-out support to beleaguered actress Katrina Halili by unanimously choosing her as the cover girl of its latest edition. The glossy magazine will be out this month of July. The previous Hair Asia magazine cover girl was Angel Locsin.

Considering Katrina’s notoriety at the moment, we asked Evelyn why she chose her to grace Hair Asia’s July issue cover. “Why not?” countered Evelyn. “She’s beautiful and sexy, and that sex video scandal shouldn’t be blamed on her. She was just a woman who fell in love maybe with the wrong guy; she’s just a victim here. Who are we to judge? Ever since the sex video scandal broke out, my heart went out to her and her mother being a woman myself and with a daughter too.”

She added: “I want to give her another chance because I know she’s talented and really beautiful and sexy. I want to help her move on in her life and career; after all, no matter what the troubles and problems are that we encounter, life must go on. I advise her to be strong and not let her case stop her from struggling to redeem herself. I want to help boost her morale and self-confidence.”

In the pictorial (held recently at the Foto Resources Production & Digital Imaging Corp. along Bermeo St. in Palanan, Makati City) Evelyn wanted Katrina’s hair to be long (through hair extension) in some shoots. Remember that the actress used to have long hair but when controversy hit her because Dr. Hayden Kho admitted they had a romantic relationship (albeit briefly) and Katrina couldn’t deny it anymore, she cut her hair. “To put everything behind, kaya pinutol ko ang buhok ko, para maiba yung old me, bagong Katrina na ito,” she told the entertainment press in an intimate press conference organized sometime ago by her “Nanay” Lolit Solis. This was before the sex video surfaced in YouTube, and a little later in the piracy discs market.

“The long hair symbolizes that the ‘old’ Katrina is back, and I want to help her regain her self-confidence and self-esteem. Sino nga ba ang tutulong sa kanya kundi tayong mga kababaihan? Hindi lang siya, kundi lahat ng mga biktima ng sex video scandals, which we all know na marami dyan na walang lakas ng loob na lumantad, unlike Katrina.”

In relation to this, Katrina (who agreed to be interviewed in between the shoots), told this writer that when she, her father and her lawyer Atty. Raymond Palad saw the video, “they asked me what I wanted to do – to keep quiet and let it pass, manahimik na lang ako, or go public but there will be consequences, they said. Kung lalaban ako, they will be behind me all the way, pero walang atrasan, and I said yes, lalaban ako. Not only for myself, but for all those out there who’re also victims like me.

Ayokong maulit ito, at gusto ko maparusahan ang mga gumagawa ng ganito. Hindi pera ang habol ko dito kundi hustisya.” She said she doesn’t love Kho anymore but she has forgiven him. It hurt even her mother (who Hayden knew and would now and then call when he and Katrina were still in a relationship) she said that up to the last minute, Hayden denied there was a sex video between them. He only admitted it when it came out in YouTube.

The first tape they watched “was a little malabo,” she said, “but even so, I decided to admit it was really me who’s in that video when I decided to bring my case to the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC) and the Philippine Medical Association. We were going on our own, but then Senator Bong Revilla got wind of it, and took the cudgels for me. He supported me and being a celebrity, naging high-profile ang kaso ko. I’m really grateful to all those who’ve been supporting me, most recently Ms. Evelyn Alvaran-Cruz who’ve made me the newest member of the Hair Asia family.”

Katrina as kontrabida in GMA’s ‘Rosalinda’

Katrina is thankful that despite her sex video scandal, she still has a career. In fact, she is in the cast of GMA Network’s newest telenovela “Rosalinda” which starts airing on July 6. She also has a movie entitled “Dalaw.” “This is an indie movie and like ‘Rosalinda,’ I’m very excited about it,” she said.

Katrina said she loves all of Thalia’s TV series and she knows the story of “Rosalinda.” “In this telenovela, I play Freda, the older sister of Rosalinda, who is mabait while I’m not as mabait as her.

I’m a kontrabida to her, and I love my role. It’s challenging.” Rosalinda is played by newcomer Carla Abellana, daughter of PJ Abellana and Rea Reyes, daughter of my good friend, veteran actress Delia Razon.
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Mindanao solons laud KC’s anti-hunger advocacy

For her exemplary humanitarian work as the country’s ambassador against hunger, young actress and celebrity Kristina Cassandra “KC” Concepcion has earned the respect and admiration of lawmakers from Mindanao.

Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Talino-Mendoza said, “We applaud KC for her outstanding efforts to raise public awareness here and abroad of the need for effective solutions to the growing humanitarian needs of Mindanao. The people of Cotabato and the whole of Mindanao are highly grateful to KC for using her sway as a celebrity to help address widespread hunger and the conflict-induced dislodgment of people.”

In her capacity as the United Nations World Food Program’s Philippine ambassador against hunger, KC has visited the towns of Midsayap and Pikit, both in Rep. Mendoza’s district.

During her visits to these towns, the 24-year-old actress extended food aid to children in a bid to check malnutrition and boost school attendance. Rep. Mendoza added: “Hunger, internal displacement and armed conflict all form part of a vicious cycle. Strife has devastated the livelihood of many people. Harvests have been spoiled. Farming communities have been kept from cultivating land and producing food for their own consumption, thus aggravating hunger. KC has definitely helped to raise hope, and inspire others to do their share in easing hunger in Mindanao.”

According to the Geneva-based Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC), the Philippines had the largest number of “conflict-induced” newly internally displaced people in 2008. The IDMC said that last year, some 600,000 people fled fighting between the Philippine military and rebel groups in Mindanao. They accounted for 13% of the 4.6 million newly internally displaced people around the world in 2008.

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Tidbits: Happy b-day greetings today, July 5, go to Janet Basco, Monica Aveo, US-based Cielito del Mundo and Jaime Hidalgo, Toni Serrano-Parsons, former singer Djhoanna Garcia, Nomer Pabilona, Norma Francia, Rita Canchela, JC Negado, Marie Acosta, Donna Louise Poltan, Marcial S. Alix, Jr., Lino Aromin, Loreto Uson de los Santos, US-based Dra. Grace Tercero, Perpetuo Silan of Queens Village, New York; Eagle Riggs of “Unang Hirit,” Eric Soriano, Amelia Pineda and immigration lawyer Michael Gurfinkel of California…Happy wedding anniversary to Eddie and Josie Seson of Hawaii…