ORMER beauty queen
Elvie Gonzales, mom of Charlene Gonzales, said she never encouraged her daughter
to become a beauty queen like her. But she does remember that when Charlene was
still very young and studying in the US, Charlene was always fascinated every
time she looked at Elvie's photographs wearing a crown on her head.
"Dinadala pa niya ang mga litratong 'yun sa kanilang
school at nagmamalaking ipinakikita sa kanyang mga classmates. Proud
na proud siya na naging former beauty queen ako," Elvie
relates.
When Charlene decided to join the Bb. Pilipinas in 1993,
Elvie was surprised. Nonetheless, she gave Charlene her permission. And she
wished her luck, naturally.
As we all know, Charlene won the title and represented our
country in the 1994 Miss Universe contest which was held here.
Charlene emerged runner-up.
***
Charlene co-hosted last Saturday's Bb. Pilipinas pageant with
Paolo Bediones.
When asked what she could say about the new Binibining
Pilipinas-World, Janina San Miguel, who is currently getting a lot of flak for
her answer to one of the judges' questions, Charlene was very understanding.
"Everyone naman deserves a second chance," she said.
Actually, Charlene was a bit surprised with Janina's
performance in the question and answer portion because she related that the
night before the pageant, they asked the contestants even more difficult
questions, which they were able to answer not only correctly but intelligently.
"Kung sabagay, even confident contestants tend to lose
their poise at nawawala ang pagiging articulate once they are in front of
a big crowd, such as the one at the Araneta Coliseum.
"Siguro, na-overwhelm, lalo na when some people
in the audience reacted rudely to her answer," Charlene reasoned.
***
Charlene had to tape advance episodes for her new show on
QTV-11, "Proudly Filipina," as she is leaving with husband Aga Muhlach and their
twins, Atasha and Andres. She and Aga are watching the Pacquiao-Marquez match in
Las Vegas, Nevada.
"Mauunang umuwi sa amin si Aga," she said. "May
shooting kasi siya ('Waiting for Love,' with Anne Curtis).
"Ako naman, bago ako umuwi, ipapasyal ko muna ang kambal
sa Disneyland. At their age (six years old), they can already appreciate
Disneyland," Charlene added.
So far, two episodes of "Proudly Filipina" have been shown.
In the first episode, Charlene had as guests Tito, Vic and Joey and the women
behind their success as hosts and TV and movie actors.
In the show's second episode, she interviewed Mikee
Cojuangco-Jaworski and Mikee's equally gorgeous mom, Tingting Cojuangco.
Come to think, wasn't Charlene once linked to Mikee's
husband, Dodot Jaworski? And Mikee was rumored to have had Aga for a special
friend before.
Among the must-see "Proudly Filipina" episodes are those
featuring Maricel Soriano and Dr. Fe del Mundo.
"As usual, Maricel was in her element when I interviewed her.
She is truly one Filipina we can be proud of," she stated.
As for Dr. del Mundo, she is the country's oldest (at 96) and
foremost pediatrician. She is the first Filipina, too, to graduate from Harvard
University.
Dr. Del Mundo runs the Children's Hospital in Banawe, Quezon City.
