Gretchen threatens to write ‘tell all’ book

After Pilar Pilapil created a considerable stir with her "tell-all" biography Pilar Pilapil: The Woman Without a Face which, if you ask me, left more questions than answers (such as what exactly did her father do to her when, at 14, she was called to a room for some scolding and her dad locked the door – "And that’s how I knew how cruel (my father) could be," said Pilar), guess who’s planning to put out the same, perhaps even more controversial, autobiography – yes, Gretchen Barretto!

Like Pilar, Gretchen has a colorful story to tell, full of intrigues and drama, far more titillating than all her movies put together. If she does "tell all" as she’s threatening to do, will Gretchen include the men in her life (among them a drama actor over whom Gretchen nearly took her own life and for whom she became "unfaithful" but all in her thoughts, and the actor-politician whose life, said Gretchen, "I have made happier"), the family feuds she has been enmeshed in (against her own family with whom she isn’t on speaking terms up to now and against her "mother-in-law" Imelda Cojuangco with whom, according to Gretchen, she has already made peace), and her rise from humble beginnings to her present "looked-up-to" status by starting to work (initially as a model) at age 14?

"I talked to Pilar and she said that I’m too young to be writing an autobiography (memoir)," Gretchen told a curious group of movie writers at yesterday’s lunch presscon for her comeback movie, Canary Films’ Karma (a trilogy directed by Jose Javier Reyes, an entry in this December’s Metro Filmfest). "Dapat daw when I’m older. But then, people are curious about so many things about me and I want to hear them straight from me. The book would be nothing heavy; it would be easy reading unlike," she added with a laugh, "my movie Karma which is horror, my first time to do such a movie."

Her comeback movie would have been Kapag Tumibok ang Puso (Not Once But Twice), produced and starred in by Sen. Bong Revilla, but it was nipped in the bud when a little controversy erupted when Bong’s wife Lani Mercado frowned over the project. (Bong and Gretchen were once romantically linked to each other.) Gretchen was replaced by 2005 Miss International Precious Lara Quigaman.

But before she buckles down to writing even the first word of that book (will it rattle Gretchen’s beloved Tonyboy Cojuangco...will Tonyboy discover things that he doesn’t know, yet, about his ladylove of 12 years?), Gretchen will first devote full-time to her newly-revived movie career.

"How did I feel facing the (movie) cameras again?," asked Gretchen whose last movie was the 1994 action-romance-drama Ikaw Lamang where she had as leading man Raymart Santiago. "I didn’t know that he would end up my brother-in-law," Gretchen added, again with a laugh (she was laughing throughout the presscon she attended one hour late even if she was the one who fixed the time at 11 a.m. because, according to the movie’s PRO, Gretchen would have to fetch daughter Dominique from school). "I had a kissing scene with Raymart. O, naunahan ko siya, di ba?" (Referring to estranged sister Claudine, now Raymart’s wife).

Initially, Gretchen was supposed to be in the cast of the Vic Sotto starrer Enteng Kabisote (which Canary Films boss Orly Ilacad is co-producing with Vic’s M-ZET Films, also for this December’s Metro Filmfest) but Gretchen is happy that she ended up in Karma. "They told me that horror films are a hit during the Metro Filmfest."

In the episode called Kama, Gretchen plays a lady haunted by an antique bed she bought, not knowing that it belonged to a woman (Tanya Garcia; the two other stars are Rica Peralejo and Angelica Panganiban) who died of child birth.

The role practically confines Gretchen in bed, so she won’t have a chance to display her much-talked-about jewelry which are, according to one observer, so expensive that you could end up vision-impaired if you look at them under the spotlight. During the presscon, Gretchen was not wearing any jewelry, except for a pair of big, round earrings. Fancy?, asked a clueless movie writer. Her face taking on a fleeting expression of disapproval, Gretchen touched the earrings and said, "No, real!" But thank goodness she won’t be wearing jewelry (not even "fancy" ones?) during the Parade of Stars on Dec. 24 that ushers in the annual 10-day festival, or she might be criticized again by what she called "envious" people.

Asked what happened to Desperada, the Regal comedy inspired by the US hit TV show Desperate Housewives which would have starred her with Ruffa Gutierrez and Dawn Zulueta, Gretchen said that it’s "on hold" pending clearance of some papers (the fine prints of Gretchen’s contract, etc.).

Why did she have to return to the topsy-turvy world of showbiz when she’s living like a princess...a lady of leisure "envied" by some of her colleagues?

"I want my ‘sense of self’ back," explained Gretchen who, these past 12 years, has been practically living in the shadow of Tonyboy. "Parang I lost my own identity. If I had a new dress, a new pair of shoes, new pieces of (jewelry) or anything new, people easily concluded, ‘Ah, bigay ni Tonyboy!’ It’s a nice feeling to earn your own keep, to spend your own money. But, unlike others who decided to return to showbiz for the money, I’m back to have that ‘sense of self’ back."

Wouldn’t it create any tension between her and Tonyboy?

"I don’t think so," said Gretchen. "It should not," adding, again with a laugh, "men should be proud that their (wives) are not only beautiful but are also popular."

Being popular, of course, means being talked about but Gretchen doesn’t mind. She’s immune to gossips, having survived the relentless showbiz grind.

Asked who her daughter Dominique, 11, looks like, Gretchen said, "When people see Dominique, they tell her, ‘Oh my gosh, you look like your dad!’ Naaawa naman ako sa kanya. She should look more like me. But then," she thought aloud, "it’s better that she looks like Tonyboy to put a stop to the rumor that her father is somebody else. But Dominique is growing up to be a lovely young lady. Nagiging kikay na siya."

With her "sense of self" restored, is Gretchen returning to showbiz (although it seemed that she was never really gone because she was constantly in the news) with less emotional burden?

Well, there are some more kinks in her life waiting to be ironed out (her row with the other Barrettos, etc.).

Meanwhile, let’s sit back and wait for Gretchen’s "tell all" book and let’s keep our fingers crossed that, unlike Pilar Pilapil, she will answer all the questions everyone has been wanting to ask her (but didn’t have the guts to) instead of raising a trail of others.

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