Krista tells all: It's over!

Of all the gin joints in all the towns in all the world, she walks into mine.

LOS ANGELES —That’s right. And what a happy coincidence.

To paraphrase that memorable line delivered by Humphrey Bogart (as Rick Plaine) as he watches Ingrid Bergman (as Ilsa Lund Laszlo) walking into his gin joint in that memorable scene from Casablanca, of all the cafes in all the counties in all of California, Krista Ranillo walks into the Urth Caffé on 451 S. Hewitt Street in this city one balmy summer afternoon in the arms of my good friend Tim Evans (of the US Immigration). Urth is the favorite hangout of celebrities of all types (“Paris Hilton among them,” Urth’s Filipino manager Tyrone Arenal tells us).

It’s destiny (that seems to be the favorite word these days, isn’t it?), I tell myself, recalling how the controversial daughter of Mat Ranillo III has been evading me like a slippery eel, playing hide-and-seek with me since that earth-shaking...er, “scandal?”...hit the headlines early last year, searing the pages of movie magazines with spicy-hot accounts of her and his (no name, please, just an italicized pronoun) every move imagined or with a semblance of truth and/or meaty morsels secretly fed to movie writers by people claiming to be moving in their circle.

Neither Krista nor he has confirmed or admitted anything. All of last year, Krista gave movie writers a run for their pens, forever winning in the patintero she was playing with them. I moved heaven and earth, pulling all the strings that I could, trying to arrange a one-on-one with her, all to no avail, with her “handlers” and manager throwing their hands up, banging their heads on the wall, saying so sorry, “Ayaw niya talaga!”

And several months later, all through 2009 The Year of the Pig and halfway through 2010 The Year of the Tiger, without me totally giving up on her, of all the cafes in all the counties in all of California she will walk right smack into this one where Tim and I have been sitting at a little table outside Urth all afternoon shooting the breeze.

For a while, as I watch Krista and Tim approach our table, I resist the temptation to sing, around the world I’ve searched for you; I’ve travelled on when hope was gone to keep a rendezvous. I knew somewhere sometimes somehow, you’d look at me and I would see the smile you’re smiling now...

“Para talagang pinagtagpo kayo ng kapalaran,” says Tim who is up-to-date with showbiz goings-on back home.

You see, as we prepare to leave, Tim says he has to go back inside Urth to get a small take-home box for our leftover cheescake (yummy!). Have we left 10 seconds earlier, we would have missed Krista. Yes, as I’ve been saying, it’s destiny.

“I was going out when I heard somebody call my name. I turned and found out who was calling me. Krista was sitting alone at a corner table, waiting for her strawberry shake,” says Tim. “Amanda Seyfried (who plays Meryl Streep in Mama Mia!) was seated at a table next to Krista’s. So, heto na siya.”

After the hugging and the embracing that bridge the yawning gap and letting bygones be bygones without recrimination (yes, she was said to be “mad” at me for calling her...never mind), we sit down for the long-delayed, almost-never-have-been one-on-one.

I start with the harmless, “warm-up” question.

So what has Krista been doing lately?

“Hayun, I’m hitting the gym every day and then nagyo-yoga ako. I’m also preparing dahil mag-i-enroll ako sa Law this year.”

She’s a bright girl, a dean’s lister no less at Ateneo where she graduated with a degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (minor in Communication Arts and Psychology).

“Right after college,” she’s saying, “I had a short stint as reporter on (ABS-CBN’s)TV Patrol but since artista talaga ako, I quit and went into acting.”

I comment that she looks very happy, unlike the last time I saw her when she acted like...hmmmm...a cat on a hot tin roof, so stressed-out, so harrassed, so...paranoid? (If you were in her place in such a situation, hounded by the press and being called names, you too would feel the same way, wouldn’t you?)

Yes, she’s in love, again, this time with another guy who has to remain unidentified (as per Krista’s request) for the time being, with a Chinese surname, and is said to own a supermarket in California. Very rich and very eligible, rumored to have been the former boyfriend of a Filipina actress (the “ex” of a popular TV-movie actor now going steady with his loveteam-mate) and a TV host who used to write a column for the Life section of this paper. He’s a bachelor, quite goodlooking.

Set as wallpaper of Krista’s celfone is her picture with her new love and under it is this quotation she says they have found in a fortune cookie: You will take a chance in the future. “It was during our dinner on our first date,” she reveals, adding, “Actually, kababata ko siya. Hindi pa ako artista kilala ko na siya, dito sa States. Let’s just say that he was my childhood sweetheart. I spent most of my early years in the States because all the members of my family are here. So we met again at the right time.”

Oh, after him, you mean?

She laughs self-consciously. “Yes, after everything. Hahahahaha!”

Without admitting anything, Krista is saying between the lines that she and he have called it quits.

“Yes,” she confesses, “it’s over!”

We understand what she’s saying, don’t we?

“You put that as title for your story ha,” she reminds me, still laughing (as she does throughout the interview). “IT’S OVER!”

Has there been some “closure” between her and him?

“Oo naman,” she admits. “Siempre mayroon.”

We proceed to clear some issues.

Did she get pregnant (by him)?

“I was never pregnant. I guess that rumor spread because I left Manila and I’ve been here for a while.”

According to the rumor, she consulted a doctor in Cebu and was found to be “positive.”

“I never went to Cebu. My schedule was quite tight last year. I was promoting a movie, I was promoting Ginebra, I was endorsing some products, I was doing some shows. Before Christmas, I came back to the States and went back to Manila in January and came right back soon after. Nag-show pa nga ako sa Mindanao and I took the plane at the GenSan airport. But I never went to Cebu.”

She says that she’s taking time out from showbiz (“Pahinga muna ako”) and concentrating on the garment business she has put up with her cousin David Tupaz, a designer.

Is it true that the capital for that business came from him?

“No,” she’s adamant, “sariling pera namin ni Kuya David ang pinuhunan namin.”

Doesn’t she miss showbiz?

“I do, pero ngayon ayoko muna mag-showbiz. I’m happy with my life now. It’s stress-free.”

And how would she sum up the turbulent, stormy, roller-coaster year that was 2009?

“I can summarize what happened in two words — time passes.”

And the best lesson that she learned from her experience with him?

“No. 1 — Never stop believing in yourself. Sometimes, even if you know that the public perception of who you are or what you are is wrong, it can get to you; naa-apektuhan ka rin naman...No. 2 — Lahat ng nadadapa ay nakakatayo din naman. You learn to value the important things in life, like your family, your faith, character-development, mga ganoon...No. 3 — Have faith in God.”

Mat arrives to fetch Krista, just when Krista and I are winding up the interview. He has heard nothing.

As he takes a seat beside us, Mat wonders aloud, “What happened?”

“A whole lot happened,” I tell Mat tongue-in-cheek. He gives me a quizzical look.

I guess he knows.

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