REGARDING ALESSANDRA DE ROSSI


Well, this was fun to write. I've never had a bio which ended this way: Constantino can be reached via his neighborhood sari-sari store, buying a cold bottle of San Miguel Pale. This is his first profile on a showbiz celebrity. After submitting this story, he walked to the said sari-sari store, got himself a bottle... and forgot to pay.

I had a great time thanks to Gina Abuyuan, chief editor of Girlfriend Magazine, and Alex, as she is known to her friends, the young celebrity who is a fragile young thing and as bubbly as they come. Baklang-bakla and very endearing.

I like writing sketches and this was a good break anyway from writing for some time about the ruins of the world and the pompous asses responsible for some of the most incredible atrocities of our time. So here is a sketch of young woman who is just beginning to spread her wings. The full interview you can read by clicking the images of the magazine. Or why not just get a copy from the nearest magazine stand?


We pair up one of showbiz's most outspoken young ladies with a "serious" author -- what do we get? Snippets about sexuality, racial discrimination, and Britney Spears fake boobs."

WALANG KIYEME, WALANG TAKOT
(Well, Almost)
RENATO REDENTOR CONSTANTINO
Girlfriend Magazine
March 2007

The phrase "not one dull moment" should be appropriate in her case, except that it would be an understatement.

Here is the girl you will want to walk down any street with.

If she were your buddy, you'd be strolling with her along sidewalks or in malls, swapping stories, ignoring the world and giggling at almost everything.

If you happened to be her boyfriend, you would be fortunate for the whispers she may share as you hold her hand and walk with her barefoot down a quiet country road.

Her name is Alessandra de Rossi. Confidence is her friend and so is candor. She is 23 years old.

It is not difficult to immediately like Alex, as many call Alessandra, one of the brightest young stars today. She is a distinguished actress and sought after model. Her smile is terribly disarming; she is warm, self-deprecating and generous with her emotions. But it is also easy to misunderstand her. Her self-confidence can be intimidating to some; she speaks her mind and heaven help you if you get on her wrong side.

But she is who she is, as she would likely say; what you see is what you get. She was, after all, brought up to believe in herself and to be herself. Small details reveal this -- if she's not at work, for instance, she refuses to wear makeup, as if it were a costume she had to shed.

God bless all the Filipino mums who stamp their authority on their daughters early on but who also trust them enough to talk to them as friends about life and love, intimacies and independence, even as they give them enough space to make their own mistakes and to find their own voice. Alex is the product of such an upbringing -- along with the awards and critical acclaim she has received over the years in the Philippines and abroad.

Alex frowns on those who would almost unconsciously stress the Italian side of her ancestry over her Filipina identity. Not that she has anything against her Mediterranean ties. But to Alex, privileging her Italian lineage over her Philippine roots is to disparage herself. Her sense of identity is a badge she wears proudly, largely because of her mother, a hardy, strong-willed overseas Filipino worker (OFW), and because she is an artist, one who continues to root for all Filipino artists trying to make a name and trying to eke out a living abroad.

"When I'm good, I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better," said Mae West, and it's something that may curiously fit Alex, considering the contrabida role she recently played in a popular TV series and based also on descriptions she's been tagged with ranging from "extremely talented actress" to "super sweet girl" to "kikay" to "maldita". Thing is, Alex herself would probably agree with these tags. She may even add with great delight that there's actually more of her to discover, as the interview below will indicate.

It is reasonable to expect Alex will reach greater heights. And even if she loses her way every now and then -- which is what actually happens to most of us living in the real world -- so long as Alex does not lose her young spirit, I reckon that ten years from now she will still be blooming, and that ten years after that she'll feel even younger than the way she feels today. #


(this is for Yami)

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