MANILA, Philippines - With characteristic candor, screen legend Mona Lisa sums up her biography: ?It's a dirty book!?

She's jesting, of course, but the actress, whose illustrious career spanned pre-war talkies in the 1930s to Lino Brocka's social realist dramas in the '70s, wants to make a point.

?Sino ba ang malinis? (Who among us is clean?). ?We all have skeletons in our closets. No one is perfect.?

Mona Lisa, 86, who survived a mild stroke last year, says she's not withholding anything. ?It's a tell-all book.? Granddaughter Celine Fabie is writing the bio.

?It took five years,? she quips. ?I asked Celine: Why is it taking so long? It's not 'The Da Vinci Code!'?

In any case, Fabie chose ?Behind the Smile of Mona Lisa? as title.

?I told Celine, 'Behind the Smile' would suffice. You can't put Mona Lisa on the book cover. When ?Insiang? was shown in Cannes [in 1978], the French laughed when my name was flashed. Lino had to change my screen name to Gloria Guinto.?

Precious tales

Such precious anecdotes are included in the book. After all, the original ?Prinsesa Urduja? (1942) made history as the first local actress to don a swimsuit (in 1939's ?Giliw Ko?), engage in a torrid kissing scene (with Serafin Garcia in 1940's ?Tinangay ng Apoy?) and swim in the nude (in 1948's ?Sunset Over Corregidor?).

?Colorful,? Mona Lisa describes her seven decades as a star, which began as Miss Luzon when San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge was inaugurated in 1937.

She recalls that she started her diary in 1950, after marrying firefighter Abelardo Guinto, quitting the movies and raising six children.

Her diary serves as the book's spine. But the bio's focus is on the major turning points - ?the scary parts,? she says.

?My only request was for my apo not to dwell on the three men in my life: director Eduardo de Castro, actor Fernando Poe Sr. and my husband Abelardo,? she says.

As added twist, she makes it known that she's related to national hero Jose Rizal. ?Rizal and my grandfather Isidro Mercado Yatco were first cousins. I remember seeing Rizal's brother Paciano, sitting like a king on a throne in his Binan home. My mom told us: ?Magmano ka sa kanya.'?

In a lot of ways, it seems, Mona Lisa's life story is a valuable documentation not only of the local movie industry, but Philippine history as well. Unfortunately, she has yet to find a publisher.

But a movie version is in the offing, she says. ?I gave the movie rights to my grandson Marlon Guinto, a filmmaker in the US.?

If ever the movie gets off the ground, she hopes to play her mother Melecia Lerma, who passed away a decade ago, at age 92.

(Email: bayanisandiego@hotmail.com)