RYAN AGONCILLO realized that his TV5 show ?Talentadong Pinoy? has attracted a loyal audience when strangers started stopping him on the streets, asking if they could audition.

?From the crazies to the genuinely gifted,? Ryan told Rushes? Bayani San Diego Jr.

The show has gathered a motley crew, including a beat-box trio, a man who peels coconuts with his teeth, snake wranglers and contortionists.

While Ryan was car-racing in Clark, Pampanga, an Aeta kid stood in his way and belted R&B tunes.

Talent scouting is part of his job as host?quite a stretch from his first gig on ABC 5?s ?Philippine Idol.?

Every week, Ryan explained, the show is guaranteed to discover talents that are either awe-inspiring or amusing.

Among the most shocking so far was a blade eater. ?While I was interviewing him, I could smell and see blood,? Ryan recalled. ?Maybe he got nervous. But he wasn?t seriously hurt.?

Such unexpected moments make the show a roller-coaster ride for audiences and show regulars (aside from Ryan) Audie Gemora, Cherie Gil, John Lapus, Eugene Domingo and Amy Perez, among others, who are also called ?Talent Scouts.?

?I thought they would be jaded,? Ryan said. ?After all, they?ve been in the business for so long. Still, they are truly entertained. Amy once asked a Talentado, ?Can I hire you for my son?s birthday party???

Indeed, some Talentados have been spotted by booking agents and clinched assignments through the program.

Has Ryan found a singer for his forthcoming wedding to Judy Ann Santos? He laughed and said Judai herself has singled out a ventriloquist with five dummies.

Judai acted as a Talent Scout for Ryan?s birthday special, to be aired April 18 (he turned 30 on April 10.)

Will the ventriloquist be at their wedding? Abangan.

Sarah swims

Sarah Geronimo has bagged another endorsement deal, this time for San Miguel Beverages Inc.?s full line of Magnolia healthy beverages. She is the star of the company?s ?Sarap Mag-Refresh ng Magnolia? campaign. Earlier, she was spokesperson for SMBI?s ?Mag-Bagong Buhay Na!? which encouraged kids to be healthier through proper diet, hydration and play. Guess how Sarah ?plays?? She swims on weekends to take care of her lungs, definitely her power source.

Trucking exec

NEW YORK?Nancy Shevell beamed for hundreds of cameras in London?s Leicester Square, a green silk jacket on one arm and Paul McCartney on the other. The 49-year-old trucking heiress dazzled on the red carpet at a movie premiere with the ex-Beatle, her boyfriend of 18 months.

Two days later, Shevell turned away from cameras recording a Metropolitan Transportation Authority meeting where she cast a vote to raise city subway fares by 25 percent.

Few who have seen Shevell photographed in Israel, Antigua and at the Grammy Awards with McCartney know of her other life as an executive at a New Jersey trucking company and board member of the largest mass transit agency in the United States. But her public and behind-the-scene personas have collided more and more since the socialite began seeing McCartney in Long Island?s Hamptons area in late 2007. AP

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Top of the talk shows

For those who missed last weekend?s gabfests on TV. (And why we are moved, if we are moved.)

Manny Calayan, on reports Katrina Halili will soon endorse his clinic:

?Why not? Pagkatapos siya nag-StarStruck, naging alaga ko na si Katrina.? (Anyone wants to look like Katrina?)

Jake Cuenca, on the possibility of reconciling with Roxanne Guinoo:

?We have [separate] lives now. Tuwing nakikita ko siya, talagang nakikita kong masaya siya.? (Buti pa siya?)

Ai Ai de las Alas, asked where her happiness is coming from:

?Siguro sa kakadasal and ?yong nag-vow ako ng celibacy. Parang dun ako nag, ?Ah, ang ganda naman ng buhay, napakagaan.?? (Why not, indeed?)

Aira Bermudez, on reports she and another Sex Bomb Dancer were spotted in a Boracay club with a foreigner:

?Gusto ko po lang sabihin na hindi kami ruma-raket. Hindi po kami kailangan rumaket sa ganyang klaseng lugar dahil TV personality na po kami. May inaalagaan po kaming pangalan.? (Yup. Sex Bomb Dancers.) With Gerry Plaza, Contributor (The Buzz, Showbiz Central)