She will plunge into the campaign, but will they also take the plunge?

MANILA, Philippines - Do we still need greater proof that Sen. Mar Roxas and TV celeb Korina Sanchez are two people in love?

For the love of Senator Roxas, Korina is said to be willing to put her career on hold, to help him get to Malacañang in 2010. The two have been in a relationship for five years now.

A source from his staff and one of her friends said Korina plans to go on leave from television next year, or six months before the 2010 presidential campaign officially begins.

Only two weeks ago, Korina asked a former ABS-CBN colleague, now leader of a Catholic charismatic group, to get her an appointment with Bro. Eddie Villanueva to draw him and his flock in the Jesus is Lord Movement to Mar?s side.

What?s keeping her from going full blast, the source said, is this waiting game that Korina is in with network bigwigs. She awaits her return to prime-time news?a nice cap to her more than 20-year career.

She has confided to friends she?d be losing too much when her career takes the backseat?all for the love of her man.

The senator might have been down the popularity surveys, but he has beefed up his team with bright boys formerly in the GMA Cabinet?former finance secretary Cesar Purisima, former defense secretary Avelino Cruz, former presidential adviser Paul Dominguez, and communication expert Silvestre Afable.

Korina?s plunge into the campaign is awaited, they said. More awaited is, will Mar and Korina take the plunge?

Bags wear women

If you had any doubt that women today obsess with or lust for bags as they do their clothes?if not more, you only had to girl-watch at Fashion Watch to dispel your doubt. One by one, women?from pretty young things to grandmas who stayed too long at the fair (as they say)?strode down the steps to the Lobby Lounge, their ?it? bag displayed or unfurled on their arm like a flag.

Some were in dressed-down gear but had an eye-popping Bottega Veneta or Chanel or Goyard. Of course, there were the ubiquitous LVs. Indeed, bags aren?t just status symbols these days. They define the woman, right or wrong. Time was, women wore bags. Today, bags ?wear? the women.

Poor?

STILL ON BAGS. The Philippines poor? Have you monitored the traffic at Louis Vuitton at Greenbelt 4? Not only has the store good traffic, you also see people emerging from the store lugging two or more shopping bags. The afternoon we stood on the G4 corridor, we espied a young woman who had shopping bags from Gucci, Prada, Ferragamo. In short, she combed the stores at G4, and we were told she?d have different colors of one style. In HK, in the vast LV store which always has a big crowd, hardly a day goes by when you don?t see Filipino shoppers in that mix.

Blockbuster dance troupe

When the press announced the coming of Cloud Gate Dance Theater of Taiwan last weekend, the public made a mad scramble for tickets. Whoever said that the audience for dance is dwindling?

Carmencita Abella, executive director of the Ramon Magsaysay Awards Foundation, flew to Taiwan to invite RM awardee Lin Hwai-Min, the company?s artistic director and choreographer, and his company to perform for the awards? golden jubilee.

Lin Hwai-Min has a soft heart. Understanding Third World economics, the company gave the Foundation a very good price for the 70-minute ?Moon Water? for two shows?which includes the airfare of 31 members of the dance and production teams and 20 boxes of sets and costumes.

In fact, the Belo Medical Group paid more for burlesque artist Dita Von Teese for its 18th anniversary show, which consisted of two 10-minute numbers (including her signature Champagne Glass Act), the artist, her manager and a couple of crew members. Von Teese?s fees range from 75,000 euros to half a million euros.

It?s been rumored that one member of the Taiwanese community bought last night?s show at Cultural Center of the Philippines. Tonight, after the awards ceremony, it will be the Foundation?s evening.

Trained in the hard-edged Martha Graham technique, Lin is one of the few choreographers to successfully fuse Eastern and Western dance forms into a seamless, organic and distinctive style. His concerts are always a sell-out because of the high production values and the atmosphere it creates.

As ?Moon Water? is a meditative concert, the company has forbidden photographs taken during the show to maintain the reverential atmosphere. Lin is said to have stopped in the middle of the performance when audiences started talking and insisted on maintaining that hushed silence all throughout.

Indeed, the sellout show proves that there is hunger for innovative works in the country and that there is an audience for dance. It?s just too bad that our local companies don?t get the same support for funds to produce new works and get their groove back.

Marietta?s bad trip

At Fashion Watch last Thursday, friends never expected to touch a raw nerve when they brought up the subject of the visits of the Monaco royalty here with Marietta Santos.

But Marietta, who has been helping Virlanie Foundation (the beneficiary of the royalty visits) for decades now, flared up when Princess Caroline?s visit was brought up. The Princess came here with a press entourage, she said, we rolled out the red carpet for her, and ?when they got back in Europe, they painted an ugly picture of the country in Paris Match and Ola,? she said.

She didn?t have good memories either of the subsequent visit of Caroline?s son, Andrea Casiraghi. Nothing bad about the young royalty. Marietta just didn?t like that when the young man was brought out of town, his host didn?t pick up the tab for a fastfood meal.

?I ended up paying for it,? snapped Marietta. It was fastfood, but the total price wasn?t cheap?it ran to five figures.

Nobody thought of offering Marietta camomile at the Shangri-La high tea to calm her down.

Joy in Boracay

SHANGRI-LA BORACAY is on a dry run. As operations get fine-tuned, tapped to set up its PR structure is Shangri-la Makati communications director, Joy Wassmer. Joy will be posted in Boracay for two months. Time to shed the suit for shorts.

Second skin

True tale from the gynecologist:

A young couple had torrid sex the whole night, then the man discovered that his rubber was missing. They searched everywhere on the bed and on the floor. The next day, when the girl had her routine pelvic examination, the gynecologist found a piece of rubber inside her. The girl didn?t feel there was a foreign body. Talk about second skin.

Zapping the vajayjay

The newest form of woman empowerment is laser vaginal rejuvenation. In a three-hour press lunch hosted by the Makati Medical Center?s Aesthetic Center, female patients in their 40s and early 50s claimed that they were dissatisfied with the way their private part looked?in the same way that women are concerned about sagging jowls and double chins. They then decided to have it zapped.

The Designer Laser Vaginoplasty is offered at Makati Med which makes it safer. Why shell out P200,000 for a cosmetic transformation even if the private part is not, uh, exposed to the public? The women said they did it to please themselves foremost.

?I can enjoy a bikini wax and not worry how it would look to others,? replied one lady.

Is Mayor Lim out to kill Malate?

From a reader:

The Malate area is one dreary place at night now that Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim has prohibited al fresco dining or drinking by all of the establishments along Nakpil and Orosa Streets.

There is nothing wrong with al fresco dining or drinking. It is absolutely unfair to prohibit this especially on weekends, because this is the only time that most of the establishments in the area recover from a week-long dearth in business revenues!

Is Lim trying to kill Malate like what he did to Ermita and Baywalk? With Ermita, it was tolerable because of the rampant prostitution in the area. But Malate is a totally different case. People come here on weekends just to unwind and have fun.

If Lim is really after prostitution, he should instruct his police to arrest the female prostitutes around Malate Church and Rajah Sulayman at night. Their pimps openly approach those who would park and ask if they want a ?chick?.

Do not do this to Malate, Mayor Lim. You are gradually curtailing the means of livelihood for many people. This comes at a time when life is so difficult and these establishments give employment to a lot of people.

You intend to tax them but do not wish them to make money. That is being too unfair and cruel. Malate does not deserve to die like Ermita or Baywalk.

-Mariano Bermejo
Manila Resident