BELA Padilla is in town.

The Brit-Fil actress, who’s now based in London, flew to the country for three things: to help promote her film, ‘366’ which is now streaming on Vivamax, finish a new project and to have some R&R with Swiss boyfriend, Norman Ben Bay.

Bela and Norman attended the special red carpet screening of ‘366’ which she wrote and directed, and wherein she played the lead character. For a first time director, Bela is a good one. The film comes off as a modern day telling of a woman who’s grieving the death of a long-time boyfriend with whom she has built around her future.

It’s a well-crafted film, and Bela should go down in Philippine movie history as one in the league of actresses who also made good as a director like Rosa Mia in the 60s, Laurice Guillen in the 80s and Gina Alajar in the 90s.

Even co-actors JC Santos and Zanjoe Marudo are quite amused at how Bela was able to wear three hats on the set, and be good at it.

Meanwhile, Bela and boyfriend Norman are now enjoying ‘the tropics’, before returning to where they’re separately based: Bela in London, Norman in Austria.

Love is never far away from home.

Boyet Fajardo’s Fabulous at Forty

HAD a chat recently with fashion designer Boyet Fajardo at Pandan Restaurant at Scout Limbaga near Tomas Morato in Quezon City.

He is the country’s top designer for RTWs and plus-size apparels, and perhaps the lone survivor in the fashion industry,

Boyet at 60 is celebrating his 44th year in the business, while his peers have relatively bowed out or gone from the fashion industry scene.

Aside from Boyet Fajardo’s existing stores in Metro Manila malls, like SM with 15 branches and Robinsons with 30, additional stores have been added in Robinsons Tacloban, Robinsons Antipolo and Robinsons Ormoc.

Boyet considers Robina Gokongwei of Robinsons as his ‘godmother’ for all the help in setting up new platforms for his creations.

Aside from the provincial Robinsons malls, Boyet Fajardo’s line are also sold in KCC (Koronadal Commercial Complex) malls inGeneral Santos City, Cotabato and Zamboanga, also in Davao, Palawan and Tagum.

Boyet has dressed up celebrities like Bulacan Governor Daniel Fernando, Cesar Montano, Jestoni Alarcon, and Martin Andanar plus other newscasters like Aljo Bendijo who was present during the interview, Mel Tiangco, Ali Sotto, among others.

He now has a new line called Fabulous at Forty for which he assembled three of his regular models: Alvin Fortuna, an entrepreneur who owns Pandan restaurant, and a part time actor who’ve been seen in such films as “The Lookout,” “The Sin,” the biopic “Hermano Pule,” and Chito Roño’s “Moonlight Over Baler,” the still ravishing Bodyshots 2000 winner Cathy Moya and Mrs.Universe Philippines 2012 Joy Castillo, a mom of two who has modelled extensively in Germany and Greece before deciding to come back home to the Philippines.

According to Boyet, his life is so colorful and considers himself so blessed. Born with a hand deformity, Boyet went blind temporarily in 2014, and regained his eyesight through the years. He looks up to God as the wellspring of his talent, and the miracles that made him survive, even the pandemic.