The Coven

From msn.com:

The derivation of Suri's oddball moniker: Cruise told Sawyer that he and Holmes cracked open a baby book given to them by friends "and instantly came up with the name." It must have been "The Big Book of Totally Obscure Foreign Baby Names," 'cause the appellation is rare, to say the least. In a statement, the megastar said the name meant "red rose" in Persian, which is true, but his assertion that it means "princess" in Hebrew? Not so much (that would be the name Sarah). "We seem to have learned a new Hebrew word -- and from Tom Cruise, no less," quipped an Israeli newscaster (via the AP). Unfortunately, the tyke's tag does mean "pickpocket" in Japanese and "pointy nose" in Todas, the language of a tribe in Southern India (per a "baby name guru"). Some theories being floated for the unusual label: It's a geographic homage to Cruise's hometown of Syracuse (Suri Cruise -- get it?); it's a reference to Surrey, England, where Hubbard once lived and where the church has a headquarters; or it's an anagram of "Cruise," just without the first and last letters.

I'm sure you don't need to know this. I actually had a minor conversation with Terrie about this. I know I hate Tom Cruise these days, but I have to admit: I have this morbid fascination reading about him and Katie, and now Suri.

Talk about paranoid! There's chismis going around the office that management has installed surveillance cams in the premises! Apparently, there's been a lot of theft of magazines (among other things) in marketing and advertising that the bosses felt the need to install cams. It's so surreal, I feel like I'm in Pinoy Big Brother without the P4 million prize! But can you imagine the ramifications of what my office did, if it's true? And I'm leaning toward believing that it really is true. Lord knows, I wouldn't put it past them to do something this crazy! At the very least, it's a violation of basic human rights. They should have informed us that they were putting in surveillance cams. Not informing us is a violation of our rights. And even if they did tell us, it's somehow still wrong!

Anyway, I'm sad/glad I'll be out of here end of next week!

As you all know, I'm a die-hard Brad Pitt fan. So when I came across this ditty in the gossip site www.justjared.com (which was gotten from someone else), I just had to share it.

It's supposed to be Brad's singing debut (song is called MidTown) on a new celebrity charity album called Hollywood Goes Wild, which is suppposed to raise money for an animal rescue group in LA. Russell Crowe, Bruce Willis, Keanu Reeves, Billy Bob Thornton, Jeff Goldblum and Johnny Depp are also supposed to appear in the album, so I'm interested. Anyway, you can click the link to hear Brad's song, which is a kinda catchy. By the way, this album was released way back in 2001.

Hollywood Goes Wild: MidTown by Brad Pitt

Hey, he sounds really nice, I think (ok,ok I'm biased) but hey, even if he sounded like Donald Duck, I'll still have him serenade me.

Q: What do chewing gum, podcasts, and blogging have in common?
A: They’re all banned in Singapore.

In the case of podcasts and blogging, only during election time and only in connection with “political content.” They can call it “regulation” all they want, it's still censorship. And political censorship? That’s the worst there is—or for me, at least. This GlobalVoices post by Connie Veneracion talks about the ban a bit more level-headedly...

...to the talk the Katie Holmes' pregnancy is fake. This photo has been posted in several sites (copied it off one myself):



From this angle, it does look like a strange belly. I've been pregnant, and many people told me that I had a bigger tummy than most, but I don't think it ever looked like this (correct me if I'm wrong, girls). And also, I've never really seen a pregnant woman whose tummy bulged out the way Katie's does (at least in this picture). In the past, I've seen some collage of how her tummy has grown over the past few months, and there are some shots where her tummy looked huge one time, and then small the next.

Oh well, why do I care, right? I think I've become skeptical of anything that's related to Tom Cruise. The recent story about his father being a bully and a bad dad couldn't have come at a better time (MI:3 promotion). Now he's sure to get a lot of publicity.

"Bananas are great, as I believe them to be the only known cure for existential dread."--Anne Lamott

I love Anne Lamott. She's so...wry and deadpan and funny and insightful and...everything else I admire in a writer! Anyway, here's the rest of the article from which the above quote came. Speaking of Lamott, anybody seen a copy of Bird by Bird locally? I lost mine. Dunno who I lent it to!

Photo above was taken last Saturday after all our shoots. Don't we look tanned and happy? Sorry it's a bit dark. It was already dusk and it didn't help that we were all so tanned after being under the sun all day. With me in the pic are (from left): Hazel Santos (EIC, MyHome mag), Dawn Jalandoni (assistant editor, Appetite), Janis Gopez (assistant editor, meg), Mabel David (managing editor, meg), Karla Rey (assistant editor, MyHome), me, Mela de Luna (style editor, manual)

Just realized it's been awhile since I've posted an entry. And I've also noticed that everyone in my universe seems to be on posting hiatus as well. What's up, people? We're obviously so busy we can't write about our lives no more. Well, same here. Got too much stuff going on for a longer entry. But here's whatI've been up to these days, aside from relentless work, of course (and who wants to write about that?):

1. Prison Break Apart from the fact that the lead (Wentwoth Miller) is freakin' H-O-T, this is another proof that American TV is really outstripping Hollywood in terms of the quality of the shows that they produce. To wit: I'm not just talking about this show, but shows like Lost and Grey's Anatomy. Of course, reality shows are still lording it over prime time, but what the heck, we need to take our shots of optimism where we find them.

2. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and Match Point As if to refute my first point, there are these two movies. KKBB is a helluva good movie! Robert Downey Jr. may be a druggie, but he's a genius! Val Kilmer provides a good counterpoint as the tough private detective who happens to be gay. Good acting by these two, although I think that Val Kilmer could do with a little more swish to portray the gay role convincingly.

Woody Allen's Match Point may be his darkest movie yet--darker even than Crimes and Misdemeanors. And one of the few not set in New York (Hmmm...come to think of it, does he have another movie set elsewhere other than this? Parang wala.) Features one of those climaxes that, although you know it's coming, you still can't help being shocked that it did.

3. Boracay It's crowded, noisy, there's way too much construction going on--and the beach is full of algae. Went there for work and while it's still probably one the prettiest beaches in the world, it won't maintain that status for long, the way things are going. True, we had fun (check out the pic) but still, it makes me sad that its local government doesn't seem to care enough to impose zoning laws. (More Bora stories, as well as Sumilon and Donsol stories when I find time...)

By the way, to add to my book backlog, I ordered three books from Avalon. (I couldn't help myself. Argh!) I'll be getting them from Jasper on Saturday noon--so if you (you know who you are!) want to meet up, tell me. Check out the titles (they're all anthologies, by the way): Murder and Other Acts of Literature, Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales (includes stories by Michael Chabon, Stephen King, and Neil Gaiman), Drinking, Smoking, and Screwing: Great Writers on Good Times. Interesting, what?