Rollercoaster Ride

When you’re in the paper, that means you want to be in the paper. If you’re all over the news, that means you have a lot of contacts or a good publicist.When publicity became my job, I learned that the news is not chased by the newsmen, but is received by them. They will not find out the arrest, wedding or party of the day if nobody told them about it pre-or post-event. They either go there, or  just sit by their computers and wait for the text and photos to arrive on their desktop.

One photo of Conan O Brien on Fifth Avenue is on three tabloids. A celebrity doing charity becomes news not because it is rare, but because they make it news. Britney, Paris and Lindsay’s publlicisits sent a media alert out that they’re coming out of the Beverly Hills Hotel together at a certain time, in case media photographers wanted to take pictures. A few did as they were told.

The 50 Most Beautiful People are not the loveliest in the world.

But the Sexiest Man Alive has the greatest publicist on earth.

I saw a cute guy in the office last week. Apart from having a smiling face, I know exactly where he lives, what he does and that he’s 35 and single. Not that I took note of the locations, but I could dig them up.

Where I work, we get about 200 visitors a day. Our building door is like a filter for all Filipinos in NY, whether regular, famous or infamous. But I only really get to see them for about an hour a week when I sit by the windows while the receptionist has her lunch. (Except for special visitors who go straight to our office.)

And so, instead of the "window shopper, looking from the outside in," I feel like I’m a store window mannequin looking from the inside out. With eyes wide open on cute passersby. (Hahaha!) I used to think that Ateneo was full of eye candy. I get a dose here too.

Finally, I can find out about them as quickly as they can about me. They give me their application forms. They need to disclose everything and lying is punishable by law.

I felt like fish out of water this past weekend.

The fish was lying on soft white sheets and watching the bee on flat screen tv, but it missed its friends and hip environment.

They say that there are plenty of fish in the sea. Just throw us back in there.

I realize that nowadays, some 1,000 people know me more than I know them. It’s like I’ve had coffee with each of them, except they only heard about my way of thinking and learned about my way of living. These thousand people (who purchased the book in the past month), owe me their side of the story.

But because I have the book–the vehicle to talk to people just one-way, I can never catch up with all of them. I cannot reply to every email or answer every letter.Or send the emails and ask the questions. And often, I don’t really have to.

There is a fine line between a friend, a fan and a freak and it takes some time to decipher the areas. There is a thin line between being accessible and giving all access. But for us artists - whether photographers, filmmakers, actors, or writers - who need clients or followers to be ’successful,’ we must be out there, yet stay in here.

Sometimes, I feel like I got married at 22.

I chose to be with him, and miss him a lot when he’s not around me.  I give to him, and he gives to me. I receive from him, and he from me, the vigor of our spirits.

The thing is, a billion other people love him too. And they are not shy to shout it to the world with their shirts, mugs or mouths. They spend nights with him, dance with him and dream with him.

He takes all of us while we’re single and carefree. He makes us happy and makes our dreams come true.

And so, may I now proclaim that the feeling is mutual. NY heart me too.