Michael Copon, Cher Calvin, Camile Velasco in LA fundraiser

LOS ANGELES, Calif.—Michael Copon, Cher Calvin, Dante Basco, Camile Velasco, Kelly Hu and other Filipino-American talents graced a recent benefit dinner held to raise funds for several child abuse facilities in the Philippines.
   
Fil-Am Gina Alexander, whose photo handbags are used by celebrities from Jennifer Lopez to Elizabeth Taylor and have been featured in Elle, People, Vogue Italy and other magazines, hosted the event with Hope worldwide Philippines, which runs a model child welfare and protection system for underprivileged Filipino children. Twin Palms, a restaurant in Pasadena, California, owned by Kevin and Cindy Costner until they split, was the place to be last weekend for news-making Filipinos.
   

Heartaches
These personalities came in support of Gina, whose personal heartaches spur her philanthropic efforts. After an ectopic pregnancy that nearly ended in death for Gina while in surgery and the loss of the baby she was carrying and other subsequent failures to have a child through in vitro, adoption and surrogacy methods, she and her husband, Richard, were finally able to adopt a baby, Katelyn Alexander, through Hope for Children, a sister organization of Hope worldwide.
   
Katelyn, now 5, has been a blessing to Gina, who saw her bag business grow from a garage operation with one simple kiosk outlet to a multimillion-dollar business.
   
She donates a percentage of every handbag sold from her line to help fund the Center of Hope in Biñan, Laguna, Baseco, Manila and Payatas, Quezon City. Proceeds from the annual benefit event, now on its second year, go to these child welfare protection shelters.
   
Michael and Cher alternately introduced the evening’s philanthropic awardees: apl.de.ap (also known as Allan Pineda of the Black Eyed Peas), who sent a representative to accept his award for establishing his own foundation to help folks in his home province of Pampanga; Sipa (Search to Involve Pilipino Americans), a leader for almost three decades in serving the Filipino-American community, with a comprehensive program that includes developing affordable housing and providing social and economic services to families in LA’s historic Filipinotown; Hope worldwide, and World Emergency Relief.
   
Earlier, on the red carpet, the celebrities filled us in on the latest in their careers and lives. Michael, who plays a lead role in the upcoming “The Scorpion King: Rise of the Akkadian,” shared with us some of his misadventures in South Africa, where he recently filmed the action movie. The actor, who played Felix Taggaro on the TV series, “One Tree Hill,” is set to shoot “A Forgotten Innocence,” a drama with fellow Fil-Ams, Anna Maria Perez de Tagle (Sylvia La Torre’s granddaughter, who plays Ashley Dewitt on TV’s “Hannah Montana”), Andre Boyer, Esperanza Catubig and Giovannie Pico.
   
But, what brought an extra twinkle to Michael’s eyes is the possibility of having Tia Carrere as his “hot, sexy mom” and Don Johnson as his dad in another future project, which he said will be a fictional story about a pioneering boy band.
   
Michael co-emceed the evening’s entertainment with Cher, who was charming and good-humored, as usual. The member of the Emmy Award-winning “KTLA Morning News” team laughed out loud when asked about her cameo in “Hancock,” a movie starring Will Smith and Charlize Theron.
   
Cher filmed a scene where she plays a news anchor—which caused her to chuckle because, as she noted, it wasn’t a stretch. This levelheaded daughter of former Sampaguita Pictures actor, Roger Calvin, was smiling when she stated that she may have spoken too soon about her scene in the film. “My name is not on IMDb’s cast list for ‘Hancock,’” she explained.
   
Cameo
We’re still hoping that Cher’s cameo didn’t end up on the editing room floor. She sat down beside Roger, who looked as debonair as ever, as dinner was about to be served.
   
Arriving late were Dante and Dion Basco, two of the four noted acting brothers (the other two are Darion and Derek). We recently saw Dion in “All About Walken: The Impersonators of Christopher Walken,” a play showcasing nine actors paying the ultimate tribute to the great actor.
In one scene, Dion portrays a mini-skirted Filipina in a cab with Christopher and Robert De Niro. Imagine that. The play brought fond memories of the late Louie Camino, who was PDI’s entertainment editor and was the world’s No. 1 fan of Walken.
   
Dante told us about going to the Philippines and filming an American movie, “Subject: I Love You,” a love story set amidst the computer virus attack in 2000, spread by e-mails containing that subject line, which seriously affected computer operations around the world, and even crippled some governments and major businesses.
   
According to Dante, he got to work on the film with Jericho Rosales and Gary Valenciano, so he was looking forward to watching the latter’s concert tonight, Saturday (June 7), at the Nokia Theatre in LA. Also in the cast are Briana Evigan, Lauren Bittner and Dean Cain, who has done many other challenging roles, but is still best known for his breakthrough role as Superman/Clark Kent in the ’90s TV series, “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.”
   
Dean has been quoted in an interview as saying that “Subject: I Love You” is “loosely based on that (computer virus outbreak), and it becomes a love story between an American girl and a Filipino boy, and I am a bad guy trying to thwart all of this crazy love stuff. I love playing a bad guy and—it was fun to stay in the Philippines for awhile…”
   
At dinner, Sipa board member Benito Miranda, who received the award on behalf of the organization with executive director Joel Jacinto (fondly introduced as “the only Filipino with green eyes”), spoke proudly about Natasha, his stepdaughter with singer Becca Godinez.
   
Natasha had just performed with her band at LA’s legendary rock venue, Viper Room. When Benito called the equally proud Becca, who was unable to attend, on his cell phone, we congratulated her on Natasha’s Viper Room appearance.
   
First solo concert
Leading the night’s entertainment was Lara Avengoza, whom we’ve seen blossom from a little girl into a confident, radiant young woman who will have her first solo concert on June 28 at the Celebrity Center in Hollywood and is working on her debut album. Also surprising us with her new sexy, glam look was “American Idol” finalist Camile Velasco. We didn’t recognize her at all! The makeover suited Camile very well, especially onstage when she accompanied herself on guitar.
   
Other performers and presenters included actress and former Miss Teen USA, Kelly Hu; the cast of Disneyland’s live “High School Musical 2” show—Evan Saucedo, Eddie Kaulukukui and Jenny Schoone; Monica Parales; Chilli of TLC and a surprise band featuring Rodel Gonzalez (formerly of Side A), Matthew and Moses Edralin, Richard Alexander, Jolly Jean Lee and Liesl Henry.
   
Janie Hendrix, sister of the late, great Jimi Hendrix, who went with her friend, Gina, to visit the Center of Hope Village in the Philippines, donated a jacket from the Jimi Hendrix Limited Edition line to the auction.
Next up in LA: The University of the Philippines Madrigal Singers, which have swept the     world’s most prestigious choral competitions, are performing at the Aratani Japan America Theatre on June 16 at 8 p.m. A preconcert reception featuring cuisine by renowned chef, Cecilia de Castro, who helped produce recipes for Wolfgang Puck’s show on the Food Network, is scheduled.  (inquirer.net)

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