Catty Kitty

I read Kitty Go's 'When Chic Hits the Fan' last weekend and was absorbed by the glamorous and not so glamorous side of the rich and famous. My brother and I took turns guessing the who's who in our local social scene that served as target practice for catty Kitty. We came up with the following list [warning to those who have not yet read the book, this will pre-empt your own 'guess who' which is the best part of reading Chic Hits the Fan]:

1. Ned and Nicky Nivera are the Ocampos. We had a difficult time guessing this, but when the author mentioned boutique hotels and a restaurant whose menu was patterned after Margarita Fores' signature style, we figured Sari-sari/Anonymous (boutiques, not hotels) and Kitchen.

2. Alicia Santos-Daniels is Anton San Diego. We knew that the magazine Go was describing where her nemesis took the helm as editor-in-chief could only be Tatler (Go's 'Philippine Social Register'). Plus the initials are definitely a perfect fit. We wonder if the story of Santos-Daniels getting it on with a foreigner who collapsed on her/him is fact or fiction.

3. One half of the lesbian couple-friends of Alicia Santos-Daniels could only be Jamby Madrigal. Go used a character whose initials were MJ, and hinted this was a manor-born society lesbo. We had heard of hints about Madrigal's tendencies which did not stop even after she got married to that French royalty who, per the same sources, is really a regular blue collar guy.

We have yet to guess the other half of the couple, although the initials could be GA or AG if the thinly-veiled story in the book is to be believed.

4. The bomba-star who married her Chinoy prince despite the protests of the guy's father who was her former 'customer' along with his golf buddies is none other than Nanette Medved, now married to Chris Po. The description 'Essex girl' was a big help, although we knew for a fact she finished a course in Benilde so she couldn't be as 'masa' as Go depicted her, who said she opted for restaurants 'na walang masyadong kubyertos'.

5. The beautiful young star who had a herd for an entourage in one of Go's interviews is Claudine Barretto. The smoking part we already read in the Inquirer.

6. Ms. Concert Diva who slept when she should have been in a photo shoot is Pops Fernandez. The mom, whose initials were LD (reversed Dulce Lukban), was a dead giveaway.

7. The celebrity with beautiful skin that was the only thing going for her with the exception of a handsome actor for a husband is Lucy Torres. We figured the husband part and got the girl.

Of course the other 'cloaked' celebrities mentioned in passing, i.e., Sharon Cuneta, and Kris Aquino, were easy to spot.

If only for the absorbing guessing game the reader will find himself taking part of, the book is a good buy. Nevermind the labels that dominate each page, or the pretentious self-effacing remarks by the author ('We had a car without airconditioning when I was in grade school...').