MANILA, Philippines – “It was a dream come true”, Miss Philippines Shamcey Supsup exclaimed after entering the top 5 of the Miss Universe 2011 beauty pageant, and placing 3rd runner-up.

“I was so happy. I didn’t think that I would be actually part of 16 lang. I’m so happy and I owe it all to the Filipino people,” Supsup said in an interview.

This year’s Miss Universe title goes to Miss Angola Leila Lopes.

Miss Ukraine Olesya Stefanko was the first runner-up, Brazil’s Priscila Machado placed 2nd runner-up, Supsup placed third and China’s Luo Zilin was 4th runner-up.

Supsup ranked a place higher than her predecessor, Venus Raj, who was fourth runner-up in the 2010 pageant.

Supsup was topping the final fan rankings and was one of the strongest contestants in the competition.

In the crucial question and answer portion, American actress Vivica A. Fox asked Supsup, “Would you change your religious beliefs to marry the person you love? Why or why not?”

“If I had to change my religious beliefs, I would not marry the person that I love because the first person that I love is God who created me and I have my faith and my principles and this is what makes me who I am. And if that person loves me, he should love my God too,” Supsup answered.

Shamcey Gurrea Supsup was born on May 16, 1986 in General Santos City, the same town where world boxing icon, Manny Pacquiao came from.

She graduated magna cum laude from the University of the Philippines-Diliman with a degree in architecture. She also topped last year’s Architecture Licensure Examination.

Sexy Shamcey in the swimsuit round.

Most elegant candidate in evening gown competition.

Troubled soul singer Amy Winehouse was found dead in her North London flat yesterday in an “unexplained” death according to police officials. She was 27 years old.

Grammy award winning singer Winehouse sold more than five million records heralding across the globe with her Back to Black album. Her biggest hit single “Rehab” documented her battle with demons of drug and alcohol addictions.

Friends, fellow artists, and fans were all shocked and saddened with her sudden demised. Fans began to gather and lay flowers, candles and teddy bears at the police cordon outside her home in Camden, North London.

A London Ambulance Service spokeswoman told AFP that they were called to the scene at 3:54 pm (1454 GMT) and and arrived withing five minutes. Winehouse was already dead and was pronounced dead at the scene by Scotland Yard officers.

Winehouse joins a long list of great musicians who died too soon at age 27. They include Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Jim Morrison and Rolling Stone Brian Jones.

CALIFORNIA, USA – “Glee” creator Ryan Murphy told reporters that International Filipina singing sensation Charice Pempengco will not be returning to “Glee” Season 3.

According to media reports, Charice will not reprise her role as exchange student Sunshine Corazon in Glee’s upcoming 3rd season.

Murphy also added that the show will no longer have celebrity guests, and the show’s characters will be doing less singing.

Charice’s fans should not fret. She may no longer be in “Glee”, but the singer will still stick around in Hollywood. Her movie with Salma Hayek, “Here Comes The Boom”, is expected to hit theaters next year.

We heard about it a while ago while listening to a radio commentator in DZMM. Apparently, someone uploaded a short video clip showing on youtube showing Justin Bieber shoving off a CD copy of his album from a male NAIA employee who was trying to get his autograph.

“Justin Bieber, How Arrogant Can You Be” is the title of the YouTube video uploaded by a certain “V7Andrea”. The video has a short running time of 19 seconds showing the Canadian superstar singer entering his airplane.

Justin Bieber performing live in SM Mall of Asia in Manila Philippines

The video’s brief description narrates, “My father (in neon green vest) tried to get an autograph from Justin Bieber for my sister. But take a look on what he did. He tapped my father’s hand and the CD fell on the floor. Nobody from his crew helped him. Not even an apology from Justin Bieber himself. “Where are your manners now kiddo? I know you’re sick but you could’ve at least said sorry you are not signing anything. How could you do that to my father?”

The YouTube video gathered fast significant amount of mixed reactions and comments hours after it was uploaded online. Bieber die-hard fans are depending their idol saying Justin was feeling ill when he went to the Philippines and continued to perform despite his condition. On the other side, some are saying that this will leave a bad impression on the superstar and that he should always be a role model and be reminded that he owes his success to his fans.

Zynga confirmed and officially announced their huge co-branding social gaming promotional deal with Lady Gaga through their popular online game Farmville. Starting May 17 until May 26, 46 million Farmville players who manages virtual farms, harvest crops and raise livestocks will get a chance to explore a neighboring a limited edition farm called Gagaville.

AP photo – Lady Gaga poses during a press conference for her 'Born this way' album promotion.

Gagaville players will get exclusive access to unreleased songs from Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” album. These exclusive songs will al be available bundled with every purchase of a special $25 game card from Zynga. Players executing Gaga-themed quests in Gagaville will get a chance to unlock Clear Channel’s digital radio service, iHeartRadio, enabling them to stream these songs.

Lady Gaga will announce codes that will unlock Lady Gaga-inspired limited edition virtual items on 148 Clear Channel radio stations in the United States on May 17. Prior to its May 23 public release, Born This Way” has already spawned two singles, including the title track and the recently released “Judas.”

“I want to celebrate and share ‘Born This Way’ with my little monsters in a special way that’s never been done before,” Lady Gaga said in the press release. “Zynga has created a magical place in FarmVille where my fans can come play, and be the first to listen to the album.” She added.

This is not the first time social gaming giant Zynga and Lady Gaga have teamed up. Last March, these two gaming and entertainment icons partnered to raise more than $3 million relief efforts for Japan, with Lady Gaga donating $1.5 million to Zynga and the American Red Cross.

Australian based news website “The Australian” cited in an article by Emma Kate Symons a reaction from gender expert Carina Chotirawe from Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University‚ regarding the child abuse issue being accused to host Willie Revillame and his TV5 show “Willing Willie”.

Chotirawe said that having children act in a sexual manner is already a form of child abuse. “Depicting them in a sexualized manner is a form of child abuse and it is very worrying to see children appearing in such lewd ways.” Chotirawe also expressed her opinion directly about the TV5 show: “The Revillame show was despicable. It felt like he was prostituting poverty‚ making the poor pander to him for quick cash fixes‚ as he does on a daily basis‚ and never mind if it entails a kid being sexed up and crying as he [Jan-Jan] does so pitifully.”

Chotirawe even went on to say that Willie has been playing God. “Willie was acting like God‚ dispensing patronage to parents inured to the poverty they see as their lot in life—and if lewdness gets them instant cash‚ then so be it.”

Revillame’s “Willing Willie”, a variety and game show on Philippine television being aired daily on TV5, faces huge controversy after a six-year- old boy contestant named Jan Jan‚ did a “macho dance” live in front of million televiewers and live audiences on March 12 episode of the show. A macho dance is composed of lewd sexual gyrations usually associated with male performers in gay bars.

Host Willie Revillame was shown encouraging the child by having him repeat the dance at least five times and giving him P10,000 as cash prize. The live audience, which included Willie’s lawyer Boy Reyno, cheered.

The episode elicited passionate and angry reactions and complaints from private personalities, government functionaries and the public.

As of press time, the show has been suspended airing for two weeks and investigations by the Commission on Human Rights and the Movie Television Review and Classification Board are ongoing.

The issue has gone beyond local shores and articles in the foreign media have appeared.

Aside from “The Australian”, Washington Post also posted an article last April 11 tackling the subject. It quoted a post by Monique Wilson, a local and international stage actress who has appeared as the female lead in the play Ms. Saigon in London.

The article said, “Philippine-born theater actress Monique Wilson‚ in a widely circulated email carried by local media‚ argued that such TV shows ‘dumb down audiences (and) disempower them by creating a mendicant society with game shows that promise quick money.’”

Willing Willie’s camp are arguing that Jan-jan came to the show to audition, chose his own dance and performed it in his own free will, and did it so with consent from his parents.

The boy’s parents have also issued their own affidavits saying that they allowed the boy to dance in the program. The parents also filed a complaint for libel against child psychologist Ma. Lourdes Carnadang, a former senior consultant of the National Museum John Silva, and a blogger for allegedly showing that their son was a victim of child abuse and that they are condoning it.

Willing Willie episode showing full video of Jan-jan’s controversial “Macho Dance”

Pinay international singing sensation Charice Pempengco made it to the popular magazine and Hollywood online site Entertainment Weekly’s (ew.com) “11 to Watch in 2011″.

Charice is on the 9th spot and her photo cation reads: “YouTube, Ellen, and Oprah may have helped bring us this pint-size star with the powerhouse pipes, but the 18-year-old (last name: Pempengco) made her own splash on Glee’s season 2 premiere playing Sunshine Corazon. She’ll be back this spring to wow us.”

Entertainment Weekly is considered the “bible of the entertainment industry” and a Filipina to be included in their list is a great honor not only for the Philippine entertainment industry but for the whole Filipino nation.

Among those who made it on the list together with Charice were actress Rooney Mara (No. 1) who played Jesse Eisenberg’s girllfriend in “The Social Network”; Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (No. 3), Shia LaBeouf’s latest leading lady in the newest Transformers movie “Dark of the Moon”; actor Tom Hardy (No. 5) of Inception; and singer Sky Ferreira (No. 11).

Here’s ew.com’s complete list of “11 to watch in 2011″:

No. 1 — Rooney Mara (25, actress) – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
No. 2 — Adam Scott (actor) – Parks and Recreation
No. 3 — Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (23, actress) – Transformers: Dark of the Moon
No. 4 — James Newman (18, actor) – Skins
No. 5 — Tom Hardy (33, actor) – The Dark Knight Rises, This Means War, and Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
No. 6 — Daniel Sunjata (39, actor) Grey’s Anatomy, One for The Money
No. 7 — Wiz Khalifa (23, rapper) – ”Black and Yellow”
No. 8 — Michael Fassbander (33, actor) – Jane Eyre, Haywire, X-Men: First Class
No. 9 — Charice (18, singer) – Glee Season 2
No. 10 — Alex Pettyfer (20, model turned actor) – I Am Number Four, Beastly, Now
No. 11 — Sky Ferreira (18, singer) – ”17” and ”One”

Placed as fourth runner up in the Ms. Universe competition on August 23, 2010 in Las Vegas,  is from our very own  Camarines Sur,  Ms. Philippines Maria Venus Raj who almost had the crown with Mexico’s Jimena Navarrete who emerged the title.  Jamaica’s Yendi Phillips got the 1st runner up title, while Australia’s Jesinta Campbell and Ukraine’s Anna Poslavska are 2nd and 3rd runners up respectively.  As I watch all the candidates ramped along the stage, I would say, everyone was stunningly beautiful.  Good job to the Ms. Universe Committee around the world!

About our candicate,  Maria Venus Bayonito Raj (born July 7, 1988) is a Filipina-Indian beauty queen who was crowned Binibining Pilipinas Universe on March 06, 2010 during the pageant’s Grand Coronation Night at the Araneta Coliseum.  She represented the Republic of the Philippines in the Miss Universe 2010 beauty pageant.

Congratulations to our dear Venus Raj!  You made us all proud of you! Every time “Ms. Philippines” is called, I would stand and jump from my bed.  She stood out the rest of the beautiful candidates in Ms. Universe Pageant, though I like Ms. Thailand too.  We expect to see more of her on screen and media wide.  We have produced another beauty queen!

Another car accident took lives including Bb. Pilipinas International 2009 Melody Gersbach yesterday morning, August 21, 2010 in Bula, Camarines Sur.  Melody Gersbach was on her way to Pili from Legazpi City – she sits as Chair of the Ms Bicolandia Committee and was doing work for the group. There were 4 passengers in the car: Melody Gersbach, Alden Orense, Melody’s make-up artist and fashion designer,  and the driver who all died on the spot, while the fourth passenger, Ronald Lita, also a fashion designer survived and was brought to a local hospital in Bicol and is still in critical condition.  According to reports, Melody Gersbach was on her way to a final screening for Miss Bicolandia.  The wake for Melody Gersbach will be at Lignon Funeral Homes in Legazpi City.  We plea to all road Drivers to please drive in full care because road accidents is taking too much lives nowadays.

Redford White, one of the favorites in the comedy field, passed away today (Sunday, July 25) at his home at 6:47 a.m.  from brain cancer.  His wake is at his residence at Maligaya Park Subdivision, Fairview, Quezon City.  White, whose real name is Cipriano Cermeno, was 54.  He appeared in numerous TV shows and movies when he became visible as the canteen helper of the late Bing Angeles’ character Mang Temi in the 1980s sitcom “Iskul Bukol.”  In the late 1980s, he became more popular being Eric Quizon’s comical friend in “Buddy en Sol,” which also had a movie adaptation.  His biggest blockbuster films were those he made opposite the late Babalu in the 1990s.  Condolences to the family and friends of Redford.