A Repost From Gerry Plaza

Being ‘bitter’ on Twitter

By Gerry Plaza – May 31st, 2010

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Showbiz Eye by Gerry Plaza
Special to Yahoo! Southeast Asia

Celebrity catfights come dime a dozen.

As such, it was really not totally unexpected that these face-offs reach the social networking site Twitter which most Pinoy celebrities consider their virtual hang out. Aside from the usual exchange of updates and status messages, they band together over interests, network affiliations, or, quite interestingly, their experiences in romantic relationships.

One controversial “Twitter group” that emerged in the recent weeks was one named “Ampalaya Anonymous,” named after the bitter-tasting vegetable describing the members purported ill-fated romances.

If you are a female celebrity, single, somewhat prominent in the biz, and quite known for being “bitter” about your love life, welcome to this group.

Members of this group are quite unsurprising, given the popularity, and notoriety of their romantic tales. Following Rich Asuncion, Cristine Reyes, Bianca King, Bubbles Paraiso, Glaiza de Castro, Maxene Magalona, and Angel Locsin on Twitter would yield admirable tweets of support and compassion of each other’s predicaments. Above all, they found allies.

But the “alliance” can rear its ugly head. There were recent tweets from members of the group that referred to another female celebrity who may not be as bitter as the rest of the bunch. Pauleen Luna had her share of heartbreaks, i.e. Diether Ocampo’s denials and Sherwin Gatchalian’s political commitments, but they did not lead to a bitterness that needed a Twitter group. The young actress became the alleged subject of nasty tweets from Ampalaya Anonymous. These chirping brickbats came about after Pauleen was linked to Survivor Philippines’ Survivor JC Tiuseco in entertainment gossip columns. Incidentally, JC is Maxene’s ex-boyfriend.

In a statement she made earlier this month, Pauleen revealed how these tweets affected her. “I would be hypocrite to say that there’s no issue at all. But let’s not drag their group (into this) because it would be unfair for the others. I’ve kept quiet since because I believe that this issue is so degrading. If some of them are denying, okay. Besides, I’m too blessed. I’ll just leave it all up to God.”

But in true showbiz fashion, these Ampalaya Anonymous members have all denied “ganging up” on Pauleen. In separate television interviews, they’ve either denied mentioning Pauleen in their tweets, much less discussed the topic.

“We’re all very decent and educated girls and never kaming magpapatalo sa Twitter or magne-namedrop or anything like that. So I think mali rin na mag-assume kung sinuman,” says Bianca. The actress also clarified that their online exchanges came about spur of the moment. “It’s not a group. It’s not a club. It’s not against anybody or anything. It’s just something na pinag-usapan namin ng isang gabi.”

Glaiza adds: “May mga hirit kami na sa amin lang. Kami lang ang nagkakaintindihan. May mga inside jokes kasi kami, e, na kapag nakita ng iba, baka isipin, ‘Ano ‘to?”

And, as Rich says: “Nami-misinterpret lang nila.”

Maxene remained mum on the controversy. But her mom Pia had been vocal about the issue. “I think other people are trying to provoke siguro my children, Maxene in particular…to say something nasty…she’s not really the easiest person to affect so she takes everything with a grain of salt. She’s friendly with everyone.”

Whether it is a deliberate attack or harmless, misconstrued banter, celebrities should learn the intricacies of technology and social media—nothing is private. And, a very memorable teaching our parents always tell us, adapted to this age of social networking: if you have nothing good to tweet, just zip it.

Photos courtesy of GMA

Gerry Plaza is on Twitter at @gerryplaza. And, he is not bitter. You can e-mail Gerry at gerry-showbizeye@yahoo.com

Reposted From Gerry Plaza