|
By Sarah Baviera, Contributor
Gretchen Barretto never seems to run out of
steam, that is, as far as attracting controversies is concerned.
Reports from eyewitnesses have it that one
Sunday evening while Barretto was having dinner with a few friends
that included Ruffa Gutierrez and Pops Fernandez at one of the food
and beverage outlets of Hotel Dusit in the commercial district of
Makati, Barretto had an unpleasant experience of having her credit
card denied by the outlet food attendant.
The gist of the story goes like this: Barretto
gave her credit card to the waiter and when he returned to report
that the payment request was denied after he swiped the card several
times, Barretto tried to argue that it was simply impossible. The
waiter tried again but still got the same result.
Gutierrez volunteered to settle the bill and
Barretto finally gave in, hiding her embarrassment. After a few
minutes, Barretto’s longtime companion Tonyboy Cojuangco was
spotted rushing to the hotel where he had a private conversation
with the love of his life in a corner. Some witnesses swore that
Barretto raised her voice several times and her man looked very
upset.
At the press conference that the Belo Medical
group hosted for Gutierrez on Wednesday, the equally controversial
model-host-actress only had good words for her dear friend, saying
that the incident was not a big issue. “I do not want to be
accused that I am using Gretchen for publicity since this is my
press conference and she has nothing to do with the Belo brand. But
she is a dear friend and I want to clear the issue. Things happen,
and I don’t believe that anyone wants to attract controversy and
it’s no big deal that I was the one who paid. We are friends and
we should be there for each other, hindi ba?” The total bill
reportedly amounted to something less than P5,000, so it wasn’t
much for any of these high-earning celebrities to volunteer to
settle the amount.
Gutierrez added, “She always treats us, so I
see nothing wrong if I took care of our bill naman that time.” The
new Belo endorser kept mum about making comments regarding Cojuangco,
and simply said, “There were some stressful moments but everything
was settled peacefully and the people involved can even laugh about
the incident now since we are good friends naman. Grecthen’s fine,
everybody’s fine.”
Moral lesson: Always have some cash in your
wallet when treating your friends out, you’ll never know when the
machine will reject your card.
|
