Gretchen Barretto, who has just come under fire for what has been called "prima donna" behavior, is talking back.
In an interview with PEP and YES! at the Holiday Inn in Ortigas Center, Pasig City, at four o'clock in the afternoon of November 23, the actress said she is very "hurt" by the prima donna tag. A prima donna is, according to the Merriam-Webster website, "a vain or undisciplined person who finds it difficult to work under direction or as part of a team."
At least one broadsheet and two tabloid columnists, plus a contributing writer for this website, have picked up the latest buzz on Gretchen, who is, admittedly, a magnet for gossip. Possibly because of her looks, which are considered extraordinary even by local showbiz standards, and her long-term relationship with a millionaire businessman with whom she has a daughter, Gretchen is often the subject of controversial prattle that go the rounds of dinner tables.
GRETCHEN ACCUSED OF SHOWING OFF. The prattle revolves around Gretchen's supposed behavior on the set of a recent commercial shoot where she appears as a celebrity endorser along with Ruffa Gutierrez, Dawn Zulueta, and Angel Aquino.
One columnist printed what she said was an email sent to her deriding how Gretchen practically brought her whole house to the shoot. It read: "As in, everyone was complaining kasi lahat halos ng gamit sa bahay dinala sa set just to show off her Louis Vuitton luggage. Gustong talbugan ang mga kasamahan niya!"
The website contributor wrote: "Apparently, Dawn was peeved with Gretchen's prima donna attitude when they were doing the pictorial...[Gretchen] arrived with a coterie of alalays, three yayas, and five bodyguards. She also came daw with a bag full of beauty products, all of them imported." The contributor added: "When La Greta got hungry, she asked her yaya to boil soup for her. And what do you know? She brought her own microwave to the studio. She also asked for fruits, with each fruit stacked in an expensive plastic container."
GRETCHEN FEELING HURT. In yesterday afternoon's PEP and YES! interview, Gretchen talks back for the first time.
The 37-year-old actress says, her voice calm but her words rolling fast, "I'm not fighting with anyone. I don't want to have enemies. I like to be happy and I like people around me to be happy. I admit I got emotional about this in the beginning when I first heard about it, but I'm over that. More than anything, I am hurt. That's the feeling I have now. I'm hurt."
She goes on, "First of all, I don't think the mole knows what the meaning of prima donna is. When I accept a project, I come to the set ready. Everything I need, I have prepared. I have special food [atis, papaya] because I'm on a special diet to keep my weight [down]. I bring these in Gourdo's plastic boxes. They're just plastic, what's the big deal? ...I feel I don't have to explain why I have a microwave! It's only around two thousand pesos. That's just for heating my soup! What's so prima donna about that?"
On the contrary, the comebacking actress argues, she makes life easy for the people she works with. "I know I have my needs, so I don't bother others with them. A prima donna is someone who does. A prima donna is someone who demands that she is given fruits and soup and whatever. I don't!"
GRETCHEN'S LOUIS VUITTONS. Saying that she has been bringing her Louis Vuittons to her shoots for years, Gretchen asks, "What's the big deal? I happen to have Louis Vuittons. These are maletas and bags. Di ko sila 'pinagmamalaki. I just have them. I put my clothes and shoes and makeup in them. These are things I need for the shoot.
"I know that my public expects me to look good, and I believe I deliver. In all my shoots, they [magazines, advertising agencies] text me the requirements for my shoot, and I come with more than what they asked for. I don't want anyone to say, ‘She's a prima donna and she didn't bring this and she didn't bring that.'"
She adds, "As far as my clothes, shoes, accessories, how much makeup I bring... whatever it is, hindi ko ninakaw yun. Those are gifts. Those are my things. I don't feel the need to apologize or to explain to anybody why I have them."
The brouhaha over the "branded clothes" and "three suitcases filled with branded shoes" that Gretchen brought to the shoot has her feeling hurt, she says, because this is so new to her. "I've been doing pictorials for many years," she says, wide-eyed. "I always bring this much. Nobody ever complained before. Nobody ever reacted violently like this before. I don't know why. I don't know what to think. But I am hurt-that's the feeling I have."
YAYAS AND BODYGUARDS. Gretchen also says she doesn't understand why there should be such a fuss about the "coterie" of people who travel with her. "People know that I travel with yayas and bodyguards. I don't deny that. So what's new? They say five bodyguards. I don't even know how many really. Or how many yayas I have. I just don't understand. The bodyguards are strictly bodyguards. They didn't play with my makeup. The ones who played with my makeup are the baklas, who have been working with me for a long time."
