Albie Casiño and Dawn Balagot’s fingers were intertwined when they stepped out of My Cinema in Greenbelt 3, Makati City last Monday night, July 16.

But they quickly let go when they realized they were about to be interviewed.

PEP.ph (Philippine Entertainment Portal) was one of the select members of the press invited to the advanced screening of the Cinemalaya entry titled The Animals.

Dawn is Albie’s leading lady in this indie film. She is a TV commercial/print ad model who was previously paired with John Prats in ABS-CBN’s 2009 comedy series Parekoy.

When Albie was asked if they are exclusively dating, he did not answer immediately. Albie first consulted his rumored girlfriend Dawn who was standing nearby.

And then he replied ambiguously, “Uhm, I guess.”

In a separate interview with PEP.ph that same night, Dawn was evasive: “I’m not going to say I’m single…no comment na lang.”

What does he like most about Dawn?

“She laughs at all my jokes. She acts like one of my friends lang. That's what I really like about her,” admitted Albie, who is the ex-boyfriend of ABS-CBN actress Andi Eigenmann.

Did his relationship with Andi overlap with his closeness with Dawn?

"No. I just met Dawn recently. Not naman recently but wala na kami ni Andi nun,” he said.

How did he and Dawn become close?

“When you're with someone for that amount of time, you really become close. With Dawn naman, it was different... Kahit siguro wala kami sa movie, we'd get along also.”

What if people criticize him by saying that it took him just a short time to move on from his previous relationship?

Albie stressed: “Well, it's been over a year already.”