Vanessa Minnillo is also a pasaway

Ricky Lo



Like Gretchen Barretto (now in Stanford, California, to keep her beloved Tonyboy Cojuangco company while he’s being treated for a throat ailment), the uncrowned Pasaway ng Bayan, Fil-Am starlet Vanessa Minnillo (Nick Lachey’s current squeeze) is building an image of being America’s newest pasaway.

So Gretchen was caught by a cellphone camera in an embarrassing smooching act with (rumored “secret lover”) John Estrada? That’s mild compared to what Vanessa has reportedly done.

Here’s the report from Funfare’s New York correspondent Edmund Silvestre (news editor of The Filipino Reporter):

What in the world is happening to Vanessa Minnillo, that gorgeous and talented Fil-Am girl everyone used to adore—a 2000 Miss Teen USA (from South Carolina), former host of MTV’s TRL and ex-correspondent for Entertainment Tonight (ET)?

Vanessa, 26, is the latest celebrity to have been captured in the nude by the papparazis as she spent a romantic vacation with boyfriend Nick Lachey, 33, in sunny Puerto Vallarta in Mexico. The photos, which appeared in Life & Style magazine with the delicate parts “censored,” show the couple stripping down to nothing for a romantic dip in the steamy jacuzzi.

“If you think this is juicy, wait until the uncensored snaps hit the Net,” says one write-up.

People close to Vanessa say there is nothing she will do to get famous and this is just one of those “career moves.”

There have been speculations that she did it on purpose to get media attention to further her career, which is something that Britney Spears, Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan have all been accused of. Vanessa, however, is the only one who has been snapped completely naked.

Just recently, a photo of Vanessa and Lindsay Lohan playing with kitchen knives came out — with Lindsay holding the knife against Vanessa’s throat.

Vanessa, a one-time squeeze of Yankee captain Derek Jeter, is also “quickly gaining a reputation for her diva-like behavior at work and hard partying outside the studio,” according to reports.

The New York Post, in a recent article on Page Six, reports that while friends of Minnillo insist it was she who decided not to renew her contract with “ET,” insiders say her bosses at CBS Paramount soured on her when she covered the Grammys in February.

The Post sources say when producers flew Vanessa to Los Angeles to cover the Grammys, “she was extremely high maintenance” and insisted they fly her own hair and makeup people and her personal assistant out with her every time she flew to L.A. She only flew first class and stayed at the Four Seasons, and then she didn’t want to work, the sources say.

“Vanessa wants to be a celebrity, not interview them,” one source tells The Post. “She wouldn’t conduct post-show interviews because she wanted to party. She expected to be paid a full-time salary for a part-time job.”

Page Six also says it spotted Vanessa at one of the fall fashion shows “changing seats for 15 minutes until she was satisfied. She’s been known to bark orders at cocktail waitresses and cause scenes when she goes club hopping at night.”

A rep for Vanessa denied any “diva behavior” and told Page Six, “She chose to leave ‘ET’ because her contract ended. This is the first I’ve heard about any bad behavior.”

Vanessa and Nick moved in together in April 2007 (they share pads in L.A.’s Bel Air and NYC’s Atelier condominium) and have reportedly been talking about walking down the aisle.

Born at Clark Air Base in Angeles City, Pampanga to a U.S. Air Force father who is of Italian and Irish descent, and a Filipino mother, Helen Berecero, Vanessa is a favorite cover girl of Maxim magazine and has a role in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, still in theaters. She hosted the Miss Universe Pageant 2007 and the Miss Teen USA 2004.

Since her exit from MTV and Entertainment Tonight, she was featured in a print and web-based advertising campaign for BONGO Jeans’ Spring/Summer 2007 collection, as well as becoming the spokesperson and creating the launch of “Flirt! Cosmetics” line, debuting in August 2007.
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