Cager Ricci Rivero seems to be on the warpath, dropping bombshells everywhere.

Like a loose cannon, the basketball player has been issuing various revelations recently in an attempt to ward off the bad publicity generated by his admission that he and Laguna councilor Leren Bautista are now a couple (after previously denying it).

In a recent face-saving act, he revealed to DJ Jhai Ho that former GF Andrea Brillantes went to his condo a couple of times asking for a reconciliation, but Rivero said he turned her down.

"Pumupunta siya ng condo ko nang madaling-araw ilang beses for what? Para makipagbalikan. Nag-yes ba ako? Hindi, kasi ayoko na and sinabi ko 'yan sa kanya paulit-ulit, so I am the bad person here for not publicly telling everyone that I am single," Rivero said. 

(She would come to my condo during the wee hours how many times, for what? To ask for a reconciliation. Did I say yes? No, because I no longer wanted to and I already told her that many times, so I am the bad person here for not publicly telling everyone that I am single).

Brillantes, he added, "asked me not to let people know muna kasi baka masira ang image niya. Tapos nung hindi ako pumayag makipagbalikan, sisiraan na ako bigla (She asked me not to tell people at first because her image might be affected. Then when I refused to reconcile with her, I was attacked.)"

Rivero maintained that he was quiet all along and "never akong pumatol sa kanila kahit sa lahat ng pagpaparinig nila (I never responded to them despite all their talk)."

"We all know who she's pertaining to sa mga tweets niya from the very start. Nag-reply ako kasi sumosobra na sila… Pero hindi ako nagsasalita kasi hindi ako yung tao para manira (I only replied because they were over the line…  But I usually don't talk because I don't like tearing others down)."

Pia Wurtzbach's fictional alter-ego

Cleo, the character in Pia Wurtzbach's novel Queen of the Universe, is just like her in some ways. But she maintains that she's still a different personality from her.

"It's fiction, but it's loosely based on my life," Wurtzbach declared during the book launch recently.

"The first few chapters, it sounds like Pia. Cleo, like Pia, lives with her mom and her sister. She has a dad who is a famous director and she is navigating her way in the industry. She's trying modeling, she's trying acting. It's not working and then she gets into pageants. So it sounds very familiar. But then as you read through the chapters, you realize that, okay, this is Pia, or this is not Pia."

Wurtzbach said she is overjoyed to be able to write the book. "It gives me room to play around with the storyline and to make it dramatic as I want it to be."

"I can give her a love interest. Maybe wala (maybe none). Maybe nag-aaway sila, maybe hindi.  Baka magkatuluyan sila, baka hindi. (They may be fighting or not, or end up together or not). Maybe she wants the crown, maybe she doesn't want the crown. So I could play around with how the story would go," she said.

"Cleo is very stubborn.  She doesn't give up. She knows what she wants. To make it, she proves herself to the industry, to her dad and that she has what it takes and she really has a goal. I think that's where we're aligned," Wurtzbach added.

Still, there are many things that are different between Cleo and her creator.

"I think ang differences namin is she makes a few mistakes along the way.  In her pursuit of success,  she will have to make some decisions in her love life. Hindi ako relate doon kasi masaya naman ako (I can't relate to that because I am happy at the moment)," shared the former Miss Universe.

Wurtzbach revealed that the book was conceptualized in 2019, "but then we decided to put it on hold because we wanted to be able to go through a proper book tour, do promotions for it, to be able to do this face-to-face and be able to talk to you about it."

The waiting proved to be a blessing in disguise, because "we were able to really fine-tune everything and make sure that everything was what I wanted it to be. It also gave us a few pairs of foreign eyes to give us a different perspective and advice on how to really make it more international. Parang how it could also be attractive to the international market," she said.

After winning the Miss Universe crown in 2015, Wurtzbach already knew what she wanted to do.

"I actually had a list of things I wanted to do after the crown and this was one of them. Under 'book,' may tatlo pang idea (there were three more ideas).  I will still do the others so I'm claiming it. I want to do a look book and a self-help book [after] the novel," she said.

The book launch was celebratory as Wurtzbach was proclaimed National Book Store's bestselling author for her debut novel Queen of the Universe. The launch also coincided with the opening at Shangri-La Fort of a new branch of the Center of Advanced Dentistry or CAD Clinic, which she endorses.