Two Lindsays sizzle in Tinseltown

There must be something in the name “Lindsay” that makes it suddenly sizzle in this “merry month of May” in Pinoy showbiz.

It’s a rare name for Filipinos, but there are at least two Lindsays now lording it over in entertainment websites and dime-a-dozen video postings of showbiz-loving Pinoy netizens.

One Lindsay de Vera is the subject of GMA 7’s hottest actor-host Dingdong Dantes’ burning denial as someone with whom he allegedly fathered a child. Dantes mouthed his denial on Boy Abunda’s Fast Talk on Thursday (9 May).

But, no, Marian Rivera’s husband didn’t deny knowing this Lindsay. Avid Kapuso network fans also know for a fact that Dantes and de Vera appeared together in the series Pare Koy in 2015 and Alyas Robin Hood, Alyas Robin Hood 2 from 2016 to 2017. De Vera wasn’t Dantes’ leading lady in all three shows. She was practically a starlet at that time.

In 2018, she appeared in Victor Magtanggol and The Better Woman in 2019.

De Vera started in showbiz as a child actor using her real name Lindt Johnston. She’s half-British.

Her contract with GMA 7 ended in 2020, and it was at that time that it started going around that she already had a toddler. At that time, she was busy with modelling assignments on ramp and in commercials.

“How could I have gotten pregnant secretly while appearing in Victor Magtanggol and afterwards in The Better Woman,” she reasoned out in an interview that year.

The nasty chatter reportedly went on and off on social media, prompting de Vera in February 2021 to threaten to bring to court anyone who would accuse her of unwed motherhood of a child allegedly fathered by Dantes. She also admitted that she has been quietly dating Ken Kedrick, an indie actor, since 2020.

The dates included going to the gym together. And to prove that her body had never experienced pregnancy, she posted pictures of her with Kendrick and both of them in body-hugging gym outfits.

The biting posts about her alleged single motherhood stopped. Dantes didn’t bother with any of the stuff about sowing his wild oats.

But, in August 2022, De Vera decided to re-join showbiz by signing a two-year contract with AQ Prime, an indie company which at that time wanted to go full blast by making films for digital screening. The issue about her giving birth to a child with Dantes was re-born.

She seems have not done any film with AQ Prime but her boyfriend did two: Adonis X at Taong Grasa

This 2024, the alleged existence of a child fathered by Dantes got another round of birthing — courtesy of Boy Abunda’s Fast Talk. When the lead actor of Rewind, the country’s all-time top-grossing film since last year, with wife Marian Rivera as the lead actress, accepted the guesting stint, he was given an inkling that his alleged offspring with de Vera would be taken up. For the sake of his wife and their two children, Dantes bit the hook.

Dantes mightily intoned to Abunda and the multitude of viewers: “I have a responsibility sa aking pamilya (to my family) to clear up things like this.

“I love my wife, I love my family very much, my kids. That’s why I’m saying that it is not true.

“Sa totoo lang, noong una pinagtatawanan lang naman namin ‘to, kami ni Marian (Honetly, Marian and I would simply laugh this off before).

“Pero dumating na nga rin sa punto na marami nang nakakapanood [sa mga naglalabasang video]. Siyempre, natural lang din na may magtatanong sa akin (But it did come to a point when more and more people were seeing the videos coming out).

“Kaya, yeah, once and for all, I’m clarifying na hindi siya totoo (that it is not true).”

He further pronounced, out of kindness: “I really have no idea kung saan nanggagaling ang lahat ng ito (where all this is coming from).

“Mahirap magbigay ng mga espekulasyon tungkol diyan. Dahil, sa totoo lang, first time ko na mapunta sa ganitong sitwasyon (It would be difficult to offer any speculations on this matter. Becuasde, in truth, this is my first time to be embroiled in this kind of situation).”

But it’s actually not the first time that Dantes has been subjected to speculation about unwed and un-owned fatherhood. In the early 2000s, he was rumored to have fathered a son with girlfriend actor Antoinette Taus, his girlfriend for a long time when they were both Kapuso actors.

They were among the hottest love teams in the 90s though they broke up sometime in 2011 when GMA 7 gave Dantes a new love interest, who also became his real-life girlfriend: Karylle Tatlonghari, daughter of actor-singer Zsa Zsa Padilla with estranged dentist husband, Modesto Tatlong Hari.

Like Lindsay, Taus began her showbiz career as a child actor. She was one of the most popular child stars in the Philippines. She starred in numerous TV shows in the 1990s, including the iconic Ang TV on ABS-CBN, Oki Doki Doc (top-billes by Aga Muhlach, also on ABS-CBN) and Anna Karenina, a Sunday teleserye that aired in GMA 7 from 1996 to 2002.

Taus once explained that in 2001, all her projects ended simultaneously, so she decided to try her luck in the US – not to conceal her supposed pregnancy.

“And I was like, ‘Grabe, pumunta lang naman ako ng States kasi may pangarap din ako (Goodness, I just went to the United States because I also have a dream),” she was quoted as saying.

Antoinette also revealed that she decided to stay in the US with her brother Tom because their mother was diagnosed with cancer after they moved there.

Dantes confirmed that he and Taus broke up in March 2011 and that he and Karylle started going steady in April.

No, Taus never got pregnant by Dantes. And she seems to have remained single and childless. She comes and goes to the Philippines. She seems to have had no break in Hollywood.

The other Lindsay

Meanwhile, the other Lindsay being talked about these days is surnamed in showbiz as “Custodio.” She was a popular teen actress from the 90s and she has made a surprising return to showbiz limelight with the explosive announcement: she intends to file a lawsuit against her current spouse, a certain Frederick Cale.

This Lindsay first appeared on TV in the hit variety show That’s Entertainment, headed by the late German “Kuya Germs” Moreno. But she reportedly became a household name in 1992, when she joined the children the youth-oriented variety show Ang TV.

She was in the cast of the hit macho show Palibhasa, Lalake on ABS-CBN for a few years in the mid-90s and also hosted the Sunday musical variety show ASAP almost in the same years.

She also appeared in several movies that had musical numbers, such as Hataw Na! and “Ang TV: the Movie. She had two music albums.

She married in 2000 former Tanauan, Batangas Vice Mayor Julius Caesar Platon II, but the man passed due to heart attack in 2018 November leaving her with two children, now all grown-ups.

On 1 May 2022, she married businessman Frederick Cale in civil rites, then in a church wedding on 13 May in the same year. Right before their church wedding, while already in their bridal suits, Cale insisted they deposit in a joint account all the checks and cash gifts they had received in advance, recalled Custodio to the website PEP.ph recently. Cale insisted to her that he would use all the funds to pay for the wedding bills. Before that, Custodio thought Cale had paid everything in advance with his own money. Cale also ordered her to withdraw all the money in her personal account and transfer it to their new joint account.

During their wedding reception, after receiving cash and check gifts, Cale again took everything to pay allegedly for additional expenses.

Cale went back to Canada a few days after the wedding. Around May last year, he went back to the Philippines to celebrate their anniversary. But Custodio had changed her mind about the man who was actually her suitor for a long time before she married Platon. She decided to separate with him. She actually met with him in the US a few months before he came over to the Philippines.

Cale seems unwilling to enter into a legal separation with Custodio. So, now, according to the latest report about her, she will sue him under Republic Act 9262: Anti-Violence Against Women and Their Children.

The website has revealed though that Lindsay Custodio now wants to go back to showbiz. She signed up February this year to be managed by Viva Artists Agency. She is now 45 years old. The agency has yet to announce their projects for her.