Gelli de Belen is complaining that Dawn Zulueta sends her 10 jokes via e-mail a day. "She's really into computers," Gelli says of her colleague. "E ako I'm not as into it as she is. So binabasa ko lang `yung joke if the title's interesting enough." Reminded of the Sandra Bullock character in the movie The Net, an urban recluse who does all her transactions through the Internet, Gelli protests with mock indignation: "Hindi! I can't be like that. Hindi! I'll die!"

Many from the party-hardy world of showbiz no doubt share Gelli's sentiments. Even so, more and more are beginning to realize that in the information age, networking no longer means just table-hopping at the right parties and schmoozing with the players. There's now Net-working - i.e. hooking up on the Internet and building a site on the World Wide Web.

Considering that the Internet is only three years old in the Philippines, with anywhere from 100,000 to 180,000 current users, it shouldn't be surprising that Tinseltown Manila is just beginning to catch on. The Filipino search engine EDSA (www.edsa.com.ph) lists about 75 Filipino celebrities with Web sites to their name, ranging from Lea Salonga to Boogie Bugayong.

Now if a struggling actor like Boogie can have a Web page along with several other Star Circle up-and-comers like Andrea Blaesi and Farrah Florer, why shouldn't Gelli have her own? Early this year, the actress put up "Gelli de Belen. The Official Home On The Web" (www.stormviz.com/gelli), with the help of Ronnie T. Miranda of Storm Visualization & Imaging. She says that Ronnie first pitched her the idea last year. "But, it wasn't really very important to me that. I was thinking, "What will I get out of it?"

Gelli then began hanging around the Web sites of pop stars Janet Jackson and Suzanne Vega. The sophisticated design and the load of information helped change her mind. "I started thinking that maybe I can use it for work - parang resume na high tech," she says.

Promotional Tool

Likewise, the potential of job offers from here and abroad is what's motivating another actress, Donita Rose, to improve her home page (), which she put up with the help of the Internet serve provider Cybernet. A review of the site in the May/June 1997 issue of the magazine The Web Philippines found the pages wanting. Donita agrees: "It was too simple. There wasn't enough stuff in it - just some pictures and commercials which would take you 30 minutes to download. Even me, I'd get bored waiting for that."

Right now, Donita is at work on a new site. In fact, I catch her at home for this interview just before she leaves for the Cybernet office, "I want to make this new one really good," she vows. "I'm listing down all my achievements and I'm being very careful with choosing only the best photos. I want my home page to make me look like an international star, so maybe I can get work abroad."

Such as it is, her current Web page has already helped her land some shows and magazine features.

Purely Personal

Comedienne Ruby Rodriguez has a completely different spin on the subject. While she does agree that a Web site is an ideal promotional tool, hers (www.eris.com/~Mardi/RUBY.HTM) was put up for purely personal reasons.

Two years ago, Ruby, her siblings, and other relatives, some of whom are based in the United States, began getting together in a chat room called The Tavern. They found it not just an exciting exploration of new technology, but also a practical way of keeping in touch. "We got to talk a lot without having to pay long-distance telephone bills," notes the Eat Bulaga co-host.

This electronic family reunion inspired Ruby to build a site to update her US-based relatives and friends about her activities. She says, "Despite being a celebrity, I'm the most normal person you can meet. When I'm the most normal person you can meet. When I'm on my computer, I want to be just a normal, private person. Because even on the Web, when they know you're a celebrity, they start treating you differently."

It follow that Ruby does not see her modest one-page site as a calling card, but more of a greeting card she sends, through cyberspace to her family and friends. Appropriately, Ruby's site was constructed with the help of her sister-in- law, who lives in the States. A Swedish friend she met online is building her another site.

Despite her original intent, Gelli now echoes Ruby's sentiment: "What's really nice about my Web page is the guest book. I get in touch with friends from grade school and high school na matagal ko nang hindi nakikita, na nasa States na 'yung iba. They write to say hi. That's really one of the best things about it."

It's Cool

Similarly, Sharmaine Arnaiz (www.stormviz.com/sharmaine) has found connecting to people the most satisfying part of being online. It's no surprise that it was Internet junkie Dawn Zulueta who first got her interested in the new technology, and later convinced her to have a site made. Sharmaine enumerates the reasons for having a Web page, as taught to her by Dawn two years ago: "No. 1, it's a portfolio; No. 2, you do it for your fans; No. 3, if you're on the Internet, you're a cut above the rest, you're cool. (To cybercynics, she clarifies, `Remember that this was two or three years ago'); No. 4 it's cool to get e-mail."

Scanning her guestbook entries, one can see that Sharmaine is big or reason No. 4. A lot of the people who sign in seem to be repeat visitors, thanking her for replying to an e-mail or otherwise granting a request. One visitor from Mandaluyong seemed particularly smitten-and who wouldn't be, after the girl went to all the trouble to send him all the nine photographs he had asked for?

Sharmaine laughs. "Some people find it hard to believed that I answer my own e-mail. They'd write back and say "Thank you for e-mailing me back,' and then they'd go, `but I think you're just Sharmaine's secretary. So I'd write them back and try to convince them it's really me. I don't find it tedious. It's fun."

But given the Internet's culture of democracy, Sharmaine sometimes gets more than she bargains for.

"Once they begin to feel comfortable, they'd begin arguing with me about what to do with my career," she relates, amused. "One guy who was a marketing specialist was even trying to convince me to change the look of my Web page. He said that the black background that I used was too AB; that I should use white so it would be more masa. He said more things. He was really analyzing it!"

Fan Site

Ariel Rivera is one of the few local celebrities who has a cybershrine dedicated to them by a true-blue fan. In the singer-actor's case, the fan is Aileen Dayao, a 22-year-old Filipino who lives in Australia.

Aileen says. "The first time I heard Ariel's music was in mid-'93 when my friend Rjay Rosales compiled some Filipino music on a tape for me. It included about three to four songs of Ariel's from his Simple Lang album. I think I became a fan there and the! Back then, whenever I searched for any information about Ariel Rivera on the Net, I could never find anything except for a couple of lyrics here and there." So last year, she put up "Just Meeh: Dedication to Ariel Rivera" (www.cit.nepean.uws.edu.au/-adayao/arielr/).

Building on information found in the program of a concert Ariel did in Australia last year, and adding lyrics from his album inlay cards, plus other information e-mailed by visitors, the site is understandably sparse.

Aileen has asked Ariel, who established e-mail communication with her soon after she put up "Just Meeh," to provide her with more information. But the famously private Ariel replied with this gracious note: "Unfortunately, I have nothing to contribute to the Web page you made. To me, it doesn't really matter whether or not the page is nice. Just the gesture of somebody making a page for me with their own time and money. It's really something. I can't thank you enough!!!"

His girlfriend, Gelli, says that although she has an official Web site and he doesn't, it's really Ariel, with whom she shares a computer, who's more interested in the Internet. "I log on almost everyday, but mostly to check e-mail. Si Ariel does it mga once a week, but he'll stay for hours. Ako, tamad ako sa ganyan e. Gusto ko click lang ako nang click," she says.

But sometime ago, Gelli found herself staying online for hours at a time, transformed by a recent event into a fan of sorts, searching the Web for information about a figure that so captured her imagination. Animated, she says, "Remember when Versace died? Naku, gusto ko talaga malaman kung sino ba talaga 'yang si Andrew Cunanan. Hanap ako ng hanap ng information tungkol sa kanya sa Internet. The result? Ang dami kong nakuha. Gusto mo, ikuwento ko sa'yo ang buong buhay niya?"