NEWSFLASH

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'HOME ALONG DA RILES' ORPHANED WHILE DOLPHY RECOVERS

Quezon City, Aug. 6, 1998 - Comedy King Dolphy is fast recovering from the double bypass he underwent last Thursday at the Makati Medical Center. At press time, he was being prepared for transfer from the Intensive Care Unit to a regular private room.

But the 70-year-old reigning monarch of Philippine entertainment is not yet ready to resume work before TV or movie cameras. Doctors say he will need to undergo physical therapy for many months.

While the financially secure comedian can afford to be without work for several months, even years, his co-stars and producers of the top-rating ABS-CBN sitcom HOME ALONG DA RILES are in a quandary: What if Dolphy's therapy takes a year?

ABS-CBN is scheduling replays for the first few weeks of Dolphy's absence, while waiting for brilliant ideas or a miracle such as Dolphy's total recovery in a month.

Meanwhile, Dolphy's wife Zsa Zsa Padilla has a new sitcom which premieres this week on GMA- 7, where she co-stars with Drama King Christopher de Leon. The show, H.K.H.D or HIWALAY KUNG HIWALAY, DAW! will test de Leon's mettle in comedy. The two play a married couple constantly on the verge of separating.