There’s something Philippine in Leighton Meester (as you will find out by and by), the newest A-lister addition to Penshoppe’s roster of All-Stars campaign, including recent visitor Ian Somerhalder (the “bad boy” of the hit US series The Vampire Diaries), Ed Westwick (of the likewise hit US series Gossip Girl), Zac Efron (whose last starrer was The Lucky One, based upon the Nicholas Sparks best-seller) and Thai pop star Mario Maurer (now shooting Suddenly It’s Magic for Star Cinema, with Erich Gonzales as leading lady).

“There are several more ‘A-list’ endorsers coming,” revealed Joyce Ramirez, head of PR Asia Worldwide, who conceptualized the campaign and finalized the contracts with the Penshoppe All-Stars endorsers. “Watch for them.”

Leighton flew in from last week of May (the 25th) in time for the Penshoppe’s Philippine Fashion Week event the next day and left barely 48 hours later as quietly as she came. Conversations did a free-wheeling one-on-one with her at the presidential suite of Manila Peninsula where she, like Ian the week before, was billeted.

Asked how she felt about her first visit to the Philippines, Leighton smiled, hardly showing any signs of jetlag even after a long haul from the US, “I’ve been looking forward to this visit. My best friend is a Filipino. She and her mom have been telling me interesting things about the Philippines. It’s hot here but I like the weather.” 

She hardly had any make-up on, dressed only in a beige sleeveless Penshoppe shirt over a short Penshoppe skirt of the same color. But still, Leighton mesmerized even without her trying to, in the same easy manner that she does in playing Blair Waldorf in Gossip Girl that gives her a chance to showcase her fashion flair.

Born on April 9, 1986, in Fort Worth, Texas, Leighton spent part of her childhood in Marco Island, Florida, where she participated in a local playhouse. When Leighton (her surname, Meester is Dutch for “master” or “teacher”) was 11, she moved with her mother to New York where, as a grown-up, she started working as a model before venturing into singing and acting, making her debut as a murder victim’s friend in an episode of Law & Order in 1999. More TV and movie assignments followed. She will be seen next in the comedy That’s My Boy with Adam Sandler.

Since October 2010, Leighton has been a member of a band called Check in the Dark with which she announced in her Twitter that she would go on a five-city concert tour.

“I’m just having fun singing and writing songs from my heart,” said Leighton who named Neil Young and Joni Mitchell among her influences. “I like their style of music and the way they also sing from the heart.”

source: philstar.com

(more…)