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Updated as of 02/11/10

Photographed by: Maecy
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Heartworld

Heartworld refers to a group of dedicated Heartists whose common goal is to stand behind actress Heart Evangelista as she pursues a life of creativity cushioned with spirituality.
[tab:History]

History of Heartworld

On November 4, 2001, an Isaac Hayes fan opened the first Heart Evangelista thread on Pinoy Exchange (Pex), the largest message board in the Philippines. His reason for doing it?

“I love Heart Evangelista. ‘La lang [It's nothing]…I just find her cute and simple on TV…that’s why I always watch G-mik. To Heart…’la lang [it's nothing]…I love you….”

Born out of love, the thread began attracting other Heart lovers. But seeing it being bumped to page one every now and then made the Heart haters curious. And so began the bashing. What was supposed to be a Heart Evangelista Appreciation Thread suddenly became a Heart Evangelista Persecution Thread. That changed though when one Heartist by the name of Elm came into the picture and, like a true hero, cleaned up the place so that Heart lovers could truly pay homage to the artist named Heart Evangelista.

And so Heart’s thread flourished for another four years. Until the 5000-post limit was imposed in February, 2005. It came just in time because the burgeoning thread was about to burst at the seams.

It was Ray (owner of the now-defunct Heartevangelista.net) though who got a chance to open Thread Part Two. But even then, Elm was already toying with the idea of giving Thread Part Three a new name: Heartland, a name that other Heartists were already using to address Heart’s Pex house and its residents whenever they would post there.

Elm missed opening Heart’s thread for the second time. It was Pinay who did it and made sure that, this time around, the thread would finally have a name of its own: Heartland. The new name didn’t stick for long though–thanks to Heart! When she first heard about the favorite hangout of Heartists on Pex, she became so excited that she just couldn’t stop herself from mentioning us on MYX and in her Ktext in early 2005. But instead of saying Heartland, she called us Heartworld (HW).

Having missed the opportunity to be the TS or threadstarter for the last two parts, Elm made sure he’d be there for the grand opening of Thread Part Four. On February 26, 2005, Heart’s thread was officially named Heartworld. It was an emotion-filled day. The euphoria everyone felt then was the same as what a filmmaker feels every time his movie opens. Overwhelmed by the success of Heartworld, this is what Elm posted in HW 4:

Hey I would just like to take this opportunity to be melodramatic…

When I first came to PEX in June 2004, I cannot find a thread dedicated to Hearty and when i did finally find one, it was filled with bad posts, calling Hearty names and other bad stuff but NOW, Hearty is the first ever female celebrity to reach Part 4 status here on PEX. I’m so proud of us Heartists and of course our bebe Heart because we made it through all insults and now, we’re one of the hottest threads here on PEX. Congrats Hearty! Congrats Heartists!!!

To God be the glory.
[tab:Pex]

Trendsetting Threadstarter

Pex has a lot to thank Elm for. He was actually the first threadstarter (TS in Pex lingo) on Pex to have ever thought of adding a new TS banner and links to previous parts in the very first post. Today on Pex, you would rarely find a thread without a banner and links to previous parts posted on the first page.
[tab:Hearties]

Hearties

It was actually Heart herself who thought of calling us Hearties, which is a variation of the word Heartist (a combination of “Heart” and “artist” coined by Elm, if we’re not mistaken) and can also be the plural form of her nickname, Hearty.

What is the story behind the “Hearties” term of endearment? Well, one day in 2007, she just posted in HW (she’s been posting on her thread as bebelove every now and then since March of 2005), all bubbling with happiness that she was blessed to have us around, and that she looked at us as her very own little Hearties.

But we’re jumping here. Let’s go back to 2005.
[tab:Geoff]

The Dark Rift

The year 2005 was a very shaky year for Heartists. It all began when ABS-CBN gave in to Mr. Jericho Rosales‘ wish for the management to convince Heart to accept the Eden character in his pet project Panday (ABS-CBN’s first sineserye). This was after the much-publicized audition they held then for the role of Eden that they had first given to the very young Melissa Ricks who had backed out due to the kissing and bed scenes required of her. There were 200 girls who auditioned for the part (a video showed Kaye Abad, Roxanne Guinoo, Bianca King, Cheska Garcia, Vanessa del Bianco, to name a few) but the Panday folks were said to be looking for this thing called chemistry.

Originally, Jericho’s first choice for the role of Eden was ex-girlfriend Cindy Kurleto, but the former host-actress (who had moved to GMA from ABS-CBN when she finally couldn’t stand the management’s lack of support for her off-screen relationship with Jericho) declined the offer. On the other hand, ABS-CBN wanted Kristine Hermosa for the Eden role but Jericho wasn’t ready yet for a Jericho-Kristine comeback.

And so the search narrowed down to Heart Evangelista whose hit soap Hiram was about to end in May 2005, and whose loveteam with Geoff Eigenmann was about to be formally launched via the movie Big Love (which finally became Sam Milby and Toni Gonzaga‘s My Big Love that was shown in 2008). Not only were the two going to do a movie but they were also to star in their own soap. Rumors were flying that the pair would star in either Salamin or Tadhana. Excited to go back to work, Heart even posted on Pex and gushed about how she was looking forward to working with Ms. Judy Ann Santos in this new soap that ABS-CBN was planning for the Judy Ann-Piolo and Heart-Geoff loveteams. Then Panday came. And things were never the same again….

Initially, Heart and her parents said no to the offer for the same reason that Melissa Ricks gave: the role asked for too many kissing and bed scenes. ABS-CBN didn’t accept their no and wouldn’t give Heart any other project except for Panday. When this reached the Heart-Geoff fans, they secretly emailed the management and threatened to boycott their shows if they didn’t stop “blackmailing” Heart. An agreement was reached when ABS-CBN finally agreed on changing the script.

That decision had repercussions: some Heartists (who were mainly Heart-Geoff fans) suddenly found a big supporter in Ms. Gina Alajar who began posting on Pex soon after Hiram was finished. She also began comparing HW to her son’s thread, saying how she’d appreciate it if the fans could finish Part One so they could move to a new house or thread. This prompted the Heart-Geoff fans to frequent Geoff’s thread more often than they used to. Which in turn caused a deep, dark rift between Heartworld and Geoffspace (Geoff’s thread name now). The misunderstanding became worse when Ms. Alajar finally posted in HW and said her piece to defend her son against issues that were raised in the two warring threads. A painful decision had to be made: Some Heart-Geoff fans who sided with Geoffspace left Heartworld, and the ones who sided with Heartworld stayed behind.

That was not the only sticky situation that Heart found herself in: She was interviewed on TV and was asked to rate the men in her life. In her wedding gown as Eden, she gave her new leading man, Jericho Rosales, a one (one being the perfect score) and Geoff Eigenmann a mere two and a half. Ex-boyfriend John Prats also got a one, while rumored suitor John Lloyd Cruz a two. This offended some Heart-Geoff fans, most especially when it became clear that Jericho was now the favorite guy of most Heartists. Not only that. The two and half score was made even famous when Elm decided to make a banner in honor of that interview. Resty, who is Heart’s closest friend among the Heartists up to this day, made light of the situation though when she allowed everyone to start calling her Baliw 2 1/2.

The great divide finally took place and a new group of Heartists came to replace those who left. These were Jericho fans and ex-Jericho-Kristine fans who found Heart a breath of fresh air compared to Jericho’s exes. Everyone was rejoicing the reel-and-real loveteam of Heart and Jericho. Heartworld even bore a child thread and named it Surfers in Love (SIL). The rejoicing lasted for three more years. But before we talk about what happened after, let’s talk about what happened in between first….
[tab:Elm]

The Dark Rift 2

It was now July of 2007, and Heart didn’t have a solid followup yet to her critically-acclaimed Hiram na Mukha which ended on June 1, 2007. Heartists were getting restless and tempers were flying as most everyone was speculating on who to blame when–out of the blue–we saw what we considered a suspicious post (written by a certain sydneysider) appear in HW. It was a complaint against a series of posts containing certain banners created by Elm that didn’t happen to include Heart’s then-boyfriend, Jericho Rosales. This in turn irked Elm to the point of pushing him to the wall. By now, he was fed up with how ABS-CBN was treating Heart and tired of the unexciting career path that Manila Genesis was following for Heart, and the last thing he needed was to find his real name in a post written by someone pretending to be a Heartworld newbie. That post created another crack in HW. And the crack grew bigger when the outspoken but well-meaning Elm finally revealed how disappointed he was with Heart’s career decisions (her leaving Star Magic and, later on, staying with Manila Genesis despite the lack of good projects) that it was already impossible for him to stay in Heartworld and pretend everything was all right. He sent his last post there on August 20, 2007, saying goodbye to the home he helped build.

There were tearful replies from his shocked co-Heartists. Everyone thought Elm was the last person who could be tempted to leave HW. As the saying goes, “Some good things never last…” That saying would reverberate throughout HW almost a year later.
[tab:Jericho]

The Dark Rift 3

On March 9, 2008, Heart was seen performing on ASAP ’08 twice, once during the opening number, and once more during the show’s regular dance portion. She was scheduled to leave for the States the following day. Sadly, that would be her last appearance on the show that had treated her like a doormat for their most favored artists since she came back on the show in February of the same year.

On March 10, 2008, Heart finally flew to San Francisco, USA to be with her older sister Lissa (who was pregnant then) and her family. She stayed there for a month. Meantime, Jericho became busy shooting his Hollywood movie with Briana Evigan.

Unbeknownst to the public, March to (early) April of 2008 was a period of turbulence for Heart and Jericho. Whispers became louder and louder that there was something going on between him and his Hollywood leading lady.

Heart finally came home in early April, 2008. The press didn’t have any hint that trouble was abrew. In fact, they said later after the breakup, the couple even attended the wrap up party for Jericho’s Hollywood movie. Without anyone’s knowledge though, it was at that party that Heart saw Jericho and Briana exchange what Heart perceived as a very strange hug. Why very strange? According to Heart, Jericho and Briana were hugging each other behind her back. It was just fate that made her turn around to see something that–in her point of view–she wasn’t meant to see. (Showbiz Central would report a few weeks later that a confrontation ensued between the couple after that. A denial from Jericho was said. And an admission from him the next day. Then back to denial again.)

On April 5, 2008, Heart accompanied Jericho to the airport despite unresolved issues between them. He was going to start taping for his new soap Kahit Isang Saglit with Malaysian leading lady Carmen Soo.

On April 23, 2008, Heart finally signed up with GMA for a two-year exclusive contract. Before that, news came out already about her decision to leave Genesis and let her parents manage her career again. This time, her parents had a co-manager in Annabelle Rama.

On April 29, 2008, Heart finally confirmed Ricky Lo‘s terrible news flash that appeared in the Philippine Star. She admitted to Heartworld that she broke up with Jericho a few days ago because she couldn’t take anymore the shocking news and evidences of his alleged cheating.

On May 8, 2008, Jericho came home to Manila to finish a previous singing commitment. It was also his opportunity to clear up the issue of his sudden and shocking breakup with Heart after three years of togetherness. He must have meant to sound sincere in that TV Patrol interview but, for some reason, he only made things worst when he made Heart appear “heartless” after he said she had broken up with him via the news and a vague text message.

On May 11, 2008, Heart talked to Showbiz Central and told the world her version of the story: There was a third party. Twice. First was the Briana incident earlier this year. Second–and the latest–was the Carmen Soo incident. News of Jericho getting more than a little friendly with his Malaysian leading lady even off the set reached Heart and it was just the last straw.

Via phone patch, Heart poured her heart out to the public for the very first time, not caring anymore if her astounding revelation would make her look like a “kiss and tell” person. With a cat-like reflex, she was scratched and she just had to scratch back to save her sanity and self-worth. As opposed to Heart and Jericho’s previous PDA (public display of affection) picture messages they had sent to the fans via KText and Startext, this interview was a heartwrenching PDA (public display of affliction).

That was the end of a most happy but turbulent chapter in her life. And that was also the end for those Jericho fans and ex-Jericho-Kristine fans who became Heartists but were in truth more of a Jericho fan than anything else. They left HW after that unforgettable interview, and we haven’t seen their shadows since.

As of this writing, Mr. Jericho Rosales still continues to bring up the name of our precious Hearty in his recent interviews: at his two Baler press cons in August 2008; on The Buzz, 8/31/08; at the two Kahit Isang Saglit press cons last 9/4/08 and 9/9/08; at the Smart Pinoy show in Milan, Italy on 9/29/08 where he serenaded the audience with Tristan and Eden’s theme song, “Makita Kang Muli” (Panday); in his latest PEP interviews, 9/13/08 and 11/14/08; at another press con last 11/13/08 for his Metro Manila Film Festival movie, Baler; at his Tough Ten interview on The Buzz last 12/21/08, where he became honest enough to say that, if given a chance, he’d go back to Heart among all his exes if only to correct his mistakes; and in his latest interview with Ricky Lo published last 3/11/09 where he revealed that he and Heart had remained chaste all throughout their three-year relationship. The once-private actor (pre-Heart Evangelista days) has turned into this guy who can’t seem to stop raving about his beloved ex. These talks only made things worst, even prompting Heart haters like Cristy Fermin to join Echo’s fans and jump on the name-calling bandwagon too. In her column, she called Heart Evangelista a “salbabidang butas kaya lumubog si Echo” [lifesaver that has a hole, making Echo sink to the bottom].

At the expense of Heart, this ABS-CBN TV host had to resort to name-calling in the hopes of reviving Echo’s sleeping career. In truth, it is actually Heartworld who has been awoken from a deep sleep by Ms. Fermin’s unladylike action.

Heart finally spoke to Mo Twister last 3/1/09 on Showbiz Central about how emotional, mad and immature she was when she had accused Echo of being a cheater last year. On national TV, she humbly admitted that she didn’t want to use the word “cheat” anymore because, if you really think about it, there was no way of her ever finding out the truth anyway. Other eyes claimed to have seen something in Malaysia but–her eyes didn’t see it. She ended the Gimme Mo interview by saying that she doesn’t regret any decisions she has made so far.
[tab:100]

First to Reach 100th Part

Heartworld successfully celebrated its 100th thread on Pex with a bang–thanks to Elm who worked like a true banner-making machine! He did the 100 Parts of Heart and all by himself, shelling out 101 banners in time to open Heartworld Part 100, which opened on December 30, 2006. What made the event even more special and memorable was the presence of Ms. Heart Evangelista on the opening day of HW 100. Not only did she celebrate with us–she also agreed to become our TS!
[tab:HW Website]

Heartworld on WordPress

Before Hearty Online (our site’s former name) was launched in 2005, there was Beth‘s Unofficial Heart Evangelista Fan Page, followed by Ray’s Heartevangelista.net. Sadly, Beth’s site no longer exists. Here’s what’s left of it, courtesy of Google:

a website for Ms. Heart Evangelista the Philippines Hottest Young Actress with profiles,articles,sound clips,pictures,snapshots,filmography and a lot more… (always updated)
Please click here to visit: Unofficial Heart Evangelista Fan Page – heartevangelista.2ya.com.

As to Ray’s site, it was shut down in 2005.

There was nowhere else to go except for Pex. But it was not enough….

Heartworld became so successful as a forum thread that we began to think it was time for it to spread its wings and have its own website. Unfortunately, someone else already bought Heartworld.com. We finally settled for Heartyonline.com. But when Heartworld.net became available–we grabbed it before it could slip through our fingers.

Going on year five, Heartworld’s official website is still alive and kicking. Today, we’re aiming to become a Heartist’s portal or bookmark. Guys, consider Heartworld a one-click shortcut to your most visited sites. Be a member now and enjoy the ride.