A beauty that never ages

If you’ve spent some time in front of the television set between the late 1980s and during the better part of the 1990s, then you’re no stranger to the disarming smile of one Alice Dixson. With a face that lit up screens and charms that enchanted her audiences, her image is not one to be easily forgotten.
Best remembered for her dazzling role as a fairy princess who fell in love with a human in ‘Okay Ka, Fairy Ko’, Alice has always had that magical look upon her that made her seem too good to be true. As she makes a recent comeback to the local entertainment scene, it appears as though Alice has never broken her stride as she continues to mesmerize audiences with her ageless beauty and grace.
Breaking the scene
As a balik-bayan making her way back to the country having just spent her formative years in New York, Alice broke the scene when she joined a competition in "Eat Bulaga" called ‘Reyna ng Santacruzan’. Although she only took home the second prize in the contest, Alice already caught the attention of talent scouts.
Soon Alice found herself at a screening for the Binibining Pilipinas competition. Young as she was, Alice still qualified to be one of the contestants and ended up winning the Miss Philippines International title that year. “I didn’t have a normal childhood because I was just 16 when I joined Binibining Pilipinas. Looking back on it, I didn’t just win a teen prize; I won one of the major prizes,” Alice recalled.
Her stint as a beauty queen not only changed Alice’s life in terms of status and the fame that came with it; her pursuit in life also took a turn as she began to get exposed to the lifestyle. “It added to the pressure of school because you can’t get pre-med and be a beauty queen at the same time. That’s when I realized that I don’t want to be a doctor and I want to be in communications instead,” Alice explained. “Being a representative of the Philippines, I travelled and I was sort of like a delegate. I thought that I’d rather keep doing this because I enjoyed it,” she added.
After her reign, a promising career in showbiz awaited Alice starting with the role that would make her a household name. “I was 17 when I did ‘Okay Ka, Fairy Ko’. It was my own show and I was a regular. I was playing a fairy and it was so fun. I really enjoyed that time,” Alice revealed. From that point on, Alice never looked back as she basked in the glitz and the glamour of the industry while carving a name for herself as she won awards and accolades for her performances.
All-around woman
As a kid, Alice reveals that she was really exposed to different activities growing up. Her early memories consisted of doing all sorts of stuff together with her father like skateboarding, riding a bike and even fishing. “My dad raised me to be really tomboyish. When I was three, my mom told me that I would run around the house in my diapers wearing boots and a water pistol. Noon palang, boyish na ako and I like to do those things,” Alice recalled.
Her outgoing and active youth also carried over in school where Alice found herself at home with athletics. She was part of the basketball team and the softball team while she attended school at the Notre Dame Academy in Staten Island New York. “In our year book, all of the students had descriptions like ‘Most Likely to Succeed’, ‘Most Popular’, ‘Most Preppy’ and ‘Most Kind and Generous’. Mine said ‘Most Talented’. Because I was so into sports, I was into singing, I was in the band. Madami akong talents,” Alice shared.
Even up to this day, Alice seems to be really comfortable doing anything and everything she can get her hands on. Aside from acting, Alice also busies herself with hobbies that help her express her artistic side. “Right now I’m learning how to sketch and then I want to go back to painting as well. I’m also into photography. My husband gave me a new camera. It’s a hand-me-down because his business in Vancouver is photography, but his hand-me-downs are all professional cameras,” Alice said. “Nahahawa ako sa kanya with his passion for new things and his creative ideas and that’s what I do here. I also find new things to discover. I’m not as high-tech as him but it rubs off a lot,” Alice added.
Alice also maintains her real estate business in Canada, something that she really focuses her efforts on too, and takes time in between her busy showbiz schedule to fulfill. “I still have my business in Canada so I catch up with emails and talk to people. There’s a 16-hour difference so I sort of time my activities so that I can make my calls during the day in Canada. I actually multi-task and make calls when I’m on the set waiting,” Alice explained.
Staying on top of her game
Alice’s physical appearance still shows that of a young woman and she has running to thank for her extremely fit condition. Her time in Canada has really given Alice the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors along with her fitness regimen. “In Canada I prefer running outdoors. We have nature trails there and I really love it. Sometimes I don’t even bring water because you can drink from the stream, that’s how clean it is,” Alice shared. “That’s where I first experienced running and all I hear is the sound of my breath, my footsteps in the gravel and hear twigs break and the birds chirp. It’s so peaceful,” she added.
Alice reveals that despite not keeping a conscious diet program, her running more than compensates for it as it keeps her body toned. Currently, she has a steady exercise program which consists of 15-kilometers worth of running every week and she plans to step it up a notch and get it to 20 kilometers. That means three to four hours of workout, which she spreads out to three visits to the gym weekly.
Aside from that, Alice also has taken to practicing Bikram Yoga, a practice done in hot and humid temperature. “The humidity and heat is very high and it causes you to perspire a lot and then what happens is that your muscles loosen up and you can actually become more flexible,” Alice explained. “It’s not just the flexibility within the poses but each movement activates a certain gland or system, whether it be your circulation, digestion or cardio; each pose will stimulate it so that blood can rush into that organ and flush it out through sweating,” she added.
Alice has come a long way since coming back to the Philippines and being a newcomer in the industry. She also knows that had her choices been different, her life would’ve taken her somewhere else doing something far from what she’s already done. Yet, there are no regrets for Alice and she cherishes the things that she has gone through in her life. “Kung hindi ako umuwi ng Pilipinas at nag-artista, I’m sure I would’ve just gone to college, lived in a dorm, joined a sorority and all that. Looking back I wouldn’t change anything but I know that my life would have been totally different,” Alice shared.
We’re certainly glad she made the choices she did because I for one couldn’t imagine a life without having glimpsed the immaculate smile of one Alice Dixson.
Catch Alice in her upcoming show Glamorosa which will soon air on TV5.

Former Beauty Queen Scammed Thousands, Says FTC

A former beauty queen was part of an operation that allegedly duped half a million people into spending almost $30 million in a pair of fraudulent schemes, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
One scam lured people to pay for help in getting free government grants and another involved misleading claims about weight loss supplements, the FTC claims in a complaint.
Juliette Kimoto, 2006 Mrs. Nevada, owned four companies that offered a “bogus government grants service” and dietary supplements that made false claims about endorsements by Oprah Winfrey and scientific research, the FTC said on Monday. The FTC reached a settlement with Kimoto and another individual involved in the scheme. The settlement was first reported by Daily Finance.
Kimoto seemed to have a picture-perfect life. A mother of six, she had married her high school sweetheart who was named “Husband of the Year” in the same pageant where she won her title. She said she was actively involved in her Mormon church, according to the Las Vegas Sun.
Her husband, Kyle Kimoto is serving a federal prison sentence of 29 years, ordered by an Illinois federal judge in September 2008. His telemarketing scam, which is separate from the FTC’s claims about his wife, made over 12 million phone calls to consumers with weak credit histories to sign up for a bogus credit card. Authorities said he victimized over 300,000 people out of $43 million. He was ordered to pay restitution of about $35 million. The FTC said litigation is continuing against him.
His wife hatched her separate scheme while he was undergoing his criminal trial, according to the FTC.
According to memos from the FTC, consumer injury exceeded $29.7 million. The credit line scam impacted over 500,000 consumers and the grant scam victimized over 50,000 people.
As part of a settlement with the FTC, Juliette Kimoto is banned from selling grant-related products or services, credit-related products, or work-at-home business opportunities, and taking consumer payments by pre-authorized electronic funds transfer, among other activities.
The FTC is also banning Kimoto’s companies from making “misleading health claims” related to dietary supplements. She is also required to pay more than $90,000 and to turn over various personal assets worth over $220,000. Those assets include include “jewelry, a piano, and a 1967 Chevy Camaro, along with all the cash and other assets” owned by her companies.