Cast your minds back a couple of months and you may remember that the "winner” of the tongue-in-cheek Notes from Spain Spanish celebrity top 10 was our old friend and favourite gypsy warbler, Isabel Pantoja.

Since then, she’s been bubbling around in the news on a regular basis, and still appearing in most magazines each week (usually followed around in airports it seems where she can’t escape the camera crews so easily), but today seems like an appropriate time to give an update on her turbulent life of late given that there has been some "breaking news” (as the BBC like to call even minor events these days).

You’ll remember that Isabel is in a spot of bother because her boyfriend, Julian Muñoz (the former mayor of Marbella), is in prison at the moment for dodgy-dealings whilst in office, and the extent of these deals are being investigated, reaching as far as Isabel herself. Meanwhile, the woman at the centre of the row refuses to cut her losses and publicly walk away from the relationship (although she’s said to have only visited him twice in the whole time he’s been behind bars) and she’s pegged her colours to the line, and is definitely "standing by her man” it would seem (in fact, if Dolly Parton hadn’t beat her to it, Isabel could well have had a chartbuster on her hands with that song!).

The big news this week is that Isabel has been called in for questioning as part of the ongoing Operation Malaya, as the investigation is known.

She spent the night in the police cells and was then hauled in front of the judge for 2½ hours of interrogation, only being released at the end because her family and friends had a whip-round and turned up at the court with an envelope containing €90K in cash as bail money. When she left the court offices, the nightmare scenario for any paparazzi-dodging famoso happened, and her car’s exit was temporarily blocked, leading to a pack of cameras and microphones being thrust against the window. Ever the pro, Isabel kept her composure throughout and just silently mouthed nonsensical words, while duly nodding like one of those plastic wobbly dogs that people put in their cars.

It would seem that the questioning that Isabel had faced was centred around whether the dinero negro (dodgy cash) that Muñoz had stuffed under the mattress, so to speak, ever found it’s way into her pockets, and the fact that the woman has mortgages coming out of her ears on various properties dotted around Southern Spain and Madrid, has only served to increase this suspicion.

On the same day, in news from Muñoz’s prison, it’s been confirmed that his caviar-ladling days are over as he’s decided to put himself on an indefinite hunger strike. It wasn’t at first totally clear why exactly, as he forgot to give a reason for his extreme new diet, but the media now are saying today that it’s in direct support of Isabel.

On Friday night’s edition of Donde Estás Corazón, the whole show (well, as much of it as I could bear to watch) was devoted to Isabel’s plight. A helpful SMS vote was held (for viewers with mobile credit to waste) with the straight choices being "manipulada o cómplice” (manipulated or willing accomplice). It was pretty much split down the middle on the last update I caught.

They also had the obligatory "on the spot” reporters, with over-sized microphones and one finger in their ears (like all good TV reporters) outside both the prison, and Pantoja’s main residence, the gypsy-themed "Mi Gitana” in Marbella, ready to bring us all the latest (of which there was very little of course). Although, for once on this show, they could claim to have a genuine insight into what’s going on with the story they’re covering given that one of the regular panel members, Chelo Garcí­a Cortés, is a very close friend of Pantoja ("son como hermanas”, they’re like sisters, my flatmate said to me in fact). Chief panel member, and part time rottweiler Marí­a Patiño, gave Chelo a bit of a grilling it has to be said, and the two of them were like rabid animals at one point. All this is perfectly normal for Spanish TV of course, and I’m sure they’re the best of friends again now.

Anyway, according to Chelo, Isabel had been in bits in the court offices, frequently crying and pleading her innocence. This lead to most of the text messages coming in from viewers, and being flashed up on screen during the show, suggesting that Pantoja is nothing more than a clever woman who knows when to turn on the tears and act dumb. Of course there were also the die-hard Pantoja fans frantically texting in too to say that she shouldn’t be held responsible for any Muñoz-related misdemeanors as "love is blind” etc, and as usual, there were a smattering of offers from lonely female viewers to have presenter Jaime Cantizano’s baby (there are some every week, seriously!)

I nodded off a couple of times during the show, so I may have missed some of the finer points of the simultaneous arguments going on, and I missed Chelo saying whether or not she put some cash in the pot for Isabel’s bail money herself. No doubt the story will run and run though, and the rest of the weekend’s corazón shows will devote just as much time to the subject. One final note, as at the moment (Saturday evening) the hunger strike is still on, and prison sources confirm that breakfast, lunch and dinner have all been skipped. How long will he last?? Place yer bets!

And to give you an idea of how these Corazón shows work, I managed to catch a bit of a similar show called Dolce Vita which airs on Saturday nights. Unfortunately therefore you don’t get to see Marí­a Patiño freaking out, but it gives you a good idea. Enjoy!