Scary showbiz situations

(Second of two parts)

Since it’s spooking time once again, I thought of another kind of scare tactic to frighten not necessarily all readers in general, but those youngsters (this piece may be useful to their parents, too) who dream of joining show business because there are so many of them.

This article was inspired by last Saturday’s episode of Imbestigador (with Mike Enriquez) that exposed the modus operandi of a man in Pampanga who makes empty promises to young showbiz hopefuls (he says he’ll make it easy for them to join StarStruck and be part of S.O.P. as dancers) in exchange for P5,000, cell phones, laptops and even sexual favors.

Can you imagine the horrific experiences those kids went through in the hands of this man? And that is not an isolated case for sure. Other showbiz aspirants must have also been victimized by other crooks, but were probably too embarrassed to come out and expose such illegal practice.

The horror stories do not end there. Even after these youngsters have gained entry into show business, they still have to go through other harrowing experiences, some of which I already detailed in my Tuesday column.

In this concluding portion, I will enumerate other frightening realities that should scare even the established young stars today. Here are some more creepy scenarios:

You will breed a whole bunch of sycophants and parasites — They say that success is relative: The more you succeed, the more relatives you will have. There will be hangers-on. Relatives you never knew existed would appear and ask for their share of the loot. Even your driver and helper will demand bigger remuneration because they think you are just picking money from trees. What they don’t realize is that you also have a lot of expenses — plus you get taxed more. Everyone will be clawing at your feet and will be asking for more, more and more.

You’ll never know who your real friends are — Some are just there because you are up there and they want to be associated with you. But as your popularity diminishes, so would they.

There is a lot of backstabbing — This also happens in other fields (especially in politics), but this is more pronounced in show business. Sometimes it’s your co-star who will do it to you, but most of the time, it’s your production staff. Even if you are nice to them, it’s inevitable that somebody (or a group) will stab you in the back. They gossip about you and magnify whatever little mistake you make. Maybe because they favor somebody else — I don’t know, but it’s part of the showbiz culture. Some people can be such ingrates. Sometimes you stick your neck out for them if they have problems with the higher ups (unlike people in production, stars are privileged to just walk into the executive offices even without prior appointment) and yet they still don’t appreciate that. I remember a story Mitch Valdes told me one time: In the late ‘70s, she was among the biggest stars in Broadcast City (then comprising Channels 2, 9 and 13). Well, Mitch had always been one of the boys and when the workers had labor issues to settle with management, she joined rank and file in the front line. But when things got too sticky and she looked behind her, everyone else had vanished. Her career, too, disappeared after that since the bosses apparently didn’t approve of her getting involved with the labor problems of the company. This may not be very positive, but if you can help it, avoid any form of emotional investment on your co-workers because that could be very painful for you in the end. Believe me, it’s never easy to lick your wounds — especially when they are at the back.

Everything will be blamed on you — The shooting gets packed up and talk will spread that it was because of you. The truth is that weather was bad or maybe a prop was missing and the director wasn’t in the mood to shoot. But because you are high profile you will be the most convenient excuse: Because you were tardy, a no-show or was just being difficult — when the truth is, you have no idea yourself why shooting was packed up.

There will be a lot of pressure on you — If you have a regular show, you will forever be on pins and needles until the rating sheets are out. That’s not really so bad because if you are in sales, you will also forever be monitoring the charts. The bigger pressure comes when you have a movie. If it flops, it could be your last. Like they always say in showbiz, you’re as good as your last film.

Your system can get screwed up — There will be no normal working hours for you and you go on days without sleep (or very little), especially in the indie film set-up today where you are made to work from 6 a.m. to 6 a.m. of the following day. You come home emotionally-drained and tired — only to open the papers with your private life there exposed for the public to lap up (worse, if the things written about are untrue). In a lot of cases, particularly those without stable family support, they lose their grip on reality. Often they end up as drug dependents and their lives are totally ruined.

You will always be hounded by the fear of the unknown. To me, that is the scariest — not knowing what will happen next. You may be the brightest star now, but things may be different tomorrow. There is no security of tenure — and no pension to fall back on. After the industry is through with you, you are on your own — in all probability, alone. Now, isn’t that a scary thought?

Happy Halloween! To those showbiz aspirants, don’t come to me later and tell me I didn’t warn you.