What the stars spend on

(First of two parts)

Spending on the following items I will enumerate below may sound like a crime, especially in these very hard times when the really indigent Filipinos make do with only one meal per day.

However, if you are a celebrity, you will be forced to commit what we may call a crime of fashion. The fashion police are out there to get you.

Living standards for on-cam talents had always been different from ordinary mortals even in the good old days of the movies — when life was supposed to be simple.

In a 1960s Nick Joaquin interview, Amalia Fuentes was already complaining about how stars had to spend on appearances because the studios don’t allow them to be seen in public looking “basta-basta.”

That unwritten rule obviously stayed on because the term “basta-basta” comically evolved in time in showbiz lingo as “just-just.”

The practice lives on to this day and had, in fact, been making it tougher and tougher for present-day stars to keep up with the standards set by this material world we live in.

Basically, celebrities and the 9 to 5 office workers have the same needs. But stars are expected to always go for the high-end.

And so here below are necessities that drain the pockets of today’s celebrities:

= Vehicles. Make that luxury vehicles. Actually, the only established star I know — and this I personally witnessed — who doesn’t have hang-ups being seen driving an old Ford Lynx is Alessandra de Rossi. But Alessandra had always been practical and no-nonsense.

Before she was cast by GMA 7 in Sinner or Saint, didn’t she factually admit going through rough times during that stretch when she didn’t have a showbiz project? I take my hats off to her for her honesty and candidness. In the artificial world called showbiz, she is admirably real.

Unfortunately, Alessandra is a rarity. The insecure among her peers allow themselves to be pressured by the impractical dictates of the showbiz lifestyle.

And so it has to be SUVs for them — with at least two (both from ABS-CBN I heard) driving around the metropolis in a Hummer. It is priced at a pocket-draining P7M — never mind if it is in the shape of an armored car of those commercial banks.

In a way, I can’t blame celebrities for buying expensive cars (the worst investment — the vehicle gets devalued from the minute it is released by the store). Can you imagine a fashion icon getting off a battered old Fiera in a red carpet event?

This society is judgmental — and the dictates are tougher on celebrities.

= Gasoline. Gassing up these days is like engaging in stock market. You don’t know when the price will go up or down. Sometimes you go kick yourself in the head when you gas up today — only to find out in the news that a price rollback was going to be in effect the following day.

Talents on TV from the ‘50s till the early ‘80s were luckier. First of all, there was no oil crisis until 1973. The succeeding years were still manageable for most car owners despite the oil crunch. And in the old days, everything was done in the studio — even drama shows. More or less, stars then had an idea how much they had to budget for gas.

But today, even a comedy like Pepito Manaloto is taped in a house in Antipolo. Amaya? I was told that the location is in the farthest and deepest pockets of Laguna.

This is reason enough for these stars to lose their SUVs because most of these automobiles are guzzlers. But then, they can’t be seen by the rest of the world riding in a vehicle that is basta-basta. What will the fans say?

= Clothing. Sure, most stars endorse apparel. Hah! Do you think they wear those shirts and jeans that are available off-the-rack in department stores? While they are entitled to a loot of these clothes as part of the deal, most items end up as giveaways.

The men and women of showbiz shop abroad. Or the ladies would spend P20,000 on a local couture dress even if their talent fee runs only to P30,000 per episode. After taxes, you can just imagine what is left of their earnings. But that is showbiz.

= Shelter. I have observed that most young stars are misguided when it comes to investments. Very few invest on sound real estate. Some don’t invest at all and choose to rent a place close to their workplace — in spite of the fact that there are so many rent-to-own condo units today.

I give credit to the parents of Barbie Forteza. They are from Laguna and they are forced to live in the city because of Barbie’s work. Initially, they were renting an apartment for P18,000 a month in the Kamuning area. As soon as they were able to save up for a down payment, they promptly moved to Empire East in N. Domingo and now they also pay the same amount, except that they take comfort in the fact that the place will be theirs as soon as they are done with the amortization. They can resell that at profit if they need to move to a bigger place in the future.

The truth is, most stars today spend on shelter because they need a place to sleep. However, they have no choice, but to shell out money either for rent or amortization because they can’t be living in the street. And they are not very choosy about address.

Actually, our three basic needs are food, clothing and shelter. If you noticed, other items come before shelter in this list. But that’s how warped the rules in showbiz are — so that its glamorous population doesn’t look like basta-basta.

(To be concluded)