Honing the ‘AlDub’ tandem for long-term stardom
WHEN the “AlDub” phenomenon started heating up some five months ago, some show biz observers thought it was just another one of those occasional fads—here today, gone next month. But most unexpectedly, it continued to heat up, until its popularity attained national reach and heat, hence the creation of “the AlDub Nation.”
Then came all those millions upon millions of tweets and the “Sa Tamang Panahon” event, and even international observers were intrigued, and paid attention.
Since then, the frenzy has abated somewhat, but the AlDub tandem remains popular enough to get tapped to do 25 or more commercials and a Metro Manila Film Festival movie that could just end up as the festival’s top grosser.
So, is that it? After the year-end film fest, will AlDub fold up its tents and “rewind and return” to relative anonymity and normalcy? Will the goose stop laying all those golden eggs and turn into a gander? Uh, not!
It’s obvious from its continuing albeit abated popularity that there’s more money to be made—and, in the wonderful world of show business, that’s the ticket! So, there are evident moves to hone
Maine Mendoza and Alden Richards, in tandem and separately, for long-term stardom: Aside from “Eat Bulaga,” Alden is now seen on “Sunday PinaSaya” and other shows, so he has no day off.
In addition, he’s very profitably gracing all sorts of events and openings and launches and stuff, so this entire Yuletide season, it’s literally “Kriss Kringle lang ang pahinga” for him!
Being the relative newbie, Maine has even more honing to accomplish, so she’s been added to the cast of “Princess in the Palace,” where she’s playing a different character from her signature Yaya Dub persona.
And, how is she doing in her role as a young chef on “Princess”? Uh, not spectacularly.
She’s fairly believable and natural, but has yet to fully appreciate the fact that, when you play a character, you go beyond the lines given to you to efficiently memorize, and make that alternative person come alive on the screen.
Since she’s new, the show’s production people should be helping her come to that key realization—but, she isn’t there yet, so what are they waiting for?
It would also be good for the fave duo’s long-term success if they worked harder on developing their singing ability. Yes, they can carry a tune, and Alden in fact has a hit album, but they should do much better than that.
It would also be great if they could go beyond local show biz’s “make hay while the sun blazes” mentality and not work themselves to the bone, as they’re doing now.
We know it’s very tempting to make all that money by accepting all those yummy of- fers all the time—but Maine and Alden are obviously exhausted, and their performances are running out of energy and inventiveness.
They’ve become rich enough, so their handlers should give them time to sleep and recoup and regain the vim, vigor and vitality that stars need to be stars—for the long term!
If stars keep pushing themselves to the limit to keep making money all the time, there will be no long term.
We know that Maine and Alden are fully focused on profitability, taking advantage of their current popularity, but we hope they also have the wisdom to understand that this is not just a matter of “making hay.” It’s also about creativity, sharing, developing their talents to the max—and being in the biz to stay!