Next in line

For many children of entertainment stars, joining show biz is like entering the family business. The offspring of the Zobels and Chinoy taipans become businessmen, while the youngest products of the Padilla, De Leon, Quizon and Ilagan clans become stellar performers—it’s as simple as that!

For proof positive, we only need to take a look at today’s list of young stars—Julia Barretto, Daniel Padilla, Janine Gutierrez, Janella Salvador and Andi Eigenmann all have strong and deep roots in show business. And the list keeps getting longer by the year, as stellar babies become child stars, then tween sensations, then teen faves—while “unrelated” hopefuls have to work much harder in order to get noticed!

Why, Zion, the love child of Richard Gutierrez and Sarah Lahbati, may just be a wee babe, but he’s already the lovely apple of everybody’s eye —and stardom, or at least similarly profitable baby product endorsements, are sure to follow!

Much more imminently, some young chips off the old show biz block are already lining up their first portrayals: For instance, Niño Muhlach’s 4-year-old scion and lookalike, Alonzo, has gotten a number of producers really interested, like the M-Zet people, who have tapped him to play his “introducing” film role in the sequel to Vic Sotto and Ryzza Mae Dizon’s MMFF hit, “My Big Bossing’s Adventures.”

For his part, Piolo Pascual’s teen son, Iñigo, has already “gone show biz” locally, as well, with an introductory film role already in the offing.

On the other hand, being “relatively connected” to the biz isn’t a sure-fire ticket to stellar success, as some stars’ nonplussed scions have sadly discovered.

For instance, with his looks and “intense” projection, it looked like Renz Fernandez, the son of Lorna Tolentino and action “prince” Rudy Fernandez, was sure to become an action-drama star himself. Unfortunately, the once popular action film format self-destructed some years ago, so Renz is still trying to find his alternative entry point to stardom!