Local show biz’s ‘sister acts’ are best appreciated in their diversity

Megan (left) and Lauren Young

How are “sister acts” faring on TV these days? Currently most visible are Megan and Lauren Young, who are both in the new “Marimar” revival drama series.

Megan plays the title character and is passing muster in her now “double” role—but she’s getting flak for “enabling” her kid sister’s joining her in the same show, which strikes us as one Young too many.

What makes things worse is that Lauren is playing her ate’s rival for Tom Rodriguez’s heart and bod.

That’s too perplexing and confounding for us, so we hope that plotting a way out of that conundrum is soon found.

The way it’s panned out, the Young siblings’ sister act is turning out to be more bane than boon for their respective careers.

Finally, Lauren isn’t effective in her key role, despite her best and worst efforts to be as vile and hateful as all heck—because she obviously doesn’t have a mean bone in her body.

On the other hand, sisters Janice and Gelli de Belen are doing quite nicely, thanks—because they scrupulously avoid performing together, thus skirting distracting and irrelevant problems like being unfairly compared to one another.

Ate Janice has made a successful dramatic comeback and also hosts a cooking show, while Gelli has been even more visible in a wide range of TV outings, from comedy, game shows, drama, “dramedy” to musical, panel, women’s magazine, legal—etc.!

For their part, Gretchen, Marjorie and Claudine Barretto have made tabloid headlines not just with their shows and films, but also with their interfamily “star wars.”

From left: Claudine, Gretchen and Marjorie Barretto

The latest wrinkle is that Marjorie and Claudine have finally reconciled—so, when will Gretchen join the kiss-and-make-up trend?

We hope it’s real soon, because we’d love to see all three lovely and lively sisters perform together in what should shape up to be a most eventful “reunion” film!

Another popular local sister act is made up of Anne Curtis and her kid sister, Jasmine Curtis-Smith. While they do appear together in a TV commercial, they agree with the De Belens that separate careers are preferred, so Anne is with ABS-CBN, while Jasmine is with TV5.

Anne has helped her kid sister get her foot in the show biz door, but Jasmine is now pretty much on autopilot.

Toni and Alex Gonzaga? Kid sister Alex is “emulating” her ate too closely and avidly for her to get her own performing career off to a really scintillating start. Stop copying and pass your papers forward, why don’t you?

Michelle and Ehra Madrigal? Another no-no: They’ve both opted to go the “sexier” route to stardom—so one of them has to end up as an also-ran. Why can’t Ehra go the “sexy comedy” route and take after Rufa Mae Quinto, instead?

Kylie and Queenie Padilla? At the start, they were also coming across as “twinnish”—but Queenie isn’t very visible these days, so—problem solved or deferred—and Kylie has come into her own as a good young-adult star.

From this informal survey, we can conclude that sister acts are OK, but diversity, not uniformity, is key—and much preferred. Go for it, girls!