Too many stars and starlets

A continuing problem on the local entertainment scene is the glut of stars and starlets that we have injudiciously created through the years.

The show biz industry cannot possibly showcase and support so many luminaries and aspirants, resulting in wall-to-wall, standing-room-only frustration!

How did we get to this stultifying “gridlock” of talents and would-be talents? It was not always so.

Up to the ’60s, local filmmaking was dominated by four movie studios, and they each carefully discovered and built up around 50 contract stellar talents, conceptualizing projects for each of them so that they would all be given a chance to shine brighter each year.

When stars turned producers, however, the number of local production companies increased, and so did their respective stables of lead and supporting players.

The next “compounding” development was the rise of television, the “hungry maw” of entertainment that constantly needs to be fed with new shows.

TV channels had to build up their own stars and starlets, thus adding to the glut.

Further congesting the already “SRO” situation was the popularity of TV talent tilts, with literally tens of thousands of unknowns auditioning for the few “starmaking” slots available.

Even those who didn’t get to compete on those talent searches continued to yearn to make it in show biz, whichever way possible, so they joined the armies of extras that were already in existence.

Finally, the rise this decade of indie filmmaking has added further to the throng of starlets—and to the seething and hungry frustration that 99 percent of them feel!

Even among certified stars, the frustration level has risen alarmingly, because there are too many of them, and too few mainstream productions to keep them profitably occupied.

With only around 70 mainstream movies being produced and shown annually, how can our literally hundreds of stars showcase their talents—and earn their keep?

That’s why most stars today are working in TV teleseryes, which are experiencing a glut of their own. But the income and exposure are sporadic, and most luminaries are still left out in the cold.

So, what’s the solution to all the frustrations and psychic and physical hunger?

TV studios have to rigorously cut down their list of contract stars, retaining only a few real comers whom they can keep casting in shows and thus develop their stellar careers.

In addition, TV talent tilts shouldn’t just discover fresh batches of performers, but also make sure that their winners are given follow-up projects and exposure that would more reliably assure the popularity and visibility they need to become actual stars.

All else is futile, feckless, fickle, fantasticating, flatulent—frustration!