Out of sync

Isabel Granada —Sean Lim

“Maturing” performing stars were recently caught off-guard and “out of sync” by the death at age 41 of singer-actress Isabel Granada. The still popular veteran star succumbed to brain aneurysm in Qatar.

Isabel began her career in the ’80s, establishing herself as a teen comer on “That’s Entertainment.”

She made it as a TV-film actress and recording artist, and kept performing occasionally even as she matured and focused on other pursuits, like learning how to fly a plane.
Her last TV outing was in the recently concluded teleserye “A Love to Last.”

Isabel’s unexpectedly early demise has brought grief to her relatives, friends and fans, but its effect has been most “cautionarily telling” on her “age group” colleagues in entertainment.

Life is supposed to begin again at 40, but it’s ended for her instead, reminding other “maturing” luminaries not to take their relative youth and health for granted.

Aside from working harder to make their careers more eventful, they’re also reminded to pay better attention to their personal relationships, find more time to smell the roses, and enhance their lives with art, culture and spirituality. What price fame and fortune if we let these momentary “fireflies” glitter—unseen and unappreciated.

“Firefly” stars like Isabel throw us “out of sync” with their abrupt departure, but if we learn from them to place greater value on the time we have left, their evanescent presence in our lives shall not have been in vain.

Out of kilter

Kevin Spacey

Also out of sync and even out of kilter has been the recent “cautionary” denouement to the heretofore high-flying career of acting icon, Kevin Spacey, who has been unmasked and disgraced as a predator.

He’s the gay counterpart to producer Harvey Weinstein, whose own much-publicized exposure opened the floodgates of accusations of sexual misconduct and power-tripping.

Since then, more than 60 women have pointed to Weinstein as their vile victimizer, and he has been summarily stripped of power, position and pelf.

As for Spacey, his own continuing debacle was initiated by actor Anthony Rapp, who was moved by the courage of Weinstein’s female accusers to reveal that he was only 14 when Spacey forced himself on him. Other victims then added to the flames already ignited, until it became a firestorm of charges that has led to the actor’s own comeuppance.

They include an anonymous 17-year-old, Justin Dawes, Mark Ebenhoch, director Tony Montana, Robert Cavazos, an anonymous journalist, Harry Dreyfuss, Daniel Beal, and multiple cast and crew members of “House of Cards”—etc.!

Like Weinstein, Spacey’s high-flying career has been sundered, his hard-won reputation has been besmirched beyond restitution, and the plug has been pulled on his current and future starrers. More “lethal” lessons hopefully learned!