From both sides now

RODRIGUEZ. Life goes on.

The contrasting twin masks of the performing world—one exceedingly joyous, the other in deep pain and desolation—are currently, instructively relevant in local show biz due to what’s happened to Marian Rivera and Mariel Rodriguez: Marian has been happily sharing her excitement as a mother-to-be with the doting public—while Mariel has sadly had her second miscarriage.

True to her gutsy nature, Mariel has been bearing up well despite her loss, and her husband, Robin Padilla, has been extraordinarily caring and supportive, to the extent of giving up a film project just so he can focus on his wife’s concerns and needs.

Life really does go on, so we pray that, their third time around, Mr. and Mrs. Padilla will be blessed with a healthy baby to finally make their marital union—a family.

Elsewhere in the biz, “Funny One” winner, Ryan Rems Sarita, has had no time to rest after his recent victory, because he’s been immediately made a regular player on “It’s Showtime,” with a comedy portion to call his own.

In addition, we hear that some of the other finalists will also perform together in a new show. We hope that it will turn out to be really funny, unlike some so-called comedy programs on local TV that bank on the quantity rather than the quality of their attempts at humor to rationalize their existence on the tube!

Tribute to FPJ

For his part, Coco Martin is feeling great these days because he’s been tapped to play the lead in a new “tribute to Da King (Fernando Poe Jr.)” action-drama series. Congratulations are in order, but Coco should work really hard to make his new “Ang Probinsyano” series a big success, because other “young FPJs” have come up short in the past—like Jericho Rosales in the tribute revival of “Ang Panday.”

Our “careful, careful” advice goes double for Julia Montes, whose own new teleserye, “Doble Kara,” casts her in twin roles. That’s double the pleasure for the venturesome star but also twice the danger, because Julia has to worry about two characterizations instead of just one. —And, more importantly, that viewers can clearly tell the difference between them!

Julia admits to being worried about the task of playing twins, and well she should be. She wonders how she will succeed in the tough assignment, and our tip to her is to make sure that each of her personae has very different traits, looks and mannerisms, so we all know who’s “on” at any particular time.

It could also help Julia if she looked up the “How I Met Your Mother” telecast in which Neil Patrick Harris portrayed eight different guys in the same scene!

After watching that tour de force performance, playing twins could strike Julia as not that big a deal—a piece of cake!