Deal of the decade

Sharon Cuneta’s decision to move over to TV5 has given Manny Pangilinan’s new network “bragging rights” and has surpassed the impact of the Kapatid channel’s other stellar acquisitions, like Aga Muhlach, Willie Revillame and Nora Aunor. After all, despite some perceptible dimming of her unique “Mega” shine and power, Sharon is still Sharon, a formidable TV-film industry presence worth the P1 billion in five years contract she’s rumored to have signed to seal the deal of the decade.

Burst of inspiration

We’re happy for Shawie that she’s gotten a new burst of inspiration and financial reward in her long-running career. Instructively, just before the change of address to TV5 was signed, sealed and delivered, there was talk on the industry grapevine that Sharon (and her daughter, KC, by the way) were no longer reliably “bankable” properties. The inference of that snitty observation was that, should Sharon opt to move from 2 to 5, her departure wouldn’t be that great a loss to her old Kapamilya home.

Talk about advanced damage control, just in case! Well, Sharon has moved—and moved on—and she can take the snide comments as additional motivation to prove her detractors wrong, and show that she can still come up with mega-hits, especially now that her new employer has turned out to be so supportive, appreciative—and extravagantly generous!

For that to happen, however, Sharon should really hunker down and decisively solve her weight and girth problem. On her previous shows like “The Biggest Loser,” it was a major cause of viewer disappointment, and even a measure of displeasure. She had promised to lose weight along with the outrageously obese contestants—and they did so to an amazing extent, but her own weight loss was only moderate—thus, her lack of stellar determination and believability were all the more highlighted on point of disappointing contrast.

If Sharon really pushes herself to get back to fighting trim and reclaim her relatively svelte silhouette of old, as she prodigiously managed to do several times in the past, it will dramatically symbolize her “new and improved” screen persona—at exactly the right time for this new and perhaps most challenging chapter in her career and public life.

After all, the Megastar is already on the wrong side of 40, and very few “maturing” stars are able to match the hit-making prowess of their younger years. So, the challenge is definitely there to prove her detractors and the law of gravity wrong—or at least “postponable”—and a dramatically slimmer and trimmer Sharon could be just what the doctor ordered to effect her stellar revitalization and rejuvenation.

Physical appearance and energy requirements aside, Sharon should also come up with new TV-film projects that are conceptualized “out of the box,” to surprise and excite viewers. In this regard, we applaud her interest in the indie film movement, but she still needs to come up with mainstream hits, so it’s going to be a dodgy balancing act to please and delight both of those often disparate and even contentious masters.

Well, Sharon is savvier and more proactive than most stars, so she can pull it off—if she determinedly and deliberately reinvents herself through sheer dint of creativity and her patented “total performer” chutzpah.

Fact is, she really has no choice, because her record-setting, big-bucks deal precludes failure. If her new projects for TV5 do less than spectacularly, her detractors will howl to high heavens in I-told-you-so derision—and that would never do.