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Being Anne Curtis

Oh, come on. Let's face it. She can even pick her nose and you can rest assured that people will fall in line to watch her.

Now is her time and it is not like she is this overnight sensation. She has been around since the time when Bobby and Angelu were still flashing goo-goo eyes to each other and Dingdong Dantes was still this chubby Tisoy tween. All the years of waiting and literally growing up in front of the eyes of the public have finally paid off. It is quite clear (and beyond argument) that 2011 is the year of the Aussie-Pinay named Anne Curtis-Smith.

There is a moral lesson here somewhere and it somehow defies what we understand as convention. Anne did not force herself through with scandals, pop out of nowhere or made her mark to the top by playing to an audience via reality show. Neither was she a grand winner of a network sponsored contest meant to make stars out of ordinary mall-addicted mortals.

As a matter of fact, she started out as a pixie tween starlet who wrestled with her Tagalog. But who would have suspected what she would turn out to be? Anne Curtis eventually evolved into this va-va-voom babe with an ultra-toned and taut gym-buffed body and a face accentuated by the hands-down winner of Manila's most sensuous lips. The awkward mestiza teen star morphed into this gorgeous young woman with a lioness mane and legs that went on forever and ever.

All she had to do was strut onstage garbed in her shortest of shorts and she can induce various degrees of cardiac arrest. She lands on the cover of a magazine puffing a cigarette wearing a sinfully backless dress --- and Rogue Magazine sells out while Nora Aunor (in a stately pose, also holding a nicotine stick) gets flak in another publication.

Yes, it is the year when Anne Curtis became the Anne Curtis as a result of very curious events. Attribute that to her masa-fication by being seen daily with Vhong Navarro and another persona of the moment named Vice Ganda in Showtime. Suddenly Anne Curtis is accessible: she may not have the spunk nor the eloquence of Toni Gonzaga or even Bianca Gonzalez but Hesusmaryosep … who can resist Anne's daily dosage of oomph served right before lunch. Everything else seems … uh, anti-climatic.

And can we get real here? Anne Curtis' singing voice was never meant to be a threat to Sara G. OK, not even Angeline Q. Isama mo na si Bugoy Drilon at si Marcelito. But a golden record after a few days of release? At this point, I can believe in anything: people are willing to buy records not because of the singer's voice but because of her legs. In the age of multi-platform media, that is not an aberration but a sales projection.

So did it shock anybody that No Other Woman holds the box office record as the most sellable Filipino movie of all time, grossing close to P300M? Yes and no. Yes, because not even the two studios who co-produced the movie expected a hit … but not that big a hit! Call it perfect timing --- call it hitting the right note at the perfect moment. Anne with Cristine Reyes and Derek Ramsey … and those quotable quotes enough to fill a full-length script for feuding transvestites? You will indeed have the audience eating right at the palm of your hands.

Indeed, this is Anne Curtis' moment --- and now she also has her first flak. A great part of Anne's charms is her accessibility to her fans and followers: the use of social media to link up and disseminate information can be both a blessing and a curse depending on how much you think before you click. So Anne Curtis has this misunderstanding with the staffers of GMA7 because she tweeted that she was not permitted by the people of the rival network to go onstage and greet a crowd at a university-sponsored event. All told such announcements are meant to generate reactions even if it was provoked by a moment of sheer frustration. But there you have it, Anne: here is the downside of being the "It Girl" and the "One Who Keeps Hitting the Jackpot. "

Suddenly, you cannot just go on tweeting impulsively because everybody's eyes are on you. Everything you say and do will be subject to interpretation and misinterpretation. The price you pay back for this insufferable fame … is equally insufferable: 24/7 scrutiny.

Right at this very moment, Anne Curtis is the most envied girl in show business because of the seemingly unreasonable amount of success she reaped in a span of a few months. She waited for years to get this … and maybe this was even so much more than she ever dreamed of possessing. She has Viva and the Del Rosarios to thank … but from hereon in, it is her ballgame.

Anne Curtis of the long legs and pouty lips, we are now curious how long the frenzy will last … and what you will do next.