She sings, acts and does the catwalk. She's a starlet
She sings, acts and does the catwalk. She's a starlet
By Dini S. Djalal
JAKARTA (JP): It's a typical slackers' day: 6 p.m. and you're
sitting in front of the telly fixated by one of the many generic
music video shows. A svelte and pretty songstress is on-screen,
crooning lovelorn lyrics and pretending that the gorgeous hunk
she's winking at is her boyfriend.
At first, your mind ponders crucial trivia, like whether in
real life the starlet would actually wear the orange lycra
catsuit with the sequined turban. Then you think, "Wait a minute,
isn't this the orthopedic sandals ad model, and the actress on
that boring TV series last night?"
The answer is a frightening affirmative. In the United States
and Europe, a fashion model is often derided, critically and
commercially, for becoming an actress or a pop singer.
In Indonesia, a starlet is not a starlet until she has
plastered her face on a movie poster, a music cassette, and
countless product advertisements and fashion spreads.
Judging by the precious number of faces appearing again and
again in assorted media, you would never think that Indonesia is
the fourth most populated country in the world. Canada has more
diverse talent, and you could fit the population of five Canadas
into tiny Java.
Then again, you can't compare Indonesia to Canada (the food is
better here, for one). But I do wonder why Indonesian popular
culture allows starlets to hold a multiplicity of roles, and with
a weak grasp on them all.
Most starlets are mediocre actresses with studio-enhanced
singing voices. Their most prominent common denominator is a
fondness to pose scintillatingly in front of a camera, which,
ultimately, is what counts to Indonesian audiences.
After all, it is the camera which catapulted them into
stardom. Parents and teenagers, take note: the best investment an
aspiring starlet can have is participation in one of the nation's
many beauty pageants. Not necessarily the swimsuit-parade Miss
Teenage Bogor variety -- a finalist in teenage magazine Mode's
annual "Cover Girl" contests will do. Or in teenage magazine
Gadis' annual "Cover Girl" contest. Or in women's magazine
Femina's annual "Cover Girl" contest. Or ... you get the picture.
Once recognized by tabloid photographers and fashion editors
as a potential photogenic wunderkind, there is nothing stopping
the starlet from becoming a household word -- certainly not lack
of talent. First the cover-girl prize, then the deluge of
commercial offers, then the phone-call from a movie producer,
then the arrival of the recording contract, or at least a Karaoke
project.
These events are usually punctuated by much fanfare and
publicity, including the now-tired revelatory interview: "My
first love was singing and acting. The singing and acting is just
a side job." Along the way the pile of cash gets taller, for the
producers, promoters, publicists and, of course, the starlet.
Wondering who these starlets are? Let's not name names, but
celebrity magazine Jakarta-Jakarta often features them on their
covers, accompanied with the revelatory interview. Of course
Jakarta-Jakarta also features starlets with less diverse
occupations, such as plain-old fashion models or, err, plain-old
fashion models. Occasionally the magazine spotlights intellectual
celebrities, such as newscasters. Sometimes the celebrity gracing
the cover is "famous by association", for example the ex-fiancee
of an accused murderer or the daughter or grand-daughter of a
political figure. Without fail, however, these cover-models are
young, pretty and female.
I'm not demeaning Jakarta-Jakarta -- more power to them for
recognizing the material value of pretty faces. Sex sells, and
sex, at least in this country, remains epitomized by a scantily-
clad beautiful starlet. It is the eagerly-buying public which is
to blame, feasting on superficial glamour and gossip columns. On
that note, more power to the starlet who knows a money-making
machine when she sees one. "Who cares if my out-of-tune voice on
that record is being drowned by heavy synthesizers," the starlet
thinks to herself, "I just want my royalties."
With all that cash, a starlet can save enough to send herself
to Public Relations School, the last bastion of respectability
for all aging starlets.