How social media is a double-edged sword for showbiz personalities

So for the whole week, the entertainment scene went abuzz as all Marites feasted on Alex Gonzaga’s less than 20-second Instagram story clip, posted by Dani Barretto of her smearing cake icing on waiter Allan Crisostomo’s forehead.

What was supposed to be a joyous 35th birthday bash for the TV host-vlogger turned out to be as one of the most challenging lessons she came across in her career as she was lambasted online by netizens and even former colleagues.

She already apologized and said that she will be a better person. To be fair, there were also personalities who spoke for Alex and one of them was fellow vlogger-personality Toni Fowler.

“Hindi naman masama yung tao, nagkamali. Hindi ko sinasabi na tama ung ginawa niya, mali pa rin… yun nga lang siyempre, ‘wag pa rin nating kalimutan na tao lang din siya at once, eh napatawad rin naman tayo,” she said.

Besides Toni, we also bumped into Tropang LOL co-host Billy Crawford also jokingly told the press at the Viva Prime’s presscon, “Oh walang mamamahid ng icing ah!” To which he played on lightly knowing the questions us, members of the press, were about to ask of him. So, we did.

Here’s Billy’s two cents’ worth on the matter: “I think she knows what she has done and kung ano man iyong mali sa isang tao, I think it is time to move on.

“Mas maraming mga bagay na nasa paligid natin (na) mas kailangan natin pag-usapan sa totoo lang. I think we are feasting on negativity. No one is perfect… you have to know your consequence sa maling ginawa niya and she’s really sorry naman.”

Billy said that they will be there to talk to Alex once they resume taping for Tropang LOL.

After the happening, various quotes from past videos of Angelica Panganiban and Heart Evangelista floated online, where they talked about being nice to everyone and people who they come across with.

On the flipside, Maine Mendoza used social media to her advantage by shutting down a basher online who had the guts to post a photo with her while claiming that the actress-host had an ill attitude and captioning it with: “Suplada pala sa personal itong Maine Mendoza na ‘to. So disappointed with you.”

Maine left no crumbs as she quickly replied to this claim by saying, “If I came off as ‘supladita’ (as ate sales associate in Bath and Body Works Ngee Ann Mall said to every Filipino inside the store, even to my friend) e dasurv nga naman, sana tinarayan ko na nga talaga.”

She added in her tweet, “Bastos si SA and that group of girls. Bastos at makakapal ang mukha.”

In this day and age, when short form and spliced videos and photos easily blow up online, public personalities find themselves more cautious than ever to have the smallest acts misconstrued, or checked and balanced online. With the case of Maine, she used the platform to clarify a judgement about her that potentially could affect her reputation and she was not scared to be transparent about what happened between her and the “rude” fan who took a picture with her.

Nadine did the same by answering fans on Twitter and by posting her thoughts on many issues or on the most random thing that makes her relatable and better understood. With this, the smallest things can have the biggest impact when it comes to reputation and if you reflect on it, you’ll understand that being more self-aware does not apply to celebrities but to everyone and anyone really.