MANILA, Philippines?It?s tough making it as a show biz star. Tougher still is keeping a stellar career going for years, or even decades. Toughest of all, however, is the challenge of preventing a previously high-flying career from settling onto an artistic plateau of excessive caution, and smugly resting on one?s laurels.

Stars whose careers are on a creative plateau are still popular, and continue to make a lot of money. But their relative lack of artistic initiative ends up subverting their talent and makes them repeat themselves in production after production.

The initial tendency is to dismiss these plateau-inhabiting stars as artists who?ve compromised their artistry in favor of comfortable ?signature? characterization and commercial and financial security. If that?s the way they want their careers to go, so be it.

On the other hand, this is cause for concern, because cautious stars? ?safe? performances ultimately dilute their hard-earned reputations, and leave the viewing public with unexciting and uninspiring fare. This is patently unfair to moviegoers who pay good money to watch films. Even ?free? TV doesn?t do viewers a favor either, with its generally predictable performances.

Two popular and talented male stars who should reconsider their career options are Aga Muhlach and Piolo Pascual. They?re both acclaimed thespians, but they?ve been coming up with relatively safe TV-film performances of late.

Rom-com stars

In the movies, this is mainly due to the fact that they?ve been pigeonholed into top billing romantic-comedy productions. The rom-com format isn?t famous for coming up with challenging characters for their male stars to portray, so they eventually end up repeating themselves, which Aga and Piolo are doing.

In a sense, this is not their ?fault.? Years ago, Aga went out on a limb and played a dark, negative character on the big screen and his fans stayed away from his act of audacity. Piolo has made similarly intrepid forays that weren?t money in the bank.

So, to help them get off that stultifying career plateau, their fans should do their share by supporting their more audacious efforts, if and when they choose to make them.

On the distaff side, the instructive story is currently being told by Sharon Cuneta, who?s starring in the challenging film, ?Caregiver.? For many years, Sharon also went the relatively safe romantic-melodrama and romantic-comedy routes, so her new film about a Filipina caregiver in London is quite a stretch for her.

?Uncommercial? story

The instructive factor here, however, is that Sharon chose to do the stretching. Like Aga and Piolo, she has remained popular for many years, so she certainly doesn?t need to prove anything to anybody.

But, she felt strongly enough about developing her talent?and using her stellar clout to effect the production of the movie?s ?uncommercial? story?that she?s taken the big risk.

That?s why we hope that, contrary to most predictions, ?Caregiver? turns out to be a hit, despite its uncompromising material. If that happens, Sharon shall have gotten the best of both worlds: Artistic achievement and financial rewards.

Even better, she could motivate other ?plateau-dwellers? to similarly go beyond their stellar comfort zones to be of better service to their talent and the viewing public to which they owe the fame and fortune they?ve been enjoying for many years.