Jewel Mische never really dreamt of stardom. Says the 17-year-old star of the now defunct show Kamandag: "Kahit no'ng bata pa ako, meron ding mga offers, pero I always said no, kasi it was not my cup of tea."
Her high-school friends got Jewel to change her mind. On her behalf, they lined up for the auditions of StarStruck Batch 4 in 2007. "Ako naman, super touched na nag-effort sila. So punta ako, dala ko gitara ko. I didn't have to line up, kasi nga sila pumila for me."
Jewel later won the title Starstruck Ultimate Sweetheart. With the title came a showbiz career she never even dreamed of having—along with a slew of tsismis. But she has learned how to deal with it. She says she never felt the pressure to change herself to stop the gossip.
"I never tried to please everyone. Never. Pero I try to do my best every time. That's what I do. Kasi nga, kahit ano'ng gawin ko, meron at meron. Halos lahat—lahat naman actually— nanggaling naman sa wala. I would be lying if I say, 'A, wala, part ng showbiz 'yan, hindi ako nasasaktan.' Of course, I get affected, but mawawala at mawawala din naman."
One rumor that will not go away, though, is the one linking Jewel to her Kamandag co-star, Richard Gutierrez. When we mention Richard, the normally bubbly Jewel becomes momentarily quiet. She prefers not to talk much about him. "I feel honored and privileged to be working with him," she says simply. "He's really good. What else? I realized that, despite his being Richard Gutierrez, he's really down-to-earth. He's a really, really good guy."
With good looks and a good head on her shoulders—can stardom be far behind?