Mulatto

#198: Celebrity Look-alikes
























I got the link to this from Java Junkie's blog. Go to www.MyHeritage.com. Quite a novel tool. Thing is, the results made me raise my eyebrows more than once. The first set of results gave me Sofia Coppola plus all Asian girls looking like Heart Evangelista (a Filipino celebrity I don't particularly like.) The second set of results gave me more Asian girls (including Zhang Ziyi! Gasp!) plus Kirstin Kreuk (did I even spell that right?). Now these two are lovely girls and I would be flattered to death to be told that I look like them. But while my eyesight is bad, I'm not completely blind. And while I may sometimes have a deranged view of my abilities, I am not deluded with my looks. I probably look like them to a 30 year-old dog (which makes it a 210 year-old color-blind dog, really).

Not one to give up easily (nor to let go so quickly of a fascinating new toy), I uploaded a third pic for a more "reasonable" set of results. And here it is. Sofia Coppola is a constant. Strange.

And so I am really more a mix of blacks, whites and Latinas than Asians. (Or, to be more precise - black, white and Latin celebrities than Asian celebrities. Which means, Asian celebrities become celebrities because of their strong Tsino features. Who has seen a Filipino international star? Well, outside of your usual mixes - Tia Carrere and Lou Diamond Phillips. And even they are casted more as Latinos/Latinas than Asians.)

Someone I just met last month told me the other day: You don't look Filipino. It's like you have a mix somewhere... I can't put my finger on it. (Hmm. Try Bagoong mix. My parents are both Ilocanos from Urdaneta). The captain of the sailboat we were on last week swore I was Thai. (Well, that's a good Asian guess.) I remember one of my work colleagues in Boots who insisted I looked very Spanish to him. (Maybe the huge rose on my hair and the lace dress tilted the odds a bit? Or perhaps he hasn't seen a Spaniard before.)

But the winning entry is from this young architect I was dealing with for our office renovation a couple of years ago. She was fresh out of the board exams, into a small architectural firm, managing her first big project. In short - eager to please. She shook my hand, looked at me and gushed, "Are you pure Filipino? You look very Mulatto." I knew Mulatto was a band. I didn't know what the word meant however. I smiled graciously and proceeded with business. When I asked around, Mulatto turned out to be the offspring of one black and one white parent. Which isn't bad at all. Think Mariah Carey.

Oh well. Back to the Celebrity-look-alike thingie. I'm very happy with the 83% Beyonce bit. If I squint at the image in the mirror and do a bit of "Crazy in Love" dance, I can almost see it. (uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh) 3% of the 83%. Which is better than the Zhang Ziyi bit. Now to Photoshop my photos to come up with a mix that includes Halle Berry, Eva Longoria, Victoria Beckham and Naomi Robson. Oooh. Let the delusion set in. (Insert manic Mulatto laugh here.)