Tweety buckles down to business

Tweetie de Leon-Gonzalez does not have to lift a dainty finger for things to go her way. Breaks come to her as fast as metal objects are drawn to magnets.

Modelling made it easier for her. Because of this, the country’s representative to the 1987 International Supermodel tilt (she was the first in a long line of lookers) forayed into showbiz. She played the title role in the now-defunct Okay Ka, Fairy Ko, taking over Alice Dixson as Vic Sotto’s wife.

It was six years of TV work for her until marriage (to realtor Mon Gonzalez) interrupted her showbiz career. Tweety has since given birth to Sabina, four; Lorenzo, three and Nicolas, six months old – all of whom their mother has patiently breastfed.

For her family, Tweety turned down offers to guest in TV shows and concentrated on PTA meetings, burping babies and attending to her husband’s needs. But the itch to further her personal growth nagged her like a persistent suitor.

Tweety the eternal artist fashioned trinkets, necklaces, rosaries and all sorts of ornamental and decorative beads, presumably while the babies were fast asleep; the house all quiet and still. She recalled her hectic modelling days, when she walked the ramp in various countries, and discovered the beauty of semi-precious stones as accessories.

Tweety learned to develop her eye for such striking fashion accents. Those that caught her fancy found their way in her beads, which she plans to market in a Chrismas bazaar soon.

She also ventured into magazine work, as co-editor of a new publication Cosmo Bride, published semi-annually, the better to give her time for the family. Tweety took the writing stuff further by agreeing to write a beauty column for The Manila Standard.

And, while she was not looking, Bandwagon Ventures Company and Multivision Communications, Inc. decided to tap her as host of their new magazine type show, Business Line. To premiere tonight at, 11 on ABC-5, the weekly program opens a whole new world for this UP Phililosophy graduate.

Tweetie is admittedly not a business personality. True, she first tried her hand in business at 18, when she became manager of a boutique called The Clothes Shop. But much of what she will do in Business Line Tweety will learn hands-on.

The show’s young producers had no qualms getting Tweety precisely because she is a fresh new face in a world peopled by stern, hard-nosed businessmen. Tweety’s is the soft touch that will give a human face to business, they surmise.

The opening salvo tonight dubbed Business After Dark, focuses on the bar business. The Special Focus segment will give an overview of the business, tracing its roots from that of a girlie joint, on to discos in the ’70s, the classy jazz bars, on to the discos and theme bars of today.

Profile, still on the same episode, features party king Louie Ysmael. The Business Case Book focuses on the LJC Group of Bars success story. What’s In? explores the trend of opening bars among showbiz celebrities like Kuh Ledesma, Randy Santiago, Jay Sonza, Robin da Rosa, Bojo Molina and the Side A Band. Then, there’s a feature on the "gay" bar that has been silently but steadily making its presence felt.

Up next are episodes on the memorial business (for the All Saint’s Day edition), the internet dot com business, the franchise business and others. Tweetie hopes to write some of the segments herself to get a better grasp of the show.

As it is, she’s learning a lot from talking to people – not necessarily armed with proper connections – who have succeeded in business. There’s the group of people she met in a trade fair in Manila who came all the way from the province. Their beadwork and enterprising spirit made Tweetie feel like an "underachiever."

From them, she learned a lesson most entrepreneurs have known all along: business is shew guts.

For someone who prides herself in learning on the job, this fledgling business show should give Tweetie something new to crow about.