Tina Maria had a great career as an actress. She was a contestant on the popular television show “The Dating Game” and appeared in a number of other high-profile movies. But it seems that her most famous career role was in the movie “Guess Who’s Here?” She played the title role for the first time in this film, which came out in 1980. Her co-star in this film was not only outrageously beautiful, but was also quite popular at the time.
The problem with Tina Maria’s career was that she didn’t really fit the typical mold for an actress. She wasn’t tall, she wasn’t thin, she wasn’t of a certain nationality, and she certainly wasn’t of the right age. (The average age for an actress is twenty-one while the average age for a model is twenty-three.) Instead of looking to nurture her acting career or trying to improve upon it, Maria instead seemed determined to remain in obscurity. There is an underlying joke in that, one that works in any context: When you can’t make a living doing what you love, you tend to do it in order to avoid having to do it.
Tina Maria could have tried to broaden her horizons and become successful in other kinds of projects, like movies or stage work. But that would have required getting rid of “guys” (men who were essentially starving artists who were looking for a quick way to get famous) in order to broaden her options. The fact that Tina Maria couldn’t even get on her knees and gives lip service to a male lead character in order to be eligible for a leading role in a movie suggests that there may be something physically or culturally wrong with her. In some ways, that’s true. But it also suggests that there is probably nothing wrong with her.