Joey de Leon passes ‘Barbi’ crown to Paolo Ballesteros

Decades before Paolo Ballesteros rendered the Internet in awe of his makeup transformations, duplicating the look of the world’s most famous women, comedy idol Joey de Leon was way ahead of the trend when he assumed the role of Barbi on the big screen.

Obviously inspired by the all-American fashion doll Barbie by Mattel, de Leon’s would-be trio of movies debuted in 1989 with a clever storyline. He portrayed the very masculine Bartolome del Rosario who was forced to create a female alter ego when he was wrongly accused of a crime. Thus, Barbi was born to become the blockbuster “Barbi: Maid in the Philippines,” with two more installations in “Barbi 2: For President” in 1991, and “Run Barbi Run in 1995.”