Starmometer is an avid blogger of anything "pinoy" in Hollywood that's why you can frequently read here about celebrities with pinoy blood in 'em like Enrique Iglesias, The Black Eyed Peas, Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls, Vanessa Minillo, Cassie, Mutya of the Sugababes, dancer Cheryl Burke, Rod Schneider (The Animal, Deuce Bigalow), Michael Copon (One Tree Hill) and Zac Efron's gal Vanessa Hudgens! That's why i'm posting below an article by Ricky Lo of the Philippine Star regarding High School Musical sweetheart Vanessa Hudgens as one of Hollywood's highest paid teen superstars...

Did you know that Filipino-American teenage star Vanessa Hudgens is today one of Hollywood’s highest-paid young actresses in the league of Dakota Fanning, Lindsay Lohan and Daniel Radcliffe?

Did you know that Filipino-American teenage star Vanessa Hudgens is today one of Hollywood’s highest-paid young actresses in the league of Dakota Fanning, Lindsay Lohan and Daniel Radcliffe?

And her star only keeps on shining — and her paycheck getting bigger — as the smash hit made-for-TV musical film, High School Musical (HSM), continues to lord the ratings game on American television.

Its sequel, High School Musical 2, drew a whopping 17.2 million viewers on The Disney Channel last Aug. 17 — the biggest audience for any telecast in the history of basic-cable television — beating ESPN’s Giants-Cowboys Monday Night Football game as last year’s most-watched show (16 million) in the history of American cable. For comparison, the most-watched show on US broadcast TV that week was NBC’s America’s Got Talent, which averaged 10.8 million viewers.

That’s the good news from Funfare’s Big Apple correspondent Edmund Silvestre.

HSM follows a group of high school kids dealing with life and love. Said Edmund, “The original spawned a hit soundtrack, a worldwide concert tour, a show at Walt Disney World, and even a book series that helped Vanessa land in the Top 10 list of Forbes Magazine’s top-earning stars under 21.”

In the list, the 18-year-old Vanessa was No. 7 with estimated earnings of $2-M. She tied with Hayden Panettiere, 17, of the hit TV series Heroes, and ahead of Abigail Breslin, 10, of Little Miss Sunshine ($1.5 million).

Added Edmund, “The list was topped by Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, 20 ($40-M combined), Daniel Radcliffe, 17 ($13-M); Lindsay Lohan, 20, ($6-M); Dakota Fanning, 13 ($4-M) and Amanda Bynes, 20 ($2.5-M).”

Fans of the musical will be happy to know that a third HSM, this time for the big screen, is now being readied for a 2008 release which is expected to push Vanessa’s star even higher, along with her HSM co-star and real-life sweetheart Zac Efron, 19. “Interestingly,” said Edmund, “people close to the two rising stars have reportedly been advising them to take their relationship slow and focus more on their hot careers as young idols — and role models — rather than following in the footsteps (or missteps) of such stars as Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears.”

Vanessa, who is also an endorser for Neutrogena, was born in Salinas, California to a Filipino mother, Gina Guangco, and an American father, Greg Hudgens.

She has been trained in piano, dance and voice and sings opera, and wants to study business in college. Vanessa began performing at an early age, appearing in musicals starting at age eight, by taking over a friend who couldn’t go to the audition, and moved to Los Angeles after winning an audition for a commercial. She then scored roles on shows such as Quintuplets, Cover Me and Still Standing, then made her feature debut in Thirteen, and appeared in the 2004 summer film Thunderbirds. She also made TV appearances before landing the HSM show in 2006, and releasing her album V in the same year.