Pop Stop

After an exclusive report in Next Magazine last week (which was reported in Pop Stop) -- that claimed to have insider evidence that Hong Kong singer/actress Anita Mui (梅艷芳) had come down with cervical cancer, the veteran superstar called a press conference on Friday to confirm the report. Jackie Chan (成龍), Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒), Jackie Cheung (張學友), Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文), William So (蘇永康) and practically every other star from Hong Kong were present at the press conference to show their support for Mui against the disease that killed her sister three years ago.

Mui said the cancer hadn't spread and could most likely be successfully treated. But papers and magazines have expressed doubts about

whether the cancer has truly been detected early enough to treat and noted that she appears in public now wearing a hat, supposedly to cover up hair loss due to therapy and has already bought a burial site next to her sister. Another source of doubt is the fact that until Friday, Mui had vehemently denied what were then just rumors of her cancer.

Exhibiting denial of a different kind recently is Hsiao Hsien (小嫻), whose claim to fame apart from a few cameos is her liaison with man-about-town and part owner of Room18 and Plush, Hsiao Kang (小康). She was photographed by Apple Daily playing several rounds of tongue hockey with a woman in her car on Monday night and has since tried to explain the episode as merely a kiss goodbye. Hsiao Kang has said he needs to have "a good talk" with her about her "abnormal" activities.

Speaking of abnormal activities, TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) is in trouble again for sharing his largesse with two young paramours that he claimed to have ditched in favor of his wife and four kids. According to Next Magazine, Jacky has bought his lovers real estate and one, who goes by the sassy name Candy, now drives his Porsche around town.

Lee Hom Wang (王力宏) flirted with deviance this week and caused a minor stir on the TV show Asia Total Entertainment (亞洲娛樂百分百) when he told ASOS, the collective name of the sisters that host the show, that his sexual fantasies feature Keira Knightly, the teenage starlet of Pirates of the Carribean. She's 18, so it's not too scandalous, but in legal terms, that's what's called barely legal. The best part was that Lee Hom said he didn't know she was so young. Yeah right.

This was apparently the week of unseemly passions, as former LA Boyz member and current UC Irvine med student Steve was spotted by local media involved in a rowdy public display of affection on Anhe Road last weekend. At the time he was wearing the muscle-accentuating wife-beater T-shirt that seems to make up his wardrobe's entire shirt collection.

To the chagrin of many women, Takeshi Kaneshiro (金城武) won't be indulging in any such tomfoolery because, according to the man himself, he?"doesn't have time for women" these days. In Taipei on Tuesday to promote his new movie Turn Left Turn Right in which he stars opposite Gigi Leung (梁詠琪), a reporter asked Takeshi if sparks had flown between him and Gigi, and if not, could sparks occur between him and the reporter. He responded with a devastatingly flat no to both questions.

Following up on a story from last week, Sun Yanzi (孫燕姿) and S.H.E. toasted each other at last weekend's Singapore Golden Melody Awards ceremony in a display of unity and friendship that they hoped would end the acrimony between their respective fans. S.H.E. fans have been calling for blood since Yanzi's album has been consistently outselling S.H.E.'s album that was released on the same day.