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My hands are clean, says A-mei, to claims that she owes taxes. PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES

Taiwan's top diva Chang Huei-mei (張惠妹) made it into the news again this week, this time to deny charges of tax evasion after authorities accused the singer of arrears amounting to NT$30 million. A-mei countered that the total would be closer to NT$12 million if she loses an ongoing suit over disputed income.

Fans were out in force on the Net in support of A-mei, raising their own accusations against the Ministry of Finance of a sinister plot against the singer for refusing to play any show organized by the government after the last time she did so in 2000 got her cut off from the China market for a year.

The race is on in China to uncover whether, and if so, where, Faye Wong (王菲) and her director boyfriend (husband?) Li Yapeng (李亞鵬) got married. Rumors of the couple tying the knot have been floating around for months, but a recent frenzy of speculation in Chinese papers has the couple being married in Beijing, Xian, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Hainan, Paris, an Aegean resort and Switzerland. As yet, though, Wong's agent has denied the two are married.

Swindlers tried, but failed, to fake a kidnapping of Chen Bo-lin. PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES

Takeshi Kaneshiro, who is starring in a musical titled Perhaps Love (如果愛) currently in the works by Peter Chan (陳可辛), told C'est Moi magazine in its latest issue that he's no longer the handsome young man he once was. Granted, he's still very handsome at 31, but in the new film his role as a 20-year-old has become a bit of a stretch, he said. Chen had previously said that making over Zhou Xun (周迅), who also stars in the film, to perform her role as a 20 year old wasn't particularly difficult, but Takeshi no longer makes for a convincing young buck and that maybe he should just act his age.

At 31, Takeshi Kaneshiro finds it hard to play a 20 year old. PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES

Mayday (五月天) stirred some controversy last week when it was discovered on an online employment search engine that the band was seeking nude models to act in their new video. The ad called for women to be filmed nude, but said that they would not appear nude in the final cut of the video. The band's label Rock Records denied the band was hiring models or even filming a video and warned fans to not get suckered into auditioning. More untoward activities hounded Mayday in Singapore, where they held a concert last weekend. Over 200 fans were duped into buying bogus tickets for S$20 (NT$400) that the sellers claimed would allow backstage access and a chance for a photo-op with the band.

Actor Chen Bo-lin (陳柏霖) was also the target of tricksters lately. Gangsters twice called his grandparents recently pretending that they had kidnapped their grandson and demanding large ransoms. In one call, Chen said, someone posing as him cried and screamed in the background. But his grandparents saw through the ruse each time and just hung up the phone, he said.

Always one to raise eyebrows, Little S (小S) last week announced that now that she's 26, she's ready to marry her boyfriend of less than a year Mike Hsu (許雅鈞). But her mother was quick to throw water on that fire by coming out strongly against the idea of Little S marrying and said that if she does, she shouldn't come crying back home when things don't work out. Barely a year ago, Little S was dismissing the entire idea of marriage. So, as is often the case anyway, the talk of marrying was mostly just hot air.

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