POP STOP

The endless and alternately lurid and fawning coverage of the suicide of comedian Ni Min-jan (倪敏然) reached a high-pitched crescendo yesterday when a final memorial ceremony was held in Taipei attended by Ni's friends in the local entertainment industry and all those who would like the world to believe they were his friends.

Before the memorial, on Wednesday, Ni's clique, now expanded to include all the new hangers-on, was on hand to record a heart-rending paeon to the man himself. It looked a bit like a Taiwanese version of LiveAid, except instead of raising money for impoverished, dying children in Africa, the benefactor in this case was to be Ni's surviving family members who could be seen wiping tears from behind their designer sunglasses all week. The whole affair was touching evidence that in Taiwan's clan-like, hyper-exclusive entertainment circles, people will certainly look after their own.

Having outdone even the pope in garnering saturation media coverage of the funerary buildup in Taiwan, Ni's death triggered worries among "experts" that the sustained cluster wail over the past week would tip fragile souls pondering the great leap to take that final step. If anyone wanted to commit a copy-cat suicide, however, they'll need to find another tree, as locals in Ilan County cut down the tree from which Ni hanged himself.

The Chinese diaspora's ultimate vixen Bai Ling (白靈) suffered an embarrassing setback last week when it emerged that her part in the upcoming Star Wars episode ended up on the editing room floor. This despite her busy promo work for the film and her gracing the June issue of Playboy in a naughty leather get-up with a Darth Vader-esque cape and holding that favorite weapon of students of Freud, a light saber, in full extension. The cover of the issue, which must already be a collector's item, loudly announces "Star Wars' Sexy Alien."

In Hong Kong, Leon Lai (黎明) has been tapped by the makers of Infernal Affairs (無間道) to play an autistic man in what has been dubbed the city's version of Rain Man. The film hasn't begun shooting yet, but Chapman To (杜汶澤) has been chosen to co-star and Sammi Cheng (鄭秀文) reportedly is looking at the script.

In more cinema news, Asian films are making a strong showing at the Cannes Film Festival this year with five taking part in the festival's competition section. Hou Hsiao-hsien's (侯孝賢) The Best of Our Times (最好的時光), Wang Xiaoshuai's (王小帥) Shanghai Dreams (青紅) and Johnnie To's (杜琪峰) Election (黑社會) represent Chinese-speaking cinema, while Kobayash Masahiro's Bashing and Hong Sangsoo's Tale of Cinema round out the Asian competitors. Last year, Wong Kar Wai's (王家衛) 2046 stirred up a lot of and anticipation, but the buzz this year is tending more toward American Jim Jarmusch and his Broken Flowers.