The South Korean film star Song Hye-kyo is preparing to sue three Vietnamese newspapers for libel for alleging she was arrested in possession of drugs, Tien Phuong newspaper has reported. One of the papers' editors blamed the mistake on a part-time translator who had sourced the story from a Taiwanese Web site.
Lawyers for the 23-year-old actress sought South Korean embassy assistance in filing lawsuits against Vietnamese state-run media outlets Phap Luat Thanh Pho (in English, Ho Chi Minh Law) and the online news agencies Hanoimoi and Vietnamnet.
The legal action involves an August story alleging the actress was stopped and arrested at Hong Kong airport with 50 ecstasy tablets.
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The Ho Chi Minh Law newspaper published a letter of apology in English after being informed of the intended lawsuit.
The family of late Ugandan dictator Idi Amin has threatened to sue the producers of the The Last King of Scotland, the film version of the acclaimed novel about the notorious despot's rule.
Amin's eldest son, Taban Amin, said the family might sue for defamation but at least deserved millions in compensation for the depiction of his father in the movie which wrapped up on-location shooting in Uganda earlier this month.
PHOTO: AP
He said the family -- consisting of his prolific father's 42 children and several widows -- would seek US$4 to US$5 million from Cowboy Films, which is producing Last King with Hollywood star Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin.
"These actors have been depicting my father as eating people," Amin said, referring to persistent allegations of cannibalism leveled at the dictator. "I was with him for many years, but I never saw any human flesh."
The title refers to Amin's stated desire to take over from Britain's Queen Elizabeth II as monarch to the Scots, and the film tells the story of Scottish doctor Nicholas Garrigan, who becomes Amin's physician.
PHOTO: AP
Tokyo Governor Shintaro Ishihara, an outspoken Japanese nationalist, has penned a movie script about the lives of kamikaze pilots in World War II and will be the film's executive producer, Kyodo news agency said.
Ishihara, a novelist before he entered politics, has a penchant for making provocative statements.
Japan has lately seen the release of a string of war films that some analysts say reflect rising nationalism 60 years after its 1945 surrender.
The image of John Paul II returned late Tuesday to the window of Krakow Bishops' Palace from which he addressed his former diocese on visits to his native Poland.
The late pope is being played by American actor Jon Voight in a film on Karol Wojtyla's life, scenes for which are being shot in Krakow, Polish news agency PAP reported.
The television film, a combined US-Italian-Polish production, is part of a series on key 20th century historical figures.
The 40-Year-Old Virgin, starring Steve Carell as a middle-aged virgin looking for love, debuted in first place at North American box offices this weekend with ticket sales of US$21.4 million, final figures showed Monday.
Carell stars as Andy Stitzer, a stockroom worker whose virginity is discovered by colleagues who then try to find him a soul mate.
Red Eye, directed by horror maestro Wes Craven, opened in second place on US$16.1 million in sales with a tale of a woman kidnapped by a stranger on a flight and threatened with the murder of a father, according to California-based Exhibitor Relations Co Inc.
Last week's number-one Four Brothers fell to the third spot on ticket sales of US$12.4 million, while the comedy Wedding Crashers was ranked fourth with takings of US$8 million.
The Skeleton Key was in fifth place with US$7.7 million, followed by March of the Penguins in sixth with US$6.4 million and then Valiant, with sales of US$5.91 million.
Rounding out the top 10, The Dukes of Hazzard garnered US$5.98 million in eighth spot; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory earned US$4.4 million in ninth, and Sky High ranked tenth with sales of US$4 million.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
Ahead of incoming president William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20 there appear to be signs that he is signaling to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and that the Chinese side is also signaling to the Taiwan side. This raises a lot of questions, including what is the CCP up to, who are they signaling to, what are they signaling, how with the various actors in Taiwan respond and where this could ultimately go. In the last column, published on May 2, we examined the curious case of Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweight Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) — currently vice premier
The last time Mrs Hsieh came to Cihu Park in Taoyuan was almost 50 years ago, on a school trip to the grave of Taiwan’s recently deceased dictator. Busloads of children were brought in to pay their respects to Chiang Kai-shek (蔣中正), known as Generalissimo, who had died at 87, after decades ruling Taiwan under brutal martial law. “There were a lot of buses, and there was a long queue,” Hsieh recalled. “It was a school rule. We had to bow, and then we went home.” Chiang’s body is still there, under guard in a mausoleum at the end of a path
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50