Pop Stop

Always eager to deliver his opinions, but not always in an eloquent manner, TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) often gets himself into hot water by sharing too many of his thoughts. Wu enraged the local Muslim community this time by making a joke about Muslims' dietary habits. "The reason why they don't eat pork is because their Prophet Mohammed once lived on pig milk," the gagman said on one of his variety shows.

The joke was on Wu and prompted him to perfrom three formal apologies to the insulted Muslim community. After eating a slice of humble pie, the paparazzi-hater quickly blamed the media for the debacle. Wu said if the press hadn't made such a fuss over the comment, the whole thing would have blown over. If Wu is as smart as he claims to be, the wisest move for him is probably to keep his poorly judged jests to himself and learn to live in peace with the press.

Taiwan's pride and joy, Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) has single-handedly made supermodel waves and released local beauty queens from the confinement of the catwalk and out into entertainment land. But Shatina Chen (陳思璇) is one of those (un)lucky girls who has begun to taste the bitter-sweet flavor of fame.

Having gotten cozy with a wealthy corporate man in the past two months, the super-model was left in shock by the dirt dug up by paparazzi about her rumored boyfriend last week. According to the Liberty Times, this very close male friend of hers has been convicted of a white-collar crime and faces a two-year stretch in the clink. The guy in question has divorced the same woman twice and he still maintains "close relations."

Chen was said to have broken into tears after the news dominated the gossip rags, worrying that no man would ever dare to court her again if he had skeletons in his closet.

Hong Kong pop king Leon Lai's (黎明) mansion was under siege by the ever watchful media last week. Having celebrated his 39-year-old birthday last Sunday, the age-resistant star made a tacit acknowledgement of his secret romance with supermodel Gaile Lai (樂基兒) by letting the 25-year-old girl make a public entrance into his house.

While the couple spent a cozy night together, the star's angry fans organized an all-night stakeout outside the house, protesting against the affair. But the star, who has arguably already passed the prime of his life, seems unwilling to let his paramour pass him by.

Local it couple Big S and Tsai Tsai (仔仔) of F4 were caught doing some late-night snack shopping last week. Excellent at free-association thinking, local paparazzi implied a possible pregnancy on the way judging from Tsai Tsai's loving care for the

unusually slow-moving star.

Upset about the media doing too much reading between the lines, Big S' mom said to the paparazzi: "I am also a slow walker. How come you don't report that I am pregnant too?" A point well made.

Producer Hsu Li-kong (徐立功) announced last week his decision to make a sequel of the TV mini-series April Rhapsody (人間四月天), an acclaimed drama about the life of the early 20th century Chinese poet Xu Zhimo (徐志摩). Our king of pop Jay Chou (周杰倫) was among the recommended candidates for the role of Xu Zhimo. However, Hsu discarded the idea, saying Chou was too homely looking for the role. "Chou could play the funny version of the romantic poet if I was to make a comedy," Hsu told the local media.