Pop Stop

Although the birth of Angelina Jolie's and Brad Pitt's new baby girl may be regarded as one of the biggest celebrity news items of the century by Western media,Chinese diva Faye Wang (王菲) took some of the limelight last week, giving birth to her second daughter on the same day. Wang's husband Li Ya-peng (李亞鵬) shed tears of delight at the sight of child, who weighed 4kg, a big child by Asian standards.

You would have thought that this would bring an end to the two-week stake out by Chinese-language media, who wouldn't let Wang out of their sight in the lead up to the birth. Hong Kong media estimated that the total cost of following the star day and night was around NT$4 million. But there is no rest for the paparazzi, who are in an all out race to take the first photo of the baby, a money shot worth NT$2 million. This is small potatoes compared to the NT$160 million which the photo of Jolie's baby fetched.

As for the future Wang's plans: to become the contracted star at Li's agency firm and work at giving him a son.

On the international scene, Taiwan's biggest-budget horror flick, Silk (詭絲), was shown at the Cannes International Film Festival last week. The two leads, Chang Chen (張震) and Karena Lam (林嘉欣), weren't doing much to hide their mutual admiration. When asked by Chinese-language media what he thought of Lin, Chang lauded the Hong Kong sweetheart as just "too damn pretty," while Lam said Chang was a real man and complained they didn't have enough scenes together. In short, the pair look quite promising as a new hot celebrity item.

Love seemed to have been in the air at Cannes. Thailand-born, Hong Kong-based director Oxide Pang (彭順) was in high-spirits at the showing of his new horror flick, Re-cycle (鬼域), and opened his heart to the press about his romance with the film's leading actress, Angelica Lee (李心潔). "When I saw her for the first time, I knew she was mine," Pang said. Through reporters, he even proposed marriage, but Lee played cute saying "I'm not hearing you."

Local celebrities are now gearing up for the 17th Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎), Taiwan's equivalent of the US Grammies, which is ready to roll on June 10 at the Taipei Arena (台北巨蛋). The Internet is already buzzing with predictions as who will take away the big prizes at Taiwan's most important musical event, which will be attended by some of Asia's hottest musicians. Yet one can easily detect some friction in the heated discussion over this year's less than star-studded nomination list. The Double J pair of Jay Chou (周杰倫) and Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) are notably absent.

With significantly fewer consistent hit-song singers among the nominations, some people have questioned the jury members' expertise, suggesting that if the top-ten teen crowd is not catered to, nobody will pay much attention to the Golden Melody event. Others have praised the judges for sticking to principles and not bowing to popular taste.

Whatever the reasons, the pop idols have been squeezed out by the alternative crowd.

The biggest surprise is Best Male Singer nominee Puyuma folk singer Kimbo, also known as Hu De-fu (胡德夫) in Chinese. After a 30-year musical career, the legendary protest singer released his first album In a Flash (匆匆) last year with tunes dating from 1972 to 2001. The retrospective record obviously caught the jury's attention, gaining him the Best Chinese-Language Album, Best Lyricist and Best Composer nominations among others.