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Pop Stop

It had to happen. Lin Chih-ling (林志玲) is falling from grace. No-one ever used to write a bad word about the supermodel regarded as Taiwan’s fairest flower and a national treasure. After all what was there to say about a pretty face that did little else but smile demurely and pick up fat checks for endorsements?

But in a story that deserved the headline “Who woos Woo?” it was reported Monday by our sister paper the Liberty Times that Lin had thrown her near-naked self at John Woo (吳宇森), after the Hong Kong/Hollywood director wheeled out the casting couch for his new movie The Battle of Red Cliff (赤壁之戰).

In many ways the news, if true, was not that surprising since anyone who cared about Lin knew the 31-year-old untested actress was desperate for a major film role, as her modeling career tails off. According to gossipmongers, Lin had been stalking Woo for months in her bid to star in the film alongside Hong Kong stars Chow Yun-fat (周潤發) and Tony Leung (梁朝偉).

She tracked Woo down to a hotel in Shanghai and booked a neighboring room, where she laid in wait for the man behind Face/Off and Mission Impossible II to return from a business meeting. Then, she was said to have confronted the director draped in something transparent, put her head on his chest and gently beat him with her fists, while repeating in a plaintive voice “You want me, yes? You want me.”

Those familiar with the arts of love in Taiwan will know this is called sajiao (撒嬌), which Pop Stop defines as acting like a young girl while deploying adult feminine charms in order to court the affections of a man, ie. being cute. Sajiao is surprisingly effective and works on most men, much of the time. As a result, perhaps, Woo announced last month in Taipei that Lin would have a starring part in his movie based on the Chinese classic Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The only thing wrong with this story was that it’s provenance was the notorious Chinese blogger Song Zude (宋祖德), who revealed Faye Wong’s (王菲) daughter had a cleft lip. Also, it’s hard to imagine the 174cm Lin putting her head on the vertically-challenged Woo’s chest without falling over. Lin’s agent was said by the Times to be furious about the stain on his client’s reputation and was considering legal action.

After scratching her seven-year itch and ditching Ekin Cheng (鄭伊健), Hong Kong actress and singer Gigi Leung (梁詠琪) has been playing the field. Nothing wrong with that, except that a popular local rag pointed out Wednesday that Leung has a fondness for “white meat.”

Leung was pictured by the paper with a foreigner called Andy in March; snapped with another “whitey” having coffee in Taipei last month; and was then outed having fun with a Frenchman called Sly when she went to Japan recently to watch Madonna’s concert. Unfortunately for Leung, Sly was so named for a reason and as soon as she returned to Hong Kong paparazzi caught him grabbing another woman’s arse, after spending time drinking and carousing in the park. The paper then ran another small story titled “Chinese stars love Western food,” naming five actresses who have foreign lovers.

Finally, ever wonder why Taiwanese stars love Japan and China so much? It’s not the food. A promotional appearance to plug an album, whatever, costs TV companies here just NT$1,350, according to Chinese-language newspaper reports. They pay from NT$6,000 to NT$15,000 for personal appearances. Actors are paid from NT$10,000 to NT$50,000 for a TV episode.

This compares with Japan, where actors can get around NT$300,000 per episode. In China recompense for appearing in a TV film or soap opera episode is a minimum of NT$80,000 and up to NT$400,000. The most popular singing stars are paid at least NT$800,000 for a show. As the saying goes: follow the money.

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