Hong Kong's hottest couple Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) and Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒) dropped a bombshell last week by announcing they had secretly tied the knot in the Philippines. After years of wavering between Cheung and Wang Faye (王菲), the playboy quickly decided to end his bachelor life three months after the two got back together. Gossipmongers say the reason behind the quickie nuptials was because Cheung has a bun in the oven.
Friends, colleges and families all extended courteous congratulations to the two except for Cheung's unfailing admirer Jordan Chan (陳小春). When asked how he felt about the news, the pop star said in a begrudging tone, “when people get married, you have to congratulate them. What else do you expect me to do? Jump from a building?”
Tse's mother was deeply hurt and enraged since the wedding ceremony was so secret that even the bride and groom's parents didn't know about it. Gossip observers believe the mom's grief also stems from divinations made by fortune-tellers that point to Cheung as a jinx on the family and a source of bad luck for her son.
It seems that now her dream to marry a handsome man and start a family seems to have come true, Cheung is entering a new phase in life, joined by a mother-in-law who sees her as a thorn in her side.
While Hong Kong paparazzi were busy chasing the newlyweds, local hacks have been tailing the soon-to be-divorced couple Lily Tien (田麗) and Chen Ting-chung (陳定中), after Chen was caught by information-wired paparazzi spending four hours in a hotel room with a flight attendant in her early 20s last week.
News of Chen's clandestine love affairs came as a big surprise to local showbiz insiders as his wife, a surprisingly well-preserved actress who is always ready to dazzle with her femme fatale facade, had carefully crafted a public image of a happily married couple and had been lauded as an ideal wife who gave her man boundless freedom and an erotically-charged sexual life. When informed of the news by members of the local press last weekend, Tien was first taken aback but quickly composed herself and said, “I don't believe it but I will ask him about it. If it can't be solved, then we'll get divorced.”
Chen's alibi: the tryst was an innocent seafood feast in a hotel room with a long-legged beauty. Chen also revealed that he and his wife have been planning to divorce since last year and he will become single again before Christmas. “A battle is about to begin,” Chen said to the local press.
Since Chen is estimated to have assets of NT$400 million, the direct translation of the “battle” is a fight over alimony.
Pro-independence heavy-metal combo Chthonic (閃靈樂團) has quietly made a diplomatic move by releasing its second album in the US last week.
An English-language version of Seediq Bale (賽德克巴), the record take its lyrics from the legendary story of the heroic Seediq tribe that mounted an anti-Japanese revolt in 1930 that later became known as the Wushe incident (霧社事件).
Signed to the rock label Megaforce, the local black metal outfit is all set to woo crowds with their faces painted like the Eight Generals (八家將). The group goes on tour in the US early next year.
David Tao (陶吉吉), on the other hand, is a less music-driven musician who regularly dominates the gossip rags with his rapacious advances on young beauties. After commenting on his dinner dates with local supermodel Pai Hsin-huai (白歆惠) to the local press, the star was spotted last weekend doing the splits (劈腿) by getting cozy with a PR worker at a pub in Shanghai.
However, the swarm of paparazzi outside the pub alerted the star who then skillfully disengaged himself from the girl and was adroitly escorted out of the place by security guards.
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
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In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and