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POP STOP

Hu Gua is a smooth operator. PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES

Pop Stop was taking a stroll around Ximending last weekend when it stumbled onto a rock concert in aid of Premier Su Tseng-chang's (蘇貞昌) presidential campaign. Hundreds of youngsters in green hats bearing the legend, "Brave: Keep Running Forward" (衝衝衝) were, appropriately, racing around taking names and handing out goodies. A young lady, who turned out to be one of Su's three daughters, was in the midst of the action.

Pop Stop asked whether her father was feeling isolated by President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) support and subsequent attacks by the "gang of three" (competing DPP presidential hopefuls Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), Yu Shyi-kun (游錫) Frank Hsieh (謝長廷)). Yes was the answer. Encouraged, Pop Stop asked what Su, rock music and hard place had in common? The dutiful daughter replied her father "cared passionately" about young people. Being such a good-looking guy, Pop Stop responded, was Su a youth idol? Actually, piped up another young rally organizer, he's not attractive but he is hard working. Honesty is the best policy, after all.

Top five mandarin albums 1. Vanness (吳建豪) and V.DUBB with 25.63% of sales 2. Sun Ho (何耀珊) and Embrace (擁抱) with 18.8% 3. Rynn Lim (林宇中) and In the Rain (淋雨中) with 5.89% 4. Stefanie Sun (孫燕姿) and Against the Light (逆光) with 3.47% 5. Dominique Tsai (蔡詩蕓) and D-doll (蕓朵) with 2.46%

With politicians reaching out so passionately to youngsters, low-paid workers getting pay raises of up to 9.5 percent, old famers' pensions being increased, roads being mended and minor offenders being freed in an amnesty, Pop Stop has been feeling the love of late. It's a shame these things only happen when politicians want your vote in return. Normal service will, presumably, be resumed after the election.

Talking of pork, Terry Gou (郭台銘) has a claim to be Taiwan's president of porking. His trysts with actress Carina Lau (劉嘉玲) and model Lin Chi-ling (林志玲) have been tabloid fodder for months. But that's not all. The Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) chairman was formerly considered the nation's most eligible bachelor not only on account of his obscene wealth but also because he was a model husband to his wife, who sadly died of breast cancer two years ago.

Gou, however, was telling porky-pies when he said she was "the only love of my life," as he was having a steamy affair with a stock trader while he was married, according to allegations made in court. It was said Gou paid off the woman to keep quiet and even hired a hit man to silence an investigator dishing the dirt on Gou, according to the Taiwan News. Gou was reported by Apple Daily as saying, "What man doesn't play around?" Closer to the mark is the ancient saying, "A rich man loves doing bad things" (有錢男人愛搞怪). A new game on the Internet called "Go Timing" is a play on the chairman's name (Gou Tai-ming) and a piss take of his love life (see www.qwedding.com.tw).

Hu Gua (胡瓜), meanwhile, has been effusively thanking prosecutors on his blog "Hugua Paradise" (www.wretch.cc/blog/hugua) after they decided there was insufficient evidence he bribed the judge who acquitted him in his mahjong fraud case. He still has to wriggle out of a marijuana possession charge, but the smart money is on Hu getting away with it, as he appears to have the prosecutors in his pocket.

Finally, news just in, Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) got a telling off for fluffing her lines in China. The Web site www.sina.com.cn reported the diva was supposed to sing along with three fans on a TV show, but was reluctant to do so as it would make her look amateurish. "You're too good for this?" the director was reported as shouting. Eventually, Tsai bit the bullet and did as she was told.

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