Fallout from the Edison Chen (陳冠希) online sex-photo scandal rages on in the tribulation of Cecilia Cheung’s (張柏芝) troubled marriage to Nicolas Tse (謝霆鋒).
A touching little performance at Bangkok International Airport in April in which the couple seemed to have made up their differences seems to have been just that, with Next magazine (壹週刊) gleefully reporting that Tse was conspicuously absent from his wife’s birthday party on May 24.
This could simply be because he is busy helping in quake relief efforts in Sichuan Province, China, but the fact that Cheung, 28, seems to be spending most of her time at her mom’s and sister’s homes suggests that this is more than just a momentary separation for the celebrity couple.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Cheung, who used to be often seen sporting expensive designer labels, is dressing down these days. Next reports that she has earned virtually no income since the scandal broke.
Other girls are better at making use of their assets than others, and TV personality Wu Wen-hsian (吳玟萱), 36, has parlayed her 36D breasts into a lucrative endorsement package for Cutie Bra, despite being over 30, a divorcee and a single mother. But all was not left to nature, and Wu is reported to have overcome the effects of gravity with a little surgery two months ago, which has put her peaks back firmly where they belong — in front of the camera.
Reality talent shows continue to churn out more fodder for gossip hounds. Last week’s celebrity was Chang Yun-ching (張芸京), the androgynous singer and favorite of SetTV’s talent show Super Idol (超級偶像), the main rival to CTV’s One Million Star (超級星光大道). Chang’s handsome looks have won her a huge female fan base, and this led to problems with her “best-friend” and bandmate Chang Wei-lun (張維倫). The lesbian frisson gives the story just that much more appeal, and Next reports that Chang Yun-ching dropped all her commitments in Taipei to get her friend back after she returned to Hualien, supposedly jealous at Chang’s success. Next magazine reports that as a pledge, Chang will sing one of her friend’s own composition for the final of Super Idol tomorrow. It is the stuff that huge television ratings are made of.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Another love story that has the media rumor mill spinning involves Janet Hsieh (謝怡芬), host of the Fun Taiwan show that airs regularly on Discovery’s Travel and Living channel. Next magazine reports that she has recently become involved with her manager Li Ching-bai (李景白), who is — horror of horrors — 16 years her senior. Certainly Li seemed to be doing more than his job description as an agent in looking after Hsieh’s parents when they visited last month. Next even suggests that in accepting a job to produce Ohaeva for Videoland (緯萊電視網), he is taking a step to helping Hsieh fulfill her acting ambitions.
This strategy seems to be what all the local celebs want these days. Lin Chi-ling (林志玲), Taiwan’s top fashion model, has now made it to the big screen in John Woo’s (吳宇森) Red Cliff. When asked about her acting skills in an interview with Sina.com on Monday, co-star Tony Leung Chiu Wai (梁朝偉) replied that “she was very polite. Although she’s not a professional, she worked very hard.” It’s hard to get more damning than that in the Chinese movie press.
May 6 to May 12 Those who follow the Chinese-language news may have noticed the usage of the term zhuge (豬哥, literally ‘pig brother,’ a male pig raised for breeding purposes) in reports concerning the ongoing #Metoo scandal in the entertainment industry. The term’s modern connotations can range from womanizer or lecher to sexual predator, but it once referred to an important rural trade. Until the 1970s, it was a common sight to see a breeder herding a single “zhuge” down a rustic path with a bamboo whip, often traveling large distances over rugged terrain to service local families. Not only
By far the most jarring of the new appointments for the incoming administration is that of Tseng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦) to head the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). That is a huge demotion for one of the most powerful figures in the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Tseng has one of the most impressive resumes in the party. He was very active during the Wild Lily Movement and his generation is now the one taking power. He has served in many of the requisite government, party and elected positions to build out a solid political profile. Elected as mayor of Taoyuan as part of the
Moritz Mieg, 22, lay face down in the rubble, the ground shaking violently beneath him. Boulders crashed down around him, some stones hitting his back. “I just hoped that it would be one big hit and over, because I did not want to be hit nearly to death and then have to slowly die,” the student from Germany tells Taipei Times. MORNING WALK Early on April 3, Mieg set out on a scenic hike through Taroko Gorge in Hualien County (花蓮). It was a fine day for it. Little did he know that the complex intersection of tectonic plates Taiwan sits
Last week the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) released a set of very strange numbers on Taiwan’s wealth distribution. Duly quoted in the Taipei Times, the report said that “The Gini coefficient for Taiwanese households… was 0.606 at the end of 2021, lower than Australia’s 0.611, the UK’s 0.620, Japan’s 0.678, France’s 0.676 and Germany’s 0.727, the agency said in a report.” The Gini coefficient is a measure of relative inequality, usually of wealth or income, though it can be used to evaluate other forms of inequality. However, for most nations it is a number from .25 to .50