Eat your hearts out Wayne Rooney and Coleen McLoughlin — timeless beauty Carina Lau (劉嘉玲) and perennial heartthrob Tony Leung Chiu Wai (梁朝偉) will reportedly tie the knot in a lavish bash after a 19-year romance that has included rumored flings with a cast of celebrity paramours by both parties.
The nuptials, to which 50 close friends and relatives have been invited, will reportedly take place on July 21 at the Four Seasons resort in Bali.
The showbiz media went into overdrive to uncover details of what is expected to be an extravagant affair. In a press conference held to publicize The Battle of Red Cliff (赤壁) in Hong Kong on Monday, Leung deflected questions about the couple’s big day.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Frustrated, the press took matters into their own hands.
According to unsubstantiated rumors, Lau and Leung will splurge an estimated NT$4 million on flying out and housing wedding guests who include Faye Wong (王菲), Stanley Kwan (關錦鵬) and Wong Kar-wai (王家衛). The Four Seasons is bound to be besieged by paparazzi, and Pop Stop is offering good odds on Lau becoming pregnant within the year.
In other marital news, it looks as though Lau’s former suitor Terry Gou (郭台銘) doesn’t want his past date hogging the limelight. The head of Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and his dancer girlfriend Delia Tseng’s (曾馨瑩) wedding is reportedly taking place later this month and has been picked over in minute detail over the past couple of weeks.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
A simple snap shot of Tseng at the airport sparked an in-depth analysis of her jewelry and clothing. Expert fashionistas determined that her sunglasses were Gucci (NT$10,000), her handbag Hermes (NT$190,000) and her ring diamond (NT$77 million). The Apple Daily’s verdict: the real-life “Pretty Woman” is starting to look like Mrs Gou-to-be.
Meanwhile, pop diva A-mei (張惠妹) was caught off guard, looks-wise, while she was practicing Cantonese last week for her performance at the upcoming Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎). A blown-up photo in Apple Daily showed the makeup-less diva sporting a pair of retro glasses with black plastic frame and compared the singer’s look to Mike Myer’s Austin Powers character.
The newspaper charmingly suggested that A-mei didn’t look her best because her boyfriend, basketball player Sam Ho(何守正), 11 years her junior, had worn her out.
But for truly desperate, unsourced rumor-mongering, one has to turn to China’s celebrity newshounds. A dark, obscure snapshot of pop idol Matthew Ming Dao (明道) relaxing by resting his feet on the back of a chair while a nearby female assistant is seen hunched forward was said by Southern Metropolis Weekly to be evidence that the star is a kinky podophiliac who likes nothing better than to have his feet licked.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
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The Ministry of Education last month proposed a nationwide ban on mobile devices in schools, aiming to curb concerns over student phone addiction. Under the revised regulation, which will take effect in August, teachers and schools will be required to collect mobile devices — including phones, laptops and wearables devices — for safekeeping during school hours, unless they are being used for educational purposes. For Chang Fong-ching (張鳳琴), the ban will have a positive impact. “It’s a good move,” says the professor in the department of
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