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.
Last week writer Wei Lingling (魏玲靈) unloaded a remarkably conventional pro-China column in the Wall Street Journal (“From Bush’s Rebuke to Trump’s Whisper: Navigating a Geopolitical Flashpoint,” Dec 2, 2025). Wei alleged that in a phone call, US President Donald Trump advised Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi not to provoke the People’s Republic of China (PRC) over Taiwan. Wei’s claim was categorically denied by Japanese government sources. Trump’s call to Takaichi, Wei said, was just like the moment in 2003 when former US president George Bush stood next to former Chinese premier Wen Jia-bao (溫家寶) and criticized former president Chen
As I finally slid into the warm embrace of the hot, clifftop pool, it was a serene moment of reflection. The sound of the river reflected off the cave walls, the white of our camping lights reflected off the dark, shimmering surface of the water, and I reflected on how fortunate I was to be here. After all, the beautiful walk through narrow canyons that had brought us here had been inaccessible for five years — and will be again soon. The day had started at the Huisun Forest Area (惠蓀林場), at the end of Nantou County Route 80, north and east
A six-episode, behind-the-scenes Disney+ docuseries about Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour and Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man, are some of the new television, films, music and games headed to a device near you. Also among the streaming offerings worth your time this week: Chip and Joanna Gaines take on a big job revamping a small home in the mountains of Colorado, video gamers can skateboard through hell in Sam Eng’s Skate Story and Rob Reiner gets the band back together for Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. MOVIES ■ Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out movie, Wake Up Dead Man
Politics throughout most of the world are viewed through a left/right lens. People from outside Taiwan regularly try to understand politics here through that lens, especially those with strong personal identifications with the left or right in their home countries. It is not helpful. It both misleads and distracts. Taiwan’s politics needs to be understood on its own terms. RISE OF THE DEVELOPMENTAL STATE Arguably, both of the main parties originally leaned left-wing. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) brought together radicals, dissidents and revolutionaries devoted to overthrowing their foreign Manchurian Qing overlords to establish a Chinese republic. Their leader, Sun Yat-sen
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