Fri, Mar 20, 2009 page14

• POP STOP

  • COMPILED BY STAFF WRITER WITH AP
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  VIEW THIS PAGE Until recently regarded as an A-lister, poor Eddie Peng (彭于晏) looks as if he’s being eclipsed by a younger rival in what could be interpreted as a delicious example of comeuppance, if you suspend disbelief long enough. Lego Li (李國毅), 23, starred alongside Peng in the series Honey and Clover (蜂蜜幸運草) last year and was subject to some light bullying on set, including the forced removal of his shoe, which he was then made to smell, the United Daily News reported last year.

  The young upstart seems to have avoided post-traumatic stress disorder and went on to score the lead role in a new drama, Start Game (比賽開始), which as Peng has been put on ice by his agency and hasn’t worked for four months has set tongues wagging, reports the Liberty Times, the Taipei Times’ sister paper.

  Peng, who turns 27 on Tuesday, is reportedly in the doghouse for being difficult. And getting caught telling fibs hasn’t helped his cause. After splitting from Mando-pop diva Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) last year, he said the pair hadn’t kept in contact. She now says they do.

  A US federal jury has begun deliberations in a civil trial of South Korean pop star and actor Rain and his managers over the cancellation of his scheduled 2007 concert in Honolulu.

  Hawaii-based Click Entertainment Inc alleges Rain and his agency breached a contract and defrauded it of US$500,000 in rights fees, plus nearly US$1 million in other expenses to stage the event.

  The four-man, three-woman jury began deliberating on Wednesday morning to determine if and how much damages should be awarded.

  Rain’s concert was canceled just days before the scheduled June 15, 2007, event at Aloha Stadium. It was supposed to be the first stop on the US segment of the singer’s Rain’s Coming world tour, which saw the icon play Taiwan in March of the same year.

  Alt-rock chanteuse Faith Yang (楊乃文), who sang a duet with Jarvis Cocker at December’s Urban Simple Life, revealed in the Liberty Times that she threw her US computer engineer boyfriend to the curb six months ago. He had moved to Taiwan, but it wasn’t to his liking so he upped sticks, and that was the end of that. And now she has a new album out next month, the perfect time to divulge details of her private life.

  And girls, if you’re in the marriage market, a very eligible bachelor is under pressure from his parents to get hitched soon. That David Tao (陶吉吉) at 39 has not been married before shouldn’t put you off. There’s probably nothing wrong with him.

  “My lips lack the moisture of other people,” the self-declared homebody told the Liberty Times.

  His mother says she will arrange a marriage for her son, so time is of the essence.

  The singer has a new album out in May, which may go some way to explaining the energized search for a spouse.

  All of which segues awkwardly to Edison Chen (陳冠希), whose film The Sniper (神鎗手) hits screens next month in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The flick was originally slated for release last year, but was shelved after photos of the star and eight female celebrities engaged in compromising poses found their way onto the Net.

  In the movie, Chen is a supporting actor, but he has outshone his coworkers for all the wrong reasons. Promotional shots of The Sniper feature bare-chested hunks in camouflage slacks.

  The press, as cynical as ever, was quick to point out that the bullet Chen received in the post on March 11 may not have been a threat after all, but, would you believe it, a PR stunt for the film. VIEW THIS PAGE
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