More than 200 celebrities from Taiwan and Hong Kong attended large charity events held by television stations last weekend, all with the goal of raising money for the victims of Typhoon Morakot. Participating glitterati included Andy Lau (劉德華), Leon Lai (黎明), Sandra Ng (吳君如), Chang Fei (張菲), Hu Gua (胡瓜), Shu Qi (舒淇) and Judy Chiang (江蕙).
One of the weekend’s most enthusiastic volunteers, Chinese action star-turned-philanthropist Jet Li (李連杰), accompanied aid workers from Taiwan’s Red Cross Society on a visit to nine locations in Kaohsiung County on Saturday.
On a sadder note, Aboriginal star A-mei (張惠妹) lost both her uncle and brother-in-law to the typhoon in her hometown in Taitung County.
In the latest installment of the developing drug-taking controversy in Japan’s showbiz firmament, police are reportedly investigating possible links between Noriko Sakai and her surfer husband Yuichi Takaso, both arrested for drug possession, and J-pop singer and actor Manabu Oshio, who was arrested on Aug. 3 on suspicion of drug use and has been connected to a 30-year-old woman found dead at an apartment in Tokyo’s Roppongi district.
Oshio, 31, tested positive for ecstasy and admitted he had fled the scene after the unidentified woman, a bar hostess and his mistress of six months, took two pills and lost consciousness.
According to the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper), police suspect that Oshio, Sakai and Takaso are part of an intricate network of drug trading that involves big-name stars.
Other celebrities implicated in the snowballing scandal, according to Tokyo Sports, a Japanese daily, include actors Hideaki Ito and Shinji Takeda.
Following news that Jay Chou (周杰倫) has joined the cast of Michel Gondry’s The Green Hornet, assuming the role of Kato alongside Seth Rogen, Nicolas Cage and Cameron Diaz, pop idol Wang Lee-hom (王力宏) revealed last week that he has been working on a film script for the past six months.
While keeping mum about the story, the first-time scriptwriter said that he will soon begin looking for prospective investors, as well as a suitable director to shoot the NT$100 million movie starring none other than Wang himself.
When asked by the Liberty Times if he would make a better martial arts sidekick than Chou, whose English is less than fluent, Wang brushed off the question, saying: “I heard that Chou already began intensive English courses. He should do fine.”
In local showbiz pseudo-news, Apple Daily snappers spotted divorcee Annie Yi (伊能靜) shopping for toys with her son at Breeze Center (微風廣場) last week. The paper printed a detailed account of the trip, gleefully reporting that the boy played with a toy sewing machine and read comic books for girls after being left unattended by his mother.
The concerned newspaper concluded that Yi failed as a mother by exposing her precious son to the danger of kidnapping.
RSS