Chinese-language media report that singer and racing driver Jimmy Lin (林志穎) has become a father. Girlfriend Chen Ruo-yi (陳若儀) gave birth to a son earlier this week in California, and a story in the United Daily News suggests that although the parents are, er, keeping mum about the illegitimate child, Lin will acknowledge paternity following the end of his current concert tour.
It is perhaps no coincidence that his soon-to-be-released album’s title translates as “low-profile love” (低調愛).
The vernacular media have been uncharacteristically backward in coming forward: the news that one of the Chinese-speaking world’s most eligible bachelors has a girlfriend and child hardly created a stir.
The fact that Andy Lau (劉德華) managed to retain his fan base despite being “outed” as a family man has likely paved the way for a younger generation of male celebrities to be more up front about their private lives.
Does this mean the rabid media scrum is exercising a modicum of self-restraint?
Not likely ...
The ubiquity of digital photography proved fertile ground for celebrity gossip this past week. While none of the following beat Edison Chen’s (陳冠希) magnum opus, a number of celebrities have been caught with their proverbial pants down.
Elva Hsiao (蕭亞軒), based on a photo “provided by a reader” published in the United Daily News, is dating TV actor Lee Wei (李威). The damning and irrefutable evidence is a shot of Lee draping his arm round Hsiao’s shoulder. Both parties vehemently deny being an item.
In a different league, photos posted on the Internet may cause graver problems for Jamie Weng (翁家明).
Reports in March had Weng’s marriage to actress Grace Yu (俞小凡) on the rocks after revelations surfaced that he was having an affair with flight attendant Su Chia-man (蘇家漫). He subsequently flew to Shanghai where Yu was filming to beg forgiveness, and promised to stop playing away from home. Following a tip from a reader, who suggested that Weng had failed to keep his promise, diligent staffers at Next Magazine uncovered a photo of Weng and Su striking a pose of undisguised intimacy posted on Picasa. According to the magazine, the photo was posted at the end of last month.
Next Magazine laments that following these revelations, Weng has been keeping a low profile, which adds to the challenge of verifying the rumors, in the interests of truth.
Yu could exact revenge by hooking up with Chang Cheng-yue (張震嶽), who is back in play after splitting up from Miranda Lu (路嘉怡). Chang has been busy with a super group comprising venerable rockers Lo Ta-yu (羅大佑), Emil Chou (周華健) and Jonathan Lee (李宗盛), which has proved a shrewd move financially. He’s already made headlines by dating an unnamed woman who has been nicknamed “big-eyed chick” (大眼妹) by Next Magazine.
After breaking up with “foreign boyfriend” Paul soon after the release of her English album Self-Selected, Faith Yang (楊乃文) seems to have hitched up with David Wu (吳大維), a man whose list of former relationships reads like a who’s who of Taiwan’s celebrity firmament. Yang may face competition in the form of glamour model Hsiang Ying (湘瑩), who Next Magazine reports has been recently sighted with Wu.
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As a different column was being written, the big news dropped that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) announced that negotiations within his caucus, with legislative speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT, party Chair Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chair Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) had produced a compromise special military budget proposal. On Thursday morning, prior to meeting with Cheng over a lunch of beef noodles, Lu reiterated her support for a budget of NT$800 or NT$900 billion — but refused to comment after the meeting. Right after Fu’s
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