We all know that Jay Chou (周杰倫) fancies himself something chronic, but his most recent automotive acquisition really takes the cake. Not content with his already considerable collection of luxury sports cars, the Chairman (周董) has recently taken delivery of his very own Batmobile.
According to a report in the United Daily News, the custom-made auto is based on the one used in Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman. The car, which takes up to three parking spaces and cost NT$5 million, is not just a collector’s item. Chou said he might have the chance to take it on the road one day. “We’ll see if the paparazzi will be able to keep up with me then,” he said.
Chou’s new toy is an innocent diversion compared to what other celebs have been getting up to, most notably Ethan Ruan (阮經天), who has been caught, once again, with his pants down.
Pop Stop reported last week that Ruan’s girlfriend Tiffany Hsu (許瑋甯) had changed her Facebook status from “In a relationship” to “It’s complicated” after the star was spotted at a hotel in Taichung with an unidentified woman.
Since then, additional details have been pouring in of his louche behavior.
At the time of the alleged indiscretion, Ruan was supposed to be on leave from the publicity tour for hit film Monga (艋舺), in which he starred, to attend his grandfather’s funeral.
Photos submitted by a member of the public to Next Magazine suggest that he might have had a date with a “long-haired hottie” (長髮辣妹) whose going price, according to the rag, is NT$30,000. There is still plenty of controversy as to exactly what might, or might not, have happened, as the dates and locations of the photos are disputed.
Rather less controversial, though equally eye-catching, is Stanley Huang’s (黃立行) most recent romantic involvement. Huang, who is no stranger to speculative gossip, has generally managed to keep a fairly tight lid on the details of his private life.
There has, nevertheless, been intense speculation about a possible new courtship following the breakup of his three-year involvement with singer Dominique Tsai (蔡詩蕓). According to Next Magazine, his new inamorata is model Hu Jia-ai (胡嘉愛). Up to now, Hu has been very much in the minor league, but perhaps now she’ll have a chance to move up from the D list.
Someone else who’s going places is Wang Ying (王瀅), niece of singer Harlem Yu (庾澄慶).
Wang is getting hitched to Jimmy Yang (楊立傑), scion of the Nankuo Construction (南國建設) family.
Suggestions that the whirlwind romance, which is leading to marriage after only six months, is being driven by a pregnancy are providing a rich vein for the gossip rags to mine.
From romance to finance: Chang Chen-yue (張震嶽) is romancing a “long-haired hottie” of his own. The singer is riding a wave, and apart from having nothing to hide (when asked who she was, he simply replied that he had plenty of women friends), his participation in Super Band (縱貫線), together with veteran rockers Lo Ta-yu (羅大佑), Emil Chou (周華健), Jonathan Lee (李宗盛), has proven a huge success.
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) estimates the band’s 52-show concert tour (six gigs were added on to meet demand), grossed NT$4.3 billion, with each of the performers pulling in NT$100 million.
Not long into Mistress Dispeller, a quietly jaw-dropping new documentary from director Elizabeth Lo, the film’s eponymous character lays out her thesis for ridding marriages of troublesome extra lovers. “When someone becomes a mistress,” she says, “it’s because they feel they don’t deserve complete love. She’s the one who needs our help the most.” Wang Zhenxi, a mistress dispeller based in north-central China’s Henan province, is one of a growing number of self-styled professionals who earn a living by intervening in people’s marriages — to “dispel” them of intruders. “I was looking for a love story set in China,” says Lo,
In the next few months tough decisions will need to be made by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and their pan-blue allies in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). It will reveal just how real their alliance is with actual power at stake. Party founder Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) faced these tough questions, which we explored in part one of this series, “Ko Wen-je, the KMT’s prickly ally,” (Aug. 16, page 12). Ko was open to cooperation, but on his terms. He openly fretted about being “swallowed up” by the KMT, and was keenly aware of the experience of the People’s First Party
It was on his honeymoon in Kuala Lumpur, looking out of his hotel window at the silvery points of the world’s tallest twin skyscrapers, that Frank decided it was time to become taller. He had recently confessed to his new wife how much his height had bothered him since he was a teenager. As a man dedicated to self-improvement, Frank wanted to take action. He picked up the phone, called a clinic in Turkey that specializes in leg lengthening surgery — and made a booking. “I had a lot of second thoughts — at the end of the day, someone’s going
Aug. 25 to Aug. 31 Although Mr. Lin (林) had been married to his Japanese wife for a decade, their union was never legally recognized — and even their daughter was officially deemed illegitimate. During the first half of Japanese rule in Taiwan, only marriages between Japanese men and Taiwanese women were valid, unless the Taiwanese husband formally joined a Japanese household. In 1920, Lin took his frustrations directly to the Ministry of Home Affairs: “Since Japan took possession of Taiwan, we have obeyed the government’s directives and committed ourselves to breaking old Qing-era customs. Yet ... our marriages remain unrecognized,
RSS