This week Pop Stop fulfills its duties by reporting the latest installment of the ongoing marital debacle starring Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) and Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒), who — in the wake of the so-called “airplane incident” (機上事件) in which Cheung was photographed with her ex-lover Edison Chen (陳冠希) — are reportedly heading toward a split-up.
According to gossip media in Taiwan and Hong Kong, Tse, who is currently shooting an action flick in Kuala Lumpur, has made up his mind to terminate his marriage with Cheung and denied his wife’s request to communicate in person after she said she might call a divorce lawyer and made suicide threats last month.
Both the Apple Daily and the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) reported that the actor’s mother Deborah Lee (狄波拉) and sister Jennifer Tse (謝婷婷) have flown to Kuala Lumpur to strategize on how to tackle any possible actions on Cheung’s part. Nicholas Tse’s lawyer has reportedly been summoned to prepare a divorce agreement after Cheung took her two children from the couple’s household about two weeks ago.
Photo: Taipei Times
On the film set in the capital of Malaysia, Nicholas Tse, who is closely protected by a large entourage, has turned a deaf ear to the inquiries of gossip reporters.
As for the whereabouts of Cheung, some claim she is hiding in Four Seasons Hotel in Hong Kong with her kids. Other reports say the actress is in Kuala Lumpur waiting for a chance to beg her husband’s forgiveness, and on Tuesday, the Liberty Times cited an unnamed source as saying she has been stricken ill and is convalescing in her Hong Kong home.
The 30-year-old actress is not an opponent to be underestimated. A widely circulated rumor has it Cheung has gone to war against her mother-in-law, with the actress warning Lee that she will never see her grandsons again if she continues to meddle in the affair.
On the financial front, Cheung has much to gain as Hong Kong entertainment mogul Peter Lam (林建岳) has reportedly promised the actress a three-year contract worth NT$368 million — not to mention that Hong Kong law could entitle Cheung to half of Nicholas Tse’s NT$2.2 billion personal fortune.
Meanwhile, Chen has been acting as if he has nothing to do with the ruckus. “I’m Edison Chen, not them,” the lothario told gossip hounds in Shanghai on Friday last week.
On home turf, television host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) took local media by surprise by calling officials at the Government Information Office (GIO) “bastards” and “scumbags” days before tomorrow’s Golden Melody Awards (金曲獎), which he is scheduled to co-host with Patty Hou (侯佩岑).
The controversy started last week in a casual interview with Wu regarding the GIO-funded award ceremony. The blabber-mouthed entertainer suddenly began to bash GIO subsidies for individual musicians and music groups. In order to avoid personal preferences and favors, Wu opined, the government should not provide funding to individuals but instead support the music industry as a whole. The veteran entertainer also said the government’s annual subsidies of NT$70 million don’t amount to jack.
“My tax money alone is more than the GIO’s subsidies ... It is bullshit to say there is no political interest involved. The GIO is the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT). TVBS is blue, and SET TV (三立電視) is green,” Wu was quoted as saying.
Wu later denied his criticism of GIO officials and insisted that he was upset not by the subsidy policy, but by the government’s decision to open local media industry up to Hong Kong’s gossip media such as the Apple Daily.
It appears that Wu needs to work on damage control, with TVBS threatening to file a lawsuit against the entertainer if he does not make a public apology for calling the network politically biased.
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