After marijuana comes amphetamine. The latest target of the cop's raging anti-drug operation that has netted several celebrities, gay entertainer and drag queen Topper (大炳), was collared last Friday after falling sound asleep with 4g of the white powder in his possession at the WeGo Motel, allegedly.
Following the now standard format of nailing celebrity drug users and milking the relentless media coverage that makes law enforcement authorities look competent, the police busted the blubbery funnyman and a male companion who has a criminal record.
Though the ex-con tried to save his celebrity friend by fessing up, trying to assume all the blame and asking police to leave Topper alone, the talented entertainer may face jail time as he admitted taking amphetamine on a weekly basis for the past six months. If locked up, he stands to lose an estimated NT$1 million in TV appearance and product endorsement fees, which would be a blow to the star's whole family that count on the bread earner to pay off his father's NT$30 million gambling debts, according to local media.
PHOTO: LIBERTY TIMES
The petrified Topper repented and shed a few tears on TV, and his drag queen brother Little Bing (小炳) tried to elicit public sympathy by explaining that the star's amphetamine use was part of an unhealthy regime that included diet pills to keep in shape for drag shows.
Collective grieving for Beatrice Hsu (許瑋倫), a young actress tragically killed in a car crash, continues apace as local media have turned the late star into a figure worthy of two weeks of national mourning. While portraying Hsu as a virtuous angel, press hounds have wagged their fingers at Hsu's ex-lovers actor Lee Wei (李威) and F4 band member Vic Chou (周渝民,仔仔) for cheating on the young lady.
Hsu's spirit spoke from the grave and reportedly delivered her disapproval against their attendance at her temporary altar through chichiao (擲筊), crescent-shaped wooden tablets used in divination. Hsu's close friends latter explained her spirit's decision by saying the forgiving star didn't want the two cheaters to upset her family and friends who aren't so forgiving.
How long this lachrymose melodrama will carry on for is anyone's guess.
Moving to more upbeat music-related news, the second edition of the KK Box Awards (KK Box 風雲榜) held last weekend handed gongs to local pop stars that celebrate not their musical achievements but their popularity in the nation's ubiquitous KTV parlors. Mando-pop queen Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) reigned supreme while her lover-turned-rival Jay Chou (周杰倫) was named king.
The absence of Chou at the ceremony saved the dancing queen from the media's regurgitation of their long gone romance, but other pop stars weren't so lucky. ABT pop star Stanley Huang (黃立行) and Faith Yang (楊乃文) proved themselves to be skilled actors by putting on a cool act to shrug off their past romance and made it clear there was no way they would revisit history.
Contrary to the pair's composedness, the past item Selina of the three-piece girl band S.H.E and pop singer and TV host Little Pig (小豬), otherwise known as Alan Luo, employed a tactless strategy by ignoring each other's existence on stage, leaving the queen of cute Rainie Yang (楊丞琳) in an awkward position standing in the middle, making a failed attempt to pull herself through the childish situation by pursing her lips.
Exceptions to the rule are sometimes revealing. For a brief few years, there was an emerging ideological split between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) that appeared to be pushing the DPP in a direction that would be considered more liberal, and the KMT more conservative. In the previous column, “The KMT-DPP’s bureaucrat-led developmental state” (Dec. 11, page 12), we examined how Taiwan’s democratic system developed, and how both the two main parties largely accepted a similar consensus on how Taiwan should be run domestically and did not split along the left-right lines more familiar in
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