The Apple Daily (蘋果日報) released its list of the top 10 famous, or should we say infamous, celebrities who have kept the paparazzi busy digging up dirt and have guaranteed brisk sales throughout the past year. Pop Stop highlights the top three.
Aska Yang's (楊宗緯) crybaby antics, offstage “love affairs” and remakes of songs by musicians less famous (but arguably more talented) than himself gained him top honors with gossip hounds.
Apple said Yang serves as a symbol of trends in Taiwanese talent shows, demonstrated by a record-breaking viewership of 3.68 million people sitting on their derrieres in front of the boob tube to watch him croon.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
An online poll by Yahoo Taiwan placed Yang above pop veterans Jolin Tsai (蔡依林) and Jay “Chairman” Chou (周杰倫) as the entertainer audiences would most like to see count down the New Year. Expect “talented” pretty boys lying about their age and throwing hissy fits when they don't get what they want from their producers to dominate the airwaves in 2008.
Suzanne Hsiao (蕭淑慎), who is the face of a whole slew of celebrity misfits busted for drug use, came in second. And just in time; Hsiao was convicted this past week of peddling and using a variety of drugs and could face up to nine years in jail, though insiders suspect she won't do more than six months.
Other reported celebrity druggies include alleged puffers Hu Gua (胡瓜), his fiancee Ding Ro-an (丁柔安), starlet Pei Lin (裴琳), “Prince of Nightclubs” Tuo Tsung-kang (庹宗康) and TV host Chu Chung-heng (屈中恆); all came further down the list. Don't be surprised if a Betty Ford franchise opens up here to deal with this ongoing problem.
PHOTO: TAIPEI TIMES
Pop Stop, incidentally, must express disappointment with Apple. Usually the newspaper is the master of lists, but failed, as of press time at least, to provide any information of past miscreants who were sentenced to jail time after puffing the wrong bong.
Tony Leung Chiu-wai
(梁朝偉) captured third spot on the list and ushered in a new cinematic era by displaying his testicles for the camera and in the process finding a new way to attract audiences to the theater.
A UK tabloid reported that Shu Qi (舒淇) was getting close to Hugh Grant in a hip London restaurant. According to a report in the Mirror that repeatedly alluded to Shu's work as a porn star, the Taiwanese actress and Grant were sexing it up in a corner over raw fish while John Duigan, a friend of the British actor, groped her thigh. Calling the rumor “disgusting,” Shu says she hasn't been to England in more than five years. Pop Stop nominates Shu as Taiwan's unofficial ambassador to the UN for helping to put the island on the map, even if the rumors turn out to be untrue.
And finally, the Liberty Times, the Taipei Times' sister paper, dropped a minor bombshell when it reported that Stephen Fung (馮德倫) and Karen Mok (莫文蔚) ended their nine-year relationship after it was rumored Fung had been having an affair with a married woman. The shock of the split, however, paled in comparison to the news that the breakup occurred in January. Again, Pop Stop is disappointed that the paparazzi were almost a year late in revealing this “scoop.”
Earlier this month, a Hong Kong ship, Shunxin-39, was identified as the ship that had cut telecom cables on the seabed north of Keelung. The ship, owned out of Hong Kong and variously described as registered in Cameroon (as Shunxin-39) and Tanzania (as Xinshun-39), was originally People’s Republic of China (PRC)-flagged, but changed registries in 2024, according to Maritime Executive magazine. The Financial Times published tracking data for the ship showing it crossing a number of undersea cables off northern Taiwan over the course of several days. The intent was clear. Shunxin-39, which according to the Taiwan Coast Guard was crewed
China’s military launched a record number of warplane incursions around Taiwan last year as it builds its ability to launch full-scale invasion, something a former chief of Taiwan’s armed forces said Beijing could be capable of within a decade. Analysts said China’s relentless harassment had taken a toll on Taiwan’s resources, but had failed to convince them to capitulate, largely because the threat of invasion was still an empty one, for now. Xi Jinping’s (習近平) determination to annex Taiwan under what the president terms “reunification” is no secret. He has publicly and stridently promised to bring it under Communist party (CCP) control,
In Taiwan’s politics the party chair is an extremely influential position. Typically this person is the presumed presidential candidate or serving president. In the last presidential election, two of the three candidates were also leaders of their party. Only one party chair race had been planned for this year, but with the Jan. 1 resignation by the currently indicted Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) two parties are now in play. If a challenger to acting Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) appears we will examine that race in more depth. Currently their election is set for Feb. 15. EXTREMELY
On Sept. 27 last year, three climate activists were arrested for throwing soup over Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh at London’s National Gallery. The Just Stop Oil protest landed on international front pages. But will the action help further the activists’ cause to end fossil fuels? Scientists are beginning to find answers to this question. The number of protests more than tripled between 2006 and 2020 and researchers are working out which tactics are most likely to change public opinion, influence voting behavior, change policy or even overthrow political regimes. “We are experiencing the largest wave of protests in documented history,” says
RSS