Another one of those stories where it’s agony that there has to be a loser: Stella McCartney and Bono’s wife Ali Hewson are squaring up for a legal battle.
Aside from being a tax-avoiding philanthropist’s wife, Hewson has a sideline. She is apparently “investor and muse” to a firm called Nude Skincare, and is so angry that fashion designer Stella wishes to launch a perfume called StellaNude that she is taking her all the way to the high court. For use of the word “nude.”
In other courtroom drama, a Massachusetts judge has issued an arrest warrant for Grammy Award-winning
R ’n’ B singer Bobby Brown for failure to pay child support, local media reported on Friday. Family court judge Christina Harms ordered Brown, 40, arrested next time he is in the state and brought to her court after he failed to appear at a court appointment, the reports said.
Want to spend eternity next to Marilyn Monroe? Now you can, because the burial spot located just above the ill-fated starlet is going on sale for a cool US$500,000 on auction Web site eBay.
The tomb in the Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles is currently occupied by one Richard Poncher, who died 23 years ago aged 81, the Los Angeles Times reported.
But his widow is having his body moved over one spot and auctioning the site above Monroe’s, hoping to earn enough to pay off her US$1.6 million Beverly Hills home.
“Here is a once in a lifetime and into eternity opportunity to spend your eternal days directly above Marilyn Monroe,” the sale advertisement on the site says. Bidding starts at US$500,000.
Elsie Poncher, who prefers not to give her age but says she is over 70, told the Times that her husband, a successful businessman, bought the crypt from baseball player Joe DiMaggio, Monroe’s ex-husband, in 1954.
Richard Poncher also bought the spot one space over, which is where Elsie plans to relocate him to open up the crypt above Monroe. For her part, the widower wants to be cremated when she dies.
Being buried close to Monroe has already proved a draw for some, with Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner purchasing a spot to the side of the sex-symbol’s for US$75,000 in 1992.
For those who do not have US$500,000 to spend on the space at the cemetery, which is also the final resting place for Natalie Wood, Truman Capote and Farrah Fawcett, there is still a free crypt space two spots above Monroe to the left.
The going price for that spot is a mere US$250,000.
For the uber-flashy, there is the option of going to the grave next to Monroe wearing the shiny glove Michael Jackson wore during his first performance of the moonwalk, which goes on auction this November — with the current owner hoping to earn US$40,000 to US$60,000.
The left-handed glove was part of Jackson’s outfit for the 1983 performance of Billie Jean during a television special marking the 25th anniversary of Motown.
It goes on the block on Nov. 21, five months after Jackson’s death, at a Music Icons sale run by Julien’s Auctions at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York’s Times Square.
Julien’s estimates fans will bid as high as US$60,000 for an item that started life as a regular leather golf glove labeled “Made in Korea.”
Unlike Jackson’s usual single gloves, which he wore on the right hand, this is for the left and was hurriedly decorated with rhinestones instead of the characteristic hand-sewn crystals.
What the glove lacks in artisanal quality, it makes up for in pop history.
Jackson wore it along with a fedora during his first performance of the legendary backwards dance known as the moonwalk.
The owner, Walter “Clyde” Orange, was a member of the Commodores group when Jackson gave him the glove at the Motown tribute.
The glove headlines an auction featuring other Jackson memorabilia and items once belonging to Madonna, Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and other music big names.
In news of the living, one of Asia’s top film festivals will pay tribute to veteran Hong Kong director Johnnie To (杜琪峰), known for his stylish action thrillers like Election (黑社會) and Exiled (放逐). South Korea’s Pusan International Film Festival said in a statement on Friday it will show 10 of To’s films and host a master class led by the 54-year-old Hong Kong filmmaker during the Oct. 8 to Oct. 16 event in the southern beach resort city. Hong Kong and South Korean film critics will also take part in a panel discussion about To’s works.
To is best known for his crafty action films, but his versatile 29-year career also includes romance, comedies and lighthearted crime movies.
Recently the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and its Mini-Me partner in the legislature, the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), have been arguing that construction of chip fabs in the US by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is little more than stripping Taiwan of its assets. For example, KMT Deputy Secretary-General Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) in January said that “This is not ‘reciprocal cooperation’ ... but a substantial hollowing out of our country.” Similarly, former TPP Chair Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) contended it constitutes “selling Taiwan out to the United States.” The two pro-China parties are proposing a bill that would limit semiconductor
Institutions signalling a fresh beginning and new spirit often adopt new slogans, symbols and marketing materials, and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is no exception. Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), soon after taking office as KMT chair, released a new slogan that plays on the party’s acronym: “Kind Mindfulness Team.” The party recently released a graphic prominently featuring the red, white and blue of the flag with a Chinese slogan “establishing peace, blessings and fortune marching forth” (締造和平,幸福前行). One part of the graphic also features two hands in blue and white grasping olive branches in a stylized shape of Taiwan. Bonus points for
March 9 to March 15 “This land produced no horses,” Qing Dynasty envoy Yu Yung-ho (郁永河) observed when he visited Taiwan in 1697. He didn’t mean that there were no horses at all; it was just difficult to transport them across the sea and raise them in the hot and humid climate. “Although 10,000 soldiers were stationed here, the camps had fewer than 1,000 horses,” Yu added. Starting from the Dutch in the 1600s, each foreign regime brought horses to Taiwan. But they remained rare animals, typically only owned by the government or
“M yeolgong jajangmyeon (anti-communism zhajiangmian, 滅共炸醬麵), let’s all shout together — myeolgong!” a chef at a Chinese restaurant in Dongtan, located about 35km south of Seoul, South Korea, calls out before serving a bowl of Korean-style zhajiangmian —black bean noodles. Diners repeat the phrase before tucking in. This political-themed restaurant, named Myeolgong Banjeom (滅共飯館, “anti-communism restaurant”), is operated by a single person and does not take reservations; therefore long queues form regularly outside, and most customers appear sympathetic to its political theme. Photos of conservative public figures hang on the walls, alongside political slogans and poems written in Chinese characters; South
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