The paparazzi got more than just the thrill of the chase with Taiwanese pop singer Yoga Lin (林宥嘉) last weekend when the 23-year-old talent show star tried to rough up several photographers while on a visit to Hong Kong.
Lin became angry when four photographers from the local gossip rag FACE got their cameras a little too close to him and his sweetheart, pop singer G.E.M., aka 19-year-old Gloria Tang (鄧紫棋). The photographers had been following the couple, who donned facemasks for most of the evening as they went out for dinner and a movie.
The altercation, which took place on a sidewalk, culminated with Lin trying to grab one of the photographers’ cameras and yelling, “This is our private matter. I’m Taiwanese, I came to here to do music, and I don’t want to be in your magazine.”
Photo: Taipei times
Too late for that. FACE published photos of the two out on the town, canoodling on the street. And for good measure, the magazine threw in a shot of Lin trying to grab at the photographers, whose faces were blotted out to protect their, ahem, privacy.
The photos are a blow to Lin and G.E.M., who the Apple Daily calls “Hong Kong’s Jolin Tsai (蔡依林),” for another reason: Although the two had been rumored to be an item since April, they had consistently denied a romantic relationship and said they were just “good friends.”
Perhaps the young couple might take a cue from actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛, otherwise known as Big S), who handled Taipei gossip reporters with ease in the wake of her secret marriage to 29-year-old Chinese restaurateur and multimillionaire Wang Xiaofei (汪小菲).
Big S, who is taking a break from a film shoot in Shanghai, brought her new hubby back to Taiwan to meet the parents last weekend, and the two greeted reporters outside a Taipei hot pot restaurant after a family dinner outing. While Wang mostly stayed silent — he was nursing a cold and was “shy” — Big S “generously answered” the reporters’ questions, as the China Times put it. She dismissed rumors that she was pregnant, saying, “Not yet, it’s too soon. Wish me luck!”
Public New Year’s Eve celebrations across Taiwan are usually star-studded affairs, and this year is no different. Pop diva Chang Hui-mei (張惠妹, better known as A-mei, 阿妹) and pop rock idols Mayday (五月天) are the headline entertainment for the New Year’s countdown at Taipei City Hall tonight. Singer Rainie Yang (楊丞琳) is on the lineup for Taichung’s celebration, and Jolin Tsai will be in Kaohsiung.
But if you want to greet 2011 with Wang Lee-hom (王力宏), Elva Hsiao (蕭亞軒) or S.H.E., you’d better hurry across the Taiwan Strait.
The Apple Daily lists the lucrative fees attracting these Mando-pop stars to various Chinese cities: Wang is raking in NT$7.5 million (US$255,000) for a concert in Shanghai (he’s also scheduled to appear in Taichung). Hsiao is collecting NT$4.45 million for a show in Nanjing, and girl group S.H.E. is performing as “H.E.” — without Selina Jen (任家萱), who is recovering from a burn injury — in Shenzhen to the tune of NT$3 million. Not a bad way to say goodbye to 2010.
And on that note, Pop Stop wishes its readers a Happy New Year.
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