Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) is threatening to sue the Apple Daily (蘋果日報) after the newspaper published reports that the Chinese actress had taken money in exchange for sexual encounters with disgraced politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) and other high profile men.
After the rumors broke, Zhang quickly took steps to protect her reputation, including issuing a denial and flying to Hong Kong to meet with a lawyer. Zhang also put in an appearance at the Chinese Film Media Awards (華語電影傳媒大獎), appearing unperturbed as she smiled and posed for photographs on the red carpet. Though she refused to answer questions from reporters, Zhang told the press that she was happy to be at the ceremony.
But the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍) star did not mince words on her microblog. “I’m not fighting this alone,” Zhang wrote, adding that she had discussed her legal options with her lawyer, who has already sent out letters to the Hong Kong media outlets that first published reports about Zhang’s alleged paid dalliances.
Photo: Taipei Times
Disgraced Taiwanese-Japanese actress Makiyo is also doing damage control to her reputation after pleading guilty to assaulting a taxi driver. Makiyo and her friend Hsiang Ying (湘瑩), who was also at the scene of the February incident and later pleaded guilty to perjury, were recently spotted selling cookies at a charity event. The friends managed to raise NT$4,000 for physically disabled children.
Though she has been unemployed since having her work permit revoked, Makiyo told reporters that she hasn’t been idle. In addition to abstaining from alcohol and pursuing volunteer opportunities, Makiyo has taken up yoga and horse riding lessons.
Like her friend, Hsiang Ying has been unable to work and now lives off her savings. The actress is occupying herself with yoga, speech training classes and helping her mother sell fried chicken.
Photo: Taipei Times
Makiyo says she hopes to return to show business one day, but is keeping a pragmatic attitude.
“I’ve worked in the industry for 14 years, so it’s just another form of work to me,” she said. “If I can’t go back, it’s fine. I don’t want to keep depending on the entertainment business.”
Despite their charity work, Makiyo and Hsiang Yang still have a long way to go before they return to the good graces of the media. A Liberty Times reporter noted the irony of the two friends taking a taxi after the charity event. The driver dropped them off at a cafe where Hsiang Yang puffed away on a cigarette under a “no smoking” sign. The cafe’s owner later told the reporter that she granted Hsiang Yang permission to smoke because she was outside.
Afterward, the same taxi arrived to take the two women to their next destination. The Liberty Times wondered if Makiyo now has a personal driver because other cabbies are wary of her patronage. Makiyo’s manager insisted that while his client always calls the same company, she usually takes different taxis.
Faye Wong’s (王菲) daughter has also been living in seclusion. The teenager is not in trouble with the law, but with her parents, who are fed up with the girl’s rebelliousness. According to media reports, Dou Jingtong (竇靖童), Wong’s daughter with her first husband Dou Wei (竇唯), has turned into a back-talking party girl.
After repeatedly clashing with stepfather Li Yapeng (李亞鵬), Dou Jingtong was shipped off to a Shanghai boarding school. After the 15-year-old managed to sneak off to a nightclub with a male classmate, her angry mother ordered her home to Beijing. Dou Jingtong is now under strict supervision when not in class.
She may not be allowed out of the house, but Dou Jingtong found yet another way to rebel last week. Like many teenagers, she took to her blog to complain. “Life is just so limited wen [sic] ur [sic] young,” Dou Jingtong wrote in English. “You can never make your own decisions of where you want to live, what you want to do.”
May 11 to May 17 Traversing the southern slopes of the Yushan Range in 1931, Japanese naturalist Tadao Kano knew he was approaching the last swath of Taiwan still beyond colonial control. The “vast, unknown territory,” protected by the “fierce” Bunun headman Dahu Ali, was “filled with an utterly endless jungle that choked the mountains and valleys,” Kano wrote. He noted how the group had “refused to submit to the measures of our authorities and entrenched themselves deep in these mountains … living a free existence spent chasing deer in the morning and seeking serow in the evening,” even describing them as
As a different column was being written, the big news dropped that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁) announced that negotiations within his caucus, with legislative speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the KMT, party Chair Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chair Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) had produced a compromise special military budget proposal. On Thursday morning, prior to meeting with Cheng over a lunch of beef noodles, Lu reiterated her support for a budget of NT$800 or NT$900 billion — but refused to comment after the meeting. Right after Fu’s
Yesterday, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nominated legislator Puma Shen (沈伯洋) as their Taipei mayoral candidate, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) put their stamp of approval on Wei Ping-cheng (魏平政) as their candidate for Changhua County commissioner and former legislator Tsai Pi-ru (蔡壁如) of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) has begun the process to also run in Changhua, though she has not yet been formally nominated. All three news items are bizarre. The DPP has struggled with settling on a Taipei nominee. The only candidate who declared interest was Enoch Wu (吳怡農), but the party seemed determined to nominate anyone
What government project has expropriated the most land in Taiwan? According to local media reports, it is the Taoyuan Aerotropolis, eating 2,500 hectares of land in its first phase, with more to come. Forty thousand people are expected to be displaced by the project. Naturally that enormous land grab is generating powerful pushback. Last week Chen Chien-ho (陳健和), a local resident of Jhuwei Borough (竹圍) in Taoyuan City’s Dayuan District (大園) filed a petition for constitutional review of the project after losing his case at the Taipei Administrative Court. The Administrative Court found in favor of nine other local landowners, but
RSS