She is watched round the clock by photographers, chased at high speed and friends fear for her mental stability. After a year of erratic behavior in the glare of the press spotlight she both shuns and invites, pop star Britney Spears has some observers comparing the celebrity media frenzy surrounding her with what Britain's Princess Diana faced and some voice concern about her safety.
Four photographers were arrested for reckless driving after a late night car chase of pop star Spears on the outskirts of Los Angeles, police said on Thursday. Los Angeles police spokeswoman Sara Faden said the four were among a group of paparazzi seen driving at high speed in the Mission Hills area of the city around 11:30pm on Wednesday on the trail of the troubled singer.
Young US actress Lindsay Lohan is to carry out part of her community service sentence imposed last year for drunk-driving in a morgue, court officials said Friday.
PHOTO: AP
Lohan, 21, was sentenced in August to one day in jail, 10 days of community service and given a three-year suspended sentence after twice being arrested and pleading guilty to driving over the limit.
During a hearing in a Beverly Hills court late Thursday, Lohan's lawyer Blair Berk revealed she would spend two days working in a morgue and two in a hospital emergency room.
Lohan, who starred in The Last Show, Mean Girls and Freaky Friday, was arrested July 24 in Santa Monica, California. She later checked into the exclusive Cirque Lodge Treatment Center in the state of Utah for a two-month detoxification program.
PHOTO: AP
"It was a sobering experience," Lohan told OK! magazine in October in her first interview after leaving the center.
Across the globe, a popular Malaysian rock singer has been banned from appearing on television entertainment programs for three months after he sparked an uproar by baring his chest during a live TV concert, reports said yesterday.
Faizal Tahir - one of Malaysia's most exuberant stage performers - stripped off his jacket, undershirt and belt and flung them into the audience at a Jan. 13 concert in Kuala Lumpur. The moves revealed a bright red Superman logo painted on his chest.
PHOTO: AP
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission slammed Faizal's premeditated stunt as "insensitive'' to viewers and Malaysian culture, the New Straits Times said.
"It is a serious offense in a live entertainment program,'' the commission was quoted as saying in a statement.
Malaysia's government has strict guidelines for entertainers, who must cover up from chest to knee onstage. Jumping, hugging, kissing and throwing objects at the audience are prohibited.
Comic actor Eddie Murphy and his new wife Tracey Edmonds have split up just two weeks after their romantic wedding in French Polynesia, People magazine reported on Wednesday. The star of Shrek and Dreamgirls and Edmonds, a film producer, exchanged their vows on a private island off Bora Bora on Jan. 1.
Allan Melvin, a character actor known for appearances in such TV staples as The Phil Silvers Show, All in the Family and The Brady Bunch, has died, the Los Angeles Times reported on Saturday. Melvin succumbed to cancer on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles, the paper said, quoting his wife, Amalia. He was 84.
Suzanne Pleshette, the beautiful, husky-voiced film and Broadway theater star best known for her role as Bob Newhart's sardonic wife on television's long-running The Bob Newhart Show, has died, said her attorney Robert Finkelstein. She was 70.
Pleshette, who underwent chemotherapy for lung cancer in 2006, died of respiratory failure yesterday evening at her Los Angeles home, said attorney and family friend Robert Finkelstein. She was 70.
"The Bob Newhart Show, a hit throughout its six-year run, starred comedian Newhart as a Chicago psychiatrist surrounded by eccentric patients. Pleshette provided the voice of reason.
In the March 9 edition of the Taipei Times a piece by Ninon Godefroy ran with the headine “The quiet, gentle rhythm of Taiwan.” It started with the line “Taiwan is a small, humble place. There is no Eiffel Tower, no pyramids — no singular attraction that draws the world’s attention.” I laughed out loud at that. This was out of no disrespect for the author or the piece, which made some interesting analogies and good points about how both Din Tai Fung’s and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) meticulous attention to detail and quality are not quite up to
April 21 to April 27 Hsieh Er’s (謝娥) political fortunes were rising fast after she got out of jail and joined the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in December 1945. Not only did she hold key positions in various committees, she was elected the only woman on the Taipei City Council and headed to Nanjing in 1946 as the sole Taiwanese female representative to the National Constituent Assembly. With the support of first lady Soong May-ling (宋美齡), she started the Taipei Women’s Association and Taiwan Provincial Women’s Association, where she
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
It is one of the more remarkable facts of Taiwan history that it was never occupied or claimed by any of the numerous kingdoms of southern China — Han or otherwise — that lay just across the water from it. None of their brilliant ministers ever discovered that Taiwan was a “core interest” of the state whose annexation was “inevitable.” As Paul Kua notes in an excellent monograph laying out how the Portuguese gave Taiwan the name “Formosa,” the first Europeans to express an interest in occupying Taiwan were the Spanish. Tonio Andrade in his seminal work, How Taiwan Became Chinese,
RSS