Awards ceremonies in Taiwan — whether of the beauty pageant, music, television or film variety — are generally occasions for jealousy, name-calling and all around caterwauling. So it was with some surprise that there was little controversy reported at this year’s Golden Horse Awards (金馬獎), presented on Saturday night. The awards are considered the Chinese-language equivalent of the Oscars.
Taiwan’s Leon Dai (戴立忍), who garnered five awards for his No Puedo Vivir Sin Ti (不能沒有你), a black-and-white film about a father down on his luck who struggles to retain custody of his daughter, was the biggest news.
More important for gossip observers, however, was the hug Dai gave actress Guey Lun-mei (桂綸鎂), when she presented him with the award for Best Screenplay.
Dai, 43, and Guey, 26, have been rumored to be lovers for years, but kept their relationship under wraps. Under the microscopic scrutiny of gossip rags, a hug comes with a lot of significance (or at least a pretext for reporters to write whatever they want).
So tongues started wagging on Saturday night when the two embraced — for the first time in public, reported the Apple Daily.
As Dai walked off stage, one wag asked about the hug. “Especially warm (特別溫暖),” he replied. Which logically, for this paparazzo, led to a question about marriage. Dai responded with a shrug and a laugh.
The Liberty Times speculated that the age difference between the two celebs prevents them from going public with the relationship.
And speaking of leaps of logic, Apple was making a few of its own when it snapped pictures of sometimes-entertainer Allen Chao (趙樹海) and model Sonia Sui (隋棠) having dinner, in a report which suggested that the Chao is keeping love in the family.
Chao is the father of Mark Chao (趙又廷), who stars with Sui in the cop drama Black & White (痞子英雄). The two young actors have filmed a couple of love scenes together.
When asked if Chao knew that Sui was dating actor Yao Yuan-hao (姚元浩), he angrily responded,“Whether or not she has a boyfriend, it’s not my business. I’m her elder.” To which Sui added, “He is my father and I am his daughter.”
Meanwhile, netizens are giving TV host and pop singer Pauline Lan (藍心湄) a hard time, according to an Apple report. And it’s not over the 45-year-old’s notorious affairs with younger men. They claim that the outfit Lan wore for a photo shoot shown on TVBS and published in the Apple Daily was nearly identical to the mostly see-through costume worn by Britney Spears in her video Toxic.
But Lan’s “outfit,” which consists of a few strategically placed crystals, in the snaps — which look like the product of an epic Photoshop session — makes Britney’s Toxic duds look practically Amish by comparison.
“I just want to show audiences what the body of a 45-year-old woman looks like,” she said. “Are my breasts okay?”
Further up the cup-size alphabet, television host Chen Jin-pei (陳今佩) has lost 39kg in the past two years (and went from an H cup to an E). The 58 year-old, known in the entertainment world as the “Great White Shark” (大白鯊), told reporters that she trimmed down for a love interest in China.
Pop Stop wonders if Chen will take a leaf out of Taiwanese actress Vivian Hsu (徐若瑄) flab-fight book.
While on the set of the film Hot Summer Days (全城熱戀), which is set to hit theaters in February, Hsu found a way to rid herself of the copious amounts of sushi she was forced to eat for her role as a love-struck heiress, reported Sina.com.
“I didn’t want to gain weight. So when the director stopped filming, I’d throw up the sushi,” she said.
Last week saw the appearance of another odious screed full of lies from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Ambassador to Australia, Xiao Qian (肖千), in the Financial Review, a major Australian paper. Xiao’s piece was presented without challenge or caveat. His “Seven truths on why Taiwan always will be China’s” presented a “greatest hits” of the litany of PRC falsehoods. This includes: Taiwan’s indigenous peoples were descended from the people of China 30,000 years ago; a “Chinese” imperial government administrated Taiwan in the 14th century; Koxinga, also known as Cheng Cheng-kung (鄭成功), “recovered” Taiwan for China; the Qing owned
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
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They increasingly own everything from access to space to how we get news on Earth and now outgoing President Joe Biden warns America’s new breed of Donald Trump-allied oligarchs could gobble up US democracy itself. Biden used his farewell speech to the nation to deliver a shockingly dark message: that a nation which has always revered its entrepreneurs may now be at their mercy. “An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedoms,” Biden said. He named no names, but his targets were clear: men like Elon Musk
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