News about a possible reconciliation between Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) and Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒) dominated the grapevine this week, following years of recrimination and name-calling on both sides.
The couple’s public fallout began in 2008 when a cache of explicit photos snapped by actor and man-about-town Edison Chen (陳冠希) were leaked onto the Internet. Cheung featured prominently in the series — photos that can only be described as a zhainan’s (宅男, nerds who sequester themselves in front of computer screens and adore starlets) wet dream.
The ruckus reached a denouement last year with the “airplane incident” (機上事件), which refers to another reunion of sorts: Chen and Cheung on a plane giddily snapping photos of themselves. It was inevitably only a matter of time before the divorce papers were signed, which occurred last month.
Photo: Taipei Times
But Hong Kong’s Three Weekly (3周刊) reported over the weekend that Tse and Cheung are back together. If that wasn’t enough to leave mouths agape, the news came from Tse’s mother Deborah Lee (狄波拉).
“Nicholas and Cecilia are back together,” she told the weekly, adding that despite their divorce, “their relationship is much better [now] than it was before.”
This, of course, is the same Deborah Lee who was originally against the marriage when she first learned about it in 2006, and who had complained to anyone who would listen that Cheung was a bad mother.
The couple’s eldest son Lucas reportedly played a role in bringing Tse and Cheung back together, after he told his parents that he felt happy when they dined together as a family a few weeks back. Tse stayed the night following the dinner.
As if that wasn’t enough, the United Daily News reported that Cheung and her sons recently celebrated Lee’s birthday. Asked for further comment on the reconciliation, Lee said it was their decision whether or not to get back together.
“Fate is unpredictable,” she said.
Meanwhile, Tse’s father Patrick Tse (謝賢), who was a cheerleader for Cheung during most of the sex scandal fiasco, said it was unlikely the couple will reunite.
“There’s not a chance [the rumors] are true,” he said.
While Cheung and Tse seem to be making the peace, it looks as though Carina Lau’s (劉嘉玲) eyes are wandering. NOWnews reported that the actress and wife of Hong Kong superstar Tony Leung (梁朝偉) was spotted last weekend heading out to sea with Hong Kong billionaire Jing Baifu (景百孚).
When asked by reporters if he was unhappy about the alleged bon voyage, Leung, in a rhetorical style that other actors should study and emulate, threw it right back in their faces.
“Why should I be unhappy?” he replied.
Was he upset that his wife didn’t attend the Shanghai Film Festival where Leung was plugging his new flick?
“Why should she come to Shanghai?” he said.
Realizing that Leung wasn’t going to fall into any pap trap, they relented.
In other romance gossip, singer Elva Hsiao (蕭亞軒) returned from China this week to celebrate Kai Ko’s (柯震東) birthday, adding to rumors that the pair are a couple.
The Apple Daily reported that Ko celebrated his 21st birthday on Monday night at Taipei’s Dazzling Champagne Dining Bar with his parents and older brother after supping at a Japanese restaurant.
Though Hsiao wasn’t seen with the family entourage, her vehicle was spotted close-by, suggesting that she was ingratiating herself with Ko’s family. On Tuesday, the gossip rag caught up with her as she exited a party for Ko, which was attended by 40 friends. Dressed as a cheerleader — the party had a sports theme — Hsiao avoided reporter’s questions on the way out of the party by quickly ducking into a waiting vehicle and driving away.
The entire saga involving the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) and its Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) continues to produce plot twists at such a rapid pace that fiction publishers would throw it out for being ridiculously improbable. This past week was particularly bizarre, but surprisingly the press has almost entirely ignored a big story that could have serious national security implications and instead focused on a series of salacious bombshell allegations. Ko is currently being held incommunicado by prosecutors while several criminal investigations are ongoing on allegations of bribery and stealing campaign funds. This last week for reasons unknown Ko completely shaved
The self-destructive protest vote in January that put the pro-People’s Republic of China (PRC) side in control of the legislature continues to be a gift that just keeps on giving to the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Last week legislation was introduced by KMT Legislator Weng Hsiao-lin (翁曉玲) that would amend Article 9-3 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) to permit retired and serving (!) military personnel to participate in “united front” (統戰) activities. Since the purpose of those activities is to promote annexation of Taiwan to the PRC, legislators
Nov. 18 to Nov. 24 Led by a headman named Dika, 16 indigenous Siraya from Sinkan Village, in what is today’s Tainan, traveled to Japan and met with the shogun in the summer of 1627. They reportedly offered sovereignty to the emperor. This greatly alarmed the Dutch, who were allies of the village. They had set up headquarters on land purchased from the Sinkan two years earlier and protected the community from aggressive actions by their more powerful rivals from Mattau Village. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) had been embroiled in a bitter trade dispute with Japan, and they believed
Anyone who has been to Alishan (阿里山) is familiar with the railroad there: one line comes up from Chiayi City past the sacred tree site, while another line goes up to the sunrise viewing platform at Zhushan (祝山). Of course, as a center of logging operations for over 60 years, Alishan did have more rail lines in the past. Are any of these still around? Are they easily accessible? Are they worth visiting? The answer to all three of these questions is emphatically: Yes! One of these lines ran from Alishan all the way up to the base of Jade Mountain. Its
RSS