Gillian Chung banned from Beijing Olympics 2008

Gillian Chung, who was recently involved in the Edison Chen's nude scandal photos, was axed from singing at the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. Here is the citation from the Sydney Morning Herald:

A female Hong Kong pop star at the centre of a sex photos scandal has been banned from singing at the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony, a news report said today.
The ceremony’s artistic director Zhang Yimou decided to take Chung off the bill after the scandal broke and had replaced her and another Hong Kong star not involved in the photos incident with Chinese pop act A-One, the newspaper said.

More than 2000 people complained when Chung appeared on a charity TV show at the height of the scandal a fortnight ago and she was forced to scrap a public appearance last Saturday when protesters threatened to disrupt her performance.

The scandal over the pictures has tainted the saccharine-sweet image of Hong Kong’s so-called Canto-pop industry whose cheesy romantic melodies sung in Cantonese sell by their millions in Hong Kong, mainland China and Taiwan.

I wonder if there are any further consequences from this scandal in the near future again.

Hong Kong Veteran Actress Lydia Shum Dies at 60

Lydia Shum a.k.a Fei Fei with daughter Joyce Cheng Yan-yee.

Hong Kong television veteran Lydia Shum died after a protracted fight with liver cancer, local broadcaster Radio and Television Hong Kong reported on its Web site, without citing anyone. She was 60. The actress, affectionately known as Fei-fei for her plump appearance and jolly disposition, died at 8:38 a.m. Hong Kong time at the Queen Mary Hospital, the report said.

She was best known for her comedic roles in Hong Kong films such as ``Drunken Tai Chi.'' Fei means fat in Cantonese. Shum was born in Shanghai and joined Shaw Brothers, founded by Hong Kong media mogul Run Run Shaw, in 1960. Her work in ``Living with Lydia,'' a Singapore sitcom, won her the ``Best Comedy Performance by an Actress'' award at the 2003 Asian Television Awards.

(Citation from Bloomberg)

Faizal Tahir stripped at 8TV birthday bash

Faizal Tahir, the first runner up of the reality singing programme, One In A Million, is giving 8TV a shocking birthday present, by stripping in front of thousands of viewers at Central Park Avenue, Bandar Utama.

Now you see...Now you don't...

As usual, he likes to take off his jacket and throw towards the audience. But this time, Faizal has a better plan to celebrate 8TV's birthday. He decided to strip his singlet and belt to bear the letter 'S' on his chest, which everyone know his craze for the Superman logo.

My colleague who watched the show last night, was shocked and said 'biar betul ni'' when seeing Faizal stripping off his clothes one by one. Although he only went shirtless on television, his act is controversial and not acceptable on local television. What more it was a live show. According to my colleague again, the show was suddenly cut off during the climax and went into commercial, fear for further advance by Faizal.

At the press conference, Faizal expressed his regrets over the controversial incident and stressed that he is not under the influence of drugs.

As for his punishment, he will have to do community service. Well, just 6 months of community work in return for an instant popularity and a new title as the latest sex symbol, perhaps it's a win-win situation for both Faizal and 8TV's One In A Million Season 2 which has already started November last year.

(Images from mSTAR Online)

Eminem exceeds 200 lbs and rushed to hospital due to heart problem

Everyone is so concern about weight and yet the majority of us never determine enough when it comes to losing weight. And that includes me.

I always give the same excuses, that I don't have the time to cook and when it comes to eat outside, I can't get any healthy food. And going for an evening jog is almost impossible as I usually work late. The excuses can go on and on.

Many people are finding it hard to make that decision to take action to lose weight. Even celebrity like Eminem knows he is getting fat back in the year 2006. The rapper hasn't been serious about hitting the gym.

And today, he is in the news for having complications from pneumonia. It is said that his weight has exceeded 200 lbs and having serious heart condition and severe pneumonia.

He has been released from the hospital now and resting at home.

(btw, this is a photochopped picture of Eminem that I came about in the internet)

The media will kill Britney Spears

Personally, I love Britney. Or to be specific the old Britney when she first rises to stardom.

She couldn't handle her personal life well, what more her public life which is widely exploited by the media. Even Dr. Phil wants to get a piece of her stuck up life (although I'm glad he cancels Britney show).

She's divorced, lost her children's custody, get caught many times during her lowest points, has been accused for having mental problem and was recently hospitalized after appeared to be under the influence of an unknown substance.

Honestly speaking, history always repeat itself and certainly we do not want to hear the same thing happen to Britney as it happened to some of the dead celebrities like Anna Nicole Smith and Elvis Presley. Perhaps Britney should seek opinion from people like Mariah Carey on how to overcome emotional breakdown and come back stronger than ever.

When kissing and PDA are judged as obscene

I am kinda lost touch of the local entertainment news these days thanks to the lack of opportunity to be in front of the TV and seldom read the papers.

Yesterday, while having lunch alone at Restoran Khalifah nearby my office, I bought a copy of The Star newspaper. The news that caught my attention was the controversial kiss between Ashraf Sinclair and Bunga Lestari. Artists kissing caught on camera is definitely a huge issue in Malaysia.

Remember when Deanna Yusoff's hot kissing scene in a Singaporean drama was condemned by fellow Malaysians? And I remember back in the 80s, a kissing scene in the movie, Isabella, between Amy Search and an Indonesian actress became such a huge issue but the situation wasn't as bad as Deanna Yusoff's case.


I guess there's always double standard when it comes to controversial issues between male and female. Sorry to sound a bit feminist but the guys always get away with it easily while the girls get humiliated by the public.

Tyra 'Goprah' Banks: who's her next victim?

The other day when meeting my ex-coursemate/housemate, Lily, she said she did dropped by at my blog too. She told me my blog was serious. Errr... yeah it's true. Since school time I can't write anything fictional or funny. I always chose to write serious and factual stuff (if you must know I'm definitely not a blogger liar).

Well, here is something entertaining (but still something factual). I always like Tyra Banks especially her show America's Next Top Model which I never miss a single cycle. And you know Tyra has a talk show called The Tyra Banks Show. So Katharine McPhee, the first runner up for American Idol 5, was on her show and guess what Tyra did? She felt Katharine up. Check out this clip.



That's not the end of it. Guess who's her latest victim? When Tyra was on Rosie O'Donnell show, The View, Tyra gave Rosie a serious groping! Eeughh... Haha... I wonder who's next?!



You know what they call Tyra now? Since Tyra always thinks herself as the next Oprah, people started calling her Goprah.

Jolie-Pitt: one big happy family

Angelina Jolie has taken custody of her new son, Pax Thien Jolie.

Angelina and her eldest son, Maddox, visited Pax at his orphanage. Angelina stayed at the orphanage for about 20 minutes then Pax was carried into a waiting minivan with dark windows, his face shielded from photographers with an umbrella. Angelina followed him into the vehicle and the two headed to the nearby adoption ceremony.

Reports claim that Angelina cried as the adoption papers were finalised at 9am local time and Pax, previously called Pham Quang Sang, officially became her son.

She now has to meet with consular officials to finalise Pax’s passport to enable him to fly to the US to meet the rest of his new family. He, Maddox and Angelina are expected to fly out tomorrow or over the weekend.

Angelina adopted Pax as a single parent because Vietnamese adoption law doesn’t allow unmarried couple to adopt children but Angelina’s partner Brad is expected to adopt Pax at a later date.

Brad couldn't be there in Vietnam due to contract working on a film in Los Angeles.

On the other hand, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s ten-month-old daughter, baby Shiloh is getting her acting career off to an early start. She is set to play Cate Blanchett’s role as an infant in the film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which also stars Pitt.

According to tabloid magazine reports: “Brad and Shiloh saved the day when twin sisters hired to take turns playing actress Cate Blanchett’s character as a baby wouldn’t settle down. Everyone waited in vain while the babies were fed, changed and hugged, but nothing worked to calm them on the set in New Orleans. Then quick-thinking Brad realized his daughter’s happy and mellow disposition made her a quick fix for the role.”

Shiloh, who had been playing in the on-set day care center, was quickly put into costume.

The source added: “She’s a natural. Shiloh did her scenes perfectly and was giggling and happy throughout her big day.”

Shiloh is now ready to welcome a new brother into her life.

on akademi fantasia 5

I've been following Akademi Fantasia for years and it is one of my favourite local show. It's kind of weird because a lot of Malaysian Chinese don't actually like to watch local Malay shows. I think my interest has to do with my education background. Besides imagine growing up with only 3 television channels (RTM1, RTM2 and TV3), I'm used to watch locally produced shows.

I missed Tirai Akademi Fantasia last Saturday because I was in Malacca. And I haven't got the chance to watch it yet except for about 10 minutes of the repeat show on Monday.

Recently, I've heard a rumour about one of the pelajar Akademi Fantasia 5. If you watch American Idol, you would have heard about what had happened to Antonella Barba who was voted out last week. Antonella Barba has her semi exposed photos all over the internet. In the case of the pelajar Akademi Fantasia 5, it was said that she had once taken her own nude photo while she was drunk and posted it into the internet. Well, don't ask me the details because this is all I've got.

By the way, Roslan Aziz has migrated to Astro from 8tv and he is now the Pengetua of Akademi Fantasia 5. I guess Malaysian Idol couldn't survive for the 3rd year?

Linda Onn was taken off the air

Poor Linda Onn. The Malay Mail reported that she was taken off from her radio show on ERA FM 20 minutes after the show.

She was supposed to go on air at her usual 4 p.m. - 8 p.m. slot but listeners were surprised by the sudden replacement by Nana. Hence, this sparked the rumours that she had been suspended by her bosses.

According to the interview with the Malay Mail, Linda said that she was taken off the show because her bosses were "extra concerned" and felt she might be tired and needed a rest.

In another article on the same page, Star TV associate vice-president distribution and marketing SEA, Nini Yusof said that Linda's non-appearance is not their focus anymore. However she continued by saying that "Star Movies sent two Asian hosts to the Academy Awards Red Carpet to report for us and not to walk the red carpet".

Hope Linda will bersabar and wait for this issue to calm down.

Rosie apologized about the "ching-chong" incident

Recently a well-spoken poet named Beau Sia has responded to Rosie O’Donnell’s racist “ching chong” incident via YouTube:

Rosie responded and apologized in her blog. Here's an excerpt:

2 beau
an open response
to ur informative creative
and quite beautiful video

i apologize
for any and all pain
caused to any and all
by my comments
ignorance
lack of compassion - empathy
understanding

u r right
i didnt get it

i know
my intent
was not to harm
yet obviously i did

there ya have it