Life> Celebrities

Outright lies and a star still too hot to touch

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-03-19 09:47

Don't believe everything you read. Last month actor/singer Ronald Cheng was interviewed about his everlasting love for Charlene Choi, admitted he had her name tattooed on his inside arm and predicted they would get married soon.

But on Tuesday, Hong Kong media reports were trumpeting news the couple got secretly hitched in the United States four years ago. So, are they married, or getting married?

Neither. At a press briefing on Thursday to promote her new film, Choi dropped the bombshell that Cheng was not her husband, or even her boyfriend any more.

"We broke up after gaining a deeper understanding of each other," Choi said. "We didn't get married as reported, nor is there anyone else. We're still friends."

The headline generating news comes at a good time for Choi, because she intends to stage a reunion next month with her former singing partner in Twins, Gillian Chung.

Chung, you will recall, was one of eight Hong Kong stars whose sex acts with Canadian-Chinese entertainer Edison Chen were uploaded on the Internet two years ago, creating a wave of revulsion that is only just receding.

Evidence of this came to the fore earlier this week when diva Jolin Tsai did a fashion show in Taipei. Chen was also invited to the event but the two did not appear together.

Chen is still seen as the kiss of death for a young woman's career, though Tsai gallantly said she was happy to see a Chen comeback and admitted they still communicate on MSN.

Further proof that you should take your entertainment news with a pinch of salt is the case of Dee Hsu. The Taiwan TV presenter and her husband Mike Hsu were accused of having a domestic incident during which he was supposed to have hit her.

Not true. The police and abuse center both denied any calls were made by the couple, who went a step further by holding a press conference outside a Taipei police station earlier this week to say they would be suing the paper.

Another piece of gossip that deserves little credence is that Cantopop singer Kelly Chen used a surrogate mom to give birth last year. She was in Beijing this week to promote her latest album, but spent most of her time denying the allegation, adding she was planning to have another child soon.

There are critics everywhere and songstress Na Ying is one of them. The presiding judge of the Top Chinese Music Award, to be held in Shenzhen next month, said youngsters lacked talent and had little respect for their peers.

She wasn't talking about Beijing Olympic Opening Ceremony sensation Lin Miaoke, but she may as well have been.

The starlet, 11, is appearing in the TV show Beauty From the North, and according to actress Chen Xiaoyi, who played her mother, she's a headstrong lass.

"She kept speaking with a babyish voice. I told her.'Please don't do this, your part is someone who has suffered a lot'. But she wouldn't change," Chen said at a press conference to promote the TV drama.