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Here comes Taiwan's very own donation scandal

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-23 09:05

While stars shone at the recent CCTV gala in aid of victims of the Yushu county earthquake in Qinghai province and a record 2.1 billion yuan ($307.5 million) was raised, another celebrity charity drive, this one in Taiwan, has fallen flat on its face and become mired in controversy.

Blackie Chen, the host of a popular game show in the island, has been taking serious flak for selling T shirts in aid of his cancer charity and pocketing some of the cash. The issue came to a head on Saturday when another TV show host, Zhou Yu-kou, highlighted the issue on his program.

Blackie's friends got into celebrity tantrums about the allegations and one of them, the divine Dee Hsu, aka Little S, called in and called Zhou "evil". She later apologized, with the caveat she thought she "was doing the right thing". Blackie, by the way, has admitted he was "inexperienced" in his charity dealings. This is, of course, an echo of Zhang Ziyi's apology for a shortfall of funds due to victims of the Wenchuan earthquake in her "Donationgate" scandal.

In a post on alivenotdead.com titled "My Wedding!!!" Hong Kong actor and heartthrob Daniel Wu has detailed his nuptials to the TV host and model Lisa Selesner, in a small South African forest "like a natural gothic cathedral". While the bride was dressed in white, that was about the only conventional thing about the wedding. A "High Priest" and 14 disciples officiated the rites, while a dog named Chinook guarded the couple.

Apparently Lisa S was first attracted to Wu in 2000 when she saw a picture of the near naked actor on the cover of a magazine. According to an article in Sina.com the couple claimed they have had just six fights in their eight-year-old relationship - and none of them were over Wu and his rumored affairs with other women.

Gao Yuanyuan is tired of being known as a good girl, it appears. Last week, the model and actress attended the Prix d'Excellence de la Beaute in Beiijing and was crowned "The Purest Girl". But this week she got a tattoo of a black flower on her left wrist. According to Southern Metropolis Entertaining Weekly this was because even though she won the award she was outshone by Chen Ziyan, who had a plum-shaped tattoo on her arm. Fans of Gao's purity will no doubt be happy to learn her tattoo is a temporary one.

Another actress with a model-type brain is Zhang Jingchu, who won some fame a year ago by claiming the intellectual high ground and stating she was a big fan of literature. A few days later, according to a celebrity entertainment source, when she was asked what book she was reading, she answered: "Can't you see that I am angry. How can I read if I'm angry?"

This impressed reporters so much that she has had a reputation ever since as stupid and pretentious. Her standing was not helped earlier this week when, before the Hong Kong Film Awards, her agent sent out two press releases: One thanked everyone for the win; the other regretted she lost but was still a good actress anyway.

She didn't win, by the way.