Jessica Gomes (pics via Grand Narrative) thinks that Rain is sexy.
“Rain’s body looks very healthy and overflows with sexiness. From what I heard, Rain is a work-out mania. I believe his well-sculpted figure is a charming feature of his.”
She might have to fight for him against Megan Fox, who wants Rain to find her and to sing to her.
Recently, Seoul police arrested pimps who prostituted 16-year-old runaways to clients. One of those clients was a famous singer, “Mr. Jeon,” who lives in the Jong-no district of Seoul.
When netizens began pointing out that Jeon Lee-soo (real name: Jeon Kwang-cheol), the lead singer of MC the Max, lives in Jong-no, the police changed the name of the suspect from “Mr. Jeon” to “Mr. J.”
So far, Mr. J has failed to obey a summons to the police station, and they may have to issue a warrant for his arrest.
Remember Super Junior’s Kang In? After being caught on tape participating in a bar brawl last month, he more recently drove under the influence of alcohol, during which he committed a hit-and-runs on two taxis. He turned himself in at the police station, where he confessed.
Some netizens have called for him to be kicked out of the group. Other netizens have come to his defense, though.
It’s interesting to contrast this with the incident regarding 2PM’s Jae-beom. Jae-beom was run out of Korea by a torches-and-pitchforks Internet mob for writing some rude comments four years ago. On the other hand, this guy has been caught red-handed committing three serious offenses: drunk driving, hit-and-run, and assault. And it looks like he’ll get off more lightly (by the public) than Jae-beom.
You might know the story of Vera Hohleiter, and if you don’t, here’s the Reader’s Digest crib notes version: She’s a German woman who became a celebrity in Korea by appearing on a talk show that features foreign women who can speak Korean. She wrote a book in Germany. A Korean student read it, and posted on her blog excerpts which, supposedly, criticized Korea. Now she’s facing accusations that she’s two-faced and hypocritical. However, now she is finally responding to these criticisms.
In the book, Hohleiter touches upon sensitive topics such as Korea’s excessive drinking culture, Korean fathers who become mere providers of money for their families, the irrational nationalism common in Korea, and the inability of many Korean men to be open with their emotions — which she uses her mostly detached boyfriend as an example throughout the book.
(emphasis mine)
The brouhaha surrounding the few excerpts would seem to actually prove the point of irrational nationalism, would it not?
I had previously written about how a member of boy band Super Junior had been accused of being in a late-night brawl in the Seoul district of Gangnam. Now PopSeoul and the Korea Times tell us that he was caught in the act on tape. Apparently, he was goaded until he finally gave in, but nevertheless, the camera clearly shows him to be guilty. If this results in a long trial, what will the other 12 members of Super Junior do?
A member of the boy band Super Junior, Kang In, was booked after a bar brawl in Gangnam.
According to Gangnam Police Station, Kang, whose real name is Kim Yong-un, got into a fight with a patron, identified as a Kim, in a bar early Wednesday morning.
Kang and his friend moved outside the bar and continued to fight with Kim and his friend.
Police said that Kang was fully intoxicated.
Since Super Junior has 13 (!) members, does it really matter if he’s sidelined for a while?
Singer Jeon YeongRok has asked his daughter, Jeon BoRam, a member of the girl group T-ara, not to do “sexy dances.” Why not?
“I thought her that she should never do sexy dances. There are so many kids who do that, and they go nowhere far.”
And as Brian has pointed out, they’re not sexy, so the whole name is a misnomer.
Jae-boem has officially quit 2PM. This comes after some netizens actually called on him to commit suicide over four-year-old MySpace comments. Un-freaking-believable. Some fans have started a petition to bring him back, but it remains unclear as to whether or not it will have any effect. Personally, I doubt it. Some people will not be satisfied unless they see blood.
The Korea Times and Herald have the story of fans who are enraged at a member of boy band 2PM, Jae-beom. Four years ago, when he was still a trainee at JYP Entertainment, waiting to debut, he wrote some negative comments about Korea on his MySpace page. (You can see screen captures of them here.) He apologized profusely, in a way that bordered on grovelling, but that’s not good enough for some fans. As a result, the promotional activities of 2PM have been put on hold for an unknown amount of time. However, Park Jin-young (JYP) has said that neither he, nor the other members of 2PM, want to kick him out of the group.
Personally, I can understand how he could have felt culture-shocked and upset. He was, at that time, an 18-year-old kid, in Korea for the first time and all alone, since his family was still in America, where he was born and had grown up. While his comments from four years ago are definitely childish and show very poor judgment, it’s clear from his apology that in the years since he’s become much more mature and articulate.
Are you a celebrity whose movies bombed at the box office and who rarely appears on TV? No problem. Kim Tae-hee’s two movies were flops and she hasn’t acted on TV for years. Just do as she does, and appear in commercials. Lots and lots of commercials.
Fees of hundreds of million won are also a phenomenon unique to Korea. In the U.S., only professional models appear in commercials, which actors tend to avoid so as not to look like has-beens. This shows that acting alone can generate enough wealth in the U.S., whereas it rarely does in Korea.
[ snip ]
By contrast, a handful of actors and actresses dominate the film industry in Korea. “In a situation like this, many celebrities focus more on commercials than actual acting,” says Kim won-young, a copywriter.
