Panda Kun

Singer Lee Hyo-lee is again at the center of controversy. Critics charge that the music video for the track "U-GO-Girl" from her third album plagiarizes Christina Aguilera's video for "Candyman." And some say the nurse that Lee portrays in the video is too provocative, with Netizens taking issue with the nurse costume's plunging neckline.

One netizen has opened a link on a portal demanding the music video be edited and has begun a signature drive. "Nurses study and work very hard but they're exposed to sexual innuendo and harassment at work," another Netizen wrote. "They are belittled in society because they're portrayed in this kind of image." Another said, "I'm joining the signature drive and regret that my heart thumped at the sight of a nurse uniform. My bad."

And yet the controversy has succeeded in generating more buzz for the video, which has become popular on YouTube and other sites. It's not the first time a distorted image of nurses has generated debate. Park Mi-kyung played a racy scene in a nurse outfit in her 2004 music video for "Hot Stuff", drawing protests from the Korean Nurses

Rain gets a mention in a Forbes.com article about how mobile phone companies are using star power to hawk their products.

ambassadors for mobile phones are very common these days and Rain is mentioned in his role as Samsung's "Olympic brand ambassador".

Here is the list of celebrities -- along with the brand they endorse and the region(s) covered -- as reported in the picture story entitled 10 Celebs and their Cells:

Maria Sharapova - Sony Ericsson (Global)
David Beckham - Motorola RAZR2 (Global)
Danica Patrick - Motorola (North America)
Shah Rukh Khan - Nokia (India)
Abhishek Bachchan - Motorola (India)
Aamir Khan - Samsung (India)
Usher - Sony Ericsson music phones (North America)
Fergie - Motorola ROKR (Global)
Rain - Samsung (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan)
Andy Lau - LG Shine (Hong Kong)

At the moment it seems hard to get all three of the stars of Taiwan idol drama “Hot Shot,” Show Lo, Jerry Yan, and Chun Wu together, so the television station put an emphasis in merchandise, using $3 million NTD to design 40+ merchandise products, becoming the Taiwanese drama with the most merchandising in the history of idol dramas. Besides photos and video games(?), there are also all types of stationary, key chains, digital photo frames, and what they believe will be the best-selling, the bolster. The television station says that the price of the bolster has yet to be set, but they will probably auction if off in limited editions.

The television station had originally wanted to release bed sheets with the 3 main characters imprinted on them. But afterwards, the management of the three guys heard screaming from the fans, so they decided to release bolsters instead. A staff members said, “Being able to hug their idol to sleep, fans would probably be satisfied enough.”

TOKYO — Lingerie maker Wacoal has signed up singer Ayumi Hamasaki, 29, for its lingerie advertising campaign in the Asian market. According to Wacoal, photos of Hamasaki in Wacoal underwear will be used for advertisements in China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam from the end of July. The ads will not be used in Japan, the company said.

A spokesperson for Wacoal said, “Ms Hamasaki has the highest profile in Asia and is supported by females fans in their 20s who are our target consumers.” The company is expecting a synergy effect from the ads with her Asian tour in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Taiwan from Sept 20.

Photos were taken by Mika Noguchi who is president of lingerie maker Peach John and Hamasaki’s close friend

Amongst all the albums released in the first half of 2008, only 2 albums broke the 100,000 mark. However, the sales figure of the top-selling album was the lowest ever for a top seller in the records of the Music Industry Association of Korea (MIAK) since 1999 - a sign of how the music industry has deteriorated after 2000.

The MIAK sales statistics are the most acknowledged indication of album sales, and the figures of the total album sales for the first 6 months of 2008 were released on July 15.

According to the figures, among the albums released from January to June this year, only Kim Dong Ryul's Monologue and Shinhwa's 9th album exceeded the 100,000 mark.

Singer-songwriter Kim Dong Ryul released his 5th album in January this year, and has sold 10,898 copies in June alone. The total sales for the first 6 months hit 107,608, making it the bestseller for the first half of 2008.

According to the latest sales figures from Recording Industry Association of Korea (RIAK) for June 2008, Wonder Girls sold 31,840 copies (No.3) since it was released on 3rd June. This is another remarkable achievement for the Wonder Girls since they did over 30k copies in a month. This is much better than their 1st album “Tell Me” considering it’s not even a full album.

source: wonderland

IS HONG Kong actress Carina Lau's story about getting kidnapped by triad members a hoax?

That is the buzz in the Chinese entertainment media scene at the moment.

Even though the incident took place 18 years ago, the story is still generating a cauldron of emotions, ranging from sympathy to scepticism.

Lau had told novelist Eunice Lam about her run-in with triad members and that story was published last Friday in Chinese paper Nanfang Daily.

The actress spoke about her traumatic experience in April 1990, when she was kidnapped by triad members and photographed naked after she refused to act in amovie the triad was involved in.

In the interview, Lau, 42, said she was abducted as she was driving to actor Michael Miu Kiu Wai's house. She was forced to strip and was photographed nude before being released several hours later unhurt.

In 2002, pictures taken during the incident were leaked and one was published on the cover of a magazine, causing a sensation in Hong Kong's showbiz scene.

Linda Chung thought of killing herself due to stress

Linda Chung has been a spokesperson of a chinese health product brand for almost a year. She was in the studio yesterday to flim a commercial for the company's new mental health product.

Depression because of not adapting to new enviroment

Speaking of mental health,Linda Chung disclosed that she had suffered depression after had won Miss Chinese International and was being invited to work in Hong Kong. She said when she just moved into Hong Kong,she took a long time to adapt to the new enviroment,she is very lonely and have no friends around. Her workload is very heavy and have to handle alot of things. Because she is a public figure,she hides her feelings and dare not tell the people,gradually because of hiding her unhappiness in her heart for a long time,she almost went crazy.

Actor and singer Lee Ji-hoon and singer Park Hye-kyung will perform live together in Japan.

The two artists will perform in the "Standard Songs Vol.2 - Dreams Are My Reality" acoustic live concert at the Setagawa Ward Civilian Hall in Tokyo on July 27 and at the Nanbahatchi Opera House in Osaka on July 28. They will perform with tenor singer Yuki Shimoji.

Lee, who has held numerous solo concerts in Japan in the past, has a sizeable fanbase in Japan. The upcoming concert is receiving significant media attention as it will be his first performance in a year.

Park, who performed in Japan in December last year, received acclaim for her beautiful live performance.

Source: KBS Global

There has been a chaos in the forums of the current hit Korean reality show, We Got Married, due to the cuts of Alex&Shin Ae as it is leaked by an inside source that all progress and intimate scenes of the couple were being edited out by the production company to project an "awkward" concept between mentioned couple.

According to the article, there have been days when the couple stayed up all day laughing and having fun with each other until the wee hours but yet the production team never shows that side of the couple and is apparently trying to work up some "one sided love" and "awkward" concept within the two, stirring up impatience in the audience.

Recently at a "wedding photoshoot" on the 100th day, it was mentioned on the private Cyworld of the photographer that Alex and Shin Ae spent the whole day taking pictures and there was even a "kiss" scene. filming was then, as well, until late but the couple's cuts only made it to 7 minutes of the approximately 70-80minutes program out of 4 couples. Without the kiss scene.