Getting reacquainted with old what's his name

Then the South Korean army snagged him for two years of compulsory military service. Like Elvis in the US long before him, it might have wrecked his career.
Once he shed the helmet, Lee went straight back to television, but nothing has sparked a buzz that would have got him back to Thailand. He did return this week at last, after a five-year absence – as Asian brand ambassador of fabric softener Downy Mystique.
“A lot more fans used to welcome me at the airport, but this time I saw only four,” he lamented. “Maybe they’ve shifted their affections to other K-pop idols.” Lee immediately said he was just kidding, but we’re not so sure.
A reporter evidently trying to be helpful suggested he try a singing career instead. “I think it’s too late for me,” replied the 31-year-old actor.
Well, at least Lee still loves Thailand. This is his 10th visit on business or holiday. He has a lot of favourite places to see, and, yes, he adores the food. “I always have Thai food in Seoul, but the taste is never as delicious as it is here,” he said. (We knew that.) “So the first thing I did when I got here was have Thai food!” (We could have guessed that too.)

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It’s a scary place
Apparently that rusty old joke about people from upcountry not knowing how to use an elevator has some basis in truth. Poet Sukumpoj Khamsukhum – a finalist for the SEA Write Award for “Baan Nai Mok” (“House in the Mist”) – was awfully nervous about coming to the Big City for the requisite press conference.
“I’m a country boy. I was born and bred in the Northeast. I grew up in the fields,” he said. “Life in the city is totally different from mine in the country. It somehow looks a bit scary to me. I still feel uncomfortable if I have to use the elevator by myself – I don’t know which button to press – let alone ride the Skytrain!”
The primary school where Sukumpoj teaches back home is probably of the small, single-floor variety, so there’s not much call for vertical transportation. Luckily the press conference in Bangkok was held at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel, which has lovely staircases. But if he wins the writing prize on September 6, we’re going to be needing him back in the city, going up and down and up and down a lot. The folks at SEA Write should give some thought to assigning him a lift lackey.

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Big spender, no joke
Comedian-film director Petchthai “Mum Jokmok” Wongkamlao insists he’s no fan of luxury brand-name products, so what was he doing wearing a Louis Vuitton belt and shoes on Channel 3’s “At Ten” show? His wife Endu “Mod” told him to buy them, he explained, because he should enjoy his hard-earned money.
If he has his druthers, Mum’s big-ticket expenditures go stuff he really likes, like the Mercedes Benzes he recently bought Mod for her birthday and for his daughter Busarakam “Em” for her graduation. “When the sales people tell me the price, I tell them I’ll go back to my hometown and sell some buffalo to get the cash,” he laughed.
Anyway, he still prefers his pickup. “For one thing, you don’t have to think about parking – I can park it anywhere!”