TV sports guy Pitsanu tees off on tenacious rumour

Like Daeng, Pitsanu had a long career at Channel 7, becoming one of their best-known faces, but he insists that he didn’t leave due to any personal reasons. “It had nothing to do with Khun Daeng. I just couldn’t carry on in a situation where I had to renew my contract every three months – I had to take care of my staff and I couldn’t deal with the uncertainty.”

Indeed, his golf show “Sport Tips” had just been “demoted” to a less lucrative time slot. “If I didn’t have my employees, I’d rather go back to writing, which is a kind of production, but with the destiny totally in my own hands,” Pitsanu says. 

He doesn’t deny that he was one of Daeng’s favourites, but calls himself one of many. “People who don’t know her wouldn’t know she has lots of male friends, and she takes care of everyone. She didn’t take care only of me – her kindness extended to my kid and wife and all the staff.”

Pitsanu also pointed out that Daeng loves playing golf and was forever the only woman hitting the links with the guys from Channel 7. Pitsanu started playing golf with her more than 20 years ago and still does. It was in fact golf that earned him her admiration.

“She was always angry with me when I first started working at Channel 7. She wanted me to slim down so I could be a sports-news anchor and I wouldn’t cooperate.”

Once he got in front of the camera, though, she was fine with his appearance, and by then they were sharing their passion for sports. “She was a swimmer in university,” says Pitsanu, who played football for Chulalongkorn University. 

Daeng is tipped to be in the bidding for a digital-TV channel, and if she wins a slot, you can be sure that she’ll be calling Pitsanu to man the sports desk.

 

Don’t “do a Madonna”

What can us lowly mortals learn from Madonna being banned from a movie theatre for obnoxious use of a mobile device?

Admittedly the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain, based in Austin, Texas, is a stickler for audience members paying attention to the screen and not dicking around with distractions. Madonna was reportedly “texting up a storm” at the screening last Tuesday of “12 Years a Slave” at the New York Film Festival. A fellow viewer told her to cut it out because her screen light was blinding him and she replied, “It’s for business! Enslaver!”

Alamo founder and chief executive Tim League tweeted the situation like this: “Until she apologises to movie fans, Madonna is banned from watching movies @drafthouse.” But then he said he was only kidding. But then he told EntertainmentWeekly.com that he wasn’t, while admitting that Madonna was unlikely to regard the ban as the end of the world. It’s not like she’s enslaved to anything other than her pointy-bra image.

So what can we salvage from all this confusion? We’re talking to you phone-users in Thai theatres. How about a campaign with the slogan “You can’t get away with that even if you’re a superstar!”