Credibility gap threatens |to swallow Baitoey

SEXY LUK THUNG singer Suteewan “Baitoey R Siam” Thaveesin is sizzling uncomfortably in the limelight once again. A month after her nasty war of words with the “anti-Baitoey group” on Instagram, the battleground is the same but the weapons have changed. Now Baitoey’s foes are accusing her of pretending that the photos she posts are her own.
We know: We thought everybody did that too, but this is Baitoey, whose grasp of reality seems to be as skimpy as the shorts she wears onstage.
Baitoey’s pictures of three expensive brand-name handbags had captions that suggested she made those bags and had successfully marketed them. “Thanks to all the customers who bought my bags. I am too tired tonight and unable to answer all your questions,” she wrote. Soon enough there was a comment, in English, from @hayjayney: “Hi, this is my picture. Please credit me or remove the picture. Thank you.”
Baitoey seemed to be ignoring the comment, so @hayjayney turned instead to her friend @dailycherie: “Hi sweetheart, this picture is mine and I saw you in one of her pictures. I am not sure if she can speak English? I was wondering if you would mind telling her for me? Thank you very much.” The reply from @dailycherie: “Hey dear, a lot of people are telling her already. I'm sure she will take action soon. So sorry to see this.”
Baitoey eventually reappeared in the conversation, but clearly she wasn’t about to admit to error or irresponsibility. “I didn’t say a word to suggest that was my photo. Just open your eyes widely! My bags are sold out and this photo was posted just to thank my fans!”
Let’s set that aside for the moment and have a look at another photo she posted showing the bedroom of a luxury resort with the remark, “Stay here” (by which she obviously meant she had stayed there). The private detectives who follow her around the Net soon found the original source of the photo – the exact same photo – and instigated another round of gossip about Baitoey “lying” about both her bags and her holidays. So what else might she be prevaricating about?
Well, Baitoey said recently on TV that she’d passed the exam to become an airline cabin attendant. That got several “air hostesses” (as they’re still quaintly called sometimes) telling the online crowd that the test is difficult and Baitoey’s apparent lack of proficiency in English would likely have stopped her at first base.
Baitoey responded with five lines in passable English, again on Instagram and again with intent to mock. “I’m fine thank you and you. Sit down please. This is a book, Snake snake fish fish. Yes, no, ok. Loving you too much so much very much right now. Sea and Sun. Go went gone. I love Thailand.”
Then she added in Thai, “Am I good?”
Well, yes, she is good – not so much at English as provoking the hordes on the social media. You might also argue that she’s very good at generating publicity. (We can’t help but notice that we’re writing about her right now, in a big old honking English-language daily newspaper.)
Baitoey ought to be a little worried, though, that the anti-Baitoey group, which has already dubbed her “the female Nathan”, doesn’t manage to drive her into obscurity like the backlash against that famously duplicitous actor did when he remoulded the truth once too often.