Thais help Hollywood keep an eye on the galaxy

James Gunn, who directed the latest sci-fi blockbuster in theatres, “Guardians of the Galaxy”, is not only enjoying a holiday here after doing a big promotion in Singapore, he’s also spent time with Bangkok fans of his film, complete with a special screening.
Marvel Thailand invited folks to register for the event on its Facebook page. Among the participants was actor Danai “Dan” Samutkojorn, who’s also a major comics aficionado and has even produced his own comic book, “The Mavericks”, in a style bearing more American than Japanese influence.
Dan served as emcee onstage, one arm fashionably encased in a cast, and helped translate the discussion between English and Thai. Audience members – young students and adults alike – had a lot of questions.
Among other things, the fans wanted to know how the film’s hero, Peter Quinn (played by Chris Patt), managed to find enough batteries to power his cassette player, which is constantly playing music. You need to know these things to fully appreciate art.
After the screening, Gunn posed for a slew of photos with the fans before heading off to Phuket to get some of that sun, sand and sea he’d been yearning for.
You’ll have already read, though, that his downtime was interrupted yet again when he was obliged to take the “Ice Bucket Challenge”. He got soaked for a good cause on Monday and challenged in turn the stars of his movie – Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel and Michael Rooker – plus “the entire country of Thailand”.
He seems annoyed. Maybe we’d better just leave him alone for the rest of his stay.

For the love of Mike

We were certainly ready to leave actor Pirat “Mike” Nitipaisalkul alone once he admitted to fathering fashion model Sarah Casinghini’s baby boy Maxwell and then asked for privacy while their families got things sorted out, but there’s been more controversy.
Mike had cheerfully acknowledged the child was his thanks to a romp with Sarah and he was so sure about it that there was no need for him to take a corroborating DNA test. The press thought otherwise and kept nagging him to get a test done. Apparently his family wanted him to do it too.
The chatter got so bad that Sarah decided to go public herself to put matters to rest. She appeared on the showbiz-news show “9Entertain” on Wednesday afternoon to say that, actually, the DNA test was done, and it confirmed that Mike’s the dad.
She said Mike had told her the night before he’s done talking to the press because the more he says, the worse things get. So she told him she’d take care of it and, despite this being the first time she was speaking out on the matter, she made a better job of it than Mike.
It’s a simple matter of needing Mike’s name on Maxwell’s birth certificate, she said, but he still hasn’t added his autograph. Sarah’s happy to have Max take her surname rather than Mike’s and, more importantly, she’s more than ready to raise her son alone, without Mike’s presence. She plans to just get on with it at the family homestead in Phuket.