With Tony Jaa's family, trust your first instincts
You know that stuff we told you about action-film star Panom "Tony Jaa" Yeerum attending his father's funeral rites in Surin and being warmly received by his distraught family? Well, cancel that.
The truth (and we’re fairly confident we’ve got it right this time) is that Jaa was only there for about 10 minutes and neither he nor his squad of bodyguards had much to say to the family, not even his mum. Oh, and a fight almost broke out (again).
Jaa didn’t bother attending the cremation the next day, which seems to have the social-media pundits more upset than anything else. We assume Jaa has his reasons for all this, but he’s begged off doing interviews about what would certainly be a private affair if it weren’t so freakishly amusing.
Fortunately his sister, Charinthip “Waew” Yeerum, is always ready with public announcements. She’s declared that the family has now cut all ties with their wayward celebrity son and brother, implicitly because of his failure to honour his dad properly. “He’s changed a lot and is really cold to us. He doesn’t deserve to use the Yeerum name,” she says.
If there’s one thing Tony Jaa commands, though, with his rags-to-riches tale and his fair share of setbacks (however self-inflicted), it’s a solid base of hardcore fans. This could mark a whole new beginning for him, they’re saying online. Quite a few people at Pantip.com have said he’s better off without the family “baggage”, all they want is his money, he’s given them too much already, etc etc.
“I’m happy for him,” comments someone called himself “Canon in Science Major” (probably a Pachelbel gag). “I understand Jaa’s family for relying on him financially, but I understand Jaa more.”
And frequent Pantip visitor Anonymous claimed he spent eight months working with Jaa on the movie “Ong-Bak 2”. “I have seen what happened. I want to extend my congratulations – he’s now free from shouldering the family’s financial burden.”
Janie and the pool boy
No flies on freshly divorced actress Janie Thienphosuvarn as she flaunts a new male buddy online. It started with a video on Instagram of her taking (what else) the Ice Bucket Challenge. Once she’s doused, a man pushes her into a swimming pool and jumps in behind her.
Who’s the guy getting her extra wet? Janie heard the question and posted another video, this one of the same man juggling kitchenware. “May I introduce you to my new BFF Jason,” she added. “He’s a good one #trustme #securitydetails #loveyou #youknowmytaste.”
Of course BFF stands for “best friend forever”, not “boy friend fantastique”, but it’s intriguing nonetheless. Some quick sleuthing via the Web seemed to suggest that “Jason” was Jason Berrent, an American stage actor and a gymnast who competed at the international level a decade ago. A rummage through Berrent’s Instagram account indicated that he might not be altogether straight, however, not that that’s a criterion for BFFs.
The ever-coy Janie weighed in with another Instagram message to her friends, “I’m still single. #getitright”, adding cheekily, “I like rumours! I find out so much about me that I didn’t even know.”
We just can’t understand why people keep gossiping about her. What? Oh, shut up.
