Got your Sek Loso phone yet?

Here’s a recap of the engaging gossip about Tangmo, Sek, Dome, Peter and poor Por – five stars who commanded an incalculable amount of ink and pixels this year

 

SWADDLED IN HEADLINES

Rock star Seksan “Sek Loso” Sukpimai isn’t going to be anyone’s Man of the Year, but he’s a regular in year-end news wrap-ups thanks to his proficiency for generating headlines. And he does so by any means possible, even if sometimes inadvertently. The social media love this guy’s antics and the mainstream press grudgingly follows along.

What happened this year was the end of his 23-year ride on the matrimonial roller coaster. That finally happened in June, though it was clearly in the cards last year when he and his missus, Karn, waged an epic online catfight that was billed on the social networks as “Sukpimai Wars”. Wrath and revenge did feature prominently in a galaxy very close to home. 

The battle ended with a ceasefire in the form of a divorce and Karn walked away with a settlement estimated at Bt17 million. Sek posted photos on Facebook showing both of them in tears (of relief?) and captioned them “Done!” 

His tears quickly dried. Soon after, he posted the message “40 feeling like 14!” as he promoted his upcoming concert, at which he crowed about being single again. 

The show, like his marriage, got mixed reviews, but by then Sek was already inserting his fingers into a slew of business pies, so many that he was dubbed the “jao por projects” (godfather of projects). He had a roster of “Loso” artists, his own brand of drinking water and his own line of food supplements, all capped off by the “Sek Loso” smartphone pre-packed with his music and costing less than Bt4,000.

The phone was announced in August and was supposed to hit stores in October, but Christmas has come and gone and there’s still no sign of it. Perhaps Sek is waiting for his proposed chain of convenience stores to open so he can sell all of his products under one roof. It’s doubtful that 7-Eleven is worried – this retail chain is still very much a flickering bulb in Sek’s imagination. 

But the guy has a lot of dough and a lot of ideas, so let’s see what comes to fruition. His most ambitious notion is to own a stake in his beloved football club Arsenal, current leader in the English Premier League. Now that would be a game-changer. 

– Veena Thoopkrajae

 

THE TANGMO-TONO SHOW

You’d think actress Pattaratida “Tangmo” Patcharaveerapong was an A-list star judging by the amount of attention she gets, but no, she’s a little further down the list. She’s merely outspoken, especially when it comes to politics. Just ask Thaksin Shinawatra, one of her favourite punching bags for a long time. Love conquers all, though, including volatile emotions, and once Tangmo got involved with singer-actor Phakin “Tono” Kumvilaisak she seemed to calm down a lot. That was almost two years ago, however, and this year volatility got her back in the news. 

When she got swept up in the headlines again in July, some said it was as collateral damage in the battle for ratings among the raft of new digital TV channels. But she gave them some juicy stuff, ending up in hospital after attempting suicide. Tono had gone and announced at one of his concerts that he was happily single again. That’s going to crush any girl. 

On the mend, Tangmo revealed that they’d actually been married. They’d told everyone they were only engaged, but they had in fact lived together, also on the sly. Now Tono felt obliged to summon a press conference and the eager 

TV broadcasters granted him coverage worthy of a state visit by the Emperor of Mars. The social networks went into full gawker mode, pundits more or less evenly divided between support and disdain for Tangmo. 

Tono’s version of events proved anticlimactic. They’d broken up a full two months before she swallowed the pills, he said, though he still loved her. Reconciliation, however, was out of the question. “We tried our best but it’s over now – we can’t turn back.” That’s what Thaksin used to say.

- Veena Thoopkrajae

 

STARS IN A FROTH

“You can’t be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline,” the late great Frank Zappa once said. Well, Thai International Airways is suffering a few glitches while carrying the flag, but at least we do have an airline, and boy do we have beer!

In October the age-old rivalry between Boon Rawd Brewery and Thai Beverage – between the lion (Singha) and the elephant (Chang) – fizzed into a right row thanks to a celebrity scandal. And singer-actor Pakorn “Dome” Lam ended up as the unwilling “poster boy”. 

It began when Dome and several other well-known stars posted their pictures on Instagram holding bottles of Chang beer – the green bottles of the newly released Chang Classic. And these photos all appeared at roughly the same time, strangely enough, and always with the elephant logo in plain view. It seemed odd too that Dome had a clumsy head of froth spilling out of his highball glass as he poured. He evidently doesn’t even drink beer much. 

Dome's photo drew 15,834 “likes” and the postings by the other celebrities, including Nonthaporn “Ying Yae” Theerawattanasook, proved quite popular as well. Furiously hunting for the “dislike” button was Piti Bhirombhakdi. The heir to the Boon Rawd empire was frothing at the mouth.

Piti charged on his Facebook page that Dome's post on Instagram was nothing more than an advertisement. It’s not just immoral, he said, it would be illegal if it turned out that all these pictures by the stars had been arranged in advance. 

Dome and Piti had an exchange of words in the papers and online for a few days, social networkers raised a collective hue and cry and the cops summoned several rich and famous people to explain themselves. They cracked under torture (the police threatened to seize their sim cards) and admitted it was all a giant conspiracy. Case pending.

– Phoowadon Duangmee

 

FINGERS CROSSED FOR POR

Barring a most welcome change of fortune, it appears that Tridsadee “Por” Sahawong’s long battle with illness will continue into the New Year. The 37-year-old actor remains in critical condition at Ramathibodi Hospital, where he was transferred from a private facility on November 9 in the grip of dengue haemorrhagic fever.

Por was in a coma for weeks and then developed an infection in his left foot that pushed his blood pressure to alarming levels. The foot had to be amputated. 

His tribulations have raised public awareness about dengue fever – and about press ethics. Several news outlets have been invasive in their coverage and insensitive in their reporting. The family has suffered doubly as a result.

There has, though, been one startling revelation. It turned out that Por, always guarded about his private life, has a wife and a two-year-old daughter. They’ve become regular visitors to the hospital despite the heavy media presence, and the little girl’s turned out to be quite the charmer. Cheerful news clips of her dancing in the corridors failed to assuage public animosity toward the intrusive press, however.

Joining a steady stream of family, friends and colleagues visiting Por have been fortune-tellers and even so-called “ghost whisperers” claiming the ability to rescue the star from the evil spirits preying on him. 

It was in this tainted atmosphere that hurtful rumours began circulating and unhelpful pranks were conceived. A faked version of a Thai newspaper’s website carried news of Por’s death. Another mock-up site, pretending to be that of popular TV news show, “reported” that he was fully recovered and ready to go home. 

Led by his uncle-manager, who regularly speaks to the press, Por’s family has withstood the pressure well. Perhaps better than the rest of us, they’ve been able to stay focused on Por’s condition and the doctors’ efforts to pull him through.

– Chusri Ngamprasert

 

WHEREFORE ART THOU?

Did somebody push Peter Corp Dyrendal off a cliff? The actor was surfing a wave of success at the beginning of the year as the star of the Channel 3 romantic-comedy series “Ab Rak Online” and in huge demand for marketing events. Not long after the show ended, though, folks stopped calling.

The descent began when he started either arriving late on the sets of follow-up projects or not showing up at all. He was already being dogged by that dishonourable reputation when, in July, his wife Ploypan dropped a loud hint on Instagram that something was amiss in their house of bliss. 

She posted a photo of their two sons and said they were waiting for Daddy to come home, but unfortunately he was busy with “a colleague”. Peter managed to dodge reporters until cornered at the premiere of his film “Latitude 9”, but even then he’d only say that public speculation had “got out of hand” and his wife’s message had been “misinterpreted”. Just for good measure he threatened to sue anyone badmouthing him. That turned a lot of fans into former fans and a boycott campaign was launched on the social media. The movie’s worried producer appealed for reason and was summarily ignored.

Peter – and the film – quickly faded, but his wife didn’t. Ploypan started doing her own public appearances at marketing events with her sons, explaining that she needed the money to support the family. As of press time (and for quite a while now, in fact), she’s had no idea where he is, but she does want him to come back so they can talk. “There’s no getting back our relationship,” she said. “I just want him to make everything clear.” 

So legally they’re still a couple. They just spent most of 2015 separately.

– Veena Thoopkrajae