Lee Jia, lead actress for MBC’s upcoming classical-music-themed drama Beethoven Virus, collapsed while filming for the drama and was rushed to the emergency room on August 1.

This came after spending the last two days filming in cold water during the hot summer. While shooting at a film studio in Kyunggi-do early Friday morning, Lee Jia complained of breathing difficulty and was taken to a nearby hospital, where she was given a diagnosis suspecting meningitis (!!) and extreme hypothermia.

If the cause turns out to be meningitis, her representatives said, this presents grave problems with filming, so they are waiting to see how her condition progresses as she returns home for some rest.

Filming had begun on the 14th for the drama scheduled to premiere in September. Promo posters (using underwater imagery) were shot on the 30th, and scenes for the drama were filmed on the 31st for an underwater fantasy sequence.

For now, the drama is shooting around their absent leading lady, continuing with male leads Kim Myung-min and Jang Geun-seok instead, but progress is sure to be hampered without her.

Bejeebus, MBC! Take some care for your stars, will ya? They ARE making you all that money, yunno. (Or trying to, at least; it’s not always their fault if the dramas flop.)

Via Sports Chosun

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Bae Doo-na, last seen in 2007’s How to Meet a Perfect Neighbor, is heading to Nepal for some charity work as part of the Good Neighbors program.

From the UN Nepal site:

Good Neighbors International launched its work in Nepal in 2002 with the objective of child care and community development. It is an INGO based on Republic of South Korea with consultative status in UN ECOSOC (United Nation Economic and Social Council).

To this end, she left Korea on July 31 to spend the next seven days in the village of Lele in Kathmandu, Nepal. To capture the realities of village life and charity work, they were also accompanied by photographer Kwon Young-ho.

Bae Doo-na will be working to help the struggling livelihood and family of a 7-year-old girl, Somaya Nagarkoti, as well as visiting the girl’s school and delivering school supplies. Currently, Somaya and her two older sisters do mining work to help their family survive; Somaya spends most of their non-school time in the mines, while her sisters have long quit school (she earns approximately 50 cents for a day of work breaking rocks with a hammer). Despite her circumstances, Somaya reportedly has a lot of friends and dreams of becoming a doctor.

Not to let such a ratings opportunity pass them by, cable channel tvN will be broadcasting coverage of the trip in their World Special Love sometime in September. (The channel already aired the Ryu Seung-beom segment on May 1, wherein the actor traveled to Thailand, and the second segment in July with Shin Hyun-joon in Malaysia’s Kuala Lumpur.)

Via JK News

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Han Hyo-joo throws the opening pitch (”a faster pitch than other female celebrities”) for the Doosan–Lotte game.

July 31, Jamsil Baseball Stadium, Seoul.

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Actress Byun Jung-soo (The Last Scandal of My Life, Bad Couple) currently hosts her own “style variety” program, the Olive Show on cable channel Olive TV. This time, she’s posing semi-nude for her “O’Love Your Body Naked Project” (I’m mildly surprised that they pulled off an English-language pun without being Konglish-y for once. Still a bad pun though).

A worthy cause, I’m sure, which brings to mind similar things like the (American) Dove Campaign for Real Beauty. This O’Love campaign operates under the message of “loving yourself and your body proudly, as it is.” Although, I’m sure it’s a lot easier to tell people not to hate their bodies when you’re rockin’ Byun’s sleek “S-line” and model-perfect figure.

(I jest, I jest, kinda. I may not have her body, but I don’t hate it by mere dint of the fact that it functions, mostly painlessly, mostly as it should and with reasonable ability to recover from the abuses to which I subject it daily. Most of them caffeine-related. But still, it sure is easy to be a spokesmodel for loving yourself when you’re widely regarded to be one of the national standards of feminine beauty, isn’t it?)

But even tall, slender former models like Byun aren’t free from body worries, as the mother of two expressed having had initial hesitation to pose for the skin-baring photo op. However, she thought the message worthwhile, explaining, “These days, countless twenty- and thirtysomething women shrink back, thinking they’re overweight, or ugly, which saddens me. I think women are most beautiful when they’re confident in themselves.”

Via Hankyung.com

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First Han Ye-seul was cast in the drama version of gambling-related Tazza, supposedly in the Madam Jung role initially played by Kim Hye-soo in the film. Then the role was un-cast, with reps backpedaling to say that Han’s role was not certain. And then she was re-cast, but as a different character altogether.

That means Madam Jung was open to new casting, which will now be filled by Kang Sung-yeon (Single Papa in Love), who just shot the drama’s promo poster. There had been reports of another actress, Sung Hyun-ah, being cast at the same time, but Kang ended up winning the role. She’ll star opposite Jang Hyuk, Han Ye-seul, and Kim Min-joon.

Tazza starts shooting on the 25th, and will follow Gourmet’s Monday-Tuesday SBS slot beginning on September 8. I… still have no idea what to expect from the drama. (So far, it’s not much.)

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