Cable channel O’live TV hosted its first Style Icon Awards on the night of October 30, and a parade of stars turned out on the “orange carpet” for the event. Held at Club Answer in the upscale Seoul neighborhood of Cheongdamdong, the event awarded select members from not only entertainment sphere to honor as icons, but also some from society and the arts.

Actor Jung Jun-ho (The Last Scandal of My Life) acted as host, and awards were handed out to stars like Rain, above (Style Icon of the Year), Jung Ryeo-won, Park Tae-hwan, Sohn Ye-jin, and more.

 
SONG OF THE DAY

Rain - “사랑이라는 건” (The thing called love), from his recent 5th album, “Rainism.” I don’t love or hate the album — the third was really my favorite, and I was not impressed with anything after that — but it has a few nice tracks, like this one (I tend to prefer the songs Rain doesn’t release as singles.)
[ Download ]

See the full list of winners and the attendee fashions >>

Tags: awards, Big Bang, cable programs, Choi Ji-ho, fashion, Hwang Bo, Jang Yoon-joo, Jung Hye-young, Jung Jun-ho, Jung Ryeo-won, Lee Eon, Lee Jung-jae, Park Tae-hwan, Rain, Seo In-young, Sohn Ye-jin

Filed under: Celebrity News by javabeans - 24 Comments →

What does winning the Olympic gold medal get a hot rising athlete? An ad campaign with a top star, of course.

“Marine boy” and two-time Olympic medalist swimmer (one gold, one silver at the Beijing Games) Park Tae-hwan is teaming up with Yoon Eun-hye to sell clothing for the apparel company Basic House. They recently coupled up to shoot photos for the winter line.

The clothing brand expressed a desire to go for high-profile stars to head their winter campaign, and I guess pairing a gold medalist with one of the most popular young actresses around oughtta achieve that nicely. (Although I don’t know why they had to give Yoon Eun-hye fake hair instead of letting her wear her own proudly. At least get good fake hair; she looks like she’s wearing a mop on her head. Or frazzled straw.)

Via Sports Chosun

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Tags: CFs, Park Tae-hwan, Yoon Eun-hye

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August 28 saw the VIP preview of the comedy Our School E.T., which opens in wide release on September 11.

The title’s “E.T.” is both a cheeky reference to Spielberg’s extraterrestrial and to the lead character played by funnyman Kim Su-ro, who takes on the role of a not-so-bright physical education teacher. As a result of the growing pressure for students to stress an English-language education, he needs to switch to teaching English (becoming the “E.T.,” or English Teacher). Alas, his limited talents aren’t quite up to the task. But he tries — and what he lacks in brainpower, he makes up in determination.

The cast also features a crop of young actors — Baek Sung-hyun (pictured above, with lead actor Kim Su-ro), Park Bo-young, Lee Min-ho, and Moon Chae-won — as well as veteran comedic actor Lee Han-wee.

There were a slew of familiar faces at the VIP screening, including those of actors Kim Rae-won, Lee Seon-kyun, and Oh Man-seok, as well as recent Olympic gold-medalist swimmer Park Tae-hwan. More beyond the cut.

Here’s the preview, which is in Korean, but worth watching just for the last two lines (preceding them, starting at the 1:57 mark, Lee Han-wee’s character tells Kim Su-ro’s to speak only in English):

More cast and VIPs at the OUR SCHOOL E.T. screening >>

Tags: Kim Rae-won, Kim Su-ro, Lee Chun-hee, Lee Min-ho, Lee Seon-kyun, Oh Man-seok, Park Bo-young, Park Tae-hwan, press conferences

Filed under: Chungmuro/Film by javabeans - 9 Comments →

With all the attention being lavished on Michael Phelps, it’s enough to make you think there aren’t any other swimmers, isn’t it? But in Korea, swimmer Park Tae-hwan was already famous prior to his Olympic win. Now, one gold and one silver medal later, he’s poised for super-stardom — let the money start rolling in!

Probably Korea’s biggest (or at least most high-profile) success in Beijing thus far, already the 18-year-old Park (19 by Korean standards) is being inundated with numerous endorsement and advertising offers. His mother disclosed that even before the Olympics had begun, Park was fielding more than twenty offers.

He hasn’t signed any contracts yet, but the scramble to attract him looks to heat up. He’s already an A-lister in terms of CF earnings, having contracts with SK Telecom, Kookmin Bank, Lotte Chilsung beverages, and Basic House clothing.

However, it’s also possible Park may take the quiet route and keep the endorsements to a minimum, as he may opt to view his youth and the importance of protecting his image as factors. His father — who set up a management office (Team GMP) to handle all of Park’s management issues — explains that Park will continue to concentrate on his training and will likely only choose things that fit his image.

Oh, and netizens are busy salivating again, this time over recently discovered pics of the swimming star as a young(er) kid (at right). Ah, another teen-idol heartthrob in the making.

Via Hankyung

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Tags: CFs, Park Tae-hwan

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As we know, Koreans sure have a fierce sense of cultural pride (sometimes to uncomfortably myopic degrees). So it’s no big surprise that all are elated with Olympic gold medalist Park Tae-hwan’s win in the 400m freestyle on August 10. In about the half-day since he’s won the medal, his cyworld mini-homepage has amassed over 80,000 congratulatory messages.

Actually, currently there are 82,204 82,357 82,505 messages (that’s how fast the numbers climbed in the time it took me to write this post), although only the last 75,000 or so have come post-win. It’s kind of cute, actually, there are some messages reading, “I’m watching you on TV now,” and then, just a few messages later, “Just… a little… farther…” to be followed with, “Congrats on the gold medal!”

Of particular note are congratulatory messages left by members of girl groups Wonder Girls, Girls Generation (SoShi), and even figure skater Kim Yuna.

Kim Yuna’s message read:

“오빠 대박 ㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ 추카해!!”
“Oppa, jackpot! Kekekeke Congratulations!!”

His site’s background music was the boy band 2AM song “아니라기에” (”To say it’s not”), to which 2AM’s Im Seul-woong wrote:

“(배경음악 선택에) 너무나 감사하고 올림픽 금메달을 석권한 박태환 선수처럼, 저희도 열심히 해서 가요계의 금메달을 따겠다”
“Thanks so much for choosing our song. Like you’ve won the gold medal at the Olympics, we’ll work hard and do our best to win the gold medal in the music industry.” (Whatever THAT means!)

Another 2AM-er, leader Jo Kwon-do, wrote:

“금메달 소식에 홈페이지에 와 봤는데 ‘아니라기에’가 흘러나와 깜짝 놀랐다. 금메달 따길 2AM모두 기도했는데 너무 축하 드린다”
“I came to the site after hearing the news that you’d won the gold medal, but I was startled to hear ‘To Say It’s Not’ playing. Everyone in 2AM had prayed you’d win the gold. Congratulations.”

Park Tae-hwan sure wasn’t shy about his gold-medal hopes; his cyworld address is http://www.cyworld.com/freestylewin.

RELATED POSTS

• Han Ji-hye’s Olympic “Friends”

Tags: Girls Generation, Kim Yuna, Park Tae-hwan, Wonder Girls

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