After the recent success of Miss Ripley and her successful fan meeting and CG shoots in China, Lee Da-hae is continuing her streak with a new jewelry line, which launched on October 10.

Lee’s jewelry line was launched by Mzuu, which is headed by the designer Park Min-joo.  If that name sounds familiar at all, it’s because she’s the younger sister of Park Shi-yeon, who co-starred in My Girl  with Lee.  On the jewelry brand Mzuu’s homepage, Lee is seen sporting the items from her new line, which were designed to fit her rather casual personality.  

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The next celebrity to take up photography is superstar Rain (aka Jung Ji-hoon), who just participated in a photography exhibit, “Jung Ji-hoon’s Reality.”

Rain’s exhibit takes the theme of “My Lovers” and runs from March 12 through 21, and features photos that he took of fans as well as photos that fans have taken of him. The exhibit is free and is displaying in Sinsadong, Seoul. A related auction was held on March 14.

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Actor Ha Jung-woo is exploring his creative side with an individual exhibit of his artwork (his first ever), which will be on display for the next month at a gallery in Yangpyeong, Kyeonggi-do. A recent spread in the March issue of Vogue magazine also featured a few of his paintings, pictured here.

This opportunity came through a bit of happenstance; a scriptwriter on Ha’s movie team had seen photos of the paintings in Ha’s cell phone, and made the recommendation for the exhibit. Curators then visited Ha’s home to take a look at his work, which led to the planning of this show.

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More and more actors are putting out books, it seems. Add Shin-yi (Partner) to that list, who his till now been mostly known for playing quirky characters with strong personalities. Now she’s taking a stab at fiction writing with the novel Fox In a Bear Mask [곰의 탈을 쓴 여우].

The book tells a romantic comedy story about a 28-year-old career woman working at a film promotion company who falls in love with a young male pop singer six years her junior. The protagonist is a bit scattered, best described as ordinary, while the young man is a pretty boy — “the kind of love story every woman dreams of at least once.” The story is told in first-person in a casual, conversational style which the article describes as straight out of an internet novel.

(The style has its ups and downs — it’s extremely readable, but on the downside, can seem disorganized and sloppy. An excerpt reads thusly: “Hehe the princess wearing my clothes looks tooootally cute. Kiss! Su-bin sat me down on the sofa, now that I’d changed my clothes, and turned on the TV. ‘Stay riiight here~. I’ll get some yummy food.‘”)

Shin-yi explains having literary interests from a young age. She’d decided to try writing a novel in six months, and ended up completing it in a mere month and a half. She explains that she’d been thinking of the book for a long time, however, and thanked a certain “J” — “for teaching me about a brilliant love.”

Via OSEN

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Actor Kim Bum recently put out a single album in Japan — after showing off his vocal skills with the song he recorded on the additional Boys Before Flowers — and now he’s putting out a photoessay collection.

Kim Bum said, “After the broadcast ended for my drama Dream, I traveled to England. Over ten days from October 23, I toured London and the surrounding areas, and I’ve gathered the photographs I shot into an essay collection. You’ll be able to see it soon.” The photos aren’t solely vacation memories but aims to promote an environmental message.

He added, “I’ve wanted to release a book that I put my name on, so this is a dream come true. This was my first trip to England, and I really enjoyed myself. I feel great to be able to experience the culture of environmentalism myself and introduce it [to Korea].”

Meanwhile, Kim Bum has a movie still to be released (action-romance Bisang), and is enjoying a lot of popularity even if his last drama, Dream, flopped. Hopefully he’ll be more lucky with his next choice — given how busy he’s keeping these days, I’m going to guess we won’t have to wait too long for the next project…

Via DongA

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• Dream: Episode 1

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Actress Choi Kang-hee (My Sweet Seoul) published her essay collection at the end of September, and within only ten days it’s already become a bestseller.

The collection is titled Choi Kang-hee, A Little Child’s Little Happiness and has shot to the top ten of various bestseller lists. Currently, the volume has sold more than 32,000 copies and is heading into a fifth printing. The publisher’s initial printing produced 10,000 copies, but because of demand, they have upped the latest print order to 20,000 volumes.

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Earlier this year, actress Han Ji-hye announced she would be designing a line of shoes with designer Jinny Kim, aptly called “H by JINNY KIM.” Soon her designs will be available for sale as part of the brand’s Fall/Winter collection; Han also models her own designs in the catalog.

Han Ji-hye said, “To match the feel of autumn, I wanted to show designs that aren’t too flashy but comfortable and give off a subtle, calm feeling.”

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Three actors — Ji Jin-hee (The Man Who Can’t Get Married), Yoon Kye-sang (Triple), and Sunwoo Sun (Queen of Housewives) — have teamed up for something called the “it Travel” project, which consists of a travel book and DVD in which they showcase photos taken on their journeys and express their sentiments about the experience. It also includes recommended places of interest, travel tips, and behind-the-scenes stories. The book has yet to be published, but the trio have just opened a companion travel blog called “it Travel: Travel with Stars.”

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Post tags: Ji Jin-hee, star extracurricular activities, Sunwoo Sun, Yoon Kye-sang

Last year, Clazziquai singer Horan put out an essay collection; now her bandmate Alex is coming out with an essay collection of his own, a food-related book called Alex’s Spoon. (The tagline under the title reads, “A food diary of a sweet guy living a delicious life.”)

This shouldn’t come as too much of a stretch for the vocalist, or be a surprise for his fans; Alex was reportedly a chef in his pre-singer days, and not long ago hosted a food program on Japanese television called Delicious Korea.

Although food is the main theme, Alex’s Spoon also contains essays describing childhood family memories, his thoughts about making music, and a look back at his love relationships. The book includes photographs, recipes, recommended restaurants, and so forth.

Alex is currently promoting the song “Tell Yourself,” and recently gave a solo concert at Akasaka Blitz in Japan on September 19. The book Alex’s Spoon will be published on September 23 — which, incidentally, is the same day that Yonsama‘s own food and culture book, Journey in Search of Korea’s Beauty, will be released.

Via OSEN

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• Alex takes on a musical
• Alex hosts Delicious Korea
• Overworked singer needs a break
• Horan, the bookworm author

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Bae Yong-joon, or Yonsama, has finally revealed the Korea-related book he has been preparing for many months, called Journey in Search of Korea’s Beauty.

In order to gather information to incorporate into his book exploring traditional Korean culture, Bae Yong-joon spent over a year traveling the country to research various topics; for instance, his first step was to visit countryside villages to learn the process for making kimchi in the traditional method.

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