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PEOPLE
By Alexandra A. Seno
A South Korean Tiger
Just six years after she first learned how to swing a club, Pak Se Ri wowed golf fans with her surprise victory at the McDonald's LPGA Championship. Besides collecting the $195,000 winner's check, the 20-year-old South Korean also racked up a slew of records. Not only is Pak the tournament's youngest winner ever and the first female rookie to win a major in a decade, but her 11-under-par 273 score is the lowest since the tour started staging the event at the DuPont Country Club five years ago. Commentators now compare Pak to another sensation on the fairways; Tiger Woods was also 20 when he won his first major professional title at the Las Vegas Invitational in 1996. Back in Seoul, the media have been toasting the golfing world's newest star, who is still too young to legally celebrate with champagne. Pak's triumph was front-page material in newspapers across South Korea. "I think they are happier than I am," the good-natured Pak said of her compatriots. "They want me to be the best golfer in the world." They want more, of course. One daily's headline: "A Legend is Born."
Cannes It Get Better Than This for Hsu?
Hsu Feng, the Taiwan actress-producer, devotes much of her energy to developing real estate in Shanghai these days (she acts on behalf of her husband's conglomerate, Tomson Pacific). Last week, Hsu herself became hot property at Cannes. She was the only woman - and only Asian - among 11 people honored in the festival's tribute to producers. Her credits include the 1993 Palm d'Or winner, Farewell My Concubine. (Farewell director Chen Kaige is a judge at Cannes this year.) "Producing is difficult," said Hsu. "This award gives me the inspiration to go through the tough times." She will need it. Two of her movie projects have been suspended in China's bureaucratic limbo for years. The subjects: the life of Jiang Qing, and an adaptation of the best-selling Life and Death in Shanghai, in which Hsu may star.
A Celebrity Marriage Up in the Air
The public admission of private pain was perhaps in character for the Manila showbiz couple. Millions watched Martin Nievera and Pops Fernandez fall in love as they hosted a popular TV show during the 1980s. This month Nievera announced on live television that he was quitting their current lunchtime show - surprising even his wife. It would "give her space," a teary Nievera said. His declaration confirmed months of speculation about their troubled relationship. "I want to save this marriage," Nievera, 36, said after the show. "It is me who failed. I love television but I love Pops more." Will this union survive? Stay tuned.
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