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Web-only Exclusives November 30, 2000 From Our Correspondent: Hirohito and the War A conversation with biographer Herbert Bix From Our Correspondent: A Rough Road Ahead Bad news for the Philippines - and some others From Our Correspondent: Making Enemies Indonesia needs friends. So why is it picking fights? |
OCTOBER 1, 1999 VOL. 25 NO. 39
People
A quiet(ish) wedding for kickmaster Jet Li
What Is the Emperor Going to Say?
A Hairy Adventure That Didn't Quite Work Out
Jet Kicks the Single Life
He is legendary for his deadly martial-arts skills. She is fondly remembered in Hong Kong for her pouting film roles and her . . . well, she's a big girl. But what not many people knew was that Jet Li, 36, and Nina Li Chi, 37, had marriage in mind. Now it's all out in the open following the couple's "quiet" wedding, Hollywood style, in Los Angeles. Among the guests at a reception and dinner at Li's palatial new home was Mel Gibson, the kung fu star's foe in Lethal Weapon 4, and the movie's producer, Joel Silver. A former beauty-pageant contestant, Nina Li hit the big time in a series of forgettable Hong Kong movies in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She disappeared from sight in 1992, reportedly investing $10 million in property in China. Press reports say she lost the lot and more and finished up with crippling debts. She and Li met on the set of the 1988 flop Dragon Fight - "ridiculously flat characters," said one reviewer who was obviously not paying close enough attention - when Li was still married to fellow martial-arts exponent Huang Qiaoyin. The couple divorced in 1992 amid rumors of a "third party."
What Is the Emperor Going to Say?
With his television ads for beer, phones, noodles and construction companies, Japanese rocker Imawano Kiyoshiro sometimes comes across as a bit of an establishment voice. But there's a rebel lurking deep inside. Imawano, 48, has outraged his record label, Polydor, by producing a punk version of the national anthem, "Kimigayo," meaning "His Majesty's Reign." Polydor wanted nothing to do with it (they were frightened of right-wing threats, say critics), so Imawano took himself off to the indie label Swim Records. With the punk version of "Kimigayo" now out, Imawano says he doesn't know what all the fuss is about. "I have no idea why this is a problem. I sang it my way because I thought the original version sounded dark and depressing."
A Hairy Adventure That Didn't Quite Work Out
When Philippine Vice President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo decided it was time for a new hairstyle, she took a decision that some women might have shied away from. Her role model? Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose humiliation made headlines around the world when her husband's monkeying around with Monica Lewinsky became known. Brushing that aside, Macapagal had a Hollywood hairdresser trim her locks and turn up her bangs in imitation of the American First Lady. "For a few days I was sporting the Hillary look," she says. A successful makeover? Not really. Some people thought it made the 52-year-old vice president look too young for her heavyweight job. So she abandoned the idea. See what you think, courtesy of the magic of the computer.
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