Asia-Celebs.com - Hot celebrities of Japan, China, and Asia

Everybody wants a better contract

The Korean government and entertainment industry are looking for ways to revive the popularity of Korean pop culture in other Asian countries, which has been declining steadily, meanwhile Korean celebrities are getting frustrated about their agents being overly controlling.

Last year the Korean Fair Trade Commission surveyed 350 celebrities about their contracts. About 200 said that they were forced to report on their whereabouts even when they were not working. More than 100 said they totally lack a private life. One Korean singer told that her agent constantly rings her up to check her whereabouts.

Oppressive contracts and intrusions into personal lives create unsatisfied stars, and conflicts between agents and celebrities do have an impact on the entertainment industry, and not a good one.

The agencies response was that this monitoring is necessary because they have made big investments in their stars and need to prevent celebrities defecting to another agency.

Yeah right, if my supervisor would ring me up on my mobile on weekends and holidays, just to check up on me, to make sure I'm not looking for a better job nor contemplating on handing over my resignation letter, there's no doubt I'd entertain myself with the idea of defecting to North Korea.

And if he would dare to copy my SIM card, or let alone tamper with my mobile, it'd be war, I'm talking  software vulnerability exploitations, bot farms, DoS attacks, redirecting history to /dev/null, db injections...

J-pop star Ayumi Hamasakis' unfortunate start for year 2009.

Ayumi Hamasaki is the 4th top selling pop star in Japans' history. Her albums and singles have sold over 50 million copies and she has a major influence on high school girls in Japan, it is said that when she became the face of cosmetics company, Kose Visee, the company sold more than half a million lipsticks in a mere two days.
Ayumi Hamasaki fell down the week before new year, and injured her hand, badly enough to need surgery. She wrote on her website that the accident was due to anemia caused by overworking.

Ayumi has been suffering from tinnitus since 2001 which has gradually gone worse and last Friday she wrote on her website that she'll continue to sing although she has completely lost hearing from her left ear and that nothing can be done to cure it. Sad, but perhaps there is good karma waiting for her later during the year.

Here's a link to her official website http://www.avexnet.or.jp/ayu/