Leeteuk and Super Junior members with choreographer Tony Testa (Photo: Tony Testa’s Twitter account)
Preparations for K-pop boy band Super Junior’s new album and world tour are in full swing following the discharge of leader Leeteuk from the Korean army.
Leeteuk was discharged last July 29 with no fanfare. He did not meet the media and fans waiting outside his army unit in Inje, Gangwon Province in South Korea. He immediately boarded a van and sped off.
SM Entertainment previously said Leeteuk requested that no special event be held upon his release from the army.
Upon his release, Leeteuk immediately went to the SM Entertainment building and joined the Super Junior rehearsal. Leeteuk also held a private fan meeting in Seoul on that day.
Choreographer Tony Testa, who is working on Super Junior’s comeback, posted a photo on Twitter of the boy band’s rehearsal.
The photo, with the caption “Great work gentlemen,” showed Testa with Super Junior members Leeteuk, Siwon, Donghae, Eunhyuk, Sungmin, Ryeowook, Kyuhyun and Kangin.
Testa has previously worked with SM Entertainment artists EXO, SHINee and TVXQ.
In the US, he worked as choreographer for Nikki Minaj, Demi Lovato, Janet Jackson and Britney Spears.
Two days before Leeteuk was to be discharged from the army, Eunhyuk posted a photo of Leeteuk and Super Junior members at a rehearsal.
“Siwon Sungmin Kangin Ryeowook Kyuhyun Eunhyuk Leeteuk Heechul Donghae Shindong SJ is back soon,” according to the caption of the photo uploaded on Instagram on July 27.
Super Junior’s “Super Show 6″ world tour will start in Seoul on September 20 and 21. The boy band will then tour Japan, China, Thailand and other countries.
Before this, the new album is expected to be released.
Actor Arjo Atayde, one of the stars of the series "Pure Love," is happy over the show's high ratings.
Look at her now.
The chubby and feisty Dumaguete teen who won 4th place on “Pinoy Big Brother Teen Edition Plus” in 2008 has just landed the cover of the August 2014 issue of FHM Philippines as a svelte 22-year-old.
The cover stint comes on the heels of her jaw-dropping turn at the FHM 100 Sexiest Women victory party at the World Trade Center on July 9.
Combination photo shows a screenshot of Beauty Gonzalez in 2008 (left) and a screenshot of her winning form at the FHM 100 Sexiest Women victory party on July 9.
“I want people to see something in me. Usually when people see me, they remember me as Beauty, yung matabang Bisaya,” she told FHM.com.ph. “Sana ‘pag nakita nila ito, they can see that I have renewed beauty and talent to offer. I’m really thankful for this. I’m going to claim this. Something good will come out of this.”
Beauty, who turned a lot of heads with her scene-stealing performance in the romantic drama “Starting Over Again” in February, made her debut on the annual list this year at No. 93.
Todo-deny pa rin si Mommy Dionisia Pacquiao na may boyfriend na siya, kahit pa mismong si Pacman na ang nagbuking nito.
Jose Antonio Vargas. (Reuters)
In 1993 at the age of 12, Jose Antonio Vargas said goodbye to his mother and boarded a plane in the Philippines to join his grandparents in California. It would be four more years before he would learn that he was in the United States illegally.
“Documented,” the debut film of the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who is still without the necessary papers, will open the 10th edition of the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival in Manila on Friday. It tells his story growing up and working as a newspaper reporter without legal status and without a path to reverse it.
The documentary, which Vargas produced, wrote and directed, aims to put a human face on the 11 million undocumented people in America. He said it is not “an immigration film,” but a “love story between a mother and a son.”
Vargas, 33, spoke with Reuters last month about the emotional stress of feeling “illegal,” why language matters in the U.S. immigration debate and how talk show host Charlie Rose helped him act “legal.”
You “came out” as an undocumented person in a 2011 magazine feature. What compelled you to share your story?
It actually started when I was assigned to cover the presidential campaign in 2007. I spent two years and two months on that campaign trail following Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and John Edwards and Sarah Palin. I didn’t have the right papers and I’m on a campaign plane in Ohio.
I think that’s when my madness started … It was either someone was going to find out or I just out myself. And really for me the hardest decision to make was deciding whether I was willing to be my own story.
Why make a film and not write your story?
The only reason I became a writer was so I could exist on a piece of paper. That was really my own reason. To this day writing is the most painful thing to do … Film, as any immigrant will tell you, television and movies is the way we make sense of this country when we first got here. Before I knew what a Republican or a Democrat was, I think I’ve seen every Mike Nichols film (“The Graduate,” “Working Girl”) you could see at the library.
Jose Antonio Vargas campaigns for immigration during a rally for the Mitt Romney campaign in 2001. (Image courtesy of Define American)
What sort of psychological pressure did you feel knowing that you could be deported?
I think I’ve always been paranoid. I always felt like I had the word “illegal” tattooed on my forehead. All of that is internal and the guilt of knowing that I am, and people not thinking that I am (illegal) because I look like this. People think this is a brown, Latino issue.
I remember the first thing I did when I found out I was illegal was to get rid of my thick Filipino accent. I figured that I had to talk white and talk black at the same time, like Charlie Rose and Dr. Dre. If I can talk white and black then no one is ever going to think that I’m “illegal.”
Through your group Define American you have campaigned for the media to change the terms in which it talks about undocumented immigrants. Why does language matter?
A lot of the reason I outed myself was to politely and aggressively ask my fellow journalists to think about language and the consequences of language … To be here illegally is actually a civil offense and not a criminal one.
Did you find any catharsis making this film and reviving contact with your mother after several years of silence?
Let’s put it this way: I got a therapist after we edited the film … It became very apparent that my story doesn’t make sense without her. She’s the one who put me on the plane. She’s the one who made the sacrifice. My story is her story. That’s when it became intensely personal. And then to face myself, I had to face her.
Do you daydream about what you would do with a passport?
The daydream would be to be free, to go wherever I want to go. I’ve done everything I’ve done in this country with the limitations I have.
(“Documentented” will be screened at 7PM on Friday at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Main Theater, after the opening ceremonies at 6PM.)
Chris Pratt in a scene from 'Guardians of the Galaxy'.
BURBANK, California | Chris Pratt could have just stuck with his humorous sidekick roles and indulged in the eating and drinking that accompanies marital bliss with wife and fellow actor Anna Faris.
But then a door unexpectedly opened to a lead role as Peter Quill in Marvel Studios’ new movie franchise “Guardians of the Galaxy,” a big-budget, humor-filled outer-space adventure opening in U.S. theaters Friday.
With a more buff physique than his doughy character Andy Dwyer on TV’s “Parks and Recreation,” Pratt combines cocky and dorky into an unlikely leader of a band of outcasts bent on saving the galaxy.
The 35-year-old Pratt talked to Reuters about trusting his fanboy director, the humiliation of auditioning for action roles and the ability to provide for wife and kid now that he’s a leading man.
How did you deal with the big responsibility of establishing a franchise for Marvel?
Most of the responsibility falls on James Gunn as our director and trusty leader. James was the perfect guy to do it because he is a huge fanboy himself. He was able to guide us in terms of justifying certain things. He will say ‘You can’t do that, that wouldn’t make sense.’ And I say ‘There’s a talking raccoon standing next to me. Why does that make sense?’ And he’s like ‘Trust me!’ And so I did.
Did you have any doubts about taking on this role?
Yes I did. The casting director contacted my manager a couple of times before I was willing to go in and read for it. At the time, it was a little cloudy in terms of defining myself as an actor. I didn’t know who I was and what I was capable of doing. I had done a lot of sidekick characters, I had put on a lot of weight over the eight years I had been with my wife. We’d been in love and eating fabulous foods and drinking wine and I was getting more work than before by playing the schlubby sidekick characters.
I had been embarrassed doing auditions where I was 35 or 30 pounds overweight and I wasn’t mentally or physically sharp. Like ‘GI Joe,’ I could see their eyes glaze over halfway through the audition and that hurts your feelings (laughs).
Chris Pratt (rightmost) with Paton Oswalt, Aziz Ansari in a scene from 'Parks and Recreation'.
You were born in 1979, so what do you think about the film’s 70s soundtrack?
This movie has a great soundtrack. It definitely sets a tone and creates a sentimental feeling. Even though I wasn’t around for the 70s, I feel like I know what the 70s felt like because it really was defined by its music. Back then it was really one kind of awesome progressive music. I think it was a brilliant choice to thread this movie with that great music.
What does this role mean for your career now?
It’s definitely opened the door for me to play a more leading man character. I got the role in “Jurassic World” because of the buzz about this character before anything was released about this movie. People were willing to take my phone calls or my agent’s phone calls just because I was in this.
It is stability. I have a family, a wife and a child, and I think there is a likelihood that I’ll be working for this company for maybe a decade. That is nice because in this business you don’t always know what your next job is going to be.
I think it really works and it is a new kind of tone that I think a lot of people are going to attempt. So maybe that means that if this tone is something people were hungry for, I’ll be able to do more movies that are similar to it. But then again, it probably means nothing (laughs).
