Hongkong actor Dicky Cheung has always been close to his mother. The 55-year-old is known to be a filial son and has been cutting back on work to look after his 81-year-old mum whose health has been on the decline.

When the pandemic broke out, Dicky, who is based in Beijing with his wife, Chinese actress Jess Zhang, decided to stop all work and stay in Hongkong with his mum.

Dicky, whose last drama was 2018’s The Learning Curve of a Warlord, occasionally takes to social media to share snippets of his daily life with his mum a regular guest on his Weibo feed.

Recently, Dicky shared a video of himself enjoying his tau huey dessert and playing card game dou di zhu, or 'Fight the Landlord', with his mum on Douyin. In the clip, he teased his mum for not being able to get the rules of the game right as he waited patiently for her to make her move.

According to Dicky, his mum's health deteriorated after she nearly drowned in a hotel pool in 2013. 

Apart from playing games to stimulate her mind, he also accompanies her on walks and simple activities like flower arrangement.

​But what got netizens talking was how “thin” and “haggard” he looked. 

Some pointed out that his cheeks were gaunt, “as though he had undergone bone shaving”, and that the wrinkles on his forehead were more obvious (well, he is 55). There were others who were concerned for his well-being and urged him to take care of his health.

While we're loving how cool the weather here has been lately, we're also glad that the temperature in Singapore will never dip to a point where it gets unbearable. 

Take for example Shanghai, where on January 7, the mercury dipped to -7 degrees Celcius. And that didn't bode well for Laurinda Ho, socialite and daughter of late casino king Stanley Ho, when she got home close to midnight that day. 

Laurinda, who is based in the Chinese city, was about to take a warm shower when she realised that her water pipes were frozen.

For some reason, her first reaction was to go on Weibo to ask netizens for help. She wrote: “There’s no water supply [because] the pipes are all frozen (…) What should I do? I’ll stay online [waiting for your replies]. I’m pretty desperate.”

Netizens quickly replied with ideas, suggesting that she wrap the frozen pipes with a warm towel or pour warm water over the pipes, or stick a heat pack onto the pipes.

One netizen even asked her to go over to her buddy G.E.M’s house for a shower instead, although Laurinda quickly shot this suggestion down with “[G.E.M's] not in Shanghai at the moment”. Oops.

​Laurinda tried out several of the suggestions, only to upload a picture of a broken lever from her pipe and a frozen towel. By 1.30am, netizens, who were still awake, were urging her to stay at a hotel for the night.

At 2pm on January 8, Laurinda updated her Weibo again, this time revealing that she had a plumber over. “We’re working on unfreezing the pipes now. As for how I showered last night, I bought bottled water to pour on myself and remove my make-up. I didn’t wash my hair, but the water was really cold (…) [If this continues] I’ll stay at a hotel today. Why didn’t I think of this last night?

Happy anniversary to the adorable lovebirds! Pink and Carey Hart are celebrating 15 years of marriage, and the songstress commemorated the milestone with some snapshots and a sweet tribute.

Pink took to Instagram on Thursday, and shared her love for Hart -- with whom she tied the knot in 2006, and has since welcomed two children, 9-year-old daughter Willow and 4-year-old son Jameson.

"15 years. Proud of us babe," she wrote. "See, sometimes being stubborn pays off."

The 41-year-old singer also poked fun at the couple's famously volatile and occasionally tumultuous romance, which they've managed to weather with grace and maturity.

"What a wild ride it’s been, once we learned how to stay in our race line," she wrote. "Here’s to at least the next 15 months hahahah. I love you and I love our family. "

Hart, meanwhile, shared a tribute of his own. The 45-year-old off-road truck racer and former motocross star posted a beaming home video of Pink, hanging out on the deck of a boat while dancing and drinking from a red plastic cup.

"15 years w/ this amazing woman! Damn, baby!!!!!" Hart wrote. "There is no other woman that I would want to go through this crazy world with than you."

"Thanks for being a great friend, wife, mother, and person," he added. "Throw your 🖕🏻 in the air."

The joyful posts come after a challenging year for the couple's family. Amid the coronavirus pandemic, Pink and their son Jameson contracted COVID-19, which proved to be a truly harrowing battle that they eventually managed to overcome.

Beyoncé and NAACP's housing relief initiative has officially launched. Last month, the singer, with her BeyGOOD Foundation, once again partnered up with the organization to help people who need housing assistance amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

"Housing assistance is here. Online applications start today for those impacted by the housing crisis caused by the pandemic. Go to @naacp.org for more info and to apply for the $5K grants," the BeyGOOD Foundation announced on Thursday on Instagram.

A statement on the NAACP website, where the application is currently live, reads: "The NAACP is committed to helping ensure African Americans maintain their wealth and financial security during this unprecedented time of COVID-19. We are partnering with BeyGOOD to provide one hundred grants up to $5,000 each to families who are delinquent in their home mortgage or rental payments.”

​The initiative was first announced last month, as people were heading into the holiday season. Amid the pandemic, Beyoncé launched the BeyGOOD Small Business Impact Fund over the summer, which has since helped over 250 small Black-owned businesses.

"Beyoncé is continuing her heart of support and helping where needed most. Phase Two of the BeyGOOD Impact Fund will now help those impacted by the housing crisis," read a statement on her website on Dec. 22. "The housing moratorium is set to end on December 26th, resulting in mortgage foreclosures and rental evictions. Many families are impacted, due to the pandemic that resulted in job loss, sickness and overall economy downturn."

Always giving back to her community, last year to celebrate Juneteenth, she dropped the empowering track "Black Parade," which also supported Black-owned small businesses in need. On the "Love on Top" singer's website, fans were also redirected to a page with a directory of Black-owned businesses to learn more about.

During the 2020 BET Awards, the entertainer was presented the artist with its Humanitarian Award. The mother-of-three dedicated her award to "all of my brothers out there, all of my sisters out there inspiring me, marching and fighting for change."

"Your voices are being heard, and you are proving to our ancestors that their struggles were not in vain. Now, we have one more thing we need to do to walk in our true power and that is to vote. I'm encouraging you to continue to take action, continue to change and dismantle a racist and unequal system. We have to continue to do this together, continue to fight for each other and lift each other up, because there are people banking on us staying at home during local elections in primaries happening in states across the country," she said. "We have to vote like our life depends on it."

When Faye Wong and Li Yapeng tied the knot in July 2005, the couple chose to keep their nuptials low-key. It was Faye’s second marriage, and the couple only dated for about a year before walking down the aisle together. 

15 years after their wedding (and seven years after their divorce), what’s supposedly their wedding photos have been revealed to the public for the first time.

However, the pics have been deemed “tacky” and “unsophisticated" by many netizens.

Everything from the outfits to the make-up and to the way the photos were edited were deemed by netizens to be “unfitting for Faye and Yapeng's status at the time”.

“These photos look like they’re from 50 years ago, not 15,” criticised one netizen. “I just looked at my own wedding photos and I’m confident that mine look better than Faye Wong’s.”

Another shared, “It’s so tacky that it looks fake. I’m just waiting for [Faye or Yapeng] to say that these are edited photos. I can’t believe anyone, much less stars, would take such wedding photos.”

The former couple, whose daughter Li Yan is now 14, is believed to be on good terms after their divorce . After their split, Faye reconciled with her old flame Nicholas Tse, while Yapeng is now dating a beauty queen 19 years younger than him.

Despite being at the centre of unsavoury gossip — mostly about their suspected divorce — again and again, Huang Xiaoming and Angelababy usually opt to stay mum about the chatter, although netizens sometimes interpret small details as their way of hinting that they’re still together.

However, one rumour has gotten so out of hand that both Xiaoming and Angelababy have stepped up to share statements on their respective socials, which is quite uncharacteristic of the famously private couple, at least when it comes to talk about their marriage.

It all began when filming recently commenced for the second season of reality talent competition Sisters Who Make Waves, which Xiaoming hosts. Interestingly, the new batch of contestants includes Xiaoming’s ex-girlfriend, Chinese actress Li Fei’er, whom he dated from 2007 to 2010.

Their ‘reunion’ reignited decade-old speculations that Angelababy had deliberately come between Xiaoming and Fei’er, leading to their split.

In 2011, Fei’er told a Hongkong tabloid that she left Xiaoming after seeing a text message from Angelababy on his phone, which read: “When are you going to give me an answer? I want a boyfriend, not a sex partner!”

Needless to say, Angelababy was far from pleased with her reputation being dragged through the mud like that. She claimed that the news was fabricated and threatened to take legal action, but little did she know that she would find history repeating itself 10 years later with the resurrection of the rumour.

In her statement on Weibo published on Wednesday (Jan 6), the 31-year-old clarified that when she first met Xiaoming, he told her that he was single. After Fei’er’s damning interview was published, Angelababy confronted him about it, and he reassured her that they had already broken up.

“It’s all that simple. For many years, I didn’t want to give an explanation ‘cos I didn’t think it was necessary. This life is mine to live,” she continued. “Secondly, I believe this is a matter between Mr. Huang and Li Fei’er. Mr. Huang should be the one to clarify this.”

“10 years have passed, and today, I choose to stand up for myself and explain everything clearly. It’s not ‘cos of any reason other than the burden on my shoulders is too great and I no longer want to take the blame for anyone else.”

About 15 minutes after Angelababy’s post went up, Xiaoming shared his own response. The 43-year-old started off by saying that if everyone only chooses to focus on those dramatic rumours, it will hurt not only his family, but the women involved in Sisters Who Make Waves, especially Fei’er, whom he simply referred to as “the person involved”.

He also cleared the air once and for all regarding the speculations surrounding his wife, emphasising that she was never the third party in any of his relationships. “The rumours have been pure fiction all along. Don’t be fooled by netizens with [malicious] intentions and end up hurting my family.”

Like Angelababy, Xiaoming said he felt that there was no need to address the matter for so long ‘cos he didn’t want people — most likely the press — to take advantage of his situation to gain more eyeballs. “But I can’t stay silent today ‘cos we have really had enough. My family will always be my limit! From this moment on, I hope everyone will stop hurting my family!!!”

​Even after going through all that trouble to step out of their comfort zone and defend themselves, some netizens still managed to find ways to be convinced that they are no longer together.

Firstly, there’s the rather strange fact that Angelababy kept referring to Xiaoming as “Mr. Huang” in her post, which sounds way too formal and distant for someone she’s married to (and has a kid with). It’s also been pointed out that Xiaoming only mentioned his “family” instead of his “wife” in his statement. Um, okay.

In any case, if they keep up their current pattern of staying quiet until they absolutely cannot take it anymore, we might probably only hear from Xiaoming and Angelababy about their incessant divorce rumours in 10 years.

It’s a well-known fact that Taiwanese superstar Jay Chou is loaded… which shouldn’t really come as a surprise given he’s one of the reigning kings — if not the reigning king — of Mandopop. We also know how the rich get richer: through (successful) investments.

Recently, an interesting report about the 41-year-old, who has a net worth of NT$6bil (S$283mil). It claims that Jay secretly met with billionaire tycoon Lin Ming-hsiung to discuss a big business proposal (and no, it has nothing to do with music).

Ming-hsiung is a pretty influential figure, to say the least. He is the chairman of real estate development company Yuanlih Group, supermarket chain Pxmart, as well as Hwatai Bank, and is worth an estimated NT$66.4bil (S$3.1bil).

According to the report, two of Jay’s homes, including the NT$660mil (S$31mil) luxury penthouse he shares with his family, were built by Yuanlih Group, a sign that he's happy with their work.

He and his wife, Hannah Quinlivan, were said to have visited Yuanlih Group HQ together and even took a private elevator to a mysterious closed-door meeting with Ming-hsiung. While it’s not known exactly what they talked about, it is rumoured that Jay intends to invest in the company, so he met with Ming-hsiung in hopes that they can collaborate on future building projects.

If Jay wants to become a company shareholder, he might need to sink in at least NT$100mil (S$4.7mil). This is why he may also sign up as the company’s spokesperson. In the past, when Jay was the celeb ambassador for a headphone brand, he converted part of his endorsement fee into shares and became a shareholder.

However, this very detailed piece of gossip may have been fabricated.

Jay issued a response through his record label JVR Music, saying: “I don’t know how this rumour came about. Director Lin is a very good big brother and Yuanlih Group is an amazing construction company that builds houses of high quality. Everyone praises them.”

A rep from Yuanlih Group also spoke up regarding the news, explaining that since Jay is one of their clients, it’s not unusual for him to drop by their office. She added that while she has not heard about any collaborations with Jay, the company maintains “an open attitude” towards this possibility.

It is believed that Jay and Ming-hsiung got to know each other through retired Taiwanese diva Jody Chiang, who is close friends with the both of them.

Those who follow Jay on his socials would be familiar with Jay’s, um, not-so-humble abode, which he reportedly spent nearly two years and over NT$10mil (S$471,000) to renovate. He sometimes posts pictures of himself chilling with his famous friends in front of a spectacular 360-degree view of the city.

There’s no end to the rumours of Cecilia Cheung being pregnant with her fourth child. And that's after the star's repeated proclamations that she's not having another kid.

Netizens have dug out screenshots of her with a “baby bump” on more than one occasion, and have somehow decided that they have found enough evidence to believe that the 40-year-old is expecting again.

Her recent lacklustre performance at a Guangzhou event, where she went off-key and appeared to be out of breath, was blamed by some netizens as a result of her being pregnant. That, along with interviews that she’s done years ago where she talked about “wanting to have as many kids as possible” got the rumour mill churning again.

At a January 4 event, Cecilia was asked again about having a "baby bump", to which she said: “I’ve given birth three times and am getting older, so my body has started going out of shape. I can no longer recover as quickly as I could when I was younger." 

When pressed by reporters again, the actress added: “I’m just Cecilia Cheung. I’m no longer young and I’m no longer in tip-top condition. Rather to maintain myself to look my best on camera, I’m more interested in being happy and doing what I want.”

Cecilia has three sons — Lucas, 13 and Quintus, 10, who are her sons with ex-husband Nicholas Tse, and one-year-old with Marcus, whose father remains a mystery. 

Context matters, and it is so easy to edit video clips in a way that sends across an entirely different message from what was originally conveyed. Just look at what happened to poor Jam Hsiao.

Taiwanese host Kevin Tsai certainly learned that the hard way recently too. The 58-year-old had told a story on an iXigua programme that was recorded last month, and for some reason, someone in the cutting room decided to splice the footage together to make it sound like Kevin was criticising Taiwanese host Barbie Hsu for basically being a spoiled diva.

On the show, Kevin described how Barbie can easily order her assistant around without even muttering a single word. With the mere point of a finger, her assistant would immediately know to bring Barbie some water, touch up her make-up, or put a coat on her.

“Isn’t that like training a dog? That isn’t how you should be treating people,” Kevin scoffed. “If you train a person to become like that, you’re not asking them to understand you. You’ve only trained them to become that way.”

His story sparked massive backlash against Barbie, with many netizens slamming the 44-year-old star for being arrogant and for having the “princess disease”. On the other hand, there were those who came to her defense, saying that that’s the nature of an assistant’s job and that Barbie could just be trying to be more efficient.

As it turns out, Kevin was simply the victim of rather malicious video editing.

On Sunday (Jan 3), he took to his socials to clear the air, explaining that his rant about “training a dog” had actually come after talking about how some women treat their partners.

“I said: some girls expect their boyfriends to know everything in seconds, like how a baseball catcher immediately understands the pitcher’s signals, or how an assistant immediately understands the actor’s signals,” he wrote. “When I mentioned this, I brought up the time Barbie made an appearance on Here Comes Kang Xi and had no way of speaking to her assistant during filming, so she had to use gestures to communicate with them.”

“I then said that girls shouldn’t have such expectations of their boyfriends. They shouldn’t train their boyfriends like they would train a dog.”

As it turns out, Kevin was simply the victim of rather malicious video editing.

On Sunday (Jan 3), he took to his socials to clear the air, explaining that his rant about “training a dog” had actually come after talking about how some women treat their partners.

“I said: some girls expect their boyfriends to know everything in seconds, like how a baseball catcher immediately understands the pitcher’s signals, or how an assistant immediately understands the actor’s signals,” he wrote. “When I mentioned this, I brought up the time Barbie made an appearance on Here Comes Kang Xi and had no way of speaking to her assistant during filming, so she had to use gestures to communicate with them.”

“I then said that girls shouldn’t have such expectations of their boyfriends. They shouldn’t train their boyfriends like they would train a dog.”

Kevin went on to say that he isn’t sure how his words were edited, but they have obviously been taken out of context to create a very misleading narrative that caused Barbie great distress. “I offer a solemn and heartbroken apology to Barbie. I should have taken precautions against my words being distorted or misunderstood. This is completely my fault. I’m very sorry towards Barbie.”

He added that from now on, he will be more cautious with what he says and be careful not to hurt anybody. “Those words were mine. Even if they were distorted or misunderstood, I should take responsibility for the damage they caused.”

Before long, Kevin’s post went viral on Weibo, and netizens expressed their concern that this incident would create a rift between him and Barbie.

Fortunately, they have nothing to worry about. Speaking via her manager, Barbie responded: “It’s okay! I’ve always been a target [for haters]. I don’t blame Kevin! I still love him very much!”

She also told her side of the story about that day on set that Kevin talked about. “When I was working, I could only communicate with my assistant using my eyes or hand gestures. That was the most effective way of doing so without delaying the shoot and to ensure that the staff would be able to go home and rest as soon as possible.”

Veteran Hongkong actress Lee Heung Kam, who was said to have suffered from chronic disease, passed away. She was 88. 

Heung Kam’s daughter Siu Ji Wan told TVB that her mother had appeared fine in the morning, however, she suddenly lost consciousness when her nurse was feeding her at home. 

When Ji Wan heard the news, she called two private hospitals for help but was turned away as they were not accepting patients for the time being, said media reports.

Heung Kam was later rushed to Queen Elizabeth Hospital but she reportedly passed away before she got there.

According to Ji Wan, her mum looked “at ease” in her final moments and that it was a blessing for her to leave safely.

"Seeing her peaceful look, sleeping like a baby without any pain is my greatest comfort," she said.

Though she was “like a child in the last stage of her life”, Ji Wan said they did not treat her like a patient, but as an elder.

​According to retired Singapore photographer Liang Fuyong, who had worked with Heung Kam many times in the '70s and '80s, news of her passing did not come as a surprise.

He told reporters that he had learned of her poor health for a long time and that she had a stroke and dementia in the later stage of her life. She also had mobility issues and had to rely on a wheelchair to move around for many years. 

In 2010, she was rumoured to be suffering from Parkinson’s disease, but she denied it.

Heung Kam, who is remembered for her roles in TVB dramas such as 1986’s New Heavenly Sword And Dragon Sabre and 2008’s Moonlight Resonance, joined the opera troupe at 16, and made her big screen debut four years later with How Wong Fei-Hung Thrice Tricked the Lady Security Escort.  She later joined TVB in 1972 where she appeared in close to 50 dramas.