Lee Hyo Lee (이효리) Highest Paid Female SInger in Korea

Any idea who the highest paid female singer in Korea is? The answer is: Lee Hyo-ri, or Lee Hyo Lee (이효리). After leaving her agency DSPent after eight years, Lee ended speculation where she is headed when she concluded a verbal agreement with CJ affiliate M-Net Media to be represented exclusively by the company for three years for a rumored W1.5 billion (US$1=W935). The contract has already been drawn up and all that remains is for both sides to stamp their official seals.Chosun Ilbo also reports that aside from the price, M-Net is said to have offered Lee a variety of perks. The plan of action and strategy for moving forward for the star prepared by M-Net's Kim Kwang-soo reportedly played a large role in her decision. Kim is the moving force behind the success of Cho Seong-mo, SG Wannabe and See Ya.

Moving from pixie to sex icon in the years since she stepped into the spotlight in 1998, Lee's stock has now risen to an all-time high. There is nothing stopping her now as she follows her top earnings as an MC, actress and commercial model in the singing field.

Lee is best known and most popular as a pop singer, but last year she made her acting debut in the TV drama and is being courted to appear in dramas and movies almost every day. On top of that, she signed to continue appearing in Samsung Anycall commercials that will net her some W800 million this year and continues to be very active in commercials. She is also winning the hearts of viewers as a presenter on the show "Happy Together Friends" and is beating all expectations as a multi-faceted entertainer.

Meanwhile, the entertainer Ok Joo-Hyeon has also decided to make her nest at M-Net Entertainment. Following the moves to SidusHQ by Seong Yoo-ri and Star-J Entertainment's Lee Jin-ee, all the members of the girl group F.I.N.K.L. are starting anew.

Source: chosun.com

Jarah Mariano: He pua nani o Hawai`i `o ia!

At Kineda.com I just read that Jarah Mariano is the first Asian American model to grace the pages of Victoria’s Secret. A mix of Hawaiian, Korean and Chinese descent, she also campaigns for MAC, Armani Exchange, and Sephora. Bruce Weber immortalized her in L’Uomo Vogue alongside her father; she was also the subject of Weber’s lens for Abercrombie & Fitch. Jarah is a Pace University graduate and currently resides in New York City.

Some facts
Ethnicity: Hawaiian/Korean/Chinese
Height: 171cm/5'7.5"
Bust: 86cm/34"
Hips: 85cm/33.5"
Waist: 61cm/24"
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Brown
Jarah Mariano on the web
Jarah Mariano @ imgmodels.com
Jarah Mariano @ wikipedia.org
Jarah Mariano @ outie.net

Newly crowned Miss Japan Hisako Shirata rocks Beauty Pageant Scene With Sex Movie Past

Japan's Mainichi newspaper reports that the Japanese world of beauty pageants has been thrown into chaos after news surfaced last week that the recent winner of the Miss Japan International Contest, Hisako Shirata, starred in a R-rated sex and bondage movie 3 years ago.

"Three years ago, Shirata appeared in an R-rated movie called 'Kanzen Naru Kaiiku Himitsu no Chikashitsu (The Perfect Pet: Secret Basement).' As the title perhaps suggests, she played the role of a high school girl abducted and kept prisoner by a man played by Taro Yamamoto. It was her first movie and was pretty steamy, getting her nude and performing sex and bondage scenes," a reporter on the entertainment beat tells Shukan Shincho.

Miss International's entrants are only required to be under a certain age limit and be unmarried. None of the questions are otherwise probed about their pasts. A beauty contest industry insider shakes their head when it comes to the decision to make Shirata Miss International Japan.

"There are always performers who apply to take part in these contests. Normally, the judges are pretty strict on actresses and they often find it hard to win," the industry insider tells Shukan Shincho. "An example of this is the way contestants approach the cameras. Judges are always going to take a harder line when it comes to comparing a woman whose profession is to appear before the camera and another woman who has to muster up the courage to show herself off before a lens for the first time in her life."

Performing nude and doing sex scenes had also been widely regarded as surefire pathways to failure.

"Beauty contests are all about the contestants being 'clean' and 'pure.' There's not much you can do about contest winners who go on to do nude work, but giving them the prize after they've already acted nude is a bit rich," the insider says. "Some people are suggesting that Shirata's win is a sign that the contest's judges weren't doing their job properly."
Indignant judges scoff at the suggestion.

"Shirata was in an R-rated movie? It's the first I've heard," one of the judges tells the weekly. "I never heard the topic raised during judges' discussion about the contest. I guess she wouldn't have won if we'd known about it."

Source: Mainichi Newspaper

Jun Jihyun for Samsung

Hyolee Samsung Anycall

Kim Yun jin of Lost - Listen To Your Heart

T_T

We Are the Lucky Ones

Kim Yunjin of "LOST"-We are the Lucky Ones MV

K Stars increase security

Recently there have been a string of reports of obsessive so called
'anti-fans' trying to intimidate, assault or even sexually harrass celebrities
across Asia. Some prime examples are the guy who decided to kiss Jacky
Chan, some weirdo who grabbed Karen Mok's butt and the clown who decided to
forcefully kiss Ella Chen from the Taiwanese girl band S.H.E.

An interesting article was published the other day in the Korean Joong An newspaper talking about how these anti-fans have been affecting Korean stars. Here's what they had to say:

Overzealous attention from obsessive fans is something that celebrities
have to endure. But the recent attack on popular Korean boy band member U-know
with a glue-laden drink has startled Korea's entertainment world. What alarms
entertainers and their managers is that incidents aimed at actors have become
more common and life-threatening.

What was once written off as a simple prank from young "anti-fans" has
become a threat to the health and lives of performers. Most celebrity agencies
now view the situation as so alarming that they have reportedly told their stars
"not to eat or drink anything other than what their agents provide them."

A staffer from an entertainment agency, who talked on the condition he not
be identified, said he never delivered gifts of food or drink sent by fans
because he was afraid some of them could be poisoned. It has taken time for the
entertainment industry to move up to such draconian measures.

In 2000, the actress Yoon Eun-hye was attacked by a male anti-fan who shot
her in the eyes with a water gun filled with a mixture of soy sauce and vinegar.
Her agency claimed that the suspect must have wanted to blind her, but she
refused to report him to the police after she discovered her injuries were
minor. In the same year, another anti-fan sent a detergent-laden drink to the
home of one the boy-band stars. It was disguised as a gift. The singer did not
drink it, but one of his family member did, and was hospitalized after complaining of severe stomach pains.

Gan Mi-yeon, a member of the all-girl pop band Baby VOX, went to the police
for help in 1999 after she received an envelope full of razor blades. A rumor
had spread that she was dating Moon Hui-jun, a singer from the male dance group
H.O.T. Apparently, one of his younger fans sent her the envelope out of
jealousy. The singer Lee Jeong-hyeon received text messages threatening that she
would be "killed if you meet him." "He" was the singer Jo Sung-mo, who starred
with her in a television commercial as a dating couple. The case of a veteran
singer, Na Hun-a, was even more serious. He was slashed with a knife on his
cheek while he was singing on stage. He still has a scar left on his left cheek.

The actress Do Ji-won was kidnapped by a fanatic fan and confined
inside a car trunk for five hours. For some time now, the agencies say, the only
safe way to prevent such attacks is to keep their stars far out of reach of
their fans.

by Lee Min-a from Joong Ang Ilbo (http://joongangdaily.joins.com)

Lee Hyori graces cover of Men's Health Magazine

The Korean Chosun Ilbo reports:

"The Korean edition of the fitness magazine Men's Health magazine has
departed from the interchangeable male torsos that usually grace its cover to
feature the K-Pop singer Lee Hyo-lee, a woman. The August edition shows Lee
getting a hug from acting newcomer Lee Jai-yoon. She becomes the first woman on
the cover of the magazine that more typically features the likes of Cho Han-sun
and Lee Seo-jin. She will likely be the last for a long time, as will an
eight-page special spread of the starlet shot in Maldives.

The concept for the shot was to show the “everyday” Lee Hyo-lee, so the
singer is seen vacationing in a bikini and demure as a maiden. Her partner in
the shoot, Korean Canadian Lee Jai-yoon, has appeared in the sitcom "Non-stop"
and the DMB soap opera "Yap.” The magazine says the “innocent charm and
youthfulness” of the two, plus “the way they diligently groom themselves”
persuaded it to feature the two as representatives of the beauty of the
times."

Lee Hyo-ri (이효리) - Does Good Samaritan Deed!

IMAGINE lying drunk and unconscious in the street. A woman comes along and tries to wake you, but you don't respond. So, she finds your phone and calls your brother to pick you up. The next day, you learn that K-pop singer Lee Hyo Lee, 27, was your rescuer. What do you do?
What an architect did was to write to The Chosun Ilbo last week and thank the singer for helping him. He marvelled at her courage in taking a risk to help a stranger. 'I'd like to express my deepest gratitude to her. I hope she'll always be kind and that she becomes the greatest star in showbiz,' he wrote. Apparently, Hyo Lee often performs kind acts but asks her pals to keep it out of the media as she doesn't want to be accused of pulling a publicity stunt.

Source: Electric Newspaper & Chosun Ilbo

Video of Kim Yunjin for "Stuff" Magazine

Video of Kim Yunjin for "Stuff" magazine

Kim yunjin's photo shoot for cover of

I just found this video of Kim yunjin's phot shoot for Stuff!