Who's been sleeping in your bed?
Pakorn ‘Boy’ Chatborirak and Tadsika ‘Kratai’ Yutimit, inset.
Actor Pakorn "Boy" Chatborirak's love life is getting him into trouble, after he appeared in a leaked picture taken by his supposed sleeping partner in a shabby bedroom in Korea.
The image shows Boy with his back to the camera, apparently doing up his trousers. The picture is taken from the vantage point of an unmade bed in what appears to be a hotel room.
Only the hands and feet, protruding from the bedsheets, of the person who took it are visible.
The picture set off a rash of speculation in the gossip press about the likely owner of the painted nails visible in the picture.
On Monday, Boy went before the media with his mother to say sorry after the picture emerged.
"I'm not in contact with the girl [in the picture], and I wouldn't want to give away too much detail, as she's a third party to all this and could get hurt. Suffice to say I know her, and the incident occurred in Korea last month," he said.
"I'm worried about what my family think, and admit I'm not feeling too good about myself," he said in tears.
On Friday, Boy was forced to clear his name for a second time in a week after stills of a young man and woman making love were also linked to him.
The young man in these images cannot be identified clearly, but netizens were quick to assume it was Boy after his apology days before for his Korean exploits.
Boy insisted he knows nothing about the latest stills.
"I'm talking to Channel 3 about taking legal action against anyone who spreads the images and attempts to link them to me," he said.
Boy visited the Land of Kimchi with a group of Thai entertainers, among them sexy model Tadsika "Kratai" Yutimit.
Speculation about the identity of Boy's supposed sleeping partner quickly centred on Kratai, with some television hosts all but giving away her name on air.
Boy's fans abused Kratai on social media for allegedly leaking the picture and damaging his reputation. Kratai has chosen not to comment, but one gossip rag quoted her elder sister as saying she would take legal action in response to the rumours.
Undeterred, gossip outlets offered one celebrity's name after another to answer the riddle of who owns the painted nails. Among them were a model for Allure magazine and an air hostess.
For some Thais, however, Boy's decision to apologise for taking someone to bed was more puzzling.
"You're an adult, and it's a normal thing to do, so why dissolve in tears with your mother by your side?" one asked.
After inspecting the painted nails of the person in bed, many netizens asked if it was in fact a ladyboy. "The fingernails and toes are too ugly to be those of a woman," they sniffed. "Are you sure you're straight?" they asked, referring to Boy.
"I recall Boy saying he wanted to marry a virgin. Has it never occurred to him that a woman might want the same thing from a man she meets?" another wrote, asking why he didn't save himself for marriage.
"Beware of women who just want to take you to bed for your fame," another warned. "The moment your back is turned, she'll take a picture as evidence of her conquest and circulate it online."
By week's end, the media's search had yet to turn up anything. For one academic, however, it was all too much.
Time Chuastapanasiri, a researcher at the Academic Institute of Public Media, said the media's obsession with celebrity news risked drowning out the protests against the blanket amnesty bill.
In a plea to entertainers, he wrote acidly: "You don't have to tell the public who you've broken up with, who you love, who you've taken a meal with ... so you can create news which distracts the public from more important matters such as the protests.
"Please keep your private business to yourselves at a time of crisis such as this one!" he grumbled.
I'm above all that
Sexy singer Suteewan "Baitoey" Thaveesin denies she is the woman seen walking hand in hand with former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in an image circulating widely on social media.
Suteewan ‘Baitoey’ Thaveesin.
The picture emerged last week in what Baitoey says is an attempt to discredit her. The woman seen walking with Thaksin in what appears to be a shopping centre is wearing a white long-sleeved shirt and black trousers.
Baitoey, renowned for her micro shorts and sexy dancing, said she would never wear trousers as long as those. "Nor do I own a bag like that, and most importantly, she's much shorter than me," she said.
The sexy singer dissolved in tears on Friday as she denied any connection with the image. It comes barely two months since news emerged that Baitoey had sung overseas twice for Thaksin, a fan of her work.
Baitoey told reporters in September that she had performed for the former premier on two occasions, in Hong Kong and Singapore, earning 500,000 baht for each show.
Thaksin has good ties with her recording label, RS Promotion, and regularly calls on its artists to perform, she said. "I sang, dined and had a casual conversation with him," Baitoey said.
When the picture of Thaksin strolling with the woman in black emerged, netizens were quick to assume it was Baitoey, given her ties to the Big Boss. However, latest buzz on the internet, which the Thaksin camp has yet to confirm, is that it is actually Thaksin's daughter, Pintongtha.
The singer said the drama had made her stressed and caused her family discomfort, even bringing her father to tears.
"We have not met since the last time I sang for Thaksin. I wish people would stop trying to link me with politics. All I do is sing to make people happy. In my view, entertainment and politics should not mix," she wrote earlier on Instagram.
Baitoey's boyfriend, DJ Pattanapol "Man" Kunchorn Na Ayutthaya, said someone has it in for the singer.
"Politics is a hugely sensitive matter, especially in Bangkok. She's getting heavy flak on Instagram, and now some critics are also taking potshots at me.
"Before, critics held back when leaving comments. Now they tell me exactly what they think," he said.
... don't do the crime
Bad boy actor Somchai "Tao" Kemklat served his time in jail, and doesn't want anyone to forget it.
"When the court decided against me, even I had to serve my 15-day jail term," he told an anti-amnesty bill rally at Democracy Monument on Ratchadamnoen Avenue on Wednesday.
Somchai ‘Tao’ Kemklat.
"The court put me away for 15 days. And what were the other lot doing?" he asked to crowd applause.
Tao was referring to those who stood to benefit from an amnesty without having to answer for their sins.
The favourite hate figure of the protests is Thaksin Shinawatra, who fled the country rather than serve a two-year jail term for conflict of interest in a land deal.
Tao was among a parade of entertainers who took part in city protests last week. They included Jintara "Maem" Sukhapat, Pawanrat "Maew" Naksuriya, and Patinya "Top" Kuantrakul.
Other celebrities named lovingly by media outlets which, like the entertainers themselves, had pitted themselves against the bill _ were model Sumonrat "Peemai" Wattanaselarat, Pakin "Tono" Kumvilaisak and his girlfriend Pattarida "Tangmo" Patcharaweerapong, and socialite "Nat" Thephasdin na Ayutthaya.
However, unlike these people perhaps, Tao knows first-hand what it is like to serve time.
In April, 2011, as the rest of the country celebrated Songkran, Tao had his head down tending to a detention centre vegetable garden.
He spent 15 days at the Lampang detention centre after the Supreme Court refused to hear his appeal against a conviction stemming from a January, 2009, assault against a local grocery store owner.
Tao, who married shortly after charges were laid and now has two young children, said recently he is not ashamed of his conviction.
"Everyone moves through phases in life, some better than others," he said.
He was introduced to the protest crowd by Democrat bigwig Korn Chatikavanij.
Netizens praised wild-eyed Tao's stance."I didn't like you before, but now I give you the thumbs up," one wrote.
