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Tanchanok 'Patricia' Good
Actress Tanchanok "Patricia" Good is weathering a social media storm after admitting she is more than just casual friends with a socialite whom netizens earlier claimed acted as a third hand, breaking up her relationship with actor and businessman Pachara "Peach" Chirathivat.
Meanwhile, Peach has complained to Technology Crime Suppression Division police after his Instagram account was hacked and chats in which he vows to teach Patricia a "lesson" after their relationship foundered were posted online.
Amid netizens' claims that someone from Patricia's camp might be the hacker, the actress kept her head down as she burrowed through a media scrum at an industry event on Thursday night, refusing to answer questions. Earlier, in brusque remarks before the cameras, she denied knowing about the IG hack, before abruptly ending an interview.
The hacker, who left a lengthy screed criticising Peach for ungentlemanly conduct, posted the leaked chat to the IG accounts of both Peach and Patricia. The posts were up just a short time, but long enough for alert netizens to copy them to social media.
The hacker cited Peach's remarks before the media last month when he tearily confirmed that he and Patricia were now apart. The hacker complained Peach's remarks were portrayed as a heroic defence of her virtue when really he had decided to hang her out to dry.
Peach, an heir to the Central Group fortune, was asked about the couple's two-year relationship after leaked images emerged of Patricia having dinner with millionaire socialite Vises "Note" Rangsisingpipat. The images set tongues wagging that Note had broken up their pairing, a claim he denied.
While Peach put the cause of his split with Patricia down to communication problems, and said the pair had been struggling for the past month or so, he was vague on whether a third hand was involved.
In response, Patricia, the last of the trio to comment on the saga, insisted she and Peach had already parted ways by the time images emerged of her and Note together.
Patricia's insistence they were just friends was held up by netizens to mock her as a new set of images of her and Note together were leaked to social media.
Peach denied leaking them, but Patricia, feeling the pressure, last week fronted the media again to admit she had opened her heart to Note and they were getting to know each other romantically.
"I didnt say we were close because if I did, people would assume we were already seeing each other," she said in tears.
"It might seem as if I am moving on too fast, but I have spent time feeling sad about Peach. It's time for me to have some fun. It's just that I didn't tell anyone when I stopped talking to Peach, which resulted in the misunderstanding," she said.
Peach, meanwhile, denied he set out to harm Patricia's good name, saying if anything he had played down his response.
"I didn't release the pictures, as I want nothing more to do with her. I don't want to meet or hear any news about her," he said bluntly, adding for good measure: "I don't want her back; anyone who wants to talk to her is welcome."
Where temple ghosts fear to tread
A colourful ex-monk from Samut Prakan who managed to trick some of the nation's top performers into a concert con which enabled him to fleece traders in Nakhon Si Thammarat of 3.2 million baht has struck again, this time branching into a property fraud in his home province.
Somchart 'Nott 4G' Phupeuk
Somchart Phupeuk, or Nott 4G as he is also known, also left technicians, performers, caterers and sundry others out of pocket by a million baht or more in a parallel funeral scam hatched hastily at a temple in Nonthaburi in late July. He is still on the run but in the meantime news has emerged he also claimed a victim in the housing market.
In his latest exploit, which has come to light since Nott fled the scene of the Nonthaburi temple when his victims started to grow suspicious, a Samut Prakan man, "Dew", said he also fell victim to Nott, who this time was impersonating a housing agent.
He said Nott fleeced him of 209,000 baht after claiming he could help him arrange the purchase of a house in Samut Jedi district. Dew said he was looking for a place to buy urgently in mid-July and after finding one in a housing village in the district paid the agent 10,000 baht to reserve it.
The agent then passed the file to Nott, who checked Dew's credit and found he had been blacklisted. He had Dew pay him 30,000 baht to get the credit agency to look the other way, and another 59,000 baht to arrange the mortgage on the 2.2 million baht home, and a down payment of 120,000 baht. "He called to say he'd send me the receipt then vanished," Dew said, saying he was facing foreclosure on his existing home which he hoped to sell before buying the new place, and was now in dire straits. He has complained to Rat Burana police.
Investigators have appeared to make no progress in tracking down the swarthy ex-monk, and it is unclear how he inveigled himself into the property market before making off with Dew's money.
Meanwhile, Amarin TV also reports that a well dressed middle-aged man in Bangkok has perpetrated a Nott-like temple scam, "borrowing" 8,000 baht from traders and workers at Wat Dok Mai in Yannawa district on Tuesday after claiming he had booked the pavilion for his mother-in-law's funeral.
The man turned up at the temple that morning to claim he had booked the pavilion for the five-day funeral but said his wife was busy picking up the body from the hospital and had taken his wallet.
He asked the temple worker who looks after the crematorium, a cook who does the catering for funeral guests, and a drinks seller for 8,000 baht in total to help him make arrangements while he was waiting for her return. His unspecting victims handed over the money before the fraudster calmly left the scene.
The cook, Samai Somjit, 59, who went out and bought enough food to keep the funeral "guests" fed for two days, was scathing about the fraudster's conduct.
"Why would you do such a thing? We live from day to day and don't have much money. Even the ghosts don't trick the undertaker here, but you come and dupe us. If you die, who will cremate you?"
In Nott's case, he claimed his father had just died and asked Pai Luang temple in Nonthaburi to arrange a five-day extravaganza spread over three pavilions including giant LED screens and a sound and light stage. Caterers, performers, technicians and various others whom the enteprising ex-monk pulled together to stage his sham funeral were left out of pocket when Nott, who was coming under pressure to pay a few bills, on July 31 suddenly vanished.
Earlier, in a parallel scam Nott contacted a handful of top comedians and rock stars, accompanied by performers in the Thai traditional arts, inviting them to take part in a two-day concert at Khanom beach in Nakhon Si Thammarat on Aug 17-18. He pre-sold tickets to local traders, netting 3.2 million baht. That too failed to go ahead after Nott's victims wised up to his scheming and warned each other to pull out.
Late last year, in a preview of the large-scale offending which was to come, he staged a two-day sham merit-making ceremony, supposedly for his father's ashes, at Wat Khu Sang in Samut Prakan, where Nott grew up as a child and had also served as a monk. On that occasion Nott hired a traditional Thai orchestra, likay dance troupe, masked dancers, and Chinese-style banquet but failed to pay a bill amounting to more than 100,000 baht.
Shedding mummy hips
A new look Bongkod ''Tak'' Khongmalai is making a comeback to the small screen, boasting a trimmer figure after managing to shed 32kg with solid exercise and gradual control over her food intake in just three years.
Bongkod 'Tak' Khongmalai
Tak, who has a six year-old son to her husband billionaire Dtac founder Boonchai Bencharongkul, denied that a crash diet or fat-shedding pills were behind the dramatic change. "I didn't fast or try to lose heaps of weight at once. I just wanted to be sure I could get up early in the morning to take my son to school. As boys get older they get more energetic, and I have to be ready for it," she said.
Tak, an occasional director who has a role in a soap opera coming up as she marks her return to acting after a hiatus bringing up the couple's child, admitted social pressure also played a part in her wanting to get in shape, mainly from the entertainment industry, and her fans on social media. "I also want to return to the work I love, which is acting," she said.
Tak said her late mother often asked her when she intended losing weight, and she wanted to honour her memory. Her husband had also encouraged her, marvelling at her ability in the gym "to clamber about like a monkey".
"I am now 55kg, down from a peak of 87kg, with a 25 inch (63cm) waist, which I achieved over three years," she said. "I used to take fat shedding pills, but when I found a beautiful alternative -- exercise, and controlling my food intake -- I have no reason to look back," she said.
She suggests those interested in following her example get their blood tested to see how well their bodies combust food. "They list for you the things you should and shouldn't eat to ensure combustion improves. After doing that for eight months your combustion changes and you start losing weight."
