CARTOON'S SHAME, SECRETS OF FLIRTING

Cartoon, Neung

Life is sadly imitating art for actress Intira ''Cartoon'' Ketworasoontorn, who is facing claims that she was a mia noi to a man called Neung, whom she met while at school.

Cartoon, who played a minor wife in the Channel 7 soap, Mia Luang, which shot her to fame, was forced to admit this week that she married at 16, after pictures of her wearing bridal white appeared on the internet.

Worse, she is now confronted with claims that Neung, the man she took as her husband, actually belonged to someone else.

Neung’s former wife Pim has come forward to air Cartoon's dirty laundry after the actress went before the media to overturn her previous insistence that she had never been wed.

Cartoon made short work of her confession and apology. She was still young, they were not together long, and the marriage was arranged by family elders, she claimed.

''I denied being married when asked, as I knew I would have to consult people about my answer,'' she said.

''It is all in the past. I don’t want to think about it any more,'' she said, brushing off reporters’ questions.

Not so fast, says Pim. She says Cartoon and Neung were together not just a few months, as Cartoon suggested, but three years.

Cartoon's family insisted the pair marry, partly because of her age, but also for the money. ''I think they wanted the dowry.’'

Neung and Pim were raising a family when Cartoon, studying in Mor 3 (Grade 9), elbowed her way in, she says.

Pim says her former husband liked to play around. First, Neung saw Cartoon's foster sister, Koong. When that relationship ended, Cartoon took over from Koong.

''She could see Neung was a good provider, as she was living with Koong at the time, who had also asked him for things,'' says Pim.

First, Cartoon asked Neung to help pay her school fees.

One day after a trip to the provinces, Pim came home to find that Cartoon had moved in to their home.

''We fought. I called her mother, who refused to come and get her,'' she says.

''Her mother didn’t know how to fob me off, so insisted she was just there as a friend to Neung.'’

At the insistence of Cartoon's mother, the pair became engaged. At the time, beleaguered Pim was still living with Neung.

When Neung then agreed to marry the girl, Pim moved out, taking the four children with her.

The wedding pictures were taken six years ago. The same year, Cartoon entered the Miss Teen Thailand competition, which insists applicants are single.

Cartoon won the ''Miss Hair Care'’ category. Her manager says that far from wanting to strip her of the haircare prize, organisers have been supportive.

The actress was planning to respond to Pim's claims this weekend, in the latest chapter of a sad tale which has ignited the Thai media.

In the meantime, Cartoon's mother has come forward to say she was a good girl, and did everything for her family, who were in dire financial straits.

Model Pakorn ''Dome'' Lum, who is seeing Cartoon, says she has done nothing wrong. If the pair split up, it would be over something else.

''I have told her to tell the truth. If she's honest, Thais will understand and forgive. I can't change her past. It all happened when she was young and before we met,'' he says.

Latest? Cartoon appeared on Channel 7's Tord Rahat Jai, once again insisting she had never been married. The interview may have been taped before her dramatic about-turn, although some viewers are angry they were misled.-

2.

Why not just say you flirted with the poor girl, even if you didn’t?

Mai

In a careless moment perhaps, actress Sukonthawa ''Mai'' Kerdnimit revealed a Channel 3 actor has expressed interest in her, but is not yet ready to open up.

''I can’t tell you much more, as he has yet to declare himself. I should really wait for him to say something. If I was to name him first, then I could end up embarrassed, if he replies that he doesn’t actually feel that way about me,'’ she said.

Who can it be? Journalists asked actor Marvin ''Win'' Taweepol, who appears with Mai in the television soap opera Din Nam Lom Fai, if he had been flirting with her.

Rather than flout his manly credentials, Win had an attack of modesty and denied he had hit on the girl.

Marvin

''We are close, but I have not flirted with her,'' he said. ''We see each other on the set. If we talk on the phone, it's usually about work.

''You should ask Mai who it is, as I would like to know myself,'' he said.

Gossip headlines said that with Win’s denial, Mai had suffered a minor loss of face – even if she didn’t actually name the guy who had put on the moves.

Asked if there was a chance of their relationship progressing to flirt stage, Win says they are better as friends, as he has a girlfriend of his own, a young woman from outside the industry.

They met while studying at Abac University, he says, and have been going together for years.

Recently, Win said he was tiring of reports suggesting that he, fellow actor Chakrit Yamnam, and producer/actor Chatchai ''Nok'' Plengpanich, have a gay thing going.

Versatile actor Chakrit, who played a gay role in the recent Thai romantic drama, A Moment in June, insists he is all man.

Nok, a married family man who himself is forever combating the gay rumour, says they are friends, but that's it.

Talk about girlfriends in the wings must make a welcome change for Win. But if he had come forward to say that he had indeed flirted with Mai, would she have denied it? Probably not.-

3.

Comedian Nakhon Pel Silachai says he will wait until his first child turns two before he gets married, and reckons his long-time girlfriend Kasama ''June'' Mayumas - now pregnant – agrees.

Pel says he reckons the most auspicious date to get married is on the child’s birthday. However, he says his ''mood'' also has to be right.

''You can worry too much about an auspicious wedding date. One person says you should get married this day, someone else names another. Most importantly, I have to be in the right mood.

''Before we have the child, we have to make sure everything is right,'' says Pel, who insists he is not trying to buck Thai convention by having a child out of wedlock.

The parents on both sides approved of the couple's plans to delay marriage. He had long wanted to get married on his first child's birthday.

''We will register our marriage first, then hold an engagement ceremony before the child is born. We will hold the wedding ceremony
after.

''We have to do everything right by Thai convention. I am not one to buck society,'' he says.

Pel says if June wasn't prepared to have a child before marriage, he would rather carry on being single. They could travel the world instead.

He'll still bow to elders' advice when necessary. ''If my Mum did not approve, I would have to change my plans, or find a new girl,'' he says.

Mum, have no fear - he's more Thai than we thought.-

4.  

Model Natalie Davis isn't worried about the scuttlebutt which says her boyfriend is ugly, as she’s not seeing him just for his looks alone.

Natalie is seeing a young man called Bond. After journalists took pictures of the pair together, unkind souls remarked that he looked less than handsome.

''Bond is aware of what the media is saying, as we discuss it,'' says Natalie. ''However, I am not interested in him simply because of his looks - if I was, we probably couldn't be together.''

Ouch! That was blunt. So, if the secret of Bond's appeal lies not in his stunning features, then perhaps it is the way he acts.

''I want this love to last,' she says. 'I am sick of relationships which start one moment, end the next.''

Even though they can laugh about media reaction to his looks, Natalie makes sure she spares Bond’s feelings. ''I tell Bond that I am not with him just because of the way he behaves, either.''