Still alone, all dressed up, teenage mermaid

Peuy

Actress Panward "Peuy" Hemmanee says she can wait out being single, though is not so sure about her former boyfriend, who has been spotted with a new girl at a pub.

After many teary nights, Puey says she is is no longer waiting for her former boyfriend, singer/actor Anattapol "R" Sirichumsaeng, to appease her.

In the glare of the nation's entertainment media, she called off their three-year relationship last month.

"At first I said I was waiting for him to make up. Now I'm happier with being single. He's happy too, so neither of us see the need to rush back into giving it another go," she said.

Mischievous reports said Peuy was having second thoughts and wanted him back, but that R (winner of the Star 3 talent quest) had since moved on to new girls. R had been spotted at a pub with a girl called "Nuclear".

"Did she explode?" Peuy joked. "If he's found someone else to make him happy, I wish him the best. However, she's not his specs ... R doesn't like girls like that," said Peuy protectively.

When she called off their relationship, Peuy (Bangkok Dangerous) insisted the pair were still friends. Thais enjoy rooting for the young couple, perhaps because they have lasted so long. No third hand was involved, she said, though Peuy admits she opened his BlackBerry smartphone one day to find a picture of a girl there.

R, she said, was a good person, but not yet responsible enough to handle a serious relationship.

R's mother has apologised on her son's behalf for upsetting her. "His mum is lovely. She called to say sorry, even though R had done nothing wrong. She could see we were getting along so well and was sad to hear that we stumbled.

"She did not try to get us back together, merely apologised. I burst into tears," said Peuy, as she updated journalists.

After not seeing each other for two weeks, Peuy and R were reunited in Nan province this week. They were booked as a "package" at the same event.

"We accepted the job back when we were a couple, and the organisers still wanted to see us together. We still talk, and there's no reason we can't go through a phase when we are just friends.

"After it ended, we took a plane back to Bangkok. No, he didn't try to make up to me at the airport, because there were too many people. But we teased each other, as friends do," she said, commenting on witness reports that, contrary to news of their break-up, the two appeared as close as ever.

"We are not trying to dupe anyone to create publicity. Both of us know where we stand, and we are happier being apart.

"I'm older, and want a future. R is younger and less experienced, so looks at love in his own way, though in keeping with his age.

"He also comes from a family of girls. He was the youngest child, so his family tended to indulge him."

She was still close to R's family, and planned an overnight visit to his home to pray for good wishes. -

2.

Prem

Boxing promoter Banjong Busarakamwong has a headache, after his socialite son dressed as a girl for the Superstar reality show.

Prem Busarakamwong donned a white wig, stockings, mini-skirt, tunic and high-heeled shoes for a cabaret challenge last week.

Banjong, who was present in the audience as contestants - including his son - paraded about as women, said he was unhappy to see his son wearing female garb. "I am thinking of cutting off his inheritance," he joked.

Prem, an occasional actor and model, helps run his father's boxing camps in Pattaya and Bangkok. Banjong said he asked his son when he entered the entertainment industry to avoid dressing as a ladyboy, or in any other silly garb.

"As soon as I saw him, my headache paid a visit. I have no idea what to do, because I realise it is a competition. They were given the cabaret challenge, so had no choice [but to dress as a girl]. This week is probably the hardest for men on the show, and I send them my best."

Gay rumours have dogged Prem since the end of his engagement to singer Tata Young, in August last year. They were engaged in a lavish ceremony in Bangkok last November, sealed with a dowry from Prem's side worth 100 million baht.

When she announced they had "drifted apart", Tata denied that any third-hand helped break them up, or that Prem was gay.

"There's no way he could be gay ... just no way. He has never let the girl out, in all the time I have known him," she said with a laugh.

Banjong, who was sad to see them part, reckoned the pair were too immature to live together.

Asked after the show if the sight of his son wearing women's clothing would only enhance rumours that his son actually prefers men to women, Banjong said he would like to get hold of the people spreading such tales.

"If people, gay or not, have any doubts, they should send their daughters to Prem and see what happens. I reckon gays are leaving such comments. They can't find friends of their own, so spread nasty rumours accusing people at home of being gay," he said.

Prem's fanclub may have heard his dad is on the warpath. The usual crowd of Prem supporters - big guys with muscly bodies - were absent from last week's concert, observed Siam Dara gossip magazine. -

3.

Mew

An old flesh movie selling for just 15 baht a copy has come back to haunt model/actress Siranpat "Mew" Kongtrakan.

The 2003 Miss Teen Thailand second runner-up played a bare-breasted mermaid in the film, Mon Rak Nang Nguak. The movie has surfaced as a porn-style VCD, which is doing brisk trade in the Klong Thom market.

Mew (Scared, Tom Yum Kung) said she made the film when she was just 15 or 16, and insists that the naughty scenes where she appears bare-chested or making love to Pra Apaimanee, her lover in the mythical tale, were performed by a body double.

"I'm upset, because this is not the film I was told we were making. They spent millions of baht. It was made when sales of VCDs were at a peak, by a team who previously made commercials and music videos.

"The master of the film is probably destroyed by now. I can't give you proof that they used a body double, because the director is now dead, and I have lost contact with almost everyone else who made the film.

"Would you like me to visit the temple to dig him up?" Mew asked journalists caustically. "When I graduated with an honours degree, few journalists bothered covering the event. But now this old film has surfaced, you're all over the story," she said unhappily.

Mew made the film seven years ago, and she says her mother accompanied her to the set. And those scenes where she shimmies through the sea in a mermaid suit were also performed by a double, as Mew herself cannot swim.