Model walks out on presenting job
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| Poo |
Poo declared last week she has quit her involvement in a dietary food supplement venture, Praya by LB Slim, launched with great fanfare early last year. Her remarks triggered a row with key shareholders DJ Sakuntala “TonHorm” Teinpairoj and DJ “MaToom” Techin Ploypetch, who are taking her to court for leaving them in the lurch.
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| MaToom |
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| TonHorm |
The pair insist that as the “owner” of the venture she could not just walk away, leaving them, fellow shareholder Golf Akaranan and the product’s agents struggling amid falling sales. They claim they sacked the high-profile model so the venture could carry on, after she allegedly refused to return to her duties.
Poo, for her part, insists she was not an owner or manager, merely a presenter who lent her name to the product. She asked to leave after the company refused to open its books and insisted on registering products in its own name rather than hers as agreed.
By the end of the week Poo had asked her lawyer, Bawonsit Nitiyawanit, to speak to the media. He confirmed both sides were now taking legal action.
The saga erupted after Poo told a reporter she had ended her ties to the venture “ages ago”, and spoke in unusually blunt language about what the shareholders had hoped to achieve.
“I have withdrawn from this venture, and my business relationship with the other two [MaToom, TonHorm] has also ended. We were not friends from the start, so there were no personal feelings.
“I am not angry or anything else. But when I saw the company coming under heavy attack I asked not to have my name associated with it as I don’t want this sin branding me. My intention was to enter a business to benefit us all ... when the day came when I was no longer getting anything out of it, it’s no mystery if I choose to walk away,” she said.
“They paid for use of my name to pull in customers and boost sales, but I wasn’t a shareholder. When I see the news [attacking the company] the ones I feel sorriest for are the sales agents,” she said, adding wistfully: “The things which we gain easily or quickly are not always [so] good.”
The dietary supplements industry has come under a cloud amid revelations some celebrities hired themselves out to promote various products, even those lacking Food and Drug Administration permits. While the lawyers behind “Praya by LB Slim” argue registration doubts are not an issue in this case, DJ TonHorm disclosed online sales took a hit which she likens to a “tsunami”.
“The company was in trouble, the agents couldn’t cope any more, and we had to take responsibility so we laid her off. Poo claims she withdrew, which makes it look as if the company did something wrong, but in fact we got rid of her,” she said.
“Legal action followed, there was no way to avoid it. We sued because the owner of the brand would not cooperate. She can’t just walk away, as the agents are affected.
“Poo suggested we used her name to pull in customers as if we were deceiving the public. But in every clip, including the product launch, she referred to herself as the owner,” she said.
DJ MaToom earlier fanned the embers of the dispute, asking why Poo had chosen to go public with the company’s woes when they could have sorted out their problems privately. A woman close to their circle, who calls herself Orawan Onchareon Noeynomm on social media, also chimed in, writing caustically about Poo: “I hate her ... when will someone finally rip away the mask of this fake dara?”
However, Mr Bawonsit, Poo’s lawyer, said the shareholders misunderstood the nature of Poo’s relationship with the company. She lent herself to the venture’s name under an intellectual property contract in which her name was to appear on all products registered, and she also helped as a presenter.
“When I first saw the contract I wasn’t happy as it looked as if she was a shareholder but not registered. I asked if the company ran into problems, could she cope? So I drew up a new one where she was a shareholder and they were all equal partners in managing the company, but that didn’t work either as the others wanted to keep the management to themselves with just the two of them taking the benefits.
“So I changed it again to one where Poo was leasing out rights to her name, with the company paying her for that right.”
Mr Bawonsit said Poo started to have doubts when she noticed a discrepancy between the number of units being sold and revenue. “When they refused to open their books we started to wonder,” he said.
He said a contractual problem also arose over product registration. “The contract said all trademarks had to be registered in her name, but the other side wouldn’t agree and went ahead and registered stuff in the company’s name. Lawyers for the other side ignored my attempts to sort it out.
“On July 14 last year they asked Poo to upload to Instagram another image of herself promoting the product but we decided against as they had not replied to the other matters.
“When ultimately we couldn’t clear up our concerns Poo asked to quit the contract, without taking legal action, but the other side sued for damages,” he said. The battle continues.
Arming for battle over earnings
Teen singer Arm Chutima and her former music label are heading back to court after a new deal they signed late last year, putting aside weeks of acrimony, came apart.
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| Arm |
The look tung singer’s former manager, Prachakchai Naowaras, last week grumbled that Arm had failed to uphold part of their new nine-point agreement, agreed last November, in which she has to pay his company for five “queues” (concerts) a month.
“We will sue for breach her contract. The November agreement is now void, which means the old one will now apply by default, where she is unable to accept work or go on TV to promote herself unless she seeks the company’s consent,” he declared on social media.
He said Arm had agreed to pay his label her earnings from five concerts every month, or 25,000 baht a time. His company had asked her for her earnings on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, but Arm objected, arguing they are the most profitable days of the week.
“If it is an ordinary weekday, you don’t want it. Sometimes I agree to give you a queue, but when the day arrives there is no work, and I don’t get paid a baht. You want five Saturdays, but there’s only four of them in a month,” she wrote cryptically.
Mr Prachakchai said the reference to five Saturdays was a red herring, as the company was upfront about the days it wanted. He told Arm to stop “tricking” the public.
In another post, she acknowledged breaching contract last November, when she failed to hand over the earnings agreed, but claimed payments were now back on track.
Arm penned the sexy hit Pu Sao Kha Loh for her friend and former co-singer Lamyai Haithongkham, propelling Lamyai to overnight fame on YouTube, before being paired as a duo under Mr Prachakchai’s music label, Hai Thong Kam Records.
Her departure in a dispute over payments in the middle of 2017 for a career as an indie left the multimillion baht singing duo in tatters. She performed songs she wrote herself while still with the label, which insisted it still had the rights to the music and to her as a performer.
Under the new deal, Arm was free to perform as an indie but agreed not to join another label for the two years and seven months which the original contract had left to run.
Mr Prachakchai triggered the dispute last year when he asked police to pull her aside at two concerts for performing in breach of copyright. At the height of their row he lodged court papers against Arm’s side seeking 21.6 million in damages.
Among those present at the November contract signing ceremony was celebrity activist Atchariya Ruangrattanapong.
Arm said she has now asked Mr Atchariya to contact the label’s lawyers.
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