Clinic raid reverb, Poj takes 'son' to court, model bravery

Peeling behind the layers

Peter

A singer and actor has come out to defend a glitzy anti-ageing clinic on behalf of its celebrity owners, after police raided the premises, seizing 300,000 worth of unregistered and illegal goods.

Peter Corp Dyrendal, promoter for the Filorga Clinic in Bang Kapi, owned by actor Navin "Tar" Yavapolkul and his wife Passavee “Numwanz” Payacaboot, fronted the cameras to insist the clinic stocks only world-leading products and was not to be classed in the same category as clinics which peddle fake goods.

Numwanz, Tar

He also claimed the raid was prompted by a case of sour grapes after a customer with a history of skin problems developed side-effects from a filler injection to her face.

Peter is one of a handful of stars, friends of the owners, who have helped promote the clinic as “brand ambassadors” since its launch five years ago. The owners claim they spent 100 million baht on the clinic, which they say is the only branch in Southeast Asia of the Paris-based Filorga anti-ageing institute.

A team from the Consumer Protection Police Division, Food and Drug Administration and Department of Health Service Support raided the clinic on Aug 21, after the complainant said she went for facial injections in February last year which resulted in side effects including swelling, infection, and her face losing its shape. She said she needed hospital treatment to remedy the botched treatment, setting her back 1 million baht.

Police say they seized drugs which lacked FDA registration, and illegal cosmetics, with a view to starting legal action. The clinic, however, remains open, with Peter insisting the goods seized had been imported from overseas and were awaiting the registration process, or were simply “testers”. He said the products which did not meet FDA registration requirements had been zoned off into a separate part of the clinic.

Peter said some Filorga products had changed their name and would have to be re-registered in Thailand as they come with new packaging.

However, the Manager/ASTV website, citing inquiries by netizens, says the Thai clinic’s claim to be a branch of the famous Filorga institute is in doubt after Filorga responded to an online inquiry denying it had a branch in Thailand.

“We do not have a clinic in Thailand as our products are not registered in this country. We heard that a clinic calls itself Filorga Clinic and we have asked them to change the name,” the reply says. A map showing Filorga branches worldwide shows no such branch in Thailand.

The Manager says the Thai clinic’s website once bore a close branding resemblance to that of its Paris namesake, though it now exists as a one page inquiry form and its Facebook and Instagram presence having been taken down.

Meanwhile, Peter claimed the complainant is persecuting the clinic after talks about entering a business venture with Numwanz failed, and asked why it had taken her so long to lay her complaint when she was treated at the clinic last year.

The complainant, therapeutic massage provider and post-partum carer to the stars Nanchaya “Noo” Patchpiriya (Kinkuntod), says Numwanz, mother to a young child who has run a so-called private “milk bank” from the clinic for mothers who cannot lactate enough milk for their newborns, contacted her for a breast massage to stimulate her breast ducts so they would yield more milk.

Numwanz also suggested Ms Nanchaya help her sell food supplements, and take vitamin injections to improve the look of her face.

One report claimed cheekily that Numwanz, rather than simply pay the bill for the massage, asked Ms Nanchaya to enter a business venture exploiting her expertise in marshalling Thai herbs to stimulate breast milk production in new mothers. However, it failed when Ms Nanchaya checked with the Commerce Ministry and found the clinic had not amended its records to acknowledge her shareholding.

At her hi-so friend’s suggestion, Ms Nanchaya said she took a series of facial injections at the clinic, some by a doctor and some by Numwanz herself (Numwanz, through Peter, denies injecting patients, despite posing with a needle on the clinic’s website). She found out later she had been injected with mere filler, though after seeing her symptoms the clinic allegedly claimed she was suffering from SLE, the auto-immune disease known as lupus.

Denying Peter’s claims that she was persecuting the clinic or had pre-existing skin problems, Ms Nanchaya said she was forced to seek treatment over 12 months at a specialist hospital to fix problems caused by the clinic, setting her back 1 million baht. 

Her doctor denied she had SLE, saying she had simply reacted adversely to the substance injected into her face.

Numwanz has yet to front the media, with Peter saying she is preparing for a court case concerning Ms Nanchaya. The saga continues.

Director goes for broke

Poj

Director and talent scout Poj Anon has decided to sue a young protege for 5 million after the pair fell out over a payments row, with Poj earlier revealing he has paid the young actor 10 million baht in fees over their seven-year working relationship.

Actor Kunatip “Nick” Pinpradap, whom Poj has moulded into a star in a series of low-brow comedies and ghost movies, late last week posted an image of a legal letter sent by Poj’s lawyer in which he seeks 5 million baht for defamation. “I don’t have that kind of money,” he declared.

The row erupted last month when Nick declared he was sick of working for the famed director and wanted to be released from his contract. He said he had trouble securing back payments worth about 100,000 baht for a recent movie, Songkran Saeb Sathan Lorkan.

Poj, meanwhile, suspected it was a case of sour grapes, after he turned down Nick for the lead role in his two most recent films and knocked him back for a starring role in a re-make of his coming-of-name movie, Bullet Teen, which goes into production next year.

Nick offered a belated apology to Poj, claiming he still felt indebted to the director and that their battle, waged over social media, was grinding him down. Poj, however, said it was too late for talks as letting the youngster get away with a mere apology would be like a father failing to correct an errant son who criticised him publicly.

Nick was the first to seek legal advice, turning to celebrity lawyer Sittra Biebangkerd, who questioned Poj publicly about discrepancies in payment figures.

Not to be outdone, Poj turned to another celebrity lawyer Decha Kittiwithiyanan, who has since started legal action, and served notice that anyone who tries to hire Nick in the three years his contract with Poj still has to run will be sued.

Speaking earlier in the week, Poj denied he had tried to underpay the young actor. “In seven years, he has made 13 movies for me, and plenty of ads. As a result of my constantly feeding him work, he has made almost 10 million baht and now owns a car and a house.”

He also denied Nick’s claims he was upset at him for knocking back some work, or that he was upset about his choice of girlfriends. However, he insisted he would not release him from his contract, or every star with a contract grievance would ask for the same treatment. Poj said the court has called both parties for a hearing next month.

Palm loses cancer battle

Palm

Former model Pramthat "Palm" Sinkang has died from leukaemia, after earlier appealing for stem cell donations, his only hope of beating the disease.

Palm, known for his cover shoots for Men’s Health magazine, appealed from his hospital bed last September for the return of a mystery donor who last February was willing to donate stem cells which doctors say would have proved an almost perfect match for Palm’s bone marrow transplant.

However, the donor withdrew the offer before his stem cells could be harvested after his family objected. The donor’s identity was kept under wraps as part of the process and Palm did not know who he is. He appealed through the media for the donor to reconsider, but he failed to come through.

Palm, who died on Aug 25 at Sririraj Hospital, left a video clip and post on Facebook early last month thanking those who had come forward with financial donations to help pay for his treatment. 

He also thanked his parents, and said he regretted being unable to repay their generosity during his life. “I didn’t want an expensive house or car, just the chance to repay my parents. But I still haven’t done anything for them, so you can't let me die yet,” he said in his post.

Doctors earlier gave him chemotherapy, which sent the disease into remission for three months. However, the disease came back, only more aggressively than before. Doctors said only a stem cell transplant would save his life and gave him six months to live without one.

Speaking from a temple in Palm's home province of Trang, where the young man's body was moved for funeral rites ending today, his father, Prawet Meeduang, 53, said Palm fought the disease for three years. “He paid for his own education, and didn’t ask the family for any money,” he said.

His mother, Sunantha Sinkang, said Palm had talked three months ago about taking his girlfriend of eight years, Achiraya “Ying” Konmun, back to Trang to arrange a wedding, after the pair earlier registered their union. However, he failed to recover.

Ying said Palm put on a brave face until the last. “He died suppressing a smile. He was trying to protect my feelings, because he didn’t want to see me unhappy. I am proud of him because he looked after me all those years,” she said.