News bites: January 29, 2008

by javabeans

• SES lead singer Bada gave a performance as lead character Esmerelda in the musical Notre Dame de Paris on the 26th to positive reviews, particularly in the dance segments. Guess all that pop-star training came in handy.
• Ha Jiwon takes on a role as a pianist in the film co-starring Cha Tae Hyun (My Sassy Girl) and Park Hee Soon (badass Baek Min-chul in Mixed-up Investigative Agency), which is titled Fool. The movie’s written by the screenwriter of The Host 2, also an internet manhwa writer of the original work the film is based upon, and is a “warm, genuine” story about a simple-minded neighborhood character, no doubt the titular “fool.” I’m guessing Cha Tae Hyun’s the dummy? (Will he ever play someone who isn’t?)
• Actress Lee Bo Young (who’s doing press for her latest film, Once Upon a Time) admits that she’d attempted to be a news announcer, and even took the MBC announcers’ test in 2002, which she failed. Well, at least she’s pretty.
• Speaking of pretty, actress and former pop singer Chae Jung Ahn has signed on as the exclusive brand model for women’s fashion line ab.plus by ab.f.z (yeah, try pronouncing that) for the next year. A rep for ab.plus explained contracting Chae for her “refined” and “mature” image, a side we definitely saw in Coffee Prince.
• Ten years after her debut, singer Lena Park, also known by her Korean name Park Jung Hyun, gives a five-day series of concerts starting March 26, wrapping up her promo activities for her sixth album, “Come to Where I Am.”

SONG OF THE DAY

Lena Park, aka Park Jung Hyun – “눈물빛 글씨” (Tear-colored writing), her big single off her sixth album. [ zShare download ]

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