Han Hyo-joo, who shot to stardom for her title role in "Shining Inheritance", a popular weekend SBS drama, has been dating actor and businessman Kang Do-han over the past four months, Sports Hankook reported Thursday.

The report said the two met earlier this year after being introduced by acquaintances and have become closer more recently. Han and Kang have reportedly been spotted dating at a horse-riding range in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, where the actor serves as a marketing director, among other places.

The sports and entertainment newspaper said Han visited the range about 10 days ago with...More

By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

Prosecutors will seek arrest warrants for several TV program directors on the charge of accepting kickbacks from entertainment agencies.

One of the directors is an executive producer of the hit MBC show "Sunday Sunday Night" identified only as Koh. Prosecutors disclosed only last names.

A director "Kim" of the KBS show "Happy Sunday" and Park, a chief of the KBS entertainment department, also face arrest.

Koh is believed to have taken tens of millions of won in cash and shares from Fantom Entertainment in exchange for putting its clients on his programs. Kim is also suspected of having bought shares of an ...More

Seo Yeong-joo, the founder and force behind Korea's Cineclick Asia, has launched a new company called Fine Cut, which will act as a sales agent for Korean and international titles, as well as investing in films and acquiring select foreign titles for the domestic market.

Seo, who launched the successful Cineclick six years ago, sold it last year to Fantom Entertainment in order to raise capital for project investment. When the purchaser's stock market share price dropped limiting the scope of its operations, Seo decided the best way to realize her vision was to start fresh, resulting in First Cut.

Her new company already has 17 titles on display at Berlin's European Film Market, many in post-production. Among them are ...More

Singer "Ivy" is going through a rough patch after the arrest of a man named Yu (31) last week who had attempted to blackmail her with a revealing video clip showing him with the K-pop star. "It is possible that such video clips exist since "Ivy" slept over at Yu's place quite often, but none were shot with her consent", "Ivy" publicist Fantom Entertainment said Friday. Yu and "Ivy" had been in a romantic relationship for the past two years.

"Ivy" is this year's undisputed no.1, rising to the top with her second album "Sonata of Temptation" released early this year and is also busy shooting commercials for everything from cosmetics to drinks. "The incident has made it impossible for "Ivy" to go on with her public appearances or even go for a simple walk outside", says her agency. That requires a rethink of her scheduled appearance at various end-of-the-year events and commercial shoots. They could include the 2007 Mnet KM Music Festival...More

Popular actor Kim Sang-kyung will marry a dentist five years his junior in coming October, his agency said yesterday.

The 35-year-old actor is best known for his roles in hit films such as "Memories of Murder" and more recently, "May 18", a movie about the 1980 Gwangju Democracy Movement. He met Kim Eun-gyung, his wife-to-be, when he visited her dentistry in Gahoe-dong, Seoul in...More

Actress Han Hyo-joo has taken Best Actress honors at the 20th Singapore International Film Festival for her performance in "Ad-Lib Night", a feature film directed by Lee Yoon-ki.

Han's management company Fantom Entertainment was informed of the news in ...More

Alarm bells are ringing in Korea's entertainment business after the apparent suicides of pop singer U;Nee and actress Jeong Da-bin within three weeks of each other.

Agencies are clearly worried. While the stars ostensibly enjoy wealth and fame, they are also more at risk than ordinary people because their kudos can vanish in an instant. The fickle nature of the business brings its attendant anxieties, especially for women, experts say.

The actress Choi Jin-sil recalls the envy of other performers when she was a teen star. "You may think that the happiest moments come with the 'golden time' of celebri...More

The third album from hip-hop singer MC Mong will contain a duet song with Japanese vocalist Lisa. The Korean singer recorded "A Letter to You II" with Lisa in Tokyo in July. A former member of the Japanese hip-hop group m-flo from 1998 until 2002, Lisa went solo in 2003. She is very popular in both Japan and Korea.

The duet performance took place because MC Mong wanted to feature a female vocalist in a sequel to his hit song "A Letter to You" from his first album, which featured Lyn.

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Korean Wave star Lee Byung-hun has decided to take legal steps over rumors of a love affair reported by a Japanese magazine. The star's agency Fantom Entertainment is up in arms over a report in the women's magazine Josei Seven that says the actor was seen with a 30-something Japanese woman and the two went on a romantic trip to Seoul and Taiwan.

The magazine, picking up on Lee's next movie "A Summer Story", titled the report "Another Summer Story". It said the woman the actor is seeing used to be a flight attendant, and the two met at a party in Tokyo a few months ago.

Fantom says the report is "100 percent fictitious". The agency put up a notice at Byeong-heon's Japanese homepage and immediately hired a Japanese lawyer after reading the report. "...More

Actor Lee Byung-hun has recently fallen victim to malicious rumors about Korean stars in Japan. The popular Japanese weekly for women Josei Seven wrote on June 21 that Lee was secretly dating a Japanese woman and traveling with her from Seoul to Taiwan.

In the article entitled "Another Summer Story", named after the movie "Summer Story" which Lee is currently filming, the magazine wrote that the actor met his "girlfriend", a 30-year-old former flight attendant, months ago at a party in Tokyo and that the woman was slender and had long hair. The magazine added that since meeting her, Lee has refused to have blind dates with other women.

In response, Lee's agency, Fantom Entertainment, dismissed the article on July 18 as completely g...More