Boredom not an issue for super-busy Kong
Actor-musician Saharat "Kong" |Sangkapreecha proves that age isn't a factor when it comes to pitching commercial products. At 46 he's said to be among the most in-demand celebrities at marketing events.
Of course his prominent role in the just-ended soap opera “Ya Luem Chan” (“Forget Me Not”) on Channel 3 was a major popularity boost.
“I get offers to make appearances on my own, but some clients insist on having both me and my co-star, Sririta Jensen,” Kong says. The Nuvo band member admits he’s getting lots of extracurricular work. “On average I get two or three jobs a week – and, yes, I get a lot of money for it!” he laughs.
He says earning a lot of money is a most excellent way of “killing time” between acting gigs and his regular job as a judge on “The Voice Thailand”. “It keeps me occupied and I like it.” Fans who’ve been flocking to every public appearance by Kong will soon be seeing him less often in person, though. “My work on ‘The Voice’ resumes next month and you guys will see less of me at those sort of events,” he warns.
But he will certainly be available in person when Nuvo reunites for a concert next year. “We’re thinking of maybe March, so that means going back to rehearsals as a band by January.”
If Kong can keep up his current labour rate, he could be one of few celebrities able to stay busy into the “senior” years. We wouldn’t mind at all if he’s still one of the most in-demand celebrities at age 50.
Celebrity spam wars
The celebrity battle against fak ran – in which fans flog their products and services for free in the guise of “comments” on the stars’ Instagram channels – grinds on. It’s become all too common to take advantage of the rich and famous, especially if they have a million or more followers, by posting a message in their chat threads “asking permission” to advertise your own stuff. The stars have the guaranteed audience and you get to share it at no charge – but some of the stars are miffed.
Patcharapa “Aum” Chaicheu and Chermarn “Ploy” Boonyasak have voiced annoyance and the fak ran pests are feeling the backlash as genuine fans agree to boycott their wares. Actress Araya “Chompoo” A Hargate took a more subtle tack recently when she was posting pictures from the fancy-dress Disney-theme party she hosted for her 33rd birthday.
“Please refrain from fak ran as a location check-in of each photo,” she added to the captions – and it worked! The cheeky “entrepreneurs” stayed away from the snaps of Chompoo dressed as Princess Elsa from the animated film “Frozen” and the fan comments stayed relevant to the photos in question. The one seen here drew almost 76,000 “likes” from among Chompoo’s million followers.
Panisara “Opal” Pimpru managed to fend off the spam too – with a bald-faced threat. “If you fak ran I will block you immediately,” she mentions sans subtlety in her photo captions. Well, nobody wants to get blocked by Opal!
So there you have it, Mr and Ms Celebrity. You can shoo away the opportunists by using either Chompoo’s strategy of “kindly requesting” or Opal’s menacing “fak ran and die”. The only question we have about the latter approach is, if the stars end up banning all these people on Instagram, where would they take their maddening little ads next?
