Tony Jaa can't even afford new underpants
Reconciliation between Sahamongkol Film chief Somsak "Sia Jiang" Techarattanaprasert and action star Thatchakorn "Tony Jaa" Yeerum remains as remote a possibility as getting the yellow shirts to pay for Thaksin's airfare home.
Not even Jaa’s mother-in-law, Wanna Surawitayanon, could make dent in the stand-off when she tried pulling a Banharn this week.
Wanna told ASTV Manager that Jaa was basically cash-poor when he married her daughter, Bung. “All he had were some almost worn-out underpants,” she said, painting a very pathetic picture indeed. Bung, of course, accompanied Jaa to that fateful meeting with Sia Jiang in early August about terminating the contract he’d renewed only the day before. Bung told the boss that Jaa didn’t want to keep working for Bt50,000 a month. They agreed that Jaa could bolster his income with commercial work.
“So they were puzzled to see Sia Jiang holding press conferences,” Wanna says. And there’s Jaa so keen to work in Hollywood that he’s started learning English. “I believe Jaa would continue working with Sia Jiang after the Hollywood project,” she says. He’s not the ungrateful type. “His salary isn’t much and every month he sends Bt10,000 to his parents, and Bt25,000 goes to car instalments, so there’s not much left.”
Wanna advised Jaa to open a small business, maybe a restaurant, but he insists on following his dream. “All I want to do is tell people to give him moral support and put the record straight that he’s not the ungrateful type,” she says.
Stay tuned for the next episode later today at a press conference about the premiere of “Tom Yam Goong 2” on October 23. Jaa has been invited, says the studio, but hasn’t confirmed he will attend. If he does, it will be him and Sia Jiang, no holds barred.
Father knows best
Actress Warattaya “Jui” Nilkuha is glad that Praew magazine’s latest issue has been gobbled up in its entirety, thanks to TV news-talk host Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda posing with 12 hot stars – including her. Jui’s fans love it, but her dad doesn’t. He says her shot with Sorrayuth is too intimate.
It’s true that while the other actresses merely stand by his side, Jui’s got her head resting in his lap, and he’s caressing her bare shoulder. Too much for her old man, who she calls “very possessive”.
But rather than “intimate”, the pose was quite tense, Jui reveals. They were both nervous and she couldn’t relax her head and shoulders. So why, then, her dad wanted to know, does Sorrayuth say in the magazine that Jui is his favourite actress?
Well, Jui must have got him going. Each of the actresses had to ask him a question, and she asked it he could do without his eyeglasses on the show. Sorrayuth said he certainly would if Jui were there with him, “but I wouldn’t dare have eye contact with you because then I’d be too shy to work!”
We reckon her dad’s right.
