TANGMO CUT UP, KATHOEY STRIKES BACK, AOF’S OFF DAY
Actress in denial
Actress Pattaratida “Tangmo” Patcharaveerapong suspects she still has an influence over her former fiance, singer and actor Pakin “Tono” Kumvilaisak, even though he has cut off all contact with her.
Tono won’t return calls and takes extraordinary steps to ensure he doesn’t have to meet Tangmo. However, the actress says this shows he still has feelings for her, and holds out hope he might one day come back.
“If I was the last person left in the world, he still wouldn’t talk to me. He never makes contact. We share the same manager and he keeps in touch with my fan club, but not me,” she said.
“I can only conclude that I still have some influence over his life. If he thought he could just quit with me, and that would be that, we could at least still be friends.”
Tangmo claims she is 70% back to normal after her messy break-up with Tono in July, when she tried to take her own life with an overdose of sleeping pills after he declared at a concert that he was now back in the singles market.
Tono has been linked to several actresses since, though Tangmo seems unable to shake off her past.
“I don’t know if I am really still in his heart, but I can’t think of why else he can’t talk to me, even though we were deeply in love. We were really the same person. He might hate me ... someone who loves strongly could end up hating too when a relationship ends. That, or he has someone new and he wants to cut out the past from his life,” she said.
Opening up last week about her emotional recovery since their parting, Tangmo said Tono has not come back to the house they shared since he dropped off a car they had bought together.
He took extreme steps to ensure they didn’t have to meet, she said. When Tono dropped off the vehicle, he didn’t tell anyone he was coming, and enlisted the help of friends to stage a dramatic soap opera-like getaway scene from her home.
“He dropped off the car and keys even though I wasn’t there to take them back from him. He drove the car and had a friend follow him on a motorbike, so he could take off as soon as he had parked it outside my place. He went back on his friend’s bike. No sooner had he cleared my soi than he got into someone else’s car.
“When I found out, I didn’t fly off the handle, but I did wonder what it was all about. Why did we need the scene with the motorbike? I wonder if this is the real Tono that I willed myself not to see.”
Tangmo said she knows her former mate well, and can read telltale signs about his behaviour.
“I think he must have someone new. He’s changed his car. We bought that vehicle together. If he had someone else sit in it, it wouldn’t look good.”
In happier days, her former fiance converted to her Christian religion so they could be together. Tangmo said she is a stronger person now, less needy than the past.
“If Tono came back now, he’s changed; I would rather not have him. If he comes back as before, then I am OK. But the person you see today is not the Tono I knew then,” she said.
“Time is helping to heal me, and has made me closer to God. Before, I was confused to the point where I forgot the Lord. I put myself before Him, and started expecting things of other people.
“It’s just like anyone else, we end up disappointed if we place our hopes in the wrong things.”
Asked about life as a single woman, Tangmo said she is actually more popular now as a “widow” (someone who has broken up with a lover) than the days when she was truly single.
“These days it’s queer being a widow. We’re more popular than the singles. I am at a loss, though I have tried to figure it out. It’s not that widows are trying to look more beautiful. Men want a woman with experience, someone who has tried to find a mate, with success or failure. They know then whether that person is ready,” she said.
For his part, Tono told reporters last week he, too, is single, though he is in no rush to find anyone new.
Loans affair turns nasty
A kathoey fashion designer accused of duping a Bangkok couple out of 7.5 million baht, supposedly to help superstar Patcharapa “Aum” Chaichuea, has laid a counter-complaint with police.
Patcharawat “Jorm” Kamhaeng, a local personality in Nakhon Si Thammarat and member of Aum’s fan club, laid a defamation complaint with police last week after the couple, who run a well-known Bangkok second-hand car business, went public with their complaint.
Chayada Chinawit, an accountant for her family’s car business, The One, in Srinakarin Road, and, like Jorm, a keen member of Aum’s fan club, complained to Crime Suppression Division police last month that Jorm duped her out of the money.
She was accompanied by her elder brother, Preecha, who runs the business.
Ms Chayada said Jorm, whom she met about six years ago, borrowed the money from her in about 10 instalments, starting in July. She said Jorm contacted her to say Aum was ill with ovarian cancer and needed the money to pay for treatment. The star did not want not go public with the news.
After Jorm failed to repay the money, Mr Preecha contacted Aum, who denied she was ill, or putting up Jorm to ask for the money.
Speaking at Muang Si Thammarat police station last week, Jorm said the publicity had hurt her standing in the community. While admitting she knew the couple who run the car business, she denied swindling them.
She and her lawyer would give more details in due course, but in the meantime are asking the public to suspend judgement.
“The public doesn’t know the truth, so all they do is criticise,” she said, vowing to fight the case to the end.
Singer complains of threats
Singer Pongsak “Aof” Rattanaphong has laid a police complaint after an internet critic threatened him and his manager with physical harm.
Discussing his complaint last week, Aof, who is gay, said a “keyboard warrior” had left an unpleasant message on Instagram in response to a recent post, and sent a threatening message to his manager, Bow.
Aof is known for posting sexy images on social media, which upsets some netizens, though he says that is no reason for them to infringe his rights. The brusquely worded message to his manager read:
“Hey you, Bow ... why not try warning that guy Aof ... there’s a time and place for these things. You’re gay, yet society gives you a chance, so we expect you to conduct yourself properly ... don’t let him go too far, or one day you’ll get a kick in the face. Warn him too.”
Aof copied his critic’s message to Instagram to make an example of him, and followed it up with a defamation complaint.
“Not only has he breached my rights, but he threatened us as well,” Aof said.
The singer said his critic first vented his feelings in response to a post in which Aof offered moral support to ailing actor Tridsadee “Por” Sahawong, who has dengue fever.
He then found his manager’s phone number, which Aof publishes on his Instagram, and abused him as well.
Police are investigating.