TABLES TURN ON DJ, POST-DIVORCE BLUES, COMEDIAN A ‘MODERN DAD’
Keng apologises for rant
Disgraced DJ Pattarasak “Keng” Thiemprasert has apologised after netizens rounded on him for criticising jailed former TV news anchor Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda, whom he says presented one-eyed coverage of his 2016 road rage drama.
Keng, who is trying to rehabilitate his reputation after the road rage attack when he rammed his pickup into a Toyota Yaris but blamed the other driver for the scrape, only to find his actions had been filmed, found himself in strife again last week for his Sorrayuth stance.
Writing on social media, Keng, who works for 89 Gift FM, said he “forgave” Sorrayuth, who presented news stories on the attack and has since suffered his own problems with the law.
Sorrayuth was jailed late last month after the Appeal Court upheld his 13-year, four-month sentence for embezzling 138 million baht in state advertising revenue. The presenter must await his appeal in jail after the Supreme Court later rejected his bail application.
Sorrayuth still has a strong fan club following despite his fall from grace. His supporters took issue with Keng’s remarks, which suggested Sorrayuth was partly to blame for the public backlash which followed Keng’s own actions.
They bombarded his Facebook with criticism and left angry comments at his employer’s website. Some also asked menacingly when he starts work each day, as if planning to lie in wait for him at the station.
Adding insult to injury, presenters from Sorrayuth’s former news show also weighed in, saying they had been through old tapes of the programme but found nothing amiss. They said Keng had no one to blame for his fate but himself.
A chastened Keng later offered a public apology and said he was prepared to deliver it in person to Sorrayuth in jail if that would help.
The Bangkok North Municipal Court in March last year sentenced Keng to three months in jail for the road rage attack, which was caught on security camera. Keng is appealing against the ruling.
Earlier, he said: “I acted honestly and good intentions. I don’t want bad feeling or bad karma between us, so forgave him,” he said, insisting the presenter played a role in destroying his reputation after the road rage attack.
“Where other news outlets merely provided updates, Sorrayuth invited the driver of the Yarris, my co-litigant, on his show for four days in a row, interspersed personal opinions in his commentary, and referred to me in unflattering terms,” he said.
“I am unhappy that he listened to just one side of the story and didn’t wait for me to present evidence in my defence. He tried to whip up the story so it grew bigger and bigger.”
Keng, who insists Sorrayuth is a hero of his, said he acknowledges his status as a victim of society and said he took his latest scrape with public opinion as a life lesson.
Meanwhile, a former jailbird whose brush with the law was also covered on TV by Sorrayuth but who appears to harbour no ill-feeling has come forward to urge the presenter to own up to his sins.
Writing on Instagram, convicted fraudster Nathan Oman last week said it was time for Sorrayuth to admit the embezzlement charges against him and ask for public forgiveness.
“I would like to say: Stop. Enough. Admit what you did because your case has been before the public and two courts,” he wrote.
“Society can make its own judgements. I was once sentenced to two years in jail but served only seven months. As well as society forgiving me, the justice system also gave me opportunities.”
Good works that Sorrayuth had performed while covering news events, such as helping victims of the 2004 tsunami, would stand him in good stead during sentencing if he was prepared to own up, he said.
Nathan, who was jailed in 2010 for defrauding a market trader in Loei province of 700,000 baht, said he had no bad feelings about Sorrayuth’s coverage at the time.
Netizens have heaped praise on Nathan for his stance.
Couple struggle after parting ways
Presenter Peter Corp Dyrendal and his former wife are having a tough time managing their divorce after their differences spilled into the open last week.
In an interview, air hostess Ployphan “Ploy” Taveerat said Peter leaves her to pay most of the upkeep for their two young sons along with school term fees.
She also picks up the burden of taking them to school and picking them up again, adding Peter is hard to contact when she needs help.
The pair formally ended their troubled four-year union at the Wattana district office in July after earlier reaching a divorce agreement. Both parties pledged to refrain from public comment on the other so that they could restart their lives.
“I will have to stop talking about him for the rest of my life or I will end up in court,” Ploy said.
The agreement is now unravelling, with Ploy openly complaining about Peter and the presenter returning jibes in the media.
Peter insisted he had met the terms of the agreement. “I can’t tell you how much I pay, but I haven’t done anything wrong,” he insisted.
He claimed Ploy liked to make his access to the kids difficult, despite the two having agreed terms for his visits.
“Is she trying to discredit me? Will the public look at me poorly again? Will I have a problem with my producers again? All these people support my work and my kids’ future,” he said.
The couple’s marital row went public in July 2015 when Ploy published a picture of her and their then infant children on social media, asking when Peter was intending to visit them again.
After enduring months of criticism for walking out on his wife and family, Peter resurfaced in May the following year to ask for a divorce. In later months he also returned home to see the children.
Peter said he was puzzled by Ploy’s latest comments. “Ploy asked me to help care for them when she is at work, but stopped sending me her flight schedule months ago,” he said. “I am happy to step in, but I need a bit of notice.”
He had offered to help ferry the kids about, but she preferred to do it herself.
Despite their troubles, they were in regular contact on the Line app and spoke earlier in the week. “I gave Ploy everything she asked for so that I could see my kids,” he said, adding he hoped to see them again this weekend as arranged.
Nui ‘understands his son well’
Comedian Chukiart “Nui Chernyim” Eamsuk is winning praise after taking his teenage son for a facial and nail treatment, weeks after wearing flak on social media for pillorying the lad on TV for being soft like a girl.
Netizens are lauding Nui as a “modern dad” after he took his son, Pooh, 13, and his stepsister out for the day recently.
Pooh, who has previously admitted being confused about his gender identity, poses happily for pictures at the beauty clinic and a meal beforehand, where Nui asks good-naturedly whether he might be smiling too sweetly for the camera.
“Never mind, son, Dad likes it,” he wrote.
“Whatever makes my son happy, I will do it. I ask only that my son is a good lad for me and society at large. That’s enough.”
Netizens were enthusiastic. “This is a warm, supportive family. Nui obviously understands his son well and is a good example of a modern dad,” one wrote.
The favourable reaction contrasts with criticism last month when Nui and his comedian wife Siriporn “Tuck” Yooyord came under fire for teasing their son on TV.
The pair make fun of the boy, who appears on TV with them, about whether he is a “real man” (gay or straight), with co-hosts and others joining in.
Nui told the media Pooh had come to him, confused about his gender identity, after the teasing on TV spilled into his private life.
Among the critics were celebrity chef and TV host Ajarn Yingsak Jong le rt jesda wong, who said the boy’s parents should have stayed silent.
“Why must he start his life being made an object of fun? And why are his parents making such comments to the media? Don’t do it to him, he’s just a kid,” said Ajarn Yingsak, who himself pursues a fluid gender identity.
In response, Nui and Tuck said they would support their son, no matter what kind of young man he wanted to be.