Elton John, in Taipei for a concert, has sworn at reporters who swarmed around him at the airport and called them "rude, vile pigs". Wearing a bright blue tracksuit and dark sunglasses, the star shouted expletives as he was mobbed by photographers and TV crew. "Rude, vile pigs!" he shouted at the reporters at the Chiang Kai Shek airport after he arrived shortly after midnight. "Do you know what that means? Rude, vile pigs. That's what all of you are." One of the photographers shouted back: "Why don't you get out of Taiwan?" John replied: "We'd love to get out of Taiwan if it's full of people like you. Pig! Pig!" The star, who recently performed in Shanghai and Hong Kong, is scheduled to leave after his first performance in Taiwan on Thursday.

 White Chicks: Is the latest comedy from the wacky Wayans family who brought us the Scary Movie flicks. Keenan Ivory Wayans again directs his two bros, who have screenwriting and producer credits, but while it's nice to keep the work in the family the gags seem to have run dry. In the first five minutes Shawn and Marlon show off their impersonation skills as they play a couple of music-loving elderly Latin American shopkeepers offering some good laughs and getting us into their comedy headspace of light cultural satire, slapstick gags and low humour. Shawn and Marlon are in fact Marcus and Kevin, two lousy FBI agents who like to play the undercover renegade cop routine, without any success. To save their careers, they agree to look after the wealthy Wilton sisters who the FBI think are threatened with being kidnapped. Tiffany and Brittany Wilton - based on the Hilton sisters - are heading to the Hamptons, where they hope to be the stars of the last social weekend of the season. A car accident and a couple of tiny cuts later and the girls could not possibly show their faces in public. So Marcus and Kevin become the Wiltons - Michael Jackson would be jealous at the transformation. Even though the makeup is good, it's not good enough to be convincing. That the sisters' friends believe the imposters, is the film's running gag but it sure runs thin. Side stories such as Marcus' rocky marriage and Kevin's attempt to settle down don't offer many more laughs, although Terry Crews as Latrell Spencer, a super sexed up Afro-American pro-athlete on the look out for some nice white booty, delivers some memorable moments. Otherwise, it's a load of absolute nonsense, as might be expected from the Wayans. But even by their own dubious standards, it's less than inspired. CAST: Shawn Wayans, Marlon Wayans, Jaime King, Terry Crews, Busy Philipps. DIRECTOR: Keenan Ivory Wayans. RUNNING TIME: 109 mins. RATING: M (violence, sexual references). SCREENING: Village, Berkeley, Hoyts Cinemas.

 

Tom Cruise's first outing as a screen villain has seduced viewers and sent his latest film Collateral straight to the top of the UK box office. Cruise plays an assassin in the film but he managed to warm cinemagoers' hearts with a walkabout at its British premiere earlier this month, chatting to fans in Leicester Square for more than two hours. Screen International said weekend box office takings amounted to 2.2 million pounds for the thriller, which also stars comic actor Jamie Foxx.

 

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