Versatile celebrity launches diamond-shaped headphones after Korean restaurant in New YorkSinger Park Jin-young expanded his entertainment business by launching his new diamond-shaped headphones in Seoul on Friday. The product, named Monster Diamond Tears Headphones, was personally designed by Park and launched by U.S. company Monster. The music mogul, who serves as the head of JYP Entertainment, said he wanted to create a high-performance and stylish headset that goes well with any outfit.“Norm

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Kathryn Joosten, a character actress best known as the crotchety, yet loveable, Karen McCluskey on “Desperate Housewives” and the president’s secretary on “The West Wing,” has died. She was 72.Joosten, who had battled lung cancer for 11 years, died Saturday at her home in Los Angeles, her publicist Nadine Jolson said.Joosten “was surrounded by love and humor ‘til the end,’” her family said in a statement. “We are laughing through our tears.”Joosten won two Emmy awards for her

A rare 1932 cover illustration of "Tintin in America" by Herge, the artist who dreamed up the boy reporter, on Saturday fetched a record 1.3 million euros ($1.6 million) at an auction in Paris."The work has been sold at 1,338,509.20 euros, costs included, by a person who wishes to remain anonymous," a spokesman for the auctioneers, Artcurial, told AFP.The previous owner, another Tintin collector,

Park Jin-young Music mogul Park Jin-young celebrated the launch of his new Monster Diamond Tears headphones at a star-studded party at Hotel Ellui on Friday. Park, who sheads JYP Entertainment, suited up for the occasion, explaining why the high performance headset was special. "Nomally headphones are designed

Summer kicks off with multitude of music festivals around the countryNothing says summer in Korea like a music festival, and there is certainly no shortage of music events to attend. From rock, to indie, to electronic there is something for everyone ― no matter where you are located in the country.Kicking off this year’s run of festivals is the Rainbow Island Music and Camping festival on Nami Island from June 9-10. Headlining are American singer-songwriters Jason Mraz and Christina Perri.Other

Theater“La Cage aux Folles”: Award-winning musical star Jung Sung-hwa (“Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “Hero: the Musical”) is returning as a gay man in the first Korean run of the 1983 Broadway musical “La Cage aux Folles.” The six-time Tony Award-winning musical pivots around the story of gay couple Georges, who owns a nightclub called “La Cage aux Folles,” and Albin, the star drag queen of his partner’s club. Its plot develops as Jean-Michel, Georges’ son from an affair with a woman some 20 years

The Concubine (Korea)Opening June 6Thriller. Directed by Kim Dai-seung. Set in the Joseon era, a ruthless queen mother and former concubine (Park Ji-young) tries to concoct a plan to dethrone the current king (Jeong Chan), with whom she has no blood ties. Her goal is to somehow replace the king with her timid biological son, Prince Seong-won (Kim Dong-wook). Meanwhile, the prince falls in love at first sight with Hwa-yeon (Jo Yeo-jung), an aristocrat’s daughter, during his jaunt outside the roya

Spektor charms despite missteps on new CDRegina Spektor “What We Saw from the Cheap Seats” (Sire/Warner)From the opening moment of “What We Saw from the Cheap Seats,” Regina Spektor enchants. On the first song, “Small Town Moon,” her beautiful vocal range is buoyed by rock-heavy interludes and coupled with uplifting lyrics that give the song a surprising amount of depth.But there are a couple of missteps that momentarily detract from the album, on which she mines emotional territory covering lov

Give credit, at least, for a clever concept: “Snow White and the Huntsman” filters a classic fairy tale through the prism of a modern, special-effects driven, action-powered blockbuster, an idea so seemingly inevitable that it’s a surprise no one has quite done it before. (Terry Gilliam’s 2005 film “The Brothers Grimm” presumably was trying for something similar, but who could tell with all that bric-a-brac on the screen?).The result, not unlike the recent Sherlock Holmes pictures, is an intrigu

The 11th Mise-en-scene Short Film Festival to showcase 60 original piecesA lot of local aspiring filmmakers must be excited, as the annual Mise-en-scene Short Film Festival is kicking off this year’s edition.The festival, which celebrates its 11th installment this year, is dedicated to discovering new talent in Korea’s film scene. Some of the past winners of the festival include director Yoon Jong-bin, who later was invited to Cannes for his 2005 feature “The Unforgiven,” and Shin Jae-in, whose

Winners of Colombia’s first K-pop reality show take first step toward stardomThe winners of the first K-pop audition show overseas had their wishes come true when they performed in the homeland of Korean pop music on Wednesday.Since April, Arirang TV, Korea’s English-language broadcaster, and Caracol TV, a Colombian broadcaster, have jointly produced “K-pop Reality,” a K-pop audition show in Colombia.It was the first such show created jointly by a Korean and foreign broadcaster in a foreign coun