20131222_seoulbeats_BH3It’s the most wonderful time of year and whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or nothing at all–here’s wishing you a safe and wonderful holiday season with your family and friends from the Seoulbeats family.  All I want for Christmas? The promised new Big Bang song and… World Peace.  Here’s some of the biggest stories, events and debuts from the past week in the K-popiverse.

  • News broke of a celebrity prostitution ring with many top female celebrities like Lee Da-hae, Solbi, Kim Sa-rang and Yoon Eun-hae rumored to be involved.  Those allegations proved to be false, but it was revealed that twelve individuals were indicted including eight celebrities. Understandably, the actresses named in the rumors are seeking legal counsel to sue those that spread the malicious comments. (Osen)
  • Loen Entertainment invested 15 billion won in acquiring 70% of Starship Entertainment‘s stocks taking over control of the company. (isplus)
  • Hwayoung, former T-ara member that was at the center of the group’s bullying controversy has finally signed with another entertainment company. Wellmade Star M reported that they have signed a contract with Hwayoung and will train her as an actress. (Newsen)
  • Busker Busker‘s leader Jang Bum-joon will be getting married to his rookie actress girlfriend Song Ji-soo early next year. Jang Bum-joon was going to begin his military enlistment next year, but decided to postpone that because his girlfriend is pregnant and they decided to get married. It’s bittersweet news for Busker Busker fans though, as it was also announced that the band will stop all promotions for now as each member is pursuing individual activities. (wowtv)
  • F.T. Island front man Lee Hong-ki recently suffered injuries after slipping on ice.  He apparently went with staff to eat dinner after filming for the upcoming drama, Bride of the Century, and when they were leaving the restaurant he slipped on ice outside the restaurant dislocating a shoulder and fracturing his face.  This resulted in a suspension of filming of his parts for the drama and postponement of the FNC Entertainment Family Concert that was supposed to be on December 28th and 29th. Some fans (?) must have been a bit upset as malicious comments started popping up about Hong-ki accusing him of trying to evade military service. (enews24)
  • 41 year old Hallyu superstar Bae Yong-joon has revealed that he is currently dating a 27 year old non-celebrity who is the daughter of a Korean Corporation. News of Yong-sama’s dating first broke in Japan and then Korea.  The two have supposedly been dating for three months and have traveled together to Hawaii and Japan. (kihoilbo)
  • Women’s Sense magazine is claiming that 37 year old actor So Ji-sub has been dating After School‘s Joo-yeon, who is 27, for over a year. The report says that the two were introduced by MBLAQ‘s G.O. and have even traveled to the US together. (GlobalStarN)
  • Married actors Yoo Ji-tae and Kim Hyo-jin are expecting. The couple were married in 2011 and Kim hyo-jin is about 4 months pregnant. (Chosun)

In K-pop:

  • K-pop Star season 1 contestant Baek Ji-woong released “I Miss You,” Brown City released the smooth jam “I Have People Like You” featuring Kilo of Equality, The Nuts released “Twirl,” Double K released “Nom” featuring Jay Park, FreshBoyz released a slightly raunchy “Koala,”LA Dodgers’ pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin has been busy on the off season back in Korea–he recently collaborated with Cube Entertainment to do the Ryu-Cube Donation Project song “Smile Again” featuring himself, G.Na, And Troublemakers‘ Hyuna and Hyun-seung which will benefit visually impaired students at the Hanbit Performing Arts Company, Cube Entertainment also uploaded behind the scenes videos of Jun-hyung‘s MV and photo shoot for his “Flower,” Hyorin released a behind the scenes MV of her hit debut song “One Way Love,” Bumkey and Verbal Jint collaborated for the song “Only For You” for the Deux 20th anniversary album, FNC Entertainment released a ‘romantic cut’ version of C.N. Blue‘s Jong-hyun and Juniel‘s duet “Love Falls” AlphaBat had a “Surprise Party,” Geeks, Phantom and Esna sang of “Mistletoe,”  Ali sang the duet “I Love You” with Lim Jae-bum and Standing Egg shared a beautiful “Moment” with fans.
  • 20131222_seoulbeats_BH2YG Entertainment presented their subunit BH which includes Park Bom and Lee Hi with their version of “All I Want for Christmas is You.” Their rearrangement of the song slows it down a lot and the MV with weird scenes of  Bom and Hi lying down among flowers and singing with eyes closed, making what I’m guessing is some kind of brew and carrying around an axe–made me expect the MV to turn out to be a stalker-like Misery version of the song.

 

  •  SHINee surprised fans with a “Colorful” Christmas gift.

 

  • Big Hit family members Jo Kwon, Lim Jeong-hee Joo Hee, Rap Monster and Jong-Kook  collaborated for a “Perfect Christmas.”

  • BESTie released the spirited “Zzang Christmas” featuring Yoo Sae-yoon.

  • IU released “Friday” which features History‘s Jang Yi-jeong.  It’s a nice little jazzy piece that really highlights IU’s husky vocals and it has a cute MV to go with it.

  • Zion T released his throwback trot-dub style song “Miss Kim” which sounded a lot like reggae to me with its syncopated organ beat.

  • Duble Sidekick released their latestsong , a duet with K.Will and Noel‘s Jeon Woo-sung titled“Perfume” with the MV starring Lee Seung-gi.

  • It must be the season for sad male power ballads as Brown Eyed Soul also released their latest “You” which features actors Kim Young-kwang and Kyung Soo-jin in an MV that depicts a chance meeting of two former first loves.

  • One of K-pop’s power duos, Super Junior‘s Donghae and Eunhyuk, released a new song “Still You” with an MV shot in the UK.

  •  To celebrate their first music show win back on the December 6th episode of Music Bank with “Voodoo Doll,” VIXX held a chicken party with fans on December 14th at a chicken restaurant in Gangnam. (SportsDonga)

 

In K-dramas:

  • Jung Woo, Yoo Yeon-suk and Sohn Ho-jun collaborated in the song “Feeling Only You” for the OST of their hit drama Reply 1994 and lead actress Go Ara contributed the song “Start” and LedApple‘s lead singer Han-byul sang “Going to You” for the Pretty Man OST.
  • Anyone else pleasantly surprised by the awesomeness that is the Prime Minister and I You? I’ve enjoyed Lee Bum-soo in dramas before and like Yoona, but wasn’t expecting much from the drama.  Thankfully so far it has been a fun drama which has luckily taken over my Monday and Tuesday nights. The other hit that filled up my Wedneday and Thursday drama watching slots are You From Another Star, which is money and Miss Korea which has potential, but the story kind of drags.  Jun Ji-hyun and Kim Soo-hyun are killing it in the drama (and in the ratings), but poor Yoo In-na is a sad second lead in love with her friend that only has eyes for the lead.

 

In K-variety:

  • The previously reported and denied rumors that the Dad! Where Are We Going? moving on to a second season with the current dads and kids leaving turned out to be true.  Actor Lee Jong-Hyuk announced during his appearance on the Cultwo Show that the current cast had already filmed their last episodes.  Their last trip was reportedly to Jeju Island with Season 2 of the show starting towards the ending of January with the producers currently casting the second season. (SportsDonga)
  • Am a little behind on all the K-variety shows, but I do know that this little girl from California is shaking up the scene on K-pop Star 3.

 

  • Former Saturday Night Live cast member and current actress, Kim Seul-gi wowed the Radio Star cast when she performed K-indie group Jaurim‘s 2006 song “Shining.”