Insta-buzz: What the stars were up to this week

Insta-buzz: What the stars were up to this week

In a nutshell, this week’s celeb social media roundup includes: birthdays (of course), an idol’s long-awaited Instagram comeback, a rather cheeky denial of wedding rumours, the Golden Globes, one hot shoemaker, and many more...

Team Ya Hui celebrates 7th anniversary

Ya Hui expressed her gratitude to her fans for their support over the years on her fan club’s 7th birthday last Sunday by personally making mee hoon kueh for them… from scratch!

According to details provided by The Celebrity Agency, the process took hours and Ya Hui was still cooking all the way up to the minute before the gathering began. Her dish turned out to be a hit as everything was soon wiped out, with its lucky devourers praising it as “smooth and springy” (great, now we’re craving some too).

You may be wondering: why mee hoon kueh? “Many fans requested to try my mee hoon kueh after the airing of the variety show Taste from Home, and I could also put what I learnt during the show to use,” Ya Hui explained. “My fans have always spent hours waiting just to give me support and cheer me on, and on our Team Ya Hui’s anniversary, I wanted to give my all for them too.” Awww…

The handmade noodles weren’t the only thing creative Ya Hui made for fans - she also designed red packets for everyone. And she didn’t go home empty-handed herself as fans surprised her with a beautiful booklet full of love and memories.

Photos: The Celebrity Agency

Michelle Yeoh dazzles at the Golden Globes

The 76th Golden Globe Awards took place last Sunday (Monday morning local time) and the Malaysian-born superstar absolutely killed it on the red carpet in a gorgeous green gown that matched the giant emerald ring (yes, the same one from Crazy Rich Asians!) on her finger.

Later in the evening, Michelle shared a few more snapshots from her time at the prestigious event, including wefies with Bradley Cooper and Constance Wu, and a screenshot that showed her sitting at the same table with Bradley and Lady Gaga.

Photo: Instagram/Michelle Yeoh

Fiona Xie has fun at Golden Globes after-party

We admit that we’re kind of bummed that we didn’t get to see the Singapore cast of Crazy Rich Asians attend the Golden Globes together, but hey, at least Fiona was at the after-party, looking absolutely fabulous and like she was having a whale of a time.

In fact, she was living in the moment so much that she “didn’t take any [personal] photos or videos”, which is probably how the rest of us should be endeavouring to live our lives as well. Put that phone down!

Photos: Instagram/Fiona Xie

Andrea De Cruz shows support for Constance Wu

Constance may have lost the Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy gong to Olivia Colman at the 2019 Golden Globes, but hey, she is definitely still a winner in our hearts, as her Crazy Rich Asian co-star Pierre Png’s wife Andrea gushed on Instagram. Isn’t that picture of the two of them adorable?

Photo: Instagram/Andrea De Cruz

Singapore stars do us proud at Asia Rainbow TV Awards

The 4th Asia Rainbow TV Awards was held in picturesque Sanya, China from January 10 to 12, and several of the Lion City's very own artistes were honoured with accolades, including Jesseca Liu (Outstanding Leading Actress in a Comedy), Kym Ng (Outstanding Host), Joanna Dong (Best Host), and Darren Lim (Best Host). Local programmes were also commended, such as C.L.I.F. 4 (Outstanding Action Drama) and Hero (Outstanding Comedy Show).

A huge congratulations to all!

Photos: Instagram/The Celebrity Agency, Jesseca Liu, Kym Ng

Hong Hui Fang wishes for a smooth-sailing 2019

Given all the real-life drama that happened in 2018, it’s not all that surprising that the veteran actress would aim for a happy and smooth-sailing 2019 for her (and her daughter Tay Ying) on her 59th birthday, which fell on Monday.

Hui Fang’s son Calvert also dedicated a sweet post to his mama on Instagram, thanking her for loving her two mischievous kids unconditionally all these years. That’s what mothers do, right?

Photos: Instagram/Hong Hui Fang, Calvert Tay

Zoe Tay, Hong Hui Fang’s joint birthday celebration

Zoe’s 51st birthday celebration this year was a lot more intimate than last year’s star-studded extravaganza, but it looked just as fancy and just as heart-warming for Ah Jie and her fellow birthday gal Hui Fang.

Besides this dinner, Hui Fang was also treated to a nice birthday lunch by her daughter Tay Ying. So sweet!

Photos: Instagram/Chen Xiuhuan, Tay Ying

Zoe Tay shows off birthday cards from her "lovers"

Ah Jie was showered with tons of love and gifts on her birthday from famous friend and big companies, but we believe these hand-drawn cards from her sons are the most precious of all.

That said, we can't stop laughing at the matching messages found in both of them: designer handbags are approved, but drinking is not. Wonder what happened to make them impose such a random restriction?

Photos: Instagram/Zoe Tay

Nathan Hartono surprises girlfriend on birthday

Awww, why are these two always so cute? The singer surprised his Dutch-Korean girlfriend and The Great Wall co-star, Na Young Jeon, with a cake to celebrate her January 9 birthday, and shared the video on his Instagram with a caption written in Dutch.

Photos: Instagram/Nathan Hartono

Yvonne Lim celebrates daughter’s birthday

An adorable cake for adorable #happyAlexa. Yvonne’s daughter turned 2 last Sunday (my, how time flies!) and the actress happily reported that the birthday girl really seemed to enjoy herself, judging “by the smiles [and] gasps she made upon seeing the decor, especially the cake!” We certainly don’t blame her.

Yvonne also took a moment to express amazement at her own ability to organise another party so soon after her older son A.J.’s birthday had just passed. What can we say? Mums can do anything.

Photos: Instagram/Yvonne Lim

D.O.'s EXO members wish him happy birthday

The idol vocalist turned 26 on Saturday, and two of his bandmates took to their respective Instagram pages to wish him happy birthday with two very different-looking pictures: leader Suho's had the both of them giving serious, smouldering looks, while maknae (youngest member) Sehun's was cute, chummy, and even came complete with D.O. in a party hat.

Photos: Instagram/Suho, Sehun

Ann Kok enjoys birthday dinner with friends

Yet another person who had their birthday this week was Ann, who turned 46(!?) on Friday. She celebrated the occasion with a bunch of good buddies - including Jesseca Liu, Jeremy Chan,, Patricia Mok, and another birthday boy - with dinner, #whisky, and #champagne (Jeremy happily hashtagged the latter two in his post).

Photo: Instagram/Jesseca Liu

Leanne Li shares first look at baby daughter

The actress finally released the very first photo of her and husband Wong Cho Lam’s first child, daughter Gabrielle, on Instagram on Wednesday, which was also Cho Lam’s 39th birthday.

“I have two babies now!” she wrote. “Husband, do you like this year’s birthday present?” Just look at the way he’s holding and kissing his bundle of joy… of course he does!

Photo: Instagram/Leanne Li

Hans Chung finally reunites with Christopher Lee

After being unable to find time to hang out during Hans’s visit to Singapore last month, the Mr. Right Wanted co-stars finally met up at the Catwalk Fashion Party in Taiwan earlier this week, which was also attended by Chris Lee and Christopher’s brother Frederick.

In his caption, Hans thanked Christopher for the gift for Hans’s son. Hmmm, wonder what the present was?

Photo: Instagram/Hans Chung

Taeyeon takes mass wefie in Singapore

Near the end of her first solo concert here, the Girls' Generation leader whipped out her phone and took a wefie video with the audience and her band, and posted it a couple of hours later. Just wondering: did any of you manage to spot yourselves in the clip?

Photos: Instagram/Taeyeon

Donnie Yen revisits film set from 15 years ago

Remember the epic alley fight scene between Donnie and Wu Jing in 2005’s SPL: Sha Po Lang (a.k.a. Kill Zone)? Almost 15 years later, Donnie revisited the same location to shoot his new film Enter the Fat Dragon, and according to his Instagram post, he was wearing the exact same leather jacket as he did back then. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that it still fits him as well as it did last time.

Photos: Instagram/Donnie Yen

Erm, is it Halloween already, Eric Nam?

Nope, the Korean-American crooner is just filming an episode of a variety here in Singapore. As for why he is all dolled up like a Chinese opera performer, we guess we’ll have to wait until the episode airs to find out.

Photos: Instagram/Eric Nam

More stars take on JJ Lin’s tongue twister challenge

Since JJ launched the #JJtonguetwisterbattle about two weeks ago, many of his fellow celebs have taken on the challenge, which involves attempting to properly finish saying a complicated tongue twister in under 10 seconds (we looked at the text and don’t even want to try).

This week, new contenders included Luhan, Tanya Chua, Wilber Pan and Lala Hsu. Lala nailed it in 9.67 seconds (impressive), Luhan did it in 11.22 seconds (almost there!), Tanya took 12 seconds (also close), while Wilber sort of just gave up halfway and started rapping nonsense (our favourite rendition, to be honest).

Photos: Instagram/JJ Lin

Lawrence Wong proves that he’s good with his hands

Wow. We guess if this whole acting thing doesn’t work out, the Story of Yanxi Palace hunk can start his own handmade shoe company. One question, though: does it really require that much flexing to sew and cut leather? Not that there’s anything wrong, or that we’re complaining…

Photos: Instagram/Lawrence Wong

Hwang Minhyun finally returns to Instagram

After a year and a half away from the social media platform, the NU’EST and Wanna One member finally made his “comeback” with a post consisting of three photos of him at the beach. After ooh-ing and ahh-ing at how handsome he looks in the first two, we burst out laughing when we got to his yawning pic at the end. Too cute.

Photos: Instagram/Hwang Minhyun

More Wanna One members join Instagram

Following Minhyun's return to Instagram, as well as Kang Daniel and Yoon Jisung's inductions into the social media site, more of their Wanna One bandmates have also hopped on with their own individual accounts: Lai Kuanlin shared his first post on Monday, while Kim Jaehwan and Park Jihoon launched their pages on Wednesday and Thursday respectively. Fans, rejoice!

Photos: Instagram/Lai Kuanlin, Park Jihoon, Kim Jaehwan

Hong Ling, Nick Teo conquer Mount Batur together

The loved-up and #fitnessgoals couple embarked on a romantic and adventurous getaway to Bali earlier this week, and instead of lounging lazily on the beach, one of the first things on their itinerary was to wake up at 1.30am to begin their trek up Mount Batur. Their hard work was rewarded with a view of a “sky full of stars” and “the most beautiful sunrise” they had ever seen.

Photos: Instagram/Hong Ling, Nick Teo

We thought those were toy sellers too, Ah Wu

Those are some… interesting tote bags. No wonder Qi Yuwu mistook their owners as toy sellers, expressing his relief that he actually didn’t say anything (presumably, “How much for the Daisy Duck doll?”).

Photo: Instagram/Qi Yuwu

Sharon Au lands her own Parisian pad

“Finally signed the papers to my apartment. Feeling somewhat surreal. Stood at the balcony for the longest time wondering if this is really happening.” We can’t wait to see how Sharon decorates her new place, although we must say that those views of the Eiffel Tower already give it some major points in the tres chic department, even when empty.

Photos: Instagram/Sharon Au

Sheila Sim can't stop crying on set

The emotional scenes in Bryan Wong’s directorial debut must be really intense, judging from star Sheila’s anecdote about shedding more tears in a few days than she has in the past two years.

“There are times, i just couldn't stop even after ‘Cut’, because the pain just goes in so deep. This pic was one of those moments (sic)”, she explained in her caption. Thankfully, Bryan was always there to give “a strong, big hug” after every crying scene to make her feel better.

Photo: Instagram/Sheila Sim

The Woo twins meet the By2 twins

We saw double times two when Jayley and Hayley Woo met up with Yumi and Miko Bai. By the way, did Jayley not get the memo about showing off an enviably trim midriff?

Photo: Instagram/Jayley Woo

Wilber Pan denies marriage rumours

On Wednesday, the singer personally took to his Instagram page to address reports that he has tied the knot with his pregnant flight stewardess girlfriend.

“I know everyone is concerned about my wedding news and I'm grateful for that. But I don’t think that fabricating news in order to create a 'sensational' story is right," he wrote. “I believe that when I really get married and have kids, I will share the good news with everyone.” He then ended his statement with a cheeky declaration that he was going to start losing weight. Um, all the best?

Photo: Instagram/Wilber Pan

Chew Chor Meng, Dennis Chew’s porridge stall opens another outlet

Great news for easties: The Famous Zhou, which first opened in Ang Mo Kio, can now be found at T-Space, Tampines. These two entrepreneurial actors’ food empire is really growing!

P.S. Just dropping a friendly reminder to always check the geotag and/or caption before leaving a comment to ask for more details about something...

Photo: Instagram/Dennis Chew

Hannah Quinlivan shows off daughter’s art

We must say that Mrs. Jay Chou has an oddly calm reaction to Hathaway scribbling all over the walls of their house. Hannah believes that the little girl’s masterpiece depicts a “family photo”, and that the figure with the longest legs “must be” her. But why is she bald?

Photos: Instagram/Hannah Quinlivan

Jade Seah remembers grandma on anniversary of passing

Last Sunday marked a year since Jade lost her beloved grandmother, and she admitted that “it’s been hard”.

“This Christmas was the first one she wasn't with us, and we all felt it. Have just not had much Christmas mood this year, nor mood for much in general, to be honest - although life goes on, and I've tried to as well”, she wrote. “Still learning how to cope with death, still not doing great at it. I know she is in a better place; that she is finally back with grandpa, because she really missed him the years after he left. I'm quite sure she's happier now. While comforting thoughts, they don't take away the great sense of loss.”

Photo: Instagram/Jade Seah

‘The Little Nyonya’ wraps up filming in Malaysia

“In the blink of an eye, filming in Johor Bahru, Kuala Lumpur, and Penang has ended… next stop, Haikou and Shanghai”, reported Xiang Yun, who plays the impeccably dressed Chen family matriarch. Well, that was fast. Didn’t they just have their lensing ceremony!?

Photos: Instagram/Xiang Yun