Hollywood Stars Cancel Plans to Visit Seoul

Hollywood Stars Cancel Plans to Visit Seoul

By Han Sang-hee, Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Korean fans will have to wait to meet two high profile Hollywood stars, as Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones and American rocker Alice Cooper have cancelled their visits to Seoul.
The 38-year-old actress was scheduled to visit Korea for the first time as a part of her promotional tour of her new movie ``Death Defying Acts,'' but she had to return to the United States due to health problems.
According to E.ga Pictures, the promoter of the film, the actress felt sick during the Australia promotion, and thought it would be better to drop her schedule and head back to the U.S.
The movie ``Death Defying Acts'' is a romantic thriller that also stars Guy Pearce as the legendary magician, Harry Houdini. Zeta-Jones plays the psychic Mary McGarvie and the two of them get tangled up in a mysterious love story.
The Academy Award winner for her role in the musical movie ``Chicago,'' (2002) Zeta-Jones also starred in ``The Legend of Zorro'' (2005) and is married to Academy Award winner Michael Douglas.
Meanwhile, American rocker Alice Cooper's concert scheduled on Saturday has been postponed.
On its Web site, concert organizer Access Entertainment said Cooper postponed the concert due to personal reasons. There is a possibility the concert will be rescheduled soon. The singer will still hold his concert in Osaka, Japan.
The 60-year old pioneer of shock rock music, was scheduled to perform for the first time in Seoul at the Melon-AX, March 29. One of the best-known rockers of all time, Cooper combines heavy metal music with outrageous theatrics on stage.
Born as Vincent Furnier, Cooper started a band called Alice Cooper. They scored hit songs ``I'm Eighteen" and ``Love it to Death" in the early 1970s, and became known for their stage performances that featured guillotines and a boa constrictor.

sanghee@koreatimes.co.kr
cathy@koreatimes.co.kr

Summary

Hollywood stars, Catherine Zeta-Jones and American rocker Alice Cooper, cancel their plans to visit Seoul. Zeta-Jones cancels her plan because of her sickness. Alice Cooper postponed concert in Korea due to personal reason, but this singer will have the concert in Osaka, Japan.

My opinion
Hollywood stars had plans to visit Korea, but many stars canceled or postponed their plans due to personal reasons, schedule problems. However, these stars always visited Japan. I could not understand why these stars did not come my country. Japan is better than Korea? Korea has valuable traditional culture and Seoul is the one of the best cities in the world. So, what is the reason that many world stars do not want to visit Korea. I think the most reason is that Korea is not attractive and effective for foreign entertainment companies including Hollywood to sell their products such as movies, music. To overcome these cultural lacks from other countries, we should prepare and provide impressive marketing strategies presenting Korea with foreign entertainment companies. The essential element of marketing to pull foreign entertainment is differentiation. Many foreigner think Korea and Japan are same, and they treat these two countries have same culture. If they can recognize Korea culture has diverse and special culture contents, foreign entertainment companies have specialized advertisements and strategies fitting Korea.

20600517 Lee, yong jae - entry 3