GOSSIPS

01/18/2001 : What's going on now?

This nippy Sunday morning in Hongkong, Asia's biggest action superstar is not his usual ebullient self.

The 46-year-old does not laugh easily. And he does not offer to do a back flip or flying kick. Instead, he is wincing at the bank of huge photographic spotlights set up in his Peninsula Hotel suite. The tungsten glare is piercing but - no go.

His omnipresent manager, Willie Chan, signals that his charge has to field one more television interview to promote his 2001 Chinese New Year action flick, The Accidental Spy. The lights stay.

And Chan goes back to trashing fame.

'Take this morning, for instance,' he says.

'I spent so much time just looking for a place to have breakfast. I cannot go anywhere crowded. Otherwise, I'll be signing autographs instead of eating. I'll also be bringing trouble to the restaurant. Plus, I'll have to eat in a very civilised manner.'

The elusive breakfast, unblinking media scrutiny, a complicit manager in a candy-striped suit - ah, the pangs of being as popular as Mickey Mouse.

And, oh, did someone say scandals and death threats?

That Chan may or may not have fathered former Miss Asia Elaine Ng's daughter in 1999 is old news by now. The latest hiccup in the daredevil's high-profile life is scarier.

Earlier this week, the Shin Min Daily News reported that the star was being stalked by an obsessed Filippina fan in the United States and even got a death threat from her.

The fan went as far as to turn up at Chan's house in Beverly Hills. She even threatened to plant a bomb at his concert in Las Vegas.

According to Mr Solon So, general manager of Chan's JC Group, the case is under investigation by the Beverly Hills Police Department.

He tells Life!: 'In the meantime, the security arrangements for Jackie have been increased. We're taking no chances.'

BROTHERS IN BLACK FOR A FAMOUS TAI KOR

ALONG Salisbury Road, the tension in Peninsula Hotel is palpable.

Like a scene straight out of a Hongkong triad flick, bodyguards in black suits mill around, armed with ear-pieces and buzzing walkie-talkies. It does not help that the term of endearment used by everyone in Chan's camp is 'tai kor', which means 'big brother' in Cantonese.

Right now, tai kor is still battling the bright lights. His manager shrugs helplessly. Chan is trapped. And his troublesome fame seems to be ballooning by the minute.

He reveals: 'I've just received the second draft of a movie called Tuxedo from Dreamworks. Miramax wants me to do a movie with Roberto Benigni.

'There's another movie called The Bellboy. There's Nose Bleed, a movie from New Line. There's also Jackie Chan's Adventures, my cartoon series with Warner Bros in America. On the Asian side, I have three scripts ready to shoot.'

In some ways, his avalanche of a career is like his action comedies

In The Accidental Spy, there is a classic Jackie Chan scene set in a Turkish spice market. Fending off a couple of assailants in the nude, the star, who was abandoned by his parents when he was seven at a Peking Opera school in Hongkong called the China Drama Academy, has to 'multi-task' like a madman.

Between punching and kicking his tormentors, he juggles two plates to protect his modesty. In the meantime, the spices are burning his bum. More attackers are jumping into the fray.

Chan is in his element.

It is Buster Keaton on speed and a role which the daredevil, who made his film debut in 1973 in an unreleased flick called The Little Tiger Of Canton, has played so well for so long.

'People like my way of mixing comedy and action,' explains the husband of former actress Lin Feng Jiao.

'They like faster, faster, faster.'

Interestingly, The Accidental Spy, which is directed by Chan's former personal assistant Teddy Chen, shows a more mature Chan.

The actor's famous dexterity is on display, of course. The spice-market sequence is a testament to his incredible hand-eye motor co-ordination. But this time round, his character is less in control. Unlike 1978's Half A Loaf Of Kung Fu and the cult hit Drunken Master, the villains in The Accidental Spy are no mere thugs and bullies.

Chan is up against international arms smugglers, government conspiracies and even Cold War spy networks. The heavies are heavier. The world is a little less innocent

He explains with his first chortle of the day: 'Jackie Chan cannot take it easy. He has to work harder, harder, harder.'

PUNISHING HIS BODY FOR VISUAL POETRY

AT THE rate he is going, Chan is fast becoming larger than life.

On American television right now, he is the villain-busting cartoon character in Jackie Chan's Adventures. In Burger King, he will soon be an action figurine.

While the man who probably holds the world record for the number of times he has fractured his bones gripes about spending 15 days every month airborne, he knows he earned his fame the hard way

For three decades, he has punished his body (his favourite interview subject is the list of his injuries) making one high-jink action flick after another. Most of them are downright terrible because he is a stuntman, not an actor.

Some of them, like 1983's Project A and 1985's Police Story, however, are sheer visual poetry.

Because he communicates with impossible leaps, pained grimaces and sheer gutsiness, he was the first Hongkong star to be franchised in America.

The embarassing 1981 Burt Reynolds auto-chase flick, Cannonball Run, was a disappointing start. By the late 1990s, however, his doggedness and undeniable appeal landed him in Hollywood with two back-to-back hits - Rush Hour and Shanghai Noon - to boot.

With his customary penchant for self-depreciation, Chan says: 'I'm just lucky, you know. Some people find me funny and brave. Others think what I do is unnecessary and silly. I'm lucky that there are more people in the first group.'

Apparently, that first group is large enough to encompass even the eggheads at Harvard. Later this month, the creator of movies like 1977's Snake And Crane Arts Of Shaolin and 1984's Wheels On Meals (sic) will be giving a speech at the American bastion of higher learning.

When most other actors his age are planning their retirement, Chan is just as in demand as when he first became popular in the 1970s for his everyman guilelessness and amazing stunts.

He is a truly international star - he enjoys a huge fan base even in Turkey - who is acquiring more markets than a Fortune 500 company

.

And it looks like he will still be spending many frustrating mornings hunting for that elusive breakfast joint where he can eat his congee in peace

He says, sighing: 'Being Jackie Chan is very difficult. Sometimes, I ask myself: 'Why do I work so hard?' But then, I'm also a very practical person.

'Since I've been Jackie Chan for so long, I might as well go on being Jackie Chan. It's not a terrible thing. It's just annoying sometimes.'

As the interview wraps up, he looks at the door and spots his manager shepherding a Korean television crew into the room. The lights grow brighter. Chan looks down at the biege carpet and then says hello in Korean.