The Korean film industry continues to grow at an alarming pace. After “Silmido” opened an era of 10-million ticket sellers in 2004, four more films quickly followed suit. “The Host” recently set a new record, taking the top spot from the “King and the Clown,” which itself brought more than 12.3 million Koreans to the theaters earlier this year. But the growth in the industry means the amount Chungmuro’s biggest names are charging for appearances on the big screen is also shooting through the roof. How does it compare to overall production costs?

How Much Do They Make?

Clockwise from left: Bae Yong-joon, Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, Jang Dong-gun, Jang Jin-young, Jeon Do-yeon, Jeon Ji-hyun and Lee Young-ae

A Japanese weekly magazine that reported groundless rumors about actor Lee Byung-heon has admitted its error.

Lee’s agency, Phantom, said it has received an apology from the magazine for publishing false rumors about the actor on July 27, saying that Lee was dating a Japanese woman.

The agency warned of possible stern legal action against the magazine for publishing groundless rumors, but the case was closed after the magazine admitted its fault and apologized.

Lee’s agent in charge of the actor’s activities in Japan said he worked hard on the case to send a message of warning to the Japanese media, which have been underestimating Korean celebrities recently and spreading groundless rumors about them in Japan.

Journalists from some 30 Japanese media outlets will cover the filming of actor Lee Byung-heon’s upcoming movie.

A person from the movie’s production company KM Culture said that some three dozen Japanese media outlets have already expressed their desire to cover the filming on August 28 in South Jeolla Province. Another official said the number of Japanese journalists will amount to 60-70, on par with the number of Korean journalists expected to visit the filming site that day.

The reason so many Japanese media outlets are eager to cover Lee’s acting despite the somewhat inconvenient location is the actor’s popularity in Japan. Media outlets that will be unable to dispatch their reporters to the scene will visit the filming site later.

The fan club of actor Lee Byung-heon has organized a charity event to raise funds for the victims of recent floods, following Lee’s donation of 100 million won on July 31 to help flood relief efforts.

Lee’s agency said the actor’s official fan club "Rebeurs" announced the charity bazaar on August 1 on their Web site.

Anyone can make donations to the event via a pop-up window on Lee’s official Web site (http://www.leebyunghun.com). The event will likely become a multinational charity drive as Rebeurs members include the actor’s fans in Korea, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan.

Organized as an auction of Lee’s memorabilia, the event will feature some 20 personal items donated by Lee, who praised the effort. One of the donations, a jacket in which the actor posed for the poster of the movie “The Harmonium In My Memory,” belonged to Lee’s late father. The actor willingly donated the jacket, one of his most treasured items, because he wanted to make meaningful donations for a good cause.

Korean Wave star Lee Byung-hun has decided to take legal steps over rumors of a love affair reported by a Japanese magazine. The star's agency Fantom Entertainment is up in arms over a report in the women's magazine Josei Seven that says the actor was seen with a 30-something Japanese woman and the two went on a romantic trip to Seoul and Taiwan.

The magazine, picking up on Lee’s next movie "A Summer Story," titled the report “Another Summer Story.” It said the woman the actor is seeing used to be a flight attendant, and the two met at a party in Tokyo a few months ago.

Fantom says the report is “100 percent fictitious.” The agency put up a notice at Lee Byung-hun's Japanese homepage and immediately hired a Japanese lawyer after reading the report. "At first our plan was to ignore it and move on, but after the magazine came out, we received a lot of inquiries from Japan, so we decided it wasn't an issue we could just leave alone," a staffer said. "It is unfortunate that there have been attempts to tarnish the image of a Korean Wave star using reports that bear no relation whatsoever to the truth."