<TABLE style="FLOAT: left; PADDING-BOTTOM: 6px; WIDTH: 160px" cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=imageCell></TD></TR><TR><TD class=imageCell>"We had a great tour of the Far East and then we come to Taiwan" - Elton John </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
Elton John in airport bust-up
11.02AM, Thu Sep 23 2004
Sir Elton John has described photographers in Taiwan as "rude, vile pigs" in a furious airport bust-up.
The star arrived in the country to play the last date in his tour of the Far East.
But after touching down at Taipei's Chiang Kai-Shek airport by private jet in the early hours of this morning, he was besieged by photographers and TV crews.
A Taiwanese news channel showed Sir Elton, dressed in a royal blue tracksuit and matching sunglasses, clenching his teeth and muttering expletives as he stood with his arms crossed tightly across his chest.
"Rude, vile pigs!" he shouted. "Do you know what that means? Rude, vile pigs. That's what all of you are."
One of the photographers shouted back: "Why don't you get out of Taiwan?"
Sir Elton replied: "We'd love to get out of Taiwan if it's full of people like you. Pig! Pig!"
The star, who recently performed in Shanghai and Hong Kong, said: "We had a great tour of the Far East and then we come to Taiwan."
It is not the first time the 57-year-old singer has lost his temper in public.
In the fly-on-the-wall documentary Tantrums And Tiaras, made by his partner David Furnish, he famously threw a fit when a female fan waved at him and shouted "Yoo hoo!" on the tennis court of his French Riviera hotel.
He stormed off court saying: "I'm never coming back to the south of France again."
A spokeswoman for Sir Elton accused police and airport security officials of failing to protect the star but said he was "bravely" carrying on with his concert at the Chung Shan soccer stadium.
http://www.itv.com/news/index_697277.html
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