A US entertainment news site has sparked anger and drawn ridicule after an apparent K-pop blunder, posting a photo of BTS megastar Jimin instead of a Korean actress with the same name. In a post on social media platform X viewed more than 100,000 times, Deadline Hollywood links to its coverage of France’s Cesar Academy’s annual Revelations list, which flags up-and-coming acting talents. This year, the list includes Korean-born, France-based actress Park Ji-min, who has gained recognition for her powerful performance in “Return to Seoul,” a 2022 adoption drama directed by French-Cambodian filmmaker Davy Chou.

The article and the post on X, formerly Twitter, however, feature a photograph of BTS star Jimin, whose legal name is Park Ji-min, prompting a torrent of criticism on the platform, including from BTS fans. “It took me a second to google the cast of ‘Return to Seoul’ - you should make a habit of visiting google especially when you’re not acquainted with the artists you’re writing about,” X user @zetoaye replied to the Deadline tweet.

Another user, @613tangerine_, wrote: “This is not only unprofessional but disrespectful to the actress as well”. “Correct the information and image,” the user added. One BTS fan pointed out that while the Deadline article correctly described the actress as a woman, they still posted a photo of BTS’s Jimin, who is male. “You guys even wrote ‘her’ in the article and still used a picture of the wrong person,” wrote the fan, whose X handle is @sugassshadowal.—AFP

Since their debut in 2013, BTS have been credited with generating billions of dollars for the South Korean economy, as well as boosting the country’s image and soft power overseas. On the other hand, “Return to Seoul”, while critically acclaimed with a premiere in the esteemed Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival, has enjoyed only limited box office success in South Korea.

The film was chosen as the Cambodian entry for the Best International Feature Film category at the 95th Academy Awards. But only about 4,500 people have watched it in South Korea, according to official cinema data. It barely grossed $2 million worldwide, industry figures suggest. By comparison, summer blockbuster “Barbie” grossed around $1.4 billion. In Chou’s film, actress Park plays Freddie, a mercurial and ruthlessly unapologetic Korean-born French adoptee who, at the age of 25, embarks on a quest to find her birth parents.—AFP