Peggy lacks leisure time

JAKARTA (JP): If settling into white sand on a virgin beach is your particular slice of heaven, you'd be in good company with actress and singing sensation Peggy Melati Sukma. That's what the svelte actress and chanteuse would be doing at this moment, were it not for the trials of her current multimedia tour, which already has taken in hip megalopolis' Singapore and Beijing.

The publicity flight pushing Peggy's book My Self, album My Wish and My Home (her website) is proving demanding for the Indonesian.

But then the 24-year-old Cirebon-born star is not shy when it comes to hard work. At the age of 9, she kicked off a career in the public eye with endless radio commercials. Since then, she has gone on to star in countless television dramas and record numerous albums.

"My days are always busy and my schedule really tight," she told The Jakarta Post last week. "Sometimes I get bored and want to run from it."

As a result of that schedule, Peggy says she has to make time for a massage, to relieve tension and stress. "I always have to have a masseur nearby."

Western celebrities have long known the advantages of having their own websites. Peggy too, is aware of the edge, having newly launched My House at www.peggymelatisukma.com. The promotional blurb goes: "C me naked @ (this site)". No need to slap on a Net nanny just yet, however, the nearest she gets to baring her bosom are photos of her posing, mermaid-style, sea-side. Proof that the promo is working: over 20,000 hits on the site (in Bahasa Indonesia and English) as of late last week. And to further peak the interest of fans, she keeps an online diary, tapping out minuets of her glamorous life.

Peggy said she was currently saving to buy a beach house because of her love of the sea.

If that happens, then perhaps one day she really can get a piece of utopia. (William Furney)