@Magal55 hello! Welcome to the forums. I think Ice is also "A-list" in her own right, as she is famous in another channel, not just with lakorns but also variety shows, and also has popular movies that are screened abroad.
I also have my own favorite with James, and like you, I also like Jiranee the most, but then each story calls for different characters and different love stories, so people also have different opinions on them. I dunno if it's just my bias but I can say i enjoyed all of James's lakorns and notice that he has a different kind of chemistry with each of his N'eks.
As for James's girlfriend, yes, the reporters, more than anyone seemed to blow it out of proportion by asking them about it, even 1 month after when really, there was not much to it, just an average 25 year old guy (who just happened to work as a superstar) having a girlfriend. But James has been very cool about it in interviews and had mentioned that he is confident that his fans (probably meaning his real fans, and not just the hyped ones) don't mind at all about his having a girlfriend, because as many of you mentioned, it's but a normal occurrence that any logical person would take as normal
. The thing with actors is that they have a wide spectrum of fans. There are kids, tweens, middle-aged, oldies, and having various ways of thinking. We can't please everyone and even James is aware of that. In the same way, the reporters would only dwell on the negative (because positive reactions are normal, usual and not news worthy
) but James has come out and said he knows his fans are sweet and kind and don't make such a big deal out of it.
The way James is having fun with Taew, her boyfriend Ton, his own girlfriend and all their other friends just shows everything is not as bad as reporters make it seem. So yeah. Hopefully when other interesting news come out or when Payakorn Sorn Ruk has more interesting BTS, they start talking more about these things, instead of those ordinary normal things that we already figured and shouldn't really care much about.