Huang Xiaoming learns, 'What a tangled web we weave'

The media is a two-edged sword for most celebrities. They need us, like oxygen, but they fall when we turn on them and print the stories they don't want you to hear. It can be characterized as a love-hate relationship.

Take for example, the actor and singer Huang Xiaoming, who rose to fame in TV series and has enjoyed a prolonged love-in with the press, until recently, that is when he was identified as the model Angela Baby's secret boyfriend (or one of them anyway, more later). The pair was caught on a date in Beijing last month and Huang offered cash for the photos, in a futile attempt to keep a lid on the relationship.

Since the Huang-Angela Baby pairing has raised both of their profiles you may be forgiven for thinking they would be grateful, but you would be wrong. The thing is, for them to retain their popularity among the masses they must appear to be accessible to them. It is like a Faustian pact. The stars agree they are public property and therefore give up their right to privacy.