Celebrities should know fame is a cruel master

Hong Kong actress Gillian Chung appears to be capitalizing on her reputation as a seductress by appearing in a steamy scene in her upcoming movie EX, centering on the continued passion of a couple that has already broken up.

One half of the Cantopop duo Twins, along with Charlene Choi, the singer was ensnared in the Edison Chen sex photos scandal more than two years ago and has struggled since then to revive her career.

Helmed by Hong Kong director Heiward Mak, Chung plays a typical Hong Kong beauty balancing love, life and a job, not always successfully. She ends up, as luck would have it, snogging and playing footsie tootsie in a hot bath with the character played by singer and actor William Chan.

Digression: Chan is the latest boyfriend of Charlene Choi, Chung's bandmate.

Wasn't this a bit uncomfortable for her? No, the irrepressible Chung said, according to Sina.com.

"While shooting the film, Chan wasn't dating Choi, so I didn't feel awkward about the sex scenes."

The biggest emerging star in Mandopop is Yoga Lin, who you may be forgiven for thinking (given his name) is a placid and meditative type of fellow. Wrong! Lin's latest in a long line of celebrity outbursts since winning the Taiwan talent contest One Million Star in 2007, happened over the Christmas weekend in Hong Kong.

It all started innocently enough, in a typical showbiz type of way, as Lin and his girlfriend G.E.M. (Get Everybody Moving) took a stroll, hoping to stay anonymous by wearing facemasks and reading glasses.

The pair left G.E.M.'s apartment, according to an Apple Daily report, about 7 pm for a steak dinner, then watched the movie Marriage With a Liar. They appeared to be full of love, embracing and kissing, albeit facemask-to-facemask.

At some point, however, four photographers from a Hong Kong weekly ambushed the amorous couple. When the shutterbugs tried to move in for close-ups, Lin went ballistic and struggled to grab their cameras.

"I came here to do music," he reportedly screamed at them. "I don't want to appear in your magazine."

The pushing and shoving carried on for about 10 minutes, until the police and Lin's record label management turned up on the scene to defuse the situation.

In August, in Shanghai, Lin verbally attacked reporters interviewing him when they asked some seemingly innocuous questions about his girlfriend.

"You are not my friends, how could I possibly share this type of information with you," Lin replied.

Another star experiencing media burnout is the TV actress Wang Luodan, who had her nose put out of joint when some fashion reporters reckoned she looked "corny" in a Dior sweater.

In response, Wang went out a few days later in Shanghai dressed in a black overcoat, top hat and dark glasses.

This thin attempt at anonymity failed to throw off the paparazzi, who clicked away to their hearts' content.

Wang threw a hissy-fit, pointed at the photographers angrily, according to Sohu.com, and got her assistant to demand the pictures were deleted. She also told passersby to stop taking shots.

What is it with stars? One minute they are demanding attention, the next they are demanding privacy. Make up your minds.

China Daily

(China Daily 12/31/2010 page20)