Life> Celebrities

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

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-06-11 07:54

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.

This means they should not be seen pairing up with each other, but offer the tantalizing illusion they are available to everyone - however unlikely this is in reality. After all, a star marrying his or her stalker just doesn't happen.

Huang wants it both ways. He craves fame and he expects privacy, which is why he's getting irritated at the press events he has to attend. This boiled to the surface in Hong Kong recently when a reporter had the temerity to ask whether Huang was in a three-way relationship, referring to the rumor that Angela Baby was also dating actor and singer William Chan Wai-ting.

"Some magazines say I'm gay," Huang replied, obviously thinking this would be a clever way to deflect questions about his love life and simultaneously undermine the credibility of the press.

Variations on the headline, "Huang admits he's gay" were in the Hong Kong tabloids the next day and when the actor later did a promotional event in Guangzhou his "fans" got in on the act and started taunting him about his "homosexuality".

According to a number of websites, male admirers and even members of Huang's retinue had a laugh by going up to the actor's bodyguard and whispering in his ear: "Why are you getting so close to my husband?"

Another couple with public relations problems is actor Ronald Cheng and Twins singer Charlene Choi, who repeatedly lied about the fact they secretly married in 2006. They only recently admitted the union at a tear-laden press conference to announce they were getting divorced.

Now, it appears the couple is reconciling, after they were spotted meeting up for a secret assignation in Zhejiang province's "Chinese Hollywood", Hengdian. Naturally, the news was all over the Internet the next day.

The saying, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave/ When first we practice to deceive!" (Sir Walter Scott) has never been more true.

China Daily

(China Daily 06/11/2010 page20)