Edison Chen (陳冠希) broke cover yesterday to make his first public appearance since hundreds of sexually explicit photos surfaced on the Internet featuring the Canto-pop crooner and at least half a dozen female celebrities.
"I admit that most of the photos being circulated on the Internet were taken by me, but these photos were very private and have not been shown to people and were never intended to be shown to anyone," the 27-year-old said in a calm voice amid a flood of camera flashes from the hundreds of reporters gathered. "I have failed as a role model. However, I wish that this matter will teach everyone a lesson."
He said in a statement he would fulfill existing commitments before leaving the entertainment industry "indefinitely" and added that he would dedicate himself to charity and community work.
"I would like now to apologize to all the people for all the suffering that has been caused and the problems that have arisen from this," Chen said, reading out a statement in English to a packed press conference. "I've decided to do this to give myself an opportunity to heal myself and to search my soul."
Speculation on the reasons for Chen's nearly month long absence center on the alleged bounty placed on his life by triad figures. The Apple Daily Hong Kong, reports that an underworld figure has offered a US$91,000 for one of the fallen pop idol's hands, which Pop Stop can't help pointing out would still leave him one hand free to operate a camera whilst in flagrante delicto.
Other rumors include the possible filing of lawsuits as several of the photos in question show female stars, some observers say, under the influence of illicit drugs.
Worse still, for Chen and his former fellators, several tabloids claim that the mysterious arch-criminal behind the scandal, the self-dubbed Kira, promised to release more snaps on Chen's return to Hong Kong.
The traumatized star is said to have attempted suicide after his rich girlfriend Vincy Yeung (楊永晴) rejected his marriage proposal in light of the moral witchhunt.
While countless netizens wait with baited breath for the next celebrity to be caught with her pants down in the sex-photo scandal, cops in Shenzhen have arrested 10 people in connection with distributing obscene images, the BBC reports.
Possibly a disappointment to many, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper) cited an online rumor that claims the biggest storm in the Hong Kong showbiz history has already reached an, errr, climax as Kira has agreed a financial settlement with Chen's agent EEG (英皇娛樂) to stop the release of the remaining uncirculated pictures among the 1,300 steamy images. If the rumor proves to be true, many people's dreams of viewing pornographic images of Hong Kong model and actress Maggie Q (李美琪) and Taiwan's Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), also rumored to be Chen's lovers, could be dashed. Hong Kong belle and sometime-actress Rachel Ngan (顏穎思), however, isn't that lucky as photos of her and Chen recently began doing the rounds on the Net.
In other sex-photo news, new mom Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) continues to face uncertainty in her marriage to pop star and bad boy Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒) as the snaps featuring her with Chen appear to be the wildest of the bunch and, according to gossip mongers, were shot after Cheung and Tse had reunited after a split. According to Next (壹周刊), Cheung has twice threatened to commit suicide and take her baby's life if Tse dares to look at the pictures.
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