Plastic surgeon Li Jin-liang (李進良) tied the knot with Hu Ying-chen (胡盈禎), daughter of television host Hu Gua (胡瓜) — but the nuptials did not go off without a hitch, thanks to Li’s alleged womanizing.
Next Magazine published photos of Li and starlet Mao Mao (毛毛) in the same car and claimed the two had been caught trying to rent a room at a hotel in Taoyuan just a few days before Li’s wedding last Saturday. The photos appear to show him ducking his head while Mao Mao tries to hide behind a cellphone, but not before appearing to grin smugly at the photogs.
The duo were the center of another tabloid feeding frenzy last Christmas when Mao Mao and Li were photographed on a night out, leading to allegations of infidelity. Hu Ying-chen shrugged off the rumors, however, saying that she’d been present with her fiance and Mao Mao on the evening in question.
Li managed to dig himself into an especially deep hole with this latest round of scandal, however — news of his alleged tryst with Mao Mao surfaced on his father-in-law Hu Gua’s 50th birthday. The Liberty Times [the Taipei Times’ sister paper] reports that Hu senior had previously made clear he was not keen on listening to any of Li’s excuses for his behavior, but would support his daughter in whatever decision she made about the relationship. Pop Stop readers will know that the discretion-challenged Li’s past misadventures have included accusations of sexual harassment by a Japanese porn star and reports of a night spent entertaining two friends and three hostesses at a Taipei hotel.
The latest excuses that Hu senior apparently did not listen to were Li and Mao Mao’s his-and-her explanations for why they were in the same car and headed to a hotel: Li said he was attending a conference on breast reconstruction surgery, while she said she was on her way to a party. A hotel employee, however, denied that there had been a party that night.
Regardless, Hu Ying-chen is once again standing by her man. Before their nuptials, the two of them emerged hand-in-hand from Li’s clinic and told assembled press that Li had just been giving a lift to an old friend.
Mao Mao fared less well when she appeared on a talk show a couple of days after the wedding. Sassy host Huang Kuo-lun (黃國倫) impishly asked the actress if it was “stressful” hitching a ride from Li so soon before his wedding, prompting Mao Mao’s agent to scream from the wings, “We’ve been set up! You said we wouldn’t have to talk about that!”
Huang later said he had the right to ask whatever questions he wanted and his interviewees had the right not to answer them. Mao Mao didn’t take the bait, however, and deflected his probing by turning the discussion to her new passion for guitar playing.
Billionaire and Quanta Computer chairman Barry Lam (林百里) seems to be faring better in his love life. Gossip pages reported on Monday that Lam might already have tied the knot with his girlfriend Clara Kuo (郭倩如), though he has yet to announce that he’s divorced his first wife, He Sha (何莎).
Both Kuo, general manager of Taiwan Ravenel Art, an auction house, and Lam refrained from confirming or denying the rumors. NOWnews reported that Lam’s 39-year-old paramour has a taste for the high life. In a 2007 interview, Kuo said she and her colleagues had taken a trip to Italy and France, where they enjoyed each country’s art and stayed in the best hotels and eaten the best food because “when you deal with art, you must have an understanding of what quality is.”
Tabloids report that the two lovebirds married in the US before the Lunar New Year. Lam’s (supposedly ex) wife He Sha is no longer on the payroll of Quanta Computer Inc (廣達電腦), where she had previously worked as a supervisor. Lam was spotted wearing a wedding ring during Quanta’s April 21 annual celebration, though it was unclear whether it marked a new marriage or not. When asked by reporters to comment, Kuo’s coworkers parried back, “It’s their own business!”
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