Edison Chen Sex Scandal

Remember him from the movie,
The Grudge 2 and Twin Sister 1 and 2 ?
Edison Chen Kwoon-Hei is a Hong Kong movie actor, singer, idol.
(At first i thought he was the same guy from "It Started With a Kiss" on ABS-CBN, but not, that guy's name is Joe Cheng).
It started when Chen's computer was sent in for repairs, allegedly an estimated 1,300 photographs of numerous celebrities were found on its hard drive.
A close friend of Chen was cited as saying that Edison liked to take intimate photos with his women, at least 14 celebrities,
and he would show them to a select group of friends. As of this writing 8 person have been already detained because of their alleged participation in the dissemination of Edison Chen Sex Scandal photos. Because of the scandal Edison Chen has been scrapped off on the upcoming Stephen Chow movie
Here's the full details:


Edison Chen photo scandal is a media scandal in early 2008 involving Hong Kong actor Edison Chen and actresses Gillian Chung, Bobo Chan, Cecilia Cheung, and possibly other female celebrities.

In January 2008, nude photographs of people resembling the actors engaging in sexual acts with each other were distributed on the internet. As at 4 February 2008, eight people have been arrested for being connected with the distribution of the photos. The affair has dominated news headlines in Hong Kong for over a week.

The Hong Kong police enlisted the assistance of Interpol, but the spread of the photographs has proven unstoppable. The actions of the actors and their management in this matter have made heroes and martyrs of those arrested; the actions of the police have raised concerns about violation of human rights and the deference to powerful media tycoons

The first nude photo, of a man and a woman resembling Chen and Gillian Chung, was published at approximately 8:30 pm, 27 January 2008, in a post on the website Hong Kong Discuss Forum. The genitals and nipples of the woman and head of the man could be clearly seen. Although the original post was deleted after a few hours, some visitors forwarded the photo to other major forums such as Uwants and HKGolden. Chung's management agency, Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG), immediately denied that the photos were authentic and filed a police report. The news became the headline of several major local Hong Kong newspapers, including Apple Daily, Oriental Daily News, The Sun, Headline Daily, and Metro News.

At 3 p.m. on the same day as EEG's statement, a second explicit photograph of a couple with the likenesses of Chen and Bobo Chan engaged in fellatio appeared on the internet. An emergency meeting was held at EEG immediately that evening, after which the company declared through its solicitors that it would pursue the publisher of the image for this "irresponsible" and "malicious act". Gillian Chung was reportedly very distraught, had taken a leave of absence, and would not comment on the matter. Shaped by the denials, the initial media consensus, later played down, was that the photographs were photoshopped.

On 29 January 2008, at 12:30 p.m., a third photograph, of a woman fondling her nipples while her legs were wide apart appeared on the internet. The photograph was of a much higher resolution than the previous shots, and the subject bore the likeness of Cecilia Cheung. The photographs became the talk of the town, and journals attempted to authenticate the photographs by comparing physical features of the starlet. Local discussion forums became saturated as a result. A low-resolution composite of a sexual sequence of a couple, possibly Chen and Chung, with the female wearing a bikini at the start of the sequence appeared at 3 p.m.; a photograph, allegedly of Cecilia Cheung standing naked in a bathroom with her back facing the camera appeared at 6 p.m. Journals in Mainland China compared the backgrounds of the photographs to previously released videos filmed inside Chen's residence.The police, and photo experts who examined the photos involving the first three female celebrities, say the photos are unlikely to have been photoshopped.

On 6 February 2008, a forum user named "Kira" leaked more photos and promised to release a 32-minute video, allegedly of Chen and Chung, on 7 February 2008. In spite of the ongoing raids in Hong Kong, Kira reportedly wrote that he did not "give a sh*t" since he was "not in hk" to begin with

Police actions

China News Service (CNS) reported that more than 100 police officers had been sent to investigate the case,[19] although Assistant Commissioner of Police (Crime) Vincent Wong Fook-chuen later declared that a team of 19 officers was working the case.The Hong Kong police moved on all internet service providers to stamp out all local traces of the "offensive material" (which had not yet even been classified), related discussion threads were progressively deleted through pressure by the police, who held a meeting this week with more than 200 people who are responsible for major Hong Kong Websites and BBS communities, to urge them to delete the pictures at once "as they have the responsibility to stop crimes".

In contrast, websites on the mainland, more sensitive to political issues than to pornography, happily disseminated the images and attracted Hong Kong users. CNS reported the Hong Kong media as saying that police in the special administrative region has already required several locally-registered Websites and BBS management firms to submit information about their clients, and retrieved the IP addresses of more than 30 Internet users who allegedly posted photographs.

On 31 January 2008, an unemployed 29 year-old man was arrested in the New Territories with 12 pictures on his computer. The next day he was taken to court, where a judge claimed that he had reasons to suspect that the man would use the pictures to blackmail the actor and actresses. He was not allowed bail and the case is to reconvene in eight weeks. Commissioner of Police Tang King Shing warned on radio that anyone with the pictures on their computer, even without any record of distributing them, are in breach of the law. The Commissioner's remarks, criticised as irresponsible, caused outrage among the Hong Kong public, who questioned the police's selectiveness and heavy-handedness in this case, as compared with previous cases of pornography distribution on the internet. The denial of bail sparked controversy over the subjective application of the law, and the negation of the presumption of innocence. Lawmaker "Long Hair" Leung Kwok Hung and about two dozen people protested outside police headquarters in Wan Chai, accusing the police of sowing confusion and creating an atmosphere of terror among netizens, and urged Commissioner Tang to clarify whether or not keeping the pictures violated the law. As a line of inquiry, the police has been investigating if any connection existed between the suspect and artists, but blackmail was not thought to be involved.

On 2 February 2008, police arrested four men and two women who were suspected to be related to the distribution of the photographs. Of the six, three men and a woman were released on HK$20,000 bail and must report back to the police in eight weeks. According to the police, during the year 2007, Edison Chen brought his computer to their shop for maintenance. The suspects were the people who fixed his computer and discovered over 1,300 nude photos or those depicting sex acts. They secretly copied these onto their own computers.

On 4 February 2008, A 29-year-old man became the eighth person to be detained in connection with the internet posting of nude photos. The man arrested is being detained at Ma On Shan police station. On the same day, the 23-year-old man, Sze Ho-Chun, arrested in Central on 2 February 2008 was charged with the dishonest use of computers with criminal intent, which has a maximum penalty of five years of imprisonment. The man appeared in Eastern Court on 5 February 2008.[29][20] He denied the charge and was released on HK$50,000 bail. The case has been adjourned to 22 February 2008.

Assistant Commissioner Vincent Wong said the source of the pictures had been traced, but he would not confirm reports they had been taken from Chen's computer. He added that the authenticity of the photographs was no longer a line of inquiry. Wong also said of the six women found in the photographs, four were local celebrities; two were not known to the police. None of the women were named.[20] Wong said he was certain that no overseas artistes were involved.[29] In clarification, he said that people who had only transferred the obscene picture files to friends had not violated the law, but those who had posted them to internet web pages would be in breach of the law.

On 5 February 2008, as another one of the suspects was released on HK$50,000 bail, six more photographs of people resembling the actresses surfaced on the internet. In the early hours on Chinese New Year's day, several hundred more photographs appeared on the internet, as promised, in a cock a snoot to the Hong Kong Police.

Chen's responses and apology

After the exposure of the eighth photograph, Chen quietly left Hong Kong and flew to Boston to be with his current girlfriend Vincy Yeung, niece of Albert Yeung, head of Emperor Entertainment. Chen remained silent to the public. Until 1 February 2008, Chen's blog had been updated with new posts about his featured action movie Sniper. The profile section at the top of the page read, "edc is edison chen ........... hate the game and dun hate the player .......... i am all bout unity ............ but if u fucks wid me i gotsa fuck wid u ........... in clot edc's role is the FRONTLINESOLDIER.... ACT LIKE U KNOW......." The content became the headline of several local papers the next day. Apple Daily's editor commented on Chen's speech, saying that he is a "bluffster". In the same day, Chen quickly left another message in his blog and clarified that article was written in May 2007 and not responding to the recent incident. Furthermore he was asking the media to report the truth rather than "destroying one's life".

On 4 February 2008, Chen sent a 90-second video clip, spoken entirely in English, to the press. In the video clip, Chen apologised to those who may have been affected by the posting of compromising nude photographs. He did not comment on the authenticity of the photos.

As of this evening, the police have made significant advances towards solving this malicious crime. As from the beginning I will continue to give the police my fullest cooperation to bring the perpetrators to justice. At this time I am not able to discuss matters related to the case, but I do feel it is my obligation to accept full responsibility and take action to help both the victims and those associated with them to heal their wounds. In this regard, I plead with everyone to please stop forwarding the images on the internet. Furthermore, to completely rid the images from your computer. This is a small step that each one of us can take to help the innocent rebuild their lives. The priority now is for all of us to pitch in and help those in need.

– Edison Chen, as posted to his blog

Fallout

On 5 February 2008, Chen was pulled from the upcoming Stephen Chow movie Jump as a result of the scandal.
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