A mirror has two faces

Nicolas Tse says the scandal involving his wife Cecilia Cheung has only brought them closer.[Agencies]

Chen acts like a rich spoilt brat, and I have every reason to believe he is just that. Everything came to him so easily - he was born with wealth and good looks and his career was practically handed to him on a silver platter - that he did not have a clue how to behave like a responsible adult. Leaving aside the moral issue concerning the photos and what they portrayed, he should have come out and shouldered the blame. Everything being equal, it was he who inadvertently leaked the smoking gun, no pun intended.

Yet, when I browsed online opinions, I was shocked that Chen got more sympathy than his female co-stars. There were a lot of postings, presumably from sex-starved young men, who did not conceal their envy for Chen. Some cheered him as a hero outright.

More netizens denounced the women for their depravity. If they hold such a high moral standard, shouldn't they be condemning all parties with equal gusto? But no! It seems to many that men have a right to be naughty while women must be chaste and as pure as a white lily. They may not have said it, but they certainly implied it.

One crucial character in this media brouhaha is Nicolas Tse, married two years earlier to Cecilia Cheung and with their son shortly before the incident. Tse is a big star in his own right. When the photos were uncovered, everyone was expecting him to break up with his wife, possibly with dramatic gestures like yelling at her, punching her in the face and calling her a "bitch".

Tse disappointed all the onlookers, saying the incident only served to bring him and his wife closer. An erstwhile teen idol, he has mellowed to the point of defying all Chinese stereotypes of a henpecked husband. (For all we know, the photos could have been taken long before his marriage to Cheung, though.)

Maybe it was a remnant of his defiance, a trademark of his rock'n'roll years. For more than a year now, pundits have been dropping him hints, such as "Nicolas Tse would not receive a single word of criticism if he divorced his wife." But he said he didn't even hate Edison Chen, thus depriving the gloating populace of their guilty pleasure.