Edition

World Showbiz 2022 in rewind: Top male stars were exposed of vile scandals that shocked the industry from East to West 

Three common patterns emerged out of three different show businesses: adultery, sex and declining popularity. 

Korean Showbiz

After a long police investigation, the shocking “Burning Sun” case came to a close as Seungri received a sentence of 1 year and 6 months in prison and  a fine of 1.15 billion won for 9 charges including solicitation of illegal prostitution, prostitution procuring, illegal overseas gambling, embezzlement, violation of the Food Sanitation Act, violation of the Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, the spread of illegally filmed sexual content, evidence destruction, and special assault instigation. However, in just a few months, Seungri will be released from prison, which makes the public angry. 

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In October 2022, Bi Rain was caught up in rumors of adultery with a female golfer born in 1996 who had the same appearance as Kim Tae Hee. Rain was rumored to allegedly have a private apartment to have an affair with a female golfer and was exposed by his wife Kim Tae Hee.

Despite Bi Rain’s quick effort to shut down the allegations, the news still managed to taint his reputation to a certain degree as many still believed the rumors to be true. 

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Apart from the notorious cases involving male stars, the once-famous child star Kim Sae Ron’s drunk driving came as a shock to many. 

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On May 18, Dispatch reported that Kim Sae Ron was being investigated for driving under the influence and crashing directly into a sidewalk transformer in Shinsadong (Seoul), causing the entire area to black out for several hours. Kim Sae Ron was also reported to attempt to flee from the scene. On December 19th, Osen news reported that the actress was officially prosecuted without detention for violating the Road Traffic Act. After the scandal, the actress was removed from the projects at the time and had to pay for the damage out of her own pocket. Her management company also did not renew the contract with the actress. She eventually had to work part-time at a coffee shop to make ends meet. 

kim sae ron

Chinese Showbiz 

On March 15th, Xinhua News Agency reported that Deng Lun was found guilty of tax evasion, and was fined by the Shanghai Municipal Tax Service a total of 106 million CNY. After the scandal, the actor was ostracized from the industry plus a payment of 200 million CNY in compensation to brands for violating contracts.

Li Yifeng

On September 11th, Beijing police announced that Li Yifeng had been detained for 15 days for multiple instances of prostitute solicitation. During this time, on many social sites, an explicit-content clip circulating the internet was believed to be of actor Li. After the shocking scandal, Li Yifeng was removed from C-biz and had to compensate up to 20 million USD to his partners. 

Li Yifeng

Also in this month, Xu Kaicheng was exposed by actress Zheang Tian’ai of cheating. Specifically, Xu Kaicheng was caught many times visiting Gulnazar’s house, which raised suspicion of her being the third party mentioned. Nonetheless, Gulnazar denied the accusation strongly. 

Xu Kaicheng

On November 25th, Wu Yifan’s case was closed as the Chinese-Canadian star was sentenced to 11 years and 6 months in prison for rape and 1 year and 10 months in prison for group sexual activities. In addition, the star was fined 600 million CNY for tax evasion. After serving his time in prison, Wu Yifan will be deported from China. 

The US showbiz 

Johnny Depp Amber Heard

The straining lawsuit between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard had a gripping effect across many social sites and the public could not get enough of it.

After years of legal battles, the defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard officially ended on June 1st with the ruling in favor of actor Depp. Accordingly, Amber Heard had to compensate 10.35 million USD to the male actor while Heard would only receive 2-million-USD compensation from her ex-husband.

Johnny Depp Amber Heard

Kanye West was also the talk of the town. He was almost boycotted in Hollywood because of the racist statement on the male rapper’s shirt which was publicly criticized by Vogue editor Gabriella Karefa-Johnson. In response, Kanye mocked Gabriella, causing many fashion celebrities to lash back.

In the midst of a scandal, many of his contracts with well-known brands such as Adidas and Balenciaga were terminated. He was also accused of showing nude photos and clips of his ex-wife, Kim Kardashian, to his employees.

kanye west

One of the most shocking scandals this year involved the powerful name Adam Levine. In September of this year, while his wife Behati Prinsloo was pregnant, the singer was accused of committing adultery with 5 girls. Sumner Stroh – the first woman to expose Adam Levine also revealed a message where the male singer wanted to name his soon-to-be-born child after her. Adam Levine denied having an affair but admitted he had “crossed the line”, making it extremely difficult for netizens to understand.

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At the end of this year, Selena Gomez suddenly became the focus of criticism when a documentary of her life “My Mind & Me” contained a segment of Selena Gomez declaring to be “only close to Taylor Swift in the entertainment industry” and did not mention the name of her kidney donor Francia Raisa. 

Francia was known to have suffered negative health effects after donating her kidney to Selena but Selena was later condemned for “naming” her new kidney after comedian Fred Armisen, an action not taken lightly by the Internet community. 

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A series of accidents that shocked the industry 

Not only scandals, a series of accidents with unprecedented severity also shocked showbiz. On the morning of July 22nd, Jimmy Lin and his 6-year-old son Jenson had a serious car accident. The actor’s car lost control and collided with a bridge pier and was caught on fire. Fortunately, little Jenson was not seriously injured, but Jimmy Lin had a serious concussion and was covered in blood. Jimmy Lin went through 3 major surgeries to reconnect his shoulder blades and sternum, making him thin and lacking vitality.

red velvet wendy The ReVe Festival

In the same July, the Mirror group’s music concert night became a nightmare when a 600kg LED screen fell on dancer Li Kai-yin. While he is no longer in critical conditions, Li Kai-yin’s injury is still progressing very slowly. The accident angered the public because of the poor organization and lack of safety precautions at current Asian entertainment shows. 3 years ago, Korean showbiz was also shaken by a serious stage scandal that happened to Wendy (Red Velvet).

Source: K14

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