Zhang Ziyi Files Suit Over ‘Prostitution’ Allegations
Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi, star of such films as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Hero and Memoirs Of A Geisha, has filed a lawsuit against Next Media over claims that she was paid a total of £71m over several years for working as a prostitute. The source of these claims is believed to be an unnamed US Chinese-language news website, which Zhang is also filing against.
Zhang Ziyi in Hero (2002).
The allegations were made in Next Media publications Apple Daily and Next Magazine; in May, Apple Daily reported that Zhang had been paid to sleep with the disgraced Communist politician Bo Xilai, as well as other ‘high government officials’. Zhang denies all of the claims made against her, describing them as ‘absolute libel’.
It appears that the 33 year old actress has become embroiled in the scandal surrounding Bo. In what is thought to have been a smear campaign on the part of the Communist party, a mounting list of scandals concerning Bo and his family has been steadily leaked to the Western media in recent months. Bo was dismissed from his post as party chief of Chongqing in March, and a month later from the Politburo, after it came to light that Bo’s wife Gu Kailai was a suspect in the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood (she has now confessed to the crime).
Zhang’s latest film, an adaptation of the French novel Dangerous Liaisons, premiered at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, but Zhang herself was not in attendance. She denied speculation that her absence was due to her being under investigation in the Bo case, saying that she was too busy working on her next film to attend.
Zhang’s lawyers have described her as having suffered ‘immense grievance and distress’ over the allegations. As yet, no public comment on the case has been made by either Apple Daily or Next Magazine.
Harriet Matthews graduated from the University of Exeter with a BA in English
with Film Studies. She contributes to various UK based film blogs and websites…
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