Source The Electric New Paper
EDISON Chen is returning to Hong Kong today and is planning to hold a news conference tomorrow to face the press for the first time after his sex scandal broke nearly three weeks ago.
But his former lovers - Gillian Chung, Cecilia Cheung, Bobo Chan, Rachel Ngan, Mandy Chan and Candice Chan - have already suffered the humiliation of having photos of their sexploits with Edison splashed all over the Net.
Besides the shame, their carefully-crafted images and reputations have been smashed to smithereens in one fell swoop.
Will they survive or sink from this scandal?
Cecilia Cheung, 28
She has been making headlines ever since her debut in 1999.
There were the rape and death threats made against the then-newbie, after her triad member father got into a misunderstanding with a rival gang.
Cecilia, who has a half-British mother, caught the attention of Stephen Chow after shooting a lemon tea ad. He cast her in King Of Comedy.
Her second movie, the weepy Fly Me To Polaris, netted her a Best Newcomer Hong Kong Film Award, and her sweet angelic image set her popularity soaring.
She was quickly rumoured to be the third party who broke up Ronald Cheng and Miriam Yeung, but that was forgotten when she went public with her relationship with Daniel Chan in 2000.
A messy break-up a year later saw Cecilia spinning into the arms of Jordan Chan.
It was also around this time that she shedded her good girl image for a wilder one, getting tattoos on various parts of her body.
But Nicholas Tse, fresh from a split from Faye Wong, came into the picture soon after, and a protracted love triangle developed.
The pair married a year later and their son Lucas was born last August.
Will she survive or sink?
The Sun reported that Cecilia was due to become the new face of L'Oreal in a multi-million contract, but this may be up in the air now.
Her acting career has been in the backseat since her marriage, and if rumours of a second pregnancy are true, then perhaps by the time she returns, the scandal would have blown over.
Things aren't so smooth on the marriage front, though. It has been reported that she and Nicholas have signed a separation agreement.
His dad Patrick Tse - who is known for his loose lips - has tellingly refused to comment on this.
Gillian Chung, 27
Known as the prettier half of pop duo Twins, this former part-time model has been linked to many men.
Both Jackie Chan and his son Jaycee were said to be among her past admirers.
She was also reportedly the reason for the rift between the then-rising rival stars Edison and Shawn Yue.
The pair nearly came to blows once at an awards ceremony after Shawn chatted Gillian up and incurred Edison's wrath.
Shawn supposedly won the love tussle then, and while it's not clear when the intimate pictures of Gillian and Edison were taken, it seems they have been linked since 2003.
She has also been linked to swimmer-turned-actor Alex Fong.
She is now said to be seeing singer Juno Mak, apparently hiding out in his apartment when the scandal broke and the two have been spotted wearing identical rings.
Will she survive or sink?
For someone who built up her career with her sweetie-pie looks and image, the scandal can spell doom.
Not only did the Hong Kong Disneyland website pull out a video clip of Gillian and her Twins partner Charlene Choi, Ming Pao Daily reported they are also being dropped from potential endorsement deals like hot potatoes.
A Chinese toothpaste manufacturer with whom they had reportedly inked a HK$4 million ($724,000) contract, has called it off. The advertisement is actually only for Charlene, but the manufacturer was worried people might still mistake her for Gillian.
Mr Paul Chan, MediaCorp's vice-president of branding and promotions, told The New Paper: 'Unfair as it sounds, the women will suffer more from the scandal than the man, especially since viewers have always seen these women as 'yu nu' (Mandarin for jade maiden).'
Yet, all doesn't seem to be lost.
Gillian is due to star in a sword-fighting adaptation of the legend of the Butterfly Lovers alongside Wu Wu Chun and Nicholas Tse, and the film's producer has denied any change in plans.
Rock Records managing director Ngiam K H feels sympathy votes may be won from the public because 'not many people will point their fingers at the victims'.
And after her press conference on Monday, where she admitted she was 'naive and silly', Gillian was all smiles on her way to recording for her new album.
Bobo Chan, 29
The showbiz career of this former model turned singer-actress has always been mediocre and she is probably best known for dating Edison. They broke up in 2004.
Will she survive or sink?
Bobo had already faded out of showbiz before the scandal broke out.
But her dreams of marrying a rich man may go up in smoke, as the conservative mother of her rich financial whiz fiance cancelled her August nuptials in anger.
At least Bobo's fiance is still standing by her, reported Sing Tao Daily.
She was seen flying to San Francisco recently to escape the media attention, and sobbing on the shoulder of her boyfriend while boarding the plane.
But her ordeal is not yet over. Fresh pictures of women resembling her and Rachel Ngan surfaced on Valentine's Day.
Maggie Q, 29
A photo of Maggie Q posing with her skirt upturned emerged on Tuesday, but it was quickly discovered that it was a publicity shot taken for Edison's clothing line.
Nevertheless, she is still purported to be the next victim as she is known to be close to Edison.
She started her career in Hong Kong with throwaway roles in B-grade movies like Gen-Y Cops and Naked Weapon and became better known for her love life and sexy looks.
Maggie dated Daniel Wu before both became famous, and was briefly with Japanese footballer Hidetoshi Nakata.
She was last linked to Korean-American actor Daniel Henney.
Will she survive or sink?
Even if there are unsavoury photos of her, we doubt it will affect Maggie's soaring career much.
After all, the actress is finally on the fast track to stardom in Hollywood, when all her years in Hong Kong only yielded mediocre results.
And perhaps intimate photos might just boost her sexy image further and up her street cred in that more liberal Tinseltown.
The Mission: Impossible III girl, who was last seen in Balls Of Fury, has her latest movie Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon, alongside Andy Lau and Sammo Hung, slated for release in April.
Vincy Yeung, 20
The only non-celebrity, she is the niece of Emperor Entertainment Group's chairman Albert Yeung and reportedly started dating Edison in 2004.
Vincy, who is attending university in the US, is also the only girlfriend that Edison had admitted to having, even going to the extent of promising to marry her when he has earned US$20 million ($28.3m).
Netizens are calling for further investigations into photos of a girl resembling Vincy, showing her standing naked in the shower, as some believe they could have been taken before she was of legal age.
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