Actress’ studio says it may sue TV personality Cui Yongyuan for posting the private document.
The issue of dizzyingly high celebrity pay tends to rile up the Chinese public whenever it comes to light — so when outspoken TV presenter and producer Cui Yongyuan on Monday alleged that A-list actress Fan Bingbing had been paid millions of dollars for just four days of acting work, a storm of mudslinging followed, with fans from both sides rushing to the defense of their idols.
“Don’t bother acting, you really suck!” Cui posted on microblog platform Weibo, along with screenshots of what appeared to be Fan’s employment contract. The document, which is blurred-out in places, states that Fan would earn 10 million yuan ($1.6 million) and details several unconventional terms and conditions. Fan would have the right to amend the script and refuse hairstylists, for example, and her personal makeup artist would command a monthly fee of 80,000 yuan. In addition, the document states, Fan would have access to two luxury cars, her own voice artist, and a daily food allowance of 1,500 yuan.
The barbs continued on Tuesday, when Cui posted again to reveal that the 10 million-yuan contract was in fact the smaller of two contracts — the other being worth 50 million yuan. This post — which had amassed over 220,000 likes by Wednesday afternoon — questioned why two contracts were needed, complained about the many things Fan refused to do, and disclosed the duration of the deal to be just four days.
Fan’s studio responded on Wednesday, saying that Cui’s posts had humiliated their client, violated business rules, and infringed on Fan’s legal rights. The company added that it had contacted a Beijing law firm and reserved the right to take legal action. Continue to read the full article here.
-This is original content by Sixth Tone and has been republished with permission.