Tuesday, March 16, 2010:
This story links the Internet, Hollwood glamour and a natural disaster-one of the worst in recent memory. The Chinese film actress Zhang Ziyi, best known for her roles in 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon' and 'Memoirs of a Geisha', has finally broken her silence and accepted the blame for an earthquake donation scandal after being savaged by Chinese Internet users.
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Controlling her emotions, she told the China Daily in an interview published today that she did not keep tabs on her staff after telling them to transfer money she had promised to victims of China's May 2008 earthquake, which killed 87,000 people and destroyed many areas in southwestern China. "I take the main responsibility for the lapse and causing my staff to mix it up," she said.
Chinese media dubbed the scandal "Donationgate," and it broke in January this year after a popular Chinese Website claimed Zhang had given only 840,000 yuan (124,000 dollars) out of a promised one million yuan. The donations were made later on though.
Always controversial in her home country, she has frequently been a target of media and Internet criticism. In this case even the bland state TV channels ran a talk-show feature implying Zhang had not come clean, reports The New York Times. It is common for Chinese performers in showbiz to be humiliated on the Internet in China.
Ashish Joshi, EFYTIMES News Network
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