First, a hard disk gets lost and a police report is made.
Now, a $100,000 reward is offered for its safe return.
But how would that work?
Surely, anyone in possession of the disk would risk being investigated for having it in the first place, since a police report has been made.
But the artiste management company insists that the contents of that hard disk are important enough to offer such a reward.
Reward, yes. But $100,000?
Are the images of Wu Luoyi (no disrespect intended) worth that sum? Or is it the unpublished music that warrants such a hefty reward?
The artiste management company and the family and friends of the artistes involved would probably say that it is a combination of those factors.
Still, it sounds to me like they are making a mountain out of a plain old hard disk.
Of course, if the 'famed' images in the Edison Chen saga were involved, we could be talking about figures in the millions, considering the amount of newsprint and interest the scandal generated.
But here, we are talking about unreleased songs and artistic shots of one artiste - non-sexual, we are told.
One rather cynical view is that this is a publicity stunt, but that is flatly denied by the artiste management company, which says it would not put its clients through such 'emotional harassment'.
So, we must view this incident at face value.
A hard disk is lost and you can get $100,000 if you return it.
Will the disk be returned and the reward claimed? Will the images and songs be leaked online? Or will nothing come of all this, other than a huge fuss?
This story was first published in The New Paper on 15 July 2008.
