janice

Is she furious over Cairo publicity?

Behind S'pore singer's smile could be anger over how record company made pyramid out of a molehill during Egypt video shoot


INSTEAD of returning to Taipei on Wednesday after her Cairo 'close shave', Stefanie Sun (below) flew home to Singapore instead.


The supposed reason: She had come back to rest because she was not feeling well.

But it seems that was just an excuse.

The real reason is that Stefanie is angry with her Taiwanese record label for making a pyramid out of a molehill over the Cairo incident.

A reliable insider told The New Paper that the songbird is 'furious' with the way Capitol Music had handled the incident.

What was initially an unpleasant tourist encounter was blown to dramatic proportions, leading to sensational claims like 'armed robbery' and 'extortion with threats'.

Stefanie's parents have lamented to the local media that the whole incident was 'overblown' and 'exaggerated'.

The insider said the singer believes that her company leaked out news 'without telling her', and yet, she is expected to face the Taiwanese media alone.

'She has her own mind and she hates playing games like that, but now she has no choice but to push it back to her company to handle,' the insider added.

SPECULATIVE BACKLASH

Initially, the news had won Stefanie lots of 'aiyoh why she so suay (unlucky)' sympathy votes, but it has since backfired.

Speculation is rife in the Taiwanese media that the incident was just a publicity blitz.

Conflicting accounts of what had happened in Egypt from different sources - including Capitol's managing director Sam Chen, music video director Shockley Huang and Stefanie herself - have also cast doubts on the incident.

Stefanie flew to Cairo last Friday with a crew of more than 20 people, including director Huang, to film two music videos for her new album, Ni Guang (Against The Light).

Her mother travelled with her.

They reportedly met with two local guides who kept demanding money during the filming and threatened them by hinting they had guns on them.

The Singapore Embassy in Cairo then stepped in to resolve the matter, after receiving a request for help from Stefanie's father, who was in Singapore.

It has since been clarified that guns were not involved, and that there were only verbal exchanges between the crew and the guides.

More than US$10,000 ($15,000) was paid to the guides willingly, Capitol Music said.

The New Paper tried to contact Mr Chen, but he was not available.

Stefanie's manager here couldn't be contacted yesterday either.

Apparently, a gag order has been issued by Capitol Music.

Meanwhile, director Huang has denied that the incident was a publicity stunt during a phone conference with the Taiwanese media on Thursday.

He argued that it is 'not logical' for the Singapore Embassy in Cairo to 'play along' with them if it was a mere stunt.

However there was more confusion when Stefanie gave a watered-down account of the incident in a one-minute video released to the Asian media, also on Thursday.

'SO SCARED'

Earlier, she had told Shin Min Daily News that she was so 'scared' by the 'really bad' guides that she did not dare to step out of the hotel one whole day.

Her father also told Lianhe Wanbao that she charged US$3,500 to her own credit card as payment to the guides, who carried a hand-held credit card machine.

But in the video, she claimed she had 'no interaction' with the two guides and that she only heard from the crew that they 'might be carrying guns'.



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Will her image and music suffer?

STEFANIE Sun has always been a media darling, but her squeaky clean image may suffer following this incident.

An industry source said: 'Her image will suffer. The whole saga looks like a cry for attention, and for a superstar, one of the worst things to do is to appear like you're desperate for attention.'

This incident reminds one of the gun scare in 2000, when she first burst into the scene.

A man wielding an air gun tried to take her hostage during an autograph session in Taipei.

That incident catapulted the newbie to fame.

The source said: 'People will not fall for the same trick twice.'

Also, it seems to have stolen the thunder from Stefanie's highly-anticipated comeback album, Ni Guang, her first release under Capitol Music.

The source said this could mean that her hard work to reinvent her music may go unnoticed.

A report in Taiwan's United Daily News echoed similar sentiments.

It wondered if this saga continued to brew, 'who would notice what new musical elements she has included in her new album?'