Better than Bad TV

Kerry Howley | January 25, 2005

A leaked document on the private lives of Korea's spunky soap stars is causing some angst in Seoul. The document, compiled by a research firm and meant only for advertisers who might hire the celebrities, is bouncing around Southeast Asia. Koreans like their celebs as boring as their soaps, so allegations of group sex are not a career boost.

As in most of Southeast Asia, Korean soaps are massively popular in Myanmar. And just as they expect their own celebrities to have squeaky-clean private lives, the Burmese won't tolerate any scandal from their Korean teen idols. Yet profanity and sexual innuendo don't seem to be a barrier for Western musicians or actors; pirated Eminem albums are pretty much everywhere and suggestively posed pictures of Britney Spears are still flying off the shelves in Yangon, if nowhere else.