为什么要抓着文章不放

A carnival atmosphere in the wake of a showbiz celebrity's hanky-panky coming to light speaks volumes about the popular culture of the day and, of course, the slowness of serious news. There is a joke going around town that Malaysia is being salvaged by a Chinese star whose extramarital affair has finally taken the heat off the airline mystery.

Wen Zhang, a 30-year-old movie and television actor, rose to prominence on his public image as a man of responsibility. Barely two months after his second daughter was born, paparazzi caught him in compromising situations with Yao Di, a young actress who starred with him in a previous drama series.

The real-life drama played out like an episodic Chinese soap opera. On March 28, the editor of Southern Entertainment Weekly tweeted on her weibo (micro blog) that the magazine was to drop a big bomb in showbiz the following Monday.

Then there was gossip that representatives from the two leads in the affair were reaching out in a frantic attempt to hush up the revelation with big money dangled in exchange for the favor. But "No!" said the publisher, who suggested they were going to do the right thing and honor their reporters' hard work. Besides, it was too late to stop the press.

Episode 1 of innuendo escalated during the weekend to Episode 2 of anticipation. The suspense was quickly broken as the nation's online journalists took whatever tips they could get hold of and jumped to digging. The gist was, Wen had been seeing Yao when his wife was pregnant with their second child. Yao even moved closer to be their neighbor. Blurry photos of their secret rendezvous in Hong Kong surfaced, hardly conclusive yet tantalizing nonetheless. All kinds of theories were floated.

The biggest loser from this episode is the magazine that set the events in motion, not the dishonored celebrities. In this day of instant news and commentary, the print media can be easily trumped by their online competitors. Anything could have happened during the two days when Southern Entertainment Weekly was being printed and trucked to newsstands. For breakout news, print has proved such a laggard even when it claims to have a big scoop. Anyone in the print shop with a camera-ready mobile phone could have leaked everything in a few seconds.

I believe print media still has a place in the future, mainly in in-depth reporting and analysis, the kind of thing people don't have much patience for when they surf the net. But tabloid news and gossip, no matter the length, is the information equivalent of fast food. People won't dress up or pay big money for it. They don't even care if it is properly vetted and verified. The important thing is whether the subjects in the story are known quantities in whom the reading public has invested time and emotion.

Conspiracy theorists also had a field day arguing that it was a ploy by all the players in the melodrama to sell something. In China there is a special segment who would automatically suspect that people less well-known get involved with celebrities for the purpose of selling something, possibly to get a starring role in a commercial.

I was accused of this sin when I got an exclusive interview with Zhang Ziyi in 2010. Did I want to sell something? Sure, I thought that story of mine would be good for promoting China Daily. Other than that, what could I possibly sell?

Even the most important writer in China has never been given an endorsement deal. Sometimes, cynicism can be an excuse for stupidity, somewhat like the brain running wild and screeching with sparks of illogic before it totally breaks down.

Early Monday morning came the denouement. I'd rather call it Episode 3 as who knows how it's going to end. Chinese couch potatoes are accustomed to 30-episode slow-moving tearjerkers, not a three-act dramatic arc. Wen issued a statement on his weibo, apologizing profusely for his sin and asking for forgiveness adding that it was unforgivable. He did not mention the girlfriend. His wife, Ma Yili, who is eight years his senior, echoed his apology by hinting that they have already moved on.

This is so anticlimactic. Why isn't the first wife angry? Obviously she had long known about her husband's infidelity and they had reached some kind of reconciliation. That left moral purists in an awkward position. Who are they going to champion now that the victim has essentially sided with the sinner. The focus has shifted to the girlfriend who has not come out with a public stance yet. Is she now the victim due to his prompt repentance? (She had posted a cryptic sentence on March 23, saying "One should pursue but not force it because what one wins by pursuing is priceless while what one wins by forcing it is cheap.")

Wen is rumored to be the highest-paid television actor in China, commanding three times the salary of the Korean heartthrob who has taken China by storm. He may not possess the best looks or the best acting chops, but he has built a solid career on a combination of good roles and a matching persona of a boy-man and the boy next door that is more endearing than enchanting. In other words, he is someone who can be trusted as a husband and father or a kid growing into one.

Truth is, we don't know anything about what happened between the three of them. We just project from the roles they play and the public appearances they make that they are the kind of people we take them to be. That is at once the benefit and the disadvantage of an acting career. Their facade could be exactly who they are, or the opposite of who they are, or anything in between.

All three of these people are adults and their private lives have nothing to do with the public. The fact that Wen has been acting as a kind of role model is partly the fault of the public or his fan base. Acting is not built on morality; it is one's ability to make believe he or she can be someone else once the need arises. It is simply foolish to equate a role with the one who temporarily embodies it.

That said, actors who rely on the trick of deliberately blurring the line between actor and role should abide by his own rule. If you want the public to believe you're a paragon of morality, then stick to it or suffer the consequences.

In a cultural context, the increasing failures of fairy tale marriages in the entertainment industry indeed have an impact on social attitudes and values. Whenever a celebrity union unravels, those who perceived it as the embodiment of conjugal perfection are dealt a blow, gradually morphing them into cynics. The oft-repeated catchphrase, "I won't believe in love anymore", is a self-deprecating wisecrack that has truth at its core.

It's not a stretch to imagine that some will follow the lead of the erstwhile role models even in their foibles simply because they have revealed a vulnerability that makes them more human. There is also a palpable undertone of schadenfreude at the implosion of marquee names. If those perching atop pedestals cannot resist temptation and hold a marriage together, shouldn't we feel better about ourselves and our pedestrian lives?

Either way, stars in the entertainment galaxy are used as benchmarks against which the huddling masses can measure their own existence and its worth. It has all the trappings of a modern religion with the only exception that these are mere mortals whose unpredictability can interfere with our projection and faith. That's why a real saint had better be dead. For one thing, dead people do not commit adultery and can be molded into whatever shape the manipulator wants.

当今社会处在浮躁的大环境下，娱乐圈明星们的任何事迹都能马上抓住公众的眼球，成为热点，而严肃类资讯却恰恰相反。

网上流传着一个笑话，“中国一位明星救了马来西亚”，在文章婚外情事件爆出后，还有谁关心飞机找到没呢？

文章，著名电影电视演员，今年三十岁，以屏幕上的“好男人”著称。在他的第二个女儿出生仅两个月后，狗仔队发现了他与著名女演员姚笛的婚外情事件，该女演员与文章此前在某电视剧中出演过对手戏。

现实版电视剧就像中国的肥皂剧一样上演了。3月28日，《南方娱乐周刊》的编辑发布了一条微博，暗示周一有重磅资讯爆出。

接着就爆出该事件的两名主角试图掩盖真相，该媒体高层和记者都遭遇了大波“说情”和“巨大的利益诱惑”，以求“平事儿"撤稿。但是，该编辑说：“当事人最清楚发生了什么。我也理解当事人此时的焦灼，但请相信此报道绝无任何阴谋论。”并且，当时已来不及阻止舆论的导向了。

周末的时候上演了第一集，众多网友表示对第二集“周一见”的期待。悬念很快被揭开，国内记者爆出了所有挖出来的料。也就是，文章在妻子怀二胎期间出轨与姚笛相恋，姚笛甚至搬到了离文章更近的地方住。两人密游香港的照片也被扒出，这也为两人“在一起”的传闻再添铁证。

这次事件中最大的受害者不是不忠的明星，而是《南方娱乐周刊》这本杂志。在当天接连不断的资讯和评论中，纸媒被线上媒体一举击溃。当《南方娱乐周刊》在印刷并送到各个报刊亭的这段时间里，能发生各种事情。对于这种爆炸性资讯，特别是独家爆料，纸媒被证明确实是不可行的。任何一个在印刷店的人，只要拿着有摄像功能的手机就能够在几秒钟之内泄露所有事情。

我相信纸媒在未来仍会有一席之地，特别是深度报导和分析，对于这类事情人们在上网时是不会花时间去看的。但是对于爆炸性的资讯和八卦，无论长短，都是信息时代的快餐，人们不会为此花时间研究或是花大价钱，甚至不关心是否是通过审核的、已被证实的。重要的是这个主题是否已被公众投入了时间和情感。

一些评论者也认为这是一个经过策划的炒作。在中国这一点很特殊，就是一旦那些知名度不太高的人和知名度高的人扯上关系，就会被自动得怀疑成炒作、宣传。

我有过类似的经历，2010年，我做了一次章子怡的独家专访，就被怀疑炒作。我想卖什么东西吗？当然，我觉得我写的故事可能对《中国日报》的宣传有好处，除此以外，我还能卖什么？

即使中国最著名的作家也没有谁有代言合同。有时，愤世嫉俗可以用来解释愚蠢，像是在完全崩溃前思维混乱、屏幕乱闪的场景。

周一早上迎来的大结局。我姑且叫第三集吧，谁也不知道该如何收场。中国电视观众习惯看30集长的节奏缓慢的催泪戏，而不是只有三幕的戏剧。文章在微博上发表了声明，“对不起，请能接受我发自深心的歉意和愧悔。”声明里他没有提到姚笛。比他大8岁的妻子马伊琍，回应了他的道歉，“且行且珍惜”。

剧情骤变，为什么马伊琍不生气呢？很明显，她早就知道了文章出轨，达成了调解。而道德纯粹主义者让他们都处在尴尬的位置。谁出来辩护谁就是罪人。公众把重心转移到了姚笛身上，而此次事件后姚笛再没有在公众前露面。因为文章及时的认罪让姚笛变成了罪人了吗？姚笛于3月23日发布了一条神秘的微博，“永远要追求，但不强求，因为追求来的是无价的，而强求来的一定是廉价的！”

文章据传是中国片酬最高的电视演员，迷倒中国大江南北的“都教授”的片酬只有文章的三分之一。他也许不是最帅的或者是演技最好的，但是他树立了坚实的“大男孩”和“邻家男孩”的形象，更加具有魅力。换句话说，他是一个能被信任的好丈夫、好父亲。

事实上，我们根本不知道他们三人之间到底发生了什么。我们只能从他们扮演的角色和塑造的“我们想要的”公众形象中设想。这是演员的好处，也是演员的坏处。他们可以出演真实的自己，或是扮演完全和自己相反的角色，或是两者之间。

三个人都是成年人，他们的私生活与公众毫无关系。只是文章与他所树立的“好男人”形象背道而驰。演戏不是树立在道德之上的，只是演员的能力，让他或她能满足观众的需求。而仅仅用戏中的角色去判定一个演员是极其愚蠢的。

也就是说，依靠这种模糊演员本人和戏中角色界限的演员应该遵守自己的原则。如果你想让公众相信你塑造的道德典范，就坚守它，或是承担相应的后果。

在这种文化背景下，娱乐圈不断爆出“童话婚姻”的破灭确实会对社会态度和价值观产生影响。当一对明星夫妻闹崩时，会给那些视作完美结合的粉丝们沉重一击，逐渐变得愤世嫉俗。网上常有人说“不再相信爱情了“，就是以自嘲的方式来体现了这一真理。

很难去想象那些会跟随偶像所扮演的角色的人，甚至是他们的缺点，仅仅是因为他们也展现出了脆弱的一面而让他们显得更人性化。还有一个明显又潜在的原因，就是人们看到这些人的名字暴露在大屏幕上的幸灾乐祸。如果那些在娱乐圈的人不能够忍受诱惑、维护婚姻，我们不应该对我们普通人的生活感觉更好吗？

无论怎么说，娱乐圈的明星们都可以被大众用作测量自己的存在和价值的标尺。他们被现代宗教和道义包裹，在没有被预知的情况下，影响我们自己的观点和信念，这就是为什么真正的圣人最好是已经去世了的。从某种意义上来说，已经去世的人不能吃喝嫖赌，能够被操纵者塑造成任何他们想要的样子。