Earlier this week it was revealed that actor Lee Byung Hun was being blackmailed by a soon to debut singer and her friend for using profanity, and being sexually inappropriate with them. By the next day we found out that the ring leader was none other GLAM’s Dahee.
Dahee and her model friend wanted the actor to pay up 5 million dollars for a recording of him asking them sexual questions:
“When was your first sexual experience?”
“What part of the male body turns you on?”
“Do you like the face more or the body more?”
This thing is really just odd, but I think the worst part of this whole scandal, is the HUGE slap in the face actress Lee Min Jung received. I mean, the girl is arguably one of Korea’s hottest female celebrities who left tones of guys heart broken with her marriage, and just a few weeks after her 1st anniversary, her husband gets caught being vulgar with young girls.
But let’s not make her the victim in this. Apparently, Lee Byung Hun has himself quite a rep, and its all pretty common knowledge to Koreans, and it is the reason many didn’t/don’t like him, and hated his relationship with Lee Min Jung even more. If you take a look at his past scandals it’s easier to understand why Dahee thought blackmailing him was a real gold mine. Any normal man, and an actor at that, would pay out the nose to keep this from going public, especially when he’s married. But, looking at the big picture, Lee Byung Hun isn’t a normal man.
In 2000, X-Files were released about him that stated that “several insiders reported that he was an absolute pervert in bed and that that was largely one of the reasons why Song Hye Kyo ended her relationship with him. He allegedly had a lot of bizarre fetishes and was a huge sex addict (especially with young girls)”
Lee Byung Hun visited Canada for a press event for his ‘The Good, The Bad, The Weird’ film and was introduced to a staff’s friend named Kwon Miyeon, a 20 year old gymnast. After their initial meeting, Lee Byung Hun began hitting on her until she agreed to a relationship. He then convinced her to wrap up her life in Canada and come to Korea so that he can marry her and take care of her.
Thinking he’d keep his promise, she concluded her career as a gymnast and went to Korea. (Rumors also say Kwon Miyeon was pregnant with his child in Canada, which she aborted before coming to Korea.) Lee Byung Hun broke his promise by disappearing completely after getting her a small rental room.
Upset that she had lost everything while sacrificing her life for him, she filed a lawsuit against Lee Byung Hun for $100,000 USD. During this time, Lee Byung Hun was filming ‘Iris’, so CEO Jung Tae Won (Taewon Entertainment, production company behind ‘Iris’) realized that the scandal could blow up into something bigger and ruin the drama if they didn’t take care of it immediately.
What they needed was a scapegoat, and they found it in former baseball player and TV star Kang Byung Kyu, who had a dirty image at the time for fraud and various gambling scandals. Kang Byung Kyu’s girlfriend was friends with Kwon Miyeon so CEO Jung and Lee Byung Hun used that to their advantage to tell the media that Kang Byung Kyu was behind the whole thing and was actually the one controlling Kwon Miyeon, who they claimed was a sl*t looking for money.
Obviously since Kwon Miyeon was stranded in Korea with absolutely no money, she lost the case and disappeared from the media, with most thinking that Lee Byung Hun paid her off to stay quiet.
Kang Byung Kyu, however, demanded an apology for all of the lies that Lee Byung Hun was telling the media about him. CEO Jung asked Kim Seung Woo (an ‘Iris’ co-star who is also friends with Kang Byung Kyu) to invite Kang Byung Kyu to a meeting so that he can formally apologize to him.
What actually happened was that CEO Jung hired a bunch of men to lynch him. He had CCTV cameras running at the time so he recorded the whole thing and only released manipulated footage where it looked like Kang Byung Kyu was the one physically assaulting them when it was actually in defense.
He used the footage as media play to completely oust Kang Byung Kyu from the industry. As he already had a negative image, the media and the public easily believed the manipulation and launched a witch hunt against him, completely ruining his career and image.
Kang Byung Kyu took the case to court and stated that he was assaulted with a baseball bat first. As CEO Jung is a highly powerful man in Korea, the court was about to rule in CEO Jung’s favor until Kim Seung Woo eventually stepped forward as a witness and told the truth about everything that had happened (the other staff at the scene refused to show as witnesses, as they were probably too scared of the repercussions, and stayed silent).
The court then launched an investigation into the CCTV and found that it was indeed manipulated, so Kang Byung Kyu was found innocent of all charges thanks to Kim Seung Woo’s testimony.
It has done very little in recovering Kang Byung Kyu’s career considering the level of influence both Lee Byung Hun and CEO Jung have on the media, so the public rarely followed what happened past the manipulation stage (netizens are well versed on it, though). Kang Byung Kyu has now dedicated his entire Twitter to talking sh*t about Lee Byung Hun and revealing dirty truths about him (he was the one that revealed Lee Byung Hun was in a relationship with Lee Min Jung before anyone else, along with several other speculations like how he’s only in it to get her pregnant and leave her because he’s obsessed with sleeping with young women). He’s also involved in a few more lawsuits with Lee Byung Hun unrelated to the story.
Once you get through all the sorted details it’s kind of a mystery why Lee Min Jung would want to get involved with the guy, unless she’s a freak herself! I can’t honestly say I blame Dahee for trying to cash in on this, it seems like it’d be sure pay off, plus to have to endure being hit on by a greasy older guy is something all the money in the world couldn’t make a better experience. He tried to take liberties with Dahee and her friend so they did it right back to him, because let’s face it, being in GLAM ain’t earning her jack squat! But, something can be said for this man, you have to have balls the size of Europe (where Dahee and pal planned to flee) to make this a public battle when you already have a pretty sleazy track record.
What do you think of this scandal? Is Dahee in the wrong or was it Lee Byung Hun? What doe feel about Lee Min Jung’s situation? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Both Dahee and Lee Byung Hun are wrong. You can’t really justify a crime. Just because Lee Byung Hun is a perverted @sshole doesn’t mean he deserved to be blackmailed. Dahee should’ve reported to the police instead but she chose the wrong method of dealing with this. I would be highly offended if I’m sexually harassed by someone and the first thing I’d do is to report the harasser but I guess Dahee is still young and not in her right mind.
I didn’t say anyone wasn’t wrong. I was being a bit sarcastic, but my point was that I understand why Dahee would think blackmailing LBH was a good idea. He has a bad public image, he has a history with this sort of thing, anyone would assume he wouldn’t want yet ANOTHER story of him being inappropriate with young girls getting out. It would seem like easy money.