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Man, American celebrity scandals suck in comparison to Hong Kong's.

It's been called the equivalent of the 9/11 disaster for the Hong Kong entertainment industry.

Just as the Fatty Arbuckle scandal was the equivalent of the Somme.

Sexually explicit pictures and a steamy video shot by Cantopop icon Edison Chen with female singers and actresses who have shared his bed have spread like wildfire around Asia over the past few weeks.

In a business that carefully grooms starlets with innocent, virginal images, the scandal is threatening to destroy careers and fortunes.

More than 1,000 stolen pictures are circulating of the 27-year-old Chen and eight well-known women, including Maggie Q, Bobo Chan, Cecilia Cheung and Gillian Chung of the Twins duo.

Lucky bastard.



Really lucky bastard.



God damned lucky bastard.



Sonuvabitch.

This week, the Beijing Association of Online Media censured Baidu.com (nasdaq: BIDU - news - people ), China’s dominant search engine, for delaying taking effective action to block the availability of the images to Chinese Internet users, who have caused a spike in traffic in their zeal to find them. It called for Baidu to make a public apology for the harm it has done to the society.

Shot with a Samsung digital camera and stored on an Apple laptop, the photos weren't intended for public consumption by Chen, who has appeared in over 20 Hong Kong movies, including the popular Infernal Affairs trilogy. The pictures were reportedly swiped from his computer when he took it in for repairs at a shop in downtown Hong Kong.

The photos quickly became favorite fodder during the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday, causing a surge in Internet traffic across China, Taiwan and Hong Kong as the curious rushed to download them.

The affair has proved to be a shocking revelation of the private lives of a new generation of celebrities, many of whom have been portrayed by PR agents as models for today’s youth.

A survey in Hong Kong found more than 30% of high school students have passed the pictures around among themselves and 74% of them brought the issue up with their parents.

"Daddy, what are you looking at?"

"Nothing"

"Is that a picture of Maggie Q?"

"Um ... yes."

"What type of lollipop is she licking?"

"It's a ... testcicle. But they don't taste very good. Or so I hear. You wouldn't like them. EVER."

A lingerie producer on the island of Hainan has rung up roaring sales of knockoffs of the lacy underthings worn by Maggie Q in the pictures, according to the Guangzhou-based Southern Metropolis newspaper.

Maggie Q should've taken a lesson from Britney Spears -- slimy businessmen can't sell knock-off knickers if you don't wear undies.

For Chen himself, the price he pays for the episode might be far more than lost sponsorship deals.

Hong Kong criminal groups, which are deeply involved in the local entertainment industry, are said to be upset by the damage done to the singers they have cultivated. On Wednesday, the Apple Daily newspaper reported that an underworld figure is offering a reward of half a million Hong Kong dollars to anyone who hacks off one of Chen's hands.

But I guess Britney and Lindsay should be grateful they don't live in Hong Kong.