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| Lights Off at the Wedding: Pai Bingbing Walks Out After Seating Snub |
Pai Bingbing, Taiwan’s showbiz queen and all-round variety legend, made quite the (brief) appearance at actress Lai Hui-Ru’s wedding to ballroom dance coach Liu Jia-Ming last weekend – only to quietly leave before the first course was even served.
The big day, held with all the bells and whistles you'd expect, brought a few familiar faces back under one roof – including Hu Gua, who hasn't exactly been best mates with Pai in recent times.
The two had a famously frosty fallout over TV hosting shifts and network changes, with Pai leaving CTV and taking her Ice Ice Show crew to rival channel FTV, effectively nabbing Hu Gua’s golden weekend primetime slot.
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Pai Bingbing brought her crew along and made the jump to YouTube, launching a new show. (Photo courtesy of Changxing Films) |
And just to stir the pot a bit more, Kang Kang – who ended up taking Hu’s old hosting gig on CTV – was also in the room. You can’t script this stuff.
But to everyone’s surprise (and relief?), Pai and Hu Gua did exchange a civil handshake and even posed for a group photo with Kang Kang – a moment many saw as an olive branch. Still, the peace didn’t last long.
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| Hu Gua (from left), Pai Bingbing, and Kang Kang broke the ice and posed together at Lai Hui-Ru’s wedding banquet. (Photo courtesy of Shark Wedding Photography) |
Word is, Pai Bingbing wasn’t pleased at all with where she’d been seated. While Hu Gua sat right next to the main table with a front-and-centre view of the stage – even close enough to chat with the bride and groom – Pai found herself stuck near the entrance, half-obscured by a pillar, far from the spotlight.
Worse still, there wasn’t even decent lighting where she sat – guests joked it was so dark she’d have to eat by feeling around her plate.
Needless to say, Pai didn’t stay long. After snapping the group photo, she reportedly made her exit under the polite excuse of “other commitments.” But whispers among guests suggested she felt slighted, especially considering her effort in attending.
Let’s not forget – Pai had originally considered skipping the event altogether but showed up out of respect for Liu Jia-Ming, who also happens to be her ballroom dance teacher.
And she didn’t exactly roll in under the radar – she wore jewellery and accessories worth tens of millions of NT dollars, including a rare Hermès handbag worth over six million NT. When asked about her look before the event, she even quipped: “All my treasures are out tonight!”
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| Lai Hui-Ru and her husband Liu Jia-Ming held a wedding celebration over a year after tying the knot, inviting Hu Gua to officiate the ceremony. (Photo courtesy of Shark Wedding Photography) |
So imagine going to all that trouble – and ending up seated next to a fire escape with no spotlight.
Sources close to the couple say the seating wasn’t intended as a snub. It’s well known that Lai Hui-Ru has a deep professional and personal bond with Hu Gua – they’ve co-hosted several major variety shows, and he was even her officiant on the big day.
The wedding playlist even included a medley of his songs. So if he was treated like royalty, it’s because, well, he kind of was.
Still, that doesn’t change the optics. What could have been a rare moment of harmony between the “king” and “queen” of Taiwanese TV ended in awkwardness, with Pai Bingbing’s departure becoming the unexpected headline of the night.
Guess it just goes to show – even in showbiz weddings, where you sit can speak louder than what you wear.