Confessions of an Uncle Fan: The Series (episode 31)

Dara, miss A, Min, Fei, Rainbow, Ji Eun, Taeyeon, SPICA, IU, Kahi, Ailee, Kim Ji Min, Lim Jeong Hee, JYP Entertainment, Sojung, Kan Mi Yeon

The Ailee Scandal

As you're probably expecting, the vast majority of today's Confessions of an Uncle Fan will be dedicated to the scandal that has engulfed K-pop superstar Ailee. By now everyone knows the story of how allkpop reported that nude photos of Ailee taken before her debut had surfaced on a message board. Ailee's agency YMC Entertainment confirmed that the photos were of her but that an employee of allkpop was actually responsible for the leak because of a prior relationship between the employee and Ailee. 6Theory Media, allkpop's parent company, released a denial of any involvement with leaking the photos. There are other accusations of attempting to sell the photos to a news agency in Korea and a whole host of other stories. This scandal reminds me of�Baek Ji Young's sex video as one of the most lurid and unfortunate events in K-pop's history. I am curious as to how this will all play out in the upcoming months.

For the record and full disclosure, I am a writer for allkpop and have communicated with a number of people at the company, including the accused ex-boyfriend, and have been treated with nothing but respect and professionalism. Because of that great experience, I was shocked and disappointed that the employee's name has been brought up as a possible source of the leak. I'm just as curious as the rest of you to see how this plays out because a full legal investigation is already beginning and will surely shed light on the murk that this story has become.

Having said all of that, yesterday's news has been based largely on rumor, speculation, and denials. But there is one absolute, concrete truth that is at the heart of this entire episode and that is that the reputation of a young, rising star in the K-pop world has been damaged.

No matter who did what or when, the basic truth is that an exceedingly naive and young girl made the mistake of trusting someone and that person repaid that trust with the ultimate act of betrayal. I can't even begin to fathom the emotions and pain she must have felt as this news began to spread across the world. Can you imagine the shame and heartbreak she must have felt when she had to call her parents and explain the situation to them?

I initially thought Ailee would remove herself from the spotlight but it looks like she and her company have decided to move forward and continue her current promotions in Japan; a smart move. By stopping her work or completely retreating from this, she would have been sending the wrong message and it would be like she's admitting to some crime she never committed. She didn't do anything malicious or break any laws (other than those of common sense) and shouldn't have to put her life on hold for this.�

Korean society and K-pop fans have set a precedent that they are willing to move past these kind of episodes but it will take time and the ability to survive that initial surge of mass hysteria that she will have to go through. I mean, the number of reporters at the airport when she returns from Japan will be massive. If she can muster the courage to get through that early onslaught and not let this moment define who she is and who she can become, she'll have the opportunity to get out of this in one piece. Ailee is known to have a group of close, K-pop idol friends and she'll need their help more now than ever.

I wish her nothing but the best. It seems to me that she's a good kid who made a bad decision in the past. It happens to all of us. I have a feeling she's going to be alright and am looking forward to hearing her beautiful voice again.

Girl Group Variety Round-Up

A list of all the girl group appearances on variety shows (that I saw) this week.

'Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter' - Sojung
'Radio Star' - Kan Mi Yeon, Shim Eun Jin, Lim Jeong Hee
'Weekly Idol' - IU
'Happy Together' - Kim Ji Min
'Star King' - SPICA, Kahi, Song Ji Eun, Ailee, Rainbow
'Hello' - miss A Min and Fei

The Taeyeon Experiment

Each week I will post a picture from Taeyeon's Instagram feed in the hopes that one day she'll post a picture of herself reading this column.

As someone who has worked a cotton candy machine before, those things are incredibly messy. But now I kind of want some...

Pic/.Gif/Video of the Week

Brand new Instgrammer Sandara Park celebrating her birthday. I'm surprised it's taken her this long to join as she's known to be quite the social sharer. Better late than never I suppose. You can follow her at daraxxi.

Uncle Fan Mailbag

Sometimes it happens. "I'm just shocked that Taeyeon is not in the Top 5 Girl Groupers this week!"
-ly_teng

Honestly, it's going to be a rare occurrence but there were other things going on last week... you know, maybe I just went temporarily insane?

I've always liked her. "Kim Ji Min (the comedian) is finally getting some recognition."
-heavenrise

She's always been known as the "hot" comedian but you're right, she's now entering that upper echelon of fame where the majority of people in Korea will recognize her. Even international fans who follow variety programs will be able to pick her out at this point.�

I'm man, not a machine. "Pretty short this week."
-pikachus

A Few Non-K-pop Related Things

Thor Spoiler

*DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE END CREDITS FROM THOR: DARK WORLD*

So for the rest of you, Marvel is known for setting up future movies with small scenes during their end credits. We saw this with Samuel Jackson showing up in 'Iron Man' for instance which led to 'The Avengers'. In 'Thor 2', there's a scene showing two of Thor's friends taking the Aether (the Tesseract for this movie) to a character known as The Collector played by Benicio del Toro (there's some serious acting chops in these movies). The big news with that is that it sets up the movie 'Guardians of the Galaxy' which is going to be the crazies Marvel movie yet (one character is a raccoon). The pre-planning Marvel is doing to layout the movie universe is amazingly detailed.

Top 5 Favorite Girl Groupers Right Now

Ailee - Poor girl. You're going to be fine
Taeyeon - Sorry I forgot about you last week
Kim Ji Min - I cannot get enough of her
Sojung - Like her singing more and more
miss A - They look good in their new music video (see Song of the Week below)

Song of the Week

I was a little late in watching miss A's new video for "Hush" and I ended up liking it a lot. It's very not like E-Tribe's past work which surprised me a bit but not in a bad way. Plus, it's good to see the girl's back performing again and I feel like this is just the first of many�moves in JYP Entertainment's comeback strategy.