March Flavour of the Month: Mavis Pan

Up until March 16, Mavis Pan (潘霜霜, pinyin: Pān Shuāngshuāng) was a minor model and aspiring actress, best known as a Shu Qi lookalike with a 36D bust. However when phone cell photos were released showing her in bed with Hong Kong's TVB heartthrob Raymond Lam (林峰, pinyin: Lín Fēng), the mainland born Mavis suddenly became a household name. It became news for at that time know one knew Lam was in a relationship. Once the photos were released, an upset Lam admitted that they had once been in an item together but that Lam had called off the relationship months earlier.

Like all good scandals, the revelations didn't stop there. Pan's side quickly counter-claimed that the relationship hadn't ended and indeed Lam had proposed on Valentine's Day. There were further rumours that Lam had visited her Beijing apartment just the day before the photos were exposed. Neither rumour could be confirmed, though gossip magazine Next Magazine, the originally publisher of the photos, showed alleged Valentine's Day photos of the two as a couple.

Then claims were made on the internet that Pan was/is in fact married to a Westerner know only as John. A photo was posted online showing Pan sitting arm in arm with an older Caucasian male, a young boy on her knee. The rumours were contradictory over whether the boy is Pan's son or not - one rumour had them meeting and marrying just two years ago, though the boy is six years old. In any case, Pan's management denied the marriage claims.

Then there was the question of how the photos managed to fall into the hands of Next Magazine. Pan claimed that her mobile phone had been stolen, while Pan's manager put the blame on a sacked personal assistant of Pan's now seeking revenge. Lam's fans on the net took the cynical view, that Pan had leaked the photos herself to gain publicity for her career.

24 year-old Pan was born in Zhejiang province on the mainland and is based in Beijing. She got a big break with her modelling career when she did a photoshoot for online betting agency bwin.com during the football World Cup in 2008. She made her acting debut in the yet-to-be-released action film Treasure Inn starring big-name Hong Kong stars Nicholas Tse, Nick Cheung and Charlene Choi. Now film production companies are lining up to sign her up for further roles.