Today in History - April 25 | Star actress kidnapped for refusing movie role
One of Hong Kong's most famous actresses was kidnapped in a harrowing two-hour ordeal on April 25, 1990.
Carina Lau was seized by four men who forced her to strip and then took photos of her topless as punishment for not taking a film role, she said.
But Lau did not report the abduction to police.
"They were just following orders. They never molested me, so I'm grateful to them for that," she said later.
Twelve years later, magazine East Week published the topless photo of Lau with her face blurred.
When Lau confirmed the photo was of her, there was outrage across Hong Kong.
In this photo, Lau spoke at a protest against the magazine, flanked by actors Jackie Chan and Tony Leung, her husband.
The magazine was forced to close and the chief editor was jailed for five months.
But last month filmmaker Wong Jing claimed Lau was not the initial target of the abduction.
The abductors were allegedly intending on abducting fellow actress Elizabeth Lee.
But they lost track of Lee, and happened upon Lau instead, the filmmaker claimed.
Perhaps the first instance of a celebrity fan frenzy directed at a musician was documented on April 25, 1844.
Parisian women became ecstatic and mass fainting spells were reported when Hungarian pianist Franz Liszt would perform.
Women would collect locks of his hair, glass vials containing his coffee dregs and even his cigar stumps.
Writer Henrich Heine described the phenomena as Lisztomania.
But critics did not see it as a pop culture craze but instead a genuine medical concern.
Liszt would retire as a concert pianist a few years later to focus on composing.
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