Vietnam’s latest sex scandal, involving local beauty queen Chung Thuc Quyen’s titillating nude photos which allegedly copied those of world underwear queen Miranda Kerr, is no longer the focus of public attention, as such scandals used to be.

Quyen, who ended up in the top 15 of Miss Supranational 2009, apart from taking part in af ew other international beauty pageants, recently launched her first nude photo shoot, in which she initially claimed she was the stylist.

The photos, however, bear striking resemblances, including poses, accessories and angles to those taken by high-profile Miranda Kerr, which were published in Vogue in 2010 and Harprer's Bazzar in 2012, local newspaper reported. Quyen later admitted to imitating Kerr’s work as merely a token of her admiration for the Victoria’s Secret angel. 

Quyen’s copycat pictures were supposed to be her attempt to ‘polish’ her name and mark her comeback to local showbiz, Lao Dong said.

However, neither the release of the photos nor her imitation, which is taboo in art, attracted much public attention.

Out of the spotlight

Nude photos and sex clips involving novice singers, models and showbiz celebs, as well as transgender scandals, used to attract widespread attention from the masses and media.

They were even considered effective ‘weapons’ to earn the photo or clip ‘authors’ a competitive edge over their righteous colleagues.

Now their heyday is gone.

Like Chung Thuc Quyen’s stimulating nude shoots, other projects by emerging female models, singers and actresses including Minh Trieu and Diep Lam Anh also went unnoticed.

Several days ago, almost a hundred local reporters in charge of entertainment news at different newspapers received an email with an attached sex clip of singer X. from the address changtraihamvui.

The sender also noted that the clip was filmed by the singer himself and there would be even more sexually arousing parts to come.

It didn’t take long to recognize that the clip was an old, cheap PR ploy as the actor in the clip was an unfamous singer who had desperately tried by any means, including scandals and lawsuits, to scale the ladder of fame.

The singer and his clip hardly attracted notice. Even tabloids paid scant attention to it.

Sex photos and clips are still intentionally released as a PR trick on a regular basis, yet the singers, actors or models ‘authoring’ them now mostly receive indifferent attitudes and lack of attention from local netizens and the media, including tabloids.

Except for a few online newspapers which post accusative articles in which the victims remain anonymous, most newswires now turn their backs on sex and transgender scandals.

The media and local viewers have grown tired of sex scandals which soon turn out to be sophisticated, calculated schemes.

Netizens are no longer eager to share the photos or clips or join discussions in online forums, and some even express their outrage at being cheated into believing the ‘actors’ in the photos and clips are the real victims.