Here comes Taiwan's very own donation scandal

While stars shone at the recent CCTV gala in aid of victims of the Yushu county earthquake in Qinghai province and a record 2.1 billion yuan ($307.5 million) was raised, another celebrity charity drive, this one in Taiwan, has fallen flat on its face and become mired in controversy.

Blackie Chen, the host of a popular game show in the island, has been taking serious flak for selling T shirts in aid of his cancer charity and pocketing some of the cash. The issue came to a head on Saturday when another TV show host, Zhou Yu-kou, highlighted the issue on his program.

Blackie's friends got into celebrity tantrums about the allegations and one of them, the divine Dee Hsu, aka Little S, called in and called Zhou "evil". She later apologized, with the caveat she thought she "was doing the right thing". Blackie, by the way, has admitted he was "inexperienced" in his charity dealings. This is, of course, an echo of Zhang Ziyi's apology for a shortfall of funds due to victims of the Wenchuan earthquake in her "Donationgate" scandal.