“Have you seen the pictures?” That question has been asked ad infinitum in Hong Kong this month and requires no further qualification. Everyone here knows the 1,300-odd pictures at issue are the semi-nude, nude or graphic shots of seven Hong Kong starlets and a certain Edison Chen, their erstwhile Chinese-Canadian boyfriend and a pretty-boy actor.

The pictures began circulating on the internet late last month after Mr Chen, 27, dropped off his laptop at a computer repair shop. On January 31, a man was duly hauled in by the police, arrested for publishing some of the supposedly obscene pictures on the internet and denied bail.