Chinese Hollywood Actress Bai Ling Shoplifts

Bai Ling, from Szechuan Province, China, Hollywood actress, shoplifted two celebrity magazines and some batteries in a gift shop at Los Angeles International Airport.

The items cost $16. It’s clear she didn’t do it for the money. She was waiting around due to a delayed flight. She was arrested for theft. She has blamed her action on her emotional state as she had broken up with her boyfriend just before Valentine’s Day.

She has played parts in movies such as The Crow (1994), and Anna and the King (1999), and in the TV series Lost. She was also cover-girl for Playboy Magazine in 2005.

Her emotional state can perhaps be gauged by the almost poetic words she wrote in her blog on the same day: “Life is a sad song but still sings the beauty for their loved ones”.

A lot of blogs and commentaries in the news media have been very unsympathetic to her plight. It’s true she is not a “great” actress, nor is she such a great beauty now (going by her mug-shot) - though in 1998 she was in the list of the top 50 most beautiful women in the world compiled by People Magazine. But everyone has a bad hair day and we shouldn’t be so harsh or sarcastic.