Celebrities should be role models?

TNP PHOTO: Gavin Foo

Like or not, celebrities know they're accountable to more than just their loved ones and friends - especially when they misbehave.

By choosing a profession in showbiz, artistes generally enter “a quasi social contract” with the public viewers and even advertisers.

In a random poll of 50 people, 62 per cent say that celebrities are expected to be role models.

On Thursday, Taiwan-born Quan, 37, was given a 15-month probation for committing mischief by pulling out the taxi fare meter and spilling water on the receipt printer in the cab.

Hers was one of the two hottest court cases this week.

The other was the abuse of a 10-year-old boy at the hands of his adoptive family for allegedly “stealing food”.

Yet, Quan’s is the more closely watched and talked-about one.