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Adult profile: Lee Sabi, a year in review
William Sparrow
August 26, 2004
2004 has been an exceptional year for Asian women in Playboy Magazine. First
Playboy announced that Korean beauty Lee Sabi would be named as a Playmate of
the Month for January 2004. Then in May/June of this year the premiere men's
magazine unveiled Cyber Girl Kay Sivilay an ethnic Thai, who is still thought
to be a contender as a second Asian Playmate of the Month this year. This would
be the first time the magazine would choose two Asian women as Playmates in the
same year.
Lee Sabi now holds a place in Playboy modeling history that will likely forge
her a path like Asian softcore adult icon Sung Hi Lee, who has appeared in no
less than 58 Playboy magazines, supplements and special editions, not to
mention numerous Playboy videos.
Such a lineage of pedigree that Sabi follows in, and has earned in her own
right, is deserving of this brief recap of some of the news coverage she has
enjoyed this year, and that is sure to continue for this young star.
March 2004
ICEC debates Lee Sabi's 'Hair Nudes'
Hair or no hair -- that is the question before the Information Communication
Ethics Committee (ICEC) as it deliberates whether to allow release of some of
Playboy model Lee Sabi's "hair nudes," i.e., photographs that reveal Lee's
pubic hair. Korea usually restricts images that reveal pubic hair.
Airpass (www.airpasscorp.com), which has been charged with distribution of
Lee's nude photos through mobile and Internet service, recently said, "Last
month, we requested to the ICEC that they consider about 60 photographs that
reveal pubic hair, and we are still waiting for the result of their
deliberations."
An ICEC official said, "A while ago, word went round that a certain entertainer
asked the ICEC to decided on whether to allow the release of 'hair nudes,' but
in fact, we never got such a request. Lee Sabi's the first to do so."
 Meanwhile,
Spice TV (www.spicetv.co.kr), which holds the copyrights over Lee's nude
photos, said, "For release in foreign markets like the United States, shots
revealing pubic hair were unavoidable, and what's more, we judged that there
was enough artistic merit in those photos that they'd be OK for release. So we
requested [to the ICEC] that they make a judgment." Placing much weight on the
ruling, Spice TV said, "Because deliberations have yet to finish, we've delayed
supplying American Playboy with the photos. If the committee gives its OK, we
can provide not only local service providers but [American] Playboy with the
photographs."
On a related note, nude photos of Lee will be released through 16 Internet
portal sites, including the Playboy2004 homepage (www.playboy2004.co.kr),
Naver, Daum and Yahoo at midnight Monday.
February 2004
Second round of Lee Sabi nude pics to go public
Playboy model Lee Sabi’s second series of nude photographs will make its debut
on Friday through mobile phones. The first series of nude images, themed the
“four colored nudes,” was released through the "Big Three" Korean
telecommunication carriers on Feb. 19. This time, a new series of photos taken
at New Port Beach in Los Angeles and Hollywood mansions, themed “Freedom,” will
be presented.
Although Lee Sabi’s nudes were thrown to the public in the midst of the Lee
Seung-yeon “comfort women nudes” controversy, about 300 thousand people logged
on to see Sabi’s nude pictures. This is contradictory to the current situation
where Korean celebrities are postponing or even canceling the release of their
own nude projects.
Because of this unexpected public reaction, Lee Sabi’s people have produced in
Korea an hour long special called “Lee Sabi’s self-camera" to be released in
early March together with photos taken in the United States.
January 2004
Oh no! Not Marky Mark!
 Lee
Sa-bi, who was selected to be Korea's "first" Playboy Playmate model, was
apparently the target of a seduction attempt by none other than Hollywood actor
and former New Kid on the Block Mark Wahlberg. In an interview with Chosun
Daily, Lee confessed that Marky Mark tried to pick her up at a 2001 party in
Paris. Ahh, the City of Love.
To read her side of this tale, when she was introduced to Wahlberg at this
party, he immediately became interested in her, asking her all sorts of
questions about where she was from and so on. Anyway, having been a big fan of
New Kids on the Block (hey, nobody's perfect), Lee was glad to have met the
guy, and they spent some time together at the party. But when it came time to
go home, he asked her if they could meet for lunch the next day. At this point,
she came up an excuse why she couldn't, and she never met him again.
Lee goes on to say she learned from a friend that Marky Mark has a thing for
Asian women, which might surprise some, because didn't he spend some time in
jail for beating the crap out of some poor Vietnamese guy up in Boston? Anyway,
she said, he was shorter in real life than she previously imagined, and she
didn't find him all that attractive.
Apparently, short guys need not apply.
She also said she received a casting offer in a movie opposite French star
Vincent Cassel, but because of home sickness and a lack of confidence in the
French language, she simply returned to Korea.
The homecoming of Korean Playboy model Lee Sabi
 Photo:
Lee Sabi, a Playboy model, smiles at a press conference held at the Westin
Chosun Hotel on Wednesday afternoon.
Lee Sabi (whose real name is Lee Eon-jeong), who was chosen as a new nude model
for Playboy, returned to Korea after a nude photo session in Los Angeles from
Jan. 10 to 21.
Lee said Wednesday at a meeting with reporters, hosted by the cable channel
Spice TV, that some Korean reporters have often asked her if she didn’t
hesitate to take nude photos. She guessed that she have gotten the question
frequently because she is a Korean woman.
 “Playboy
is not a porn magazine, and if you become a Playboy model, people in the U.S.
consider it a kind of honor and envy you,” she said. “I have a lot of things to
show you besides my naked body. I’d like to take part in many film works as an
actress.”
Spice TV unveiled nude pictures and audio-video formats of Lee on Wednesday,
saying that they were not porn photos but photos that show the beauty of a
woman’s body. The company said that it selected Lee in order to enhance its
image in South Korea before making inroads into the country. ---
Asian Sex Gazette is sure that Lee Sabi will keep our reporters and editors
busy in the coming years covering her career as she diversifies from modeling
to acting. She is sure to keep a world-wide audience enthralled for some time
to come.
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Playboy
Magazine to name second Asian model as Playmate in 2004
7-1-2004
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