Sandara featured by Ricky Lo

Ricky Lo is one of the well known showbiz critic not just in Philippines but in Hollywood as well. Yesterday in PhilStar's Fanfare column Ricky Lo discussed 'Sandara Finds Stardom in Korea. He said and I quote,

“Korean fans find Sandara ‘simply adorable’,” according to Funfare’s Big Apple correspondent Edmund Silvestre (of The Filipino Reporter) who called my attention to Sandara’s rising popularity in her homeland."

Few years back, Sandara enjoyed huge success in the Philippines after placing second on Star Circle Quest of ABS-CBN. What she lacked in acting talent, she more than made up for in her irresistible charm and cuteness." The sad part that was pointed out on the article, that antis and Korean media and bloggers dug out what they said was embarrassing from her past photos.

Here’s one write up from the popular Korean celebrity gossip blog PopSeoul:
Bring out the dirt!

With her debut in the pop group, 2NE1, Sandara Park has left behind a sexy past.

The Korean media has uncovered old pictures of the 24-year-old clad in corsets and leather (complete with whip) for the men’s magazine, UNO (Philippines) for its July/August 2006 issue. The S&M loving pop act will make her formal debut in the motherland with her new girl group, 2NE1 sometime in May this year.

With images like that, will she be able to start over in Korea?

Another one from Seoulbeats: When a star’s on the rise, you just know netizens are going to get their claws out on all the “ugly” things she’s done in the past. In 2NE1’s Sandara Park’s case, the magnitude of ugliness is totally beside the point.

Back in 2006, a 22-year-old Sandara was given magazine cover duty with men’s mag UNO’s June-July issue. The centre-spread-like pictorial saw Philippines’ then “hot young thing” dressed in hooker garb and talking dirty with the interviewer.

Ok I can’t confirm that last point but all the same, the cutesy Sohee-esque image is more or less tarnished by her lad’s mag escapade. As a rising star she might not have seen a K-pop venture coming but a girl who looks barely past puberty shouldn’t even have skanky editorials in her agenda.

Or does anyone think otherwise? 2NE1’s official debut is set for May 2009.

And still another one from allkpop.com:

Netizens tend to dig up embarrassing past photos of popular celebrities. But in this case, Sandara Park’s past photos are a little too surprising. While most stars start off with a cute and innocent image and later head on toward a more mature image, it seems like Sandara Park went the complete opposite way, starting off with sexy and then going cute and innocent. The following photographs were found in a Philippine men’s magazine. I thought Sandara was really young, but turns out she’s 24 years old. But whether she’s 18 or 24, she’s still way too young to be taking pictures like these.

Having Sandara on Philippine TV, as half Korean and Filipino for the first time, made a great impression. They love her, krung krung or not.

No matter what the news is, good or bad, it is still a publicity. So weather the antis like it or not, past is past and Sandara is now a totally different character and filipinos will support her. Sandara trained so hard to achieve what she has now, and let's be happy for her.

I asked for a back issue of the said UNO magazine. if you want to buy one, let me know.

Thanks to Karlie for the info.