Bai Ling: Why I’m on ‘Celebrity Rehab

20:03 Bai Ling: Why I’m on ‘Celebrity Rehab 0 Comments

Actress Bai Ling said she is confronting a dark chapter from her past: sexual abuse she suffered as a teenager at the hands of Chinese army officers.

Bai, 44, who was a soldier in a People’s Liberation Army performance troupe from age 14 to 17, told The Associated Press in a recent interview that she was “opening a wound that was very secret to myself, that even my parents don’t know.”

Therapy she received during Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew helped her understand what she endured.

The actress ( The Crow, Red Corner, TV’s Entourage) said she was pressed to have sex with her superiors, with one encounter leading to pregnancy and an abortion under an assumed name.

Bai, who is writing a book, Naked in Tibet, stressed that she blames individual officers and not the Chinese government. A Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman in Beijing said the government had “not heard of this report. This is not within our scope to comment.”

The actress’ career and life have suffered because of the unaddressed torment of her army experience, she said. She has become a paparazzi target for eyebrow-raising remarks (she claims she is from the moon), a 2008 shoplifting allegation and wild, alcohol-fueled behavior, including flashes of nudity.

Anyone who has a drug or alcohol problem “was abused in some way and trying to hide,” said Bai, who doesn’t consider herself an alcoholic but is allergic to even small amounts of alcohol.

“The media bring me out as this crazy slut showing her nipples everywhere,” Bai said. “I become this character the pop culture Hollywood machine created. Somehow, I become a victim to that image.”

Others featured in the latest edition of Rehab include former baseball player Dwight Gooden and actress Sean Young.

Within a three-month period this year, onetime participants Grease star Jeff Conaway and ex-Alice in Chains bassist Mike Starr died, putting the show under a cloud.