PUBLISHED ONJanuary 23, 2025 9:40 AMBySyarifah NadhirahOne of the most popular contestants on the new season of the South Korean reality dating show Single's Inferno is in hot water.
On Tuesday (Jan 21), talent management agency Leaders Entertainment said they've filed a lawsuit against Lee Si-an for breach of contract.
They told media both parties had signed a supplementary agreement in April 2024 to extend Si-an's exclusive contract, which was supposed to expire in October 2024, till April 2026.
However, after Single's Inferno 4 had completed filming in August, the 25-year-old model and former idol trainee allegedly told the agency she wanted to terminate the contract and would only work until Oct 21, 2024.
Leaders Entertainment said they've secured evidence and are in the process of taking legal action: "This is a violation of both her exclusive contract and the supplemental agreement extending her contract. Si-an's objections to the exclusive contract lack evidence."
Si-an was a contestant in the K-pop survival shows Idol School (2017) and Produce 48 (2018-2019). In 2020, she joined the pre-debut girl group Happyface Girls but they presumably disbanded in 2022. She signed with Leaders Entertainment in 2023 to pursue her modelling career.
Single's Inferno 4 is showing on Netflix.
Fans have been anticipating her new K-drama since her last one, Hotel Del Luna, in 2019.
Singer-actress IU, whose real name is Lee Ji-eun, will return to the small screens soon with When Life Gives You Tangerines, starring alongside Park Bo-gum.
Today (Jan 23), Netflix announced the series will premiere on March 7.
The first trailer was also released, featuring scenic shots from the show filmed on Jeju Island.
Set in the 1950s, When Life Gives You Tangerines follows the lives of rebellious Ae-soon (IU, 31), who dreams of becoming a poet despite not being able to attend school due to her family's poverty, and stoic Gwan-sik (Bo-gum, also 31) who harbours a long-standing crush on her.
Hitman 2 premiered in South Korean cinemas on Jan 22, and lead actor Kwon Sang-woo revealed he began filming the movie right after recovering from a surgery.
The 48-year-old appeared on comedian Shin Dong-yup's YouTube channel with fellow Hitman 2 cast members where he talked about the operation "for the first time".
Sang-woo said he found he had a liver hemangioma (benign tumour) during an annual comprehensive health check-up.
"My father died early from liver cancer. The doctor told me, 'If the hemangioma grows to over 10cm, we'll need to perform a major surgery, so remove it now if your schedule allows because it's at 6cm.'"
The doctor told him his organ was "unusually large" so it would still be the size of a normal person's liver even if 30 per cent was removed.
"My family was in the US, so I didn't make a big deal out of it and had the surgery on my own before filming Hitman 2. The doctor showed me a picture of my liver and said they removed a piece the size of a palm," he recalled.
He said he was in the hospital for a long time and felt "very lonely" with his family being abroad.
"I was feeling many things… I still have the scars on my belly," he said, adding, "I felt severe pain after the surgery."
Sang-woo rose to fame through the 2003 dramas My Tutor Friend and Stairway to Heaven.
He last starred in the 2023 series Han River Police.
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