Singapore — Actress Fann Wong’s legal team is dropping the legal action taken against aesthetic doctor Siew Tuck Wah since the doctor has already taken down the blog post he published in which Ms Fann’s appearance was described in an unflattering light.
Ms Marissa Tan from Robert Wang & Woo LLP, who represents the fifty-year-old actress, told Coconuts that the matter is no longer being pursued.
However, despite Dr Siew’s claim to have responded to a letter the legal team had sent, Ms Tan said they have never heard from him.
“After we sent the letter I think they managed to take [the article] down so there was nothing else that we had to do, since our client’s objective was achieved. So I sent the letter out but I did not receive any letters from the other solicitor,” Ms Tan is quoted by Coconuts as saying.
Dr Siew had written a blog post on his website last month, drsiew.com entitled “Fann Wong at Star Awards 2021: What caused the (Golden) Pillow-Faced Puffiness?” Wherein the doctor had commented on the cheek fillers he claims Ms Fann used.
This led to an angry Instagram post from celebrity hairstylist David Gan on May 14. Mr Gan, who is a longtime friend of Ms Fann, defended the actress.
Dr Siew’s blog post was taken down the same day, primarily due to the letter of demand Ms Fann’s legal team had sent.
The doctor wrote in a Jun 25 Facebook post, “On 14 May 2021, I was shocked to receive a 25 page Letter of Demand from Samuel Seow (Robert Wang and Woo LLP) a lawyer appointed by Fann Wong’s management company, Catwalk Asia Pte Ltd, in response to an article I wrote about her appearance during Star Awards 2021.
The letter arrived at 4.00pm. However, as I was busy in the clinic, I could only review the letter at 5.00pm. The letter demanded that I take down my article on Fann Wong, and any social media posts related to Fann Wong and their unspecified clients, and issue a public apology immediately. I was only given one hour to respond.”
He then decided to take the blog post down while he consulted with lawyers.
The letter of demand threatened to sue Dr Siew “for damages in defamation for alleging that Fann Wong had fillers done” as well as over the unauthorized use of the actress image from her Instagram page.
He went on to explain that “many” of his patients noticed that the actress’ face had been unusually puffy and some patients even cancelled appointments as they were afraid of becoming “overfilled.” This led him to write an opinion piece on his site.
His lawyers wrote back to Ms Fann’s legal team on May 21 and 24 but did not get an answer. He then wrote another letter on Jun 3 saying holding to the contents of the opinion piece on his site.
Two weeks passed by without a response from the actress’ management.
But Ms Fann’s legal team claimed they never received any mail from Dr Siew’s lawyers, and it appears the letters were lost in the mail and were sent to another lawyer.
Ms Tan told Coconuts, “I was the one who actually sent the first letter of demand, using my email. The normal practice is that once someone else receives a letter of demand they will actually send it back to the person on the letterhead and the person who sent the email as well.”
Neither did Dr Siew’s legal team follow up with a call.
“So we thought that whole case was over, so we didn’t have to pursue it any further,” she added.
Ms Tan also said, “As far as Fann is concerned, I think the matter has been settled, because the article has been taken down but it just has to end somewhere and I don’t know where Dr Siew intends to be taking this whole thing but at some point of time this must stop.”
/TISG