HONG KONG — Hong Kong's chief executive had barely finished the biggest government shake-up since the British left town when love and money tangled his financial secretary in notoriety.
The saga has Antony Leung trying to get to the bottom of a stock plunge that burned thousands of small investors while at the same time fending off paparazzi eager for a glimpse of him with his new bride, Chinese Olympic diving star Fu Mingxia.
The mix has made Leung the talk of the town, raising questions about whether he will be brought down by the financial fiasco or somehow parlay his celebrity as husband of China's glamorous young "diving queen" into a run for Hong Kong's top political job.
"Leung seems to be more of a high-wire act than he came across as in his first six or eight months on the job," said Michael DeGolyer, a political scientist at Hong Kong Baptist University.
Leung was Asia-Pacific chairman for the U.S. investment bank JP Morgan Chase & Co. when Hong Kong's chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, tapped him last year to be financial secretary.
Leung first kept a low profile while managing Hong Kong's finances amid economic troubles and worrisome budget deficits he still is trying to fix.
Although the divorced Leung was visibly uncomfortable with tabloids prying into his love life, he urged reporters to call him by his first name.
"Don't call me financial secretary — call me Ah Chung, or Antony," he said.
When Tung reshuffled Hong Kong's postcolonial government July 1, the fifth anniversary of the territory's handover by Britain to China, Leung stayed on in a new "accountability system" that created a Cabinet of political appointees instead of civil servants.
Almost instantly, Leung began grabbing more headlines than his boss and drawing attacks from political foes.
"He tries too hard to attract the media," lawmaker Cyd Ho said. "That would only impress us as self-glorification."
Leung, 50, made a huge splash when he acknowledged he was dating Fu, a four-time Olympics gold medalist who is 23. Then, without announcing it, they married July 15 in Honolulu — but the secret held just a few days.
A star wife might play well in Hong Kong, but Internet chat rooms in mainland China started flaying Leung with charges he had practically stolen a national treasure less than half his age.
Chinese are used to Hong Kong men dating and marrying mainland women, said Ivan Choy Chi-keung, a social studies lecturer at City University. But many do not like it, and Leung's romance stirred resentment.
"Fu Mingxia was quite a popular figure and she was seen as an important asset," Choy said.
Meanwhile, Leung's image has been hurt locally by a stock scandal.
It started when the Hong Kong Stock Exchange announced a plan to improve the quality of listed companies — in part by delisting "penny stocks" whose value stayed below 6.4 cents for 30 days. Investors who feared losing everything began selling, running up $1.28 billion in losses in one day.
Red-faced market bosses quickly backtracked. Leung said he had not been consulted and appointed a two-person panel to investigate the affair. He promised to resign if he gets blamed.
Critics said he was distancing himself — or angling to become a hero if others took the fall. They said a formal investigation should have been launched by Tung, if only to avoid perceptions of a whitewash.
Leung declines to be interviewed while the investigation proceeds, but the headlines keep rolling out.
In early August, the sensationalist Sun newspaper said Leung drove his Porsche over the right foot of one of its photographers trying to get a picture of Leung and Fu. Leung expressed regrets "that an accident should happen outside my residence" and offered wishes for the photographer's speedy recovery.
It is unclear how Leung will handle his celebrity, but some say he will endure as a household name — perhaps more so if he and Fu have a child.
With Tung unable to seek re-election, Leung already is tipped as a candidate when Hong Kong's top job opens in 2007. That would require Beijing's unspoken approval — and for now, the central government does not seem to object.
"If Beijing didn't like this, all they have to do is tell him to tone it down and he would," DeGolyer said. "Obviously, they haven't."