Shanghai TV host caught driving while (amazingly) drunk

From the Associated Press:

Shanghai television host Mao Wei (毛威) has been detained on drunk driving charges after driving for several kilometers on the wrong side of a main downtown freeway, newspapers said on Wednesday.

A blood test showed Mao had a blood alcohol level four times over the legal limit, the Shanghai Daily said.

Mao was stopped by police at about 2:30 a.m. on Monday on the Inner Ring Road, an elevated highway that circles the densely packed downtown, newspapers said. Despite being in the wrong lane, he sped off again after answering a few questions, but was finally arrested at 4:00 a.m. in a downtown area, the reports said.

Mao, who presents a reality show for aspiring comedians on local TV faces 10 days in detention, a 1,000 yuan (US$127; euro98) fine, and a three-month suspension of his driver's license, the paper said.

Four times the legal limit? Wrong way on the elevated road? Eluding police? And he gets roughly the same penalty (save for the 10 days in detention) that we did for underage drinking (one lousy beer) in 1992? Something is wrong here.

Mao's (fomer?) show is called《一笑成名》(Yi Xiao Cheng Ming or Who Can Be The Comedian). We found Mao's blog on the Shanghai Media Group site and it appears to be mostly photos of Mao, including a lovely 2006 calendar (minus March, May and August) from which we pulled the two unforgettable images that appear with this post. More Mao photos here. This link has some video clips including this commercial featuring Da Shan. Mao Wei, as far as we could tell, appears in none of the clips, leading us to believe he in no longer affiliated with the show.