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Tuesday, August 05, 2003



Since the ICAC's investigations into TVB's interactions with the Emperor Entertainment Group (EEG) there has been some reservation between their co-operation and this has been shown in the preparations for the Po Leung Kuk Charity show to be held at the Hong Kong Coliseum on 13th September. It would appear that this event will be covered by singers from Sony with appearances from Leon Lai, Faye Wong, F4's Vic Chow, Harlem Yu, Candy Lo and possibly Coco Lee, Jay Chow and Ken Zhu if all goes well. Reports state that Sony will be covering the travel and accommodation arrangements and costs for these stars in Hong Kong and TVB will only be responsible for the show on the whole.

With the shadow of recent operations, are TVB not worried about working so closely with a record company? TVB's manager of Variety Shows Wong Ka Leung indicates: "Not at all, this time the stars are coming from all over, for example Faye Wong is flying in especially from Beijing for the show and Sony are very sincere about this show."

Mr Wong says that Sony had approached TVB with their proposals over six months ago and TVB had agreed to just invite Sony's singers onto this particular show because they have so many under their label and there are time limitations. He says that they did have offers from EEG, but the show is only two hours long and in order to keep things simple and ensure everyone is catered for properly, they turned down the offer, but will bear them in mind for the next big show. This show will be filmed and released on DVD, so this is another reason why Sony requested to just use their own singers to keep the contractual procedures simple. When asked whether TVB's relations with EEG have collapsed after the investigatons, Mr Wong disagrees, saying that they still have strong working relationships, for example they are using their singers to perform in the New Talent Singing Competition and the Miss Hong Kong Pageant. The practice has always been for the record companies to suggest a singer and TVB to make the final decision.

The MC's for this year's major charity show will be Lisa Wang, Shek Sau and Yau Hoi Man and with the title "A History of Loving Hearts for 125 years" and the singers will mainly be singing classical hits. Candy Lo appeared at the press conference yesterday, but stood to one side when they were opening the champagne because she is contracted to a beer advertisement at the moment and didn't want the conflict. She will be performing with Harlem Yu at the show in some sixties and seventies dances. She goes on to say that for a charity show she doesn't mind doing some more dangerous feats, provided the donations keep rolling in.

(report summarised)

http://www.singpao.com/20030806/gossip/423621.html


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