[Oriental Daily]

Happy New Year and may 'Sam' and 'Belle' be the first to bring you good news! As well as getting together, they have gained a new family member for the year of the Monkey as they have a 'family photo' taken for Oriental Daily and wish our readers the vitality and cheerfulness of the monkey and Hong Kong to continue growing and rush to the skies.

Francis Ng and Flora Chan are making a 'new start' for their characters in the new year and together with their monkey friend 'Golden Eagle' playing their baby, they are creating a great atmosphere for the Year of the Monkey! As soon as Francis saw Golden, he fell in love with the monkey as he went up and shook hands. After getting to know each other, Francis started the shoot with an understanding of Golden. However during the shoot, Golden was frustrated by all the people and flashing lights and jumped into a lighting frame. The funniest thing was that when Francis and Flora started chatting to each other, Golden would get angry and go away. According to Golden's owner, Mr Chan, it is because Golden thinks that Flora and Francis are talking about him and that makes him angry!

During the New Year season, Francis will be spending the time in Hong Kong mostly resting at home and not going visiting. Francis says: "Even if I wasn't in this industry, it has been many years since I went visiting at the new year because ever since I was young, I didn't like it." As for Flora, she will be going to do some stage appearances in America and also visiting her family: "Wow, it has been ten years since I spent the Chinese New Year with my parents. I remember when I was young I would help my mom at home to make New Year foods and I was very happy. This year when I go back to the US, I will be helping my mom and reliving some memories."

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a01cnt.html



[Oriental Daily]

Good buddies and partners from TVB's new series "Stand-up Sleuth" - Dayo Wong and Ada Choi offer their wishes to readers for the year of the monkey and hope that everyone is healthy and all your wishes come true. Dayo's new year wish is for an extra scene in the show where he can kiss Ada and he will not give up until he gets it.

Ada reveals that Dayo wants to kiss her so much because he wants reveng on her for an arrow. She laughs: "He says that in the past I didn't film kiss scenes and when we were filming a movie together, I still wouldn't kiss him. Then he saw me do a film with Simon Yam where I did a kiss scene and this made him mad, so he is forcing the producer into giving him a scene where he can kiss me."

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a02cnt.html



[Oriental Daily]

Nancy Sit will be heading out to Singapore in March to do a concert and she has headed over there to do some promotion as well as appearing in a charity show together with Liza Wang, Lo Ka Ying and Sun Yanzi. In the end they raised around $7million and broke last year's records. During the show, Nancy and Liza were getting changed for their next performance when a joke arose. Nancy and Liza were wearing gold and silver costumes and Liza laughed that it seems they were dressing like Twins causing Nancy to fall about laughing. As for the concert in March, Nancy revealed that she has invited Dexter Yeung, Michael Lai and Ander Jen to be her guests.

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a12cnt.html



[The Sun]

With his popularity at a peak last year, Louis Koo was originally going to start the year of the monkey over in America making money, however a problem with his working visa has meant that his show has been cancelled causing Charmaine Sheh and Anne Heung to lose out as well!

The Chinese New Year has always been a time for artistes to make some money and originally Louis had arranged to make appearances with Charmaine and Anne in many cities of America including Las Vegas and Atlantic City, however it is reported that due to problems with Louis' work permit, the group have not been able to head out on time. Originally the crew were to head out to Atlantic City today, to do a local second day of the new year show. However the organisers have suddenly received a notice from the immigration department saying that there is a problem with the visa, possibly due to Louis' criminal record.

As the government has legislated to allow minor criminals to have a 'clean slate' and Louis has cleared his past record and should have no problem working overseas. However, Louis forgot to renew his 'Good citizen card' and could only provide an expired document for the application. With the recent crackdown in US immigration due to the aftermath of terrorist activities, the security of the country has been put first and with the tightening of controls, even a famous artiste such as Louis is no exception to the rules and the doors have been closed to him.

It is not just Louis who is affected as a result because the work permit was applied for as a group and this has meant that Charmaine and Anne have also been declined. Although Louis is still fighting hard for the permit, the organisers do not want to risk it and postpone, worried that they have to pay a lot of compensation, so the could only pull Louis out and push the application through for Charmaine and Anne. With the first job of the new year going wrong, it would appear that luck is not on Louis' side on this occasion. Charmaine and Anne seem unclear about the delay in the trip and this is all in the hands of TVB. They admit that they are yet to receive notice. Charmaine said on the phone yesterday: "I am waiting for arrangements by the company now, I am not worried. It doesn't matter whether I go or not because I will not think about it too much."

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040122/20040122004409_0003.html