[The Sun & Ta Kung Pao]

Michelle Ye was filming on location for "Destinies of the Western Chamber" yesterday in a scene that tells of her family being sentenced to death, but luckily they are saved by Ron Ng's character and evade the snatches of death. Seeing her wearing her ancient criminal's costume, Michelle looked rather tired, but she smiled: "I had a fever a few days ago, so my sickly look will tie in with the scene."

As well as having a fever, Michelle was injured during filming with Ron two weeks ago and hurt the little finger of her right hand. The wound later became infected and she thought that she might have tetanus. After seeing the doctor, she found out that she was just weak after not getting enough sleep. Also, she has had a sore throat, mouth ulcers and aching shoulders and she believes that this is caused by a build up of toxins after not getting enough sleep. She also admits that she doesn't drink enough soup, only getting what other people share with her, so she will maybe ask her housekeeper to make her some soup.

Also, after working with Adam Cheng in "The Driving Power", Michelle has referred to him as her 'dad' and as Adam is currently filming "Proud Warriors of the Chu and Han" in TVB City, the pair often meet and this makes Michelle very happy. Next week is Adam's birthday and Michelle smiles: "I will buy him some good stuff, but it is a secret. (Adam likes digital cameras...) I will leave this to his wife and daughter to buy him."

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040220/20040220004003_0003.html
http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-2-20/UL-230331.htm



[Ta Kung Pao & Oriental Daily]

Maggie Cheung was filming the last scene for TVB's "War and Beauty" yesterday and as she has also been filming "Proud Warriors of the Chu and Han", the two ancient series side by side and the very different characters have left her a little weary. She says: "It is not only tiring, I am almost a split personality." Luckily, work on "War" has finally finished and she can breathe sigh of relief and concentrate on "Proud". As for her co-star in "Proud Warriors" being Adam Cheng, Maggie is very happy about this because as well as learning a lot from him, she is also getting a lot of comic relief. She laughs: "Adam likes to tell dirty but funny jokes when he is working and the atmosphere of the team is very relaxed." As he is her senior and they did not know each other very well to begin with, Maggie says: "I daren't laugh at first and it was hard work keeping it in."

Also, as Maggie's character in "Proud Warriors" is a historical character, she notes: "As the audience will have an understanding of this character and the lines in this script are very classical, there is an element of difficulty in this role and I will have to add a little bit of emphasis to this performance. However I will work harder because it is the challenge that I get from each show that gives me the motivation despite the tiredness of filming so many series."

[Additional from Apple Daily]

Filming on adjacent sets for different shows, Michelle Ye laughed that as she refers to Adam Cheng as 'dad', then Adam suggested that she should call Maggie 'auntie' in line with the character relationships in his current show. When Maggie was asked how she felt about being called 'auntie', she seemed a little put out and said: "You can't do that! Don't call me 'Ah Sum' or if you have to then use 'Ah Yee' instead!" [Em's note: Although both words mean 'auntie', Ah Yee sounds younger.]

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-2-20/UL-230330.htm
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a19cnt.html



[Ta Kung Pao & The Sun]

Unsuccessful Miss Hong Kong contestant Stephanie Wang has been rumoured to have announced her affections for Bosco Wong in public, but the two have denied this. Stephanie Wang called out the reporters again yesterday to clarify the situation, preparing notes of the points she wanted to cover, but raising a few smiles as she kept them hidden on her lap.

Stephanie insists that she has never indicated that she has feelings towards Bosco and has never thought about having a relationship with him. Although she admires his hard working and caring nature, they are both just friends and no more. She adds: "I have many male friends and Bosco is one of them, if I love them all, then I would have a hundred boyfriends."

Before this press call, she had not told Bosco Wong and talking of the endless rumours in the showbiz circles, why is she just clearing this one up? She says that although she does not yet have a boyfriend, she has many male friends and maybe one of them will become her partner. So that they do not step back because of the misunderstandings with Bosco, she wanted to clear the matter up one last time. Of Bosco, she says: "I have not had time to call him about this, but we spoke about it earlier and just had a laugh. I wouldn't like our friendship to turn into an embarrassing situation."

Responding by telephone, Bosco says: "I didn't know she was having a press call, I feel that this news is very pointless and we are just friends who get on with each other."

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040220/20040220005056_0003.html
http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-2-20/UL-230327.htm



[Oriental Daily]

The annual Miss Hong Kong Pageant will have a new format this year as the semi-final has been scrapped and the show will take place over one evening. On the night of the final there will be a ten-hour television marathon run as it is linked with the pre-Olympics special and the four hour opening ceremony. With TVB's current cutbacks leading to redundancies and scraping at all resources, the company will be putting together six one-hour shows before the final where the contestants will compete for six different awards and TVB can add to their advertising revenue from the Miss HK and the Olympics.

The reports indicate that these six shows will not only make the girls compete in looks, but also in verbal talent, acting talent and fitness. Each special show will have a strong guest star line-up to judge such as Eric Tsang and Natalis Chan for the interviewing and Kenix Kwok and Maggie Cheung for acting. The theme will all be linked to the Olympic games and at the end of the show, the top five for each award will be announced to add to the excitement.

The Miss Hong Kong final will be taking place on 13th August at 8:00 pm and will be followed by another seven hours of Olympic coverage.

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a09cnt.html



[The Sun]

Renewing her contract with Starrywood, Shirley Yeung recently filmed a set of summer line advertisements together with her precious pet dog "Mung Mung Ju", making him into an animal star! However, on the day of the shoot, Mung Mung Ju was very shy and not only was he looking around for his owner, it was frowning a lot and made the crew very worried. However, after a while, the dog became more accustomed to the cameras.

Unfortunately, after Shirley had finished shooting with the dog, she found some 'yellow substance' on her collar and she was very embarrassed. She says: "At first I thought it was poo poo, but then the crew told me that he had been to the gardens to play and it should just be mud, which is less embarrassing. (Was Mung Mung Ju paid for the work?) The most important thing is that it suits the ad, payment is not that important."