[Ta Kung Pao, The Sun & Oriental Daily]

Lawrence Ng, Gigi Lai, Bernice Liu, Moses Chan and Bowie Lam were among the stars taking part in the blessing ceremony for TVB's "Healing Hands III" held yesterday. In response to the recent criticisms about TVB's policies leading to artistes suffering from lack of rest, Lawrence says that he has been through this before whilst filming for "Fate Twisters" and "Back to Square One" and in comparison, "Healing Hands III" has been a lot easier because the focus is not entirely on his character.

Having broken up from his last relationship for a while, Lawrence was asked if he had found a new love and he replied: "I will not talk about this in the future to save hassle, but a person needs to date, I have heard that Ada Choi has started dating recently too." He admits has has a new target, but there are a lot of problems getting in the way, such as his work volumes, meaning he cannot see her and so he is not sure whether they should start a relationship. Is this person from the industry? He laughs: "I have not confirmed this, so I can just avoid it but the people I tend to meet are from these circles and I like pretty girls."

In the past, Lawrence had indicated he would like to get married and have kids, does he still hope to get married? He shrugs his shoulders and says: "If I don't, I dont. Being single all my life is not so bad, these things should not be forced because this will turn them the other way. The best thing is to go with fate." He admits that he is a little afraid of falling in love, but the best thing would be to keep the initial feelings, but without any need for vows and promises.

There are three things that Gigi Lai is very afraid of: Funeral parlours, creepy crawlies and heights, but in "Healing Hands III", she has to face all three of her greatest fears. Earlier, she had filmed a scene in a funeral home, but the producer insisted that she filmed there again and she was worried that this would cause a relapse of her emotional problems because after the last time she visited, she couldn't sleep for a month and had to go and see a psychologist for over a month's treatment.

As Gigi is playing a pathologist in the show, her extraordinary personality is being displayed by her character keeping some rather 'alternative' pets such as a lizard, spiders and rats. She has to pet them like children, but Gigi is terrified of rats and is very worried about whether she can pull through. When asked whether she has told the producer about this, she says with a frown: "The producer just told me that I had to keep them, but the script is getting more and more outrageous, saying I have to stroke them. I am very scared of being bitten, so I have thought about going to see my therapist again before filming for some hypnosis that will make me like them."

Also, with her fear of heights, Gigi also has to film a scene where she jumps from a building and although her character does not die, she is already frightened enough.

In the show, Bel Lau, Halina Tam, Maggie Siu and Bernice Liu will be working together for the first time. With the news of Hawick Lau's recent accident, Bernice was asked if she knew about this and she replied calmly: "I heard him mention it." Bernice says that although they are now filming the studio scenes for "Healing Hands III" and Hawick is nearby filming for "Treasure in the Family", but they don't bump into each other very often. Bernice herself had an accident earlier and damaged her car, but she was not injured. Talking of how dangerous it is to drive after a whole night of filming, Bernice understands, but she says that when you are used to having your own car, it is difficult not to drive it, so whenever she is driving home after work, she will not switch on the aircon, open all the windows and switch on the music to keep herself awake and avoid accidents.

During the ceremony, Bel Lau saw the table laden with fruit and joked with Raymond Cho calling to him: "Raymond, your lychee has dropped!" before throwing a lychee over to him, leaving him rather embarrassed. [A crude joke in Chinese.]

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-7-23/UL-285763.htm
http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-7-23/UL-285761.htm
http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-7-23/UL-285762.htm
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040723/20040723005259_0003.html
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a54cnt.html
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a54cnt.html



[The Sun]

Roger Kwok and Myolie Wu were filming on location in the streets of Central earlier for "Same Work Same Bowl" in a scene where Myolie's brother in the show dies and Roger calls her out to comfort her. In response to TVB's recent compromise for its more valuable artistes, with Jessica Hsuan receiving very favourable terms for her renewal, Roger says: "I feel that the company has always given me a great degree of freedom and I have just recently renewed my contract with them. Although the mainland companies have very high expectations of more popular artistes, but the company arranges things very well."

It turns out that Myolie has also recently renewed her contract and when asked what terms she had asked for, she says: "I didn't ask for anything because I am still quite new and dare not ask for too much. After all, the company has been very good to me all along." She also says obediently: "I did ask for more work because this is the time to push myself hard and if I was too free, then it would be bad!"

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040723/20040723010621_0003.html


Yoyo is excited to see a cubed watermelon!

[The Sun]

Yoyo Mung has recently had a break between work and taken a vacation to Japan with some friends. Although this is not the first time she has been there, she still feels very happy: "I have a friend who lives over there, so I borrowed her bike to go shopping on. Going from one place to another on a bike instead of walking was very comfortable and I was not tired at all after a whole day's shopping."

The greatest success for Yoyo was being able to meet Anthony Wong for breakfast in Tokyo: "I knew that Anthony was filming in Japan recently, so I called him out for a meal, but he said that time is very precious, so we could only arrange to have breakfast together. I wanted to eat sushi, so we went for a meal of sushi. Although I was quite tired, I was very happy because the sushi was very tasty and you can't get it this good in Hong Kong."

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040723/20040723010103_0003.html



[The Sun]

Filming earlier in Sai Kung for "Police Cadet Brave Hearts", Fiona Sit was only opposite the two leads who she has been rumoured to have fallen out with, Ron Ng and Sammul Chan. Although Fiona had previously indicated that she and Sammul were 'best friends', they seemed to exchange few words during the filming and after finishing, Ron Ng sped off straight away. Fiona was seen to have been sitting alone during the shoot, whilst Sammul and Ron chatted cheerily to each other.

When the session finished at around 6pm, the director allowed Ron and Fiona to leave and they each went their separate ways. When Fiona saw the press, she was originally on the phone, but she still mustered plenty of smiles, whilst Ron took the opportunity and jumped into the company vehicle. When Sammul, who was left to make up a few scenes was interviewed, he said: "The location scenes are almost finished now, so we can breathe a sigh of relief."

When Ron was later caught in TVB City waiting for the studio session, he was asked why he had nothing to say to Fiona and he replied: "We talked to each other in the car, just you didn't see us." At the time, "Twin of Brothers" was airing on the TV screen, so he turned his attentions to the show and said: "I am usually too busy and don't have time to watch, so I would really like to see how I did."

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040723/20040723010012_0003.html



[Ta Kung Pao, The Sun & Oriental Daily]

Sheren Tang has recently signed to be spokesperson for a slimming company and she says that she had been approached by many companies before, but they either slimmed using machines or drugs and she could not accept either of these methods and turned them down. This company does not use these methods and she feels that as an artiste, she should be responsible for what she promotes, ensuring that they are safe, so she has tried it before agreeing to promote it.

Sheren says that she has tried the machine slimming methods before, but she found it was damaging her body and she went to see a doctor who explained that humans should not have an electric charge passing through their body and as a result of the recent slimming craze, there are many people who are overdoing things and this is very unhealthy and will lead to problems in later life. As a result, Sheren issues a warning to the youth of today not to go too crazy and look after your health.

Sheren flew out to Hokkaido earlier to shoot an advertisement and as she loves lavender, the director arranged for her to shoot against a lavender field as a backdrop, making her feel extremely comfortable. This was a short three day trip and was very rushed, not leaving her very much time to go shopping, but the director was kind and gave her five minutes to buy things from the lavender field souvenir shop. Making the most of her opportunity, Sheren bought as much as she could, spending several tens of thousands of yen in a short time. The shoot was very successful and the director gave her another half an hour to go shopping later. Seeing her mother looking rather bored with her on the trip, Sheren decided to take her shopping instead. With the director also telling her to eat as much ice cream as she liked, Sheren was even happier. Talking of the fee for this job, Sheren is very pleased.

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-7-23/UL-285752.htm
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a73cnt.html
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040723/20040723010450_0003.html



[Ta Kung Pao. Oriental Daily & The Sun]

Don Li paid a trip to the Hong Kong Book Fair yesterday to support his manager Mani Fok by buying a number of her books to give to his friends. With the sudden appearance of a rattlesnake recently on the set of his new series "Ten Brothers", this led to the cast and crew heading for their cars and vans until the snake had gone away, before emerging to continue the shoot. Don says that there are a lot of creatures in the forest and snakes are hard to avoid, so they have to be particularly careful.

As he is busy filming at the moment, Don is not getting enough sleep, but he understands that this is life as an artiste and he has no complaints because his idol Andy Lau is famed for his hard work and professionalism and he will follow in the steps of his role model. As a good friend to Deep Ng, whose drugs case proceedings have begun in court, Don saw him earlier, but did not ask about the case because they are friends and understand each other.

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-7-23/UL-285758.htm
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040723/20040723004802_0003.html



[The Sun]

Andy Hui was filming for an Olympic Games promotional clip at TVB yesterday and having a love for soccer, he had already worked up a sweat even before filming had started as became totally absorbed. With the approach of the games, Andy will be hosting the shows every evening.

Having been reported to have announced that he "Has TVB blood and eats TVB rice", Andy has become the new generation of TVB godson and he jokes that if he receives the award for "Most Popular Male Singer" this year, then he will tattoo the TVB logo on his chest! He laughs: "Never mind being the godson, I have thought about having a three colour logo tattoo when the time comes for me to receive this award!"

Also, it turns out that Andy had previously filmed at this football ground with Anita Mui in 1994 and when asked if he is feeling a little sentimental, he says: "I wouldn't say that, I feel we should look at things positively and hold Anita near to our hearts."

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040723/20040723004415_0002.html



[The Sun]

Cheng Dan Shui, Sandy Lamb San San, Vivien Yeo, charmaine Lee and Yoyo Chan were filming for the "Hearts of... 2" series earlier in a scene where the family were celebrating the birthday of big sister Vivien. Coincidentally, it was actually Vivien's birthday on the 20th, so they all prepared a birthday cake and presents for her.

The producer joked: "She is thirty this year!", but Vivien immediately corrected him, saying: "I am only twenty!". On the day of her birthday, Vivien spent it working and when asked what presents she received, she said: "I went back to Malaysia earlier and my mum gave me a crystal. (What did your boyfriend give you?) I don't have a boyfriend! (So is your birthday wish to find yourself a boyfriend?) No, my birthday wish is for everything to go smoothly and peacefully."

Working with the newcomers for the first time, Sandy thinks that TVB should make more of this kind of production as she says: "They should give more opportunities to these young actors to practise their acting in these youth productions. (They have a lot of NG's.) It is not their fault, it was a problem with the camera tracks, we are very happy with the filming. (How do you find them?) They make me think of the past when a lot of people looked after me."

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040723/20040723005156_0003.html



[Oriental Daily]

Nnadia Chan took part in a radio interview yesterday after becoming a fully fledged writer as she released her new book that documents her interviews with twelve successful females, including Carol 'Dodo' Cheng, Cheung Tin Ngoi, Rosamund Kwan, Cha Siu Yan, Josie Ho and Helena Law and documenting what these ladies treasure most in life. Nnadia tells of how the most difficult interview was with Josie: "She was the first person I interviewed and it was hard work, but luckily our ages are similar and we got on well." Nnadia says that the next volume to her book will include guests such as Liza Wang and Sandra Ng.

Talking of the recent fatigue-related accidents emerging from TVB artistes, Nnadia makes the suggestion: "TV artistes do need assistants because they have to think about make-up, hair styling, scripts and everything else, unless they take public transport home after work. Otherwise, they should arrange for their parents to pick them up from work!"

Nnadia reveals that her record was seven days without sleep, whilst filming for "Songbird". She was only seventeen years old at the time: "This is really an unbeaten record, I had to film and then go to school, so I had a major sleep deficit."

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a58cnt.html


(File Photo)

After his appearance on the entertainment scene, Hawick Lau has been the apple in production chief Catherine Tsang's eye and has had plenty of opportunities, firstly in "A Kindred Spirit" and "Virtues of Harmony" and most recently, taking a lead role in "Treasure in the Family" and a part in the grand production "Healing Hands III". However, there have been reports that Hawick has turned down his role in "Healing Hands" and has taken leave from TVB for six months to film in the Mainland. In order to make money, he is not only disappointing Ms Tsang, he is even leaving behind his 'friendship' with Bernice Liu.

In reality, Hawick's position is not yet stable and leaving the security of TVB and the company of rumoured girlfriend Bernice to the perils of the mainland market for six months will be a challenge for him. However, Hawick responds to this saying: "I will be concentrating on my career for now and making money is all important. Relationships can be put aside for now. (Are you not worried about splitting up?) Not at all, we have never admitted to anything."

However, there has been an inkling that Hawick would be letting go for a while as their friends from within and outside the industry have noticed them becoming rather distant from each other, despite remaining friends and going out once in a while. During an earlier "Healing Hands" event, the press had asked for them to be photographed together, but there seemed to be a little awkwardness between them.

As for Hawick giving up the part, Bernice seemed not to want to talk about it, just telling the press to ask him directly. As for Hawick's role, he has been replaced by Sam Chan, whom Bernice seemed happy to be photographed with at yesterday's blessing ceremony as she seemed rather relieved that she did not have to work with Hawick.

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a53cnt.html