[Oriental Daily 08/09/04]

Ron Ng, Mandy Cho, Sammul Chan and Joyce Koi started the first day of filming for new series "Courageous Kunlun" yesterday and in the show, Ron has to play the 'ugly kid' for a few episodes and revealing his costume for the first time yesterday, Ron had a birthmark glued to the left side of his face, but this did not seem to affect his good looks.

Having captured many a young girl's heart with his handsome appearance, Ron seems rather concerned about his 'exploding face' look, laughingly asking the reporters: "Am I very good looking?", but then complaining: "It's very itchy and when I started work early this morning, it was very sunny, so I wonder if there will be a patch from my tan, if there is a mark, I will have to tan it back quickly." (Are you afraid it will affect your pretty boy image?) No, this is only for four or five episodes, afterwards I am cured by Joyce."

Also, with this being Mandy's first ancient drama and working opposite Sammul and Ron, she says she is not worried that the playful duo will play tricks on her, but when the three were asked to pose for a photo, Sammul took the camera and chased Mandy, frantically snapping away and making her laugh uncontrollably. Then, when she was asked to pose with Ron and hold his hand, he refused using 'sweaty palms' as an excuse, so Mandy had to just put her arm on his shoulder instead.

Although this was the first day of filming, Mandy seemed to have a number of spots on her face and she says: "I have been to see a herbalist and he says that this is just something young people have. I find that when I am resting at home, it worsens, maybe because my metabolism slows when I am not working, so after starting work, it should become better.

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



[Oriental Daily & The Sun 08/09/04]

TVB's new series "My Wife, Your Honour" was filming yesterday in Woo Kai Sha for a scene where Sunny Chan's character suspects his wife Jessica Hsuan is being unfaithful to him, so he follows her, but in the end she spots him and causes him to become injured, needing hospital treatment. In real life, Jessica says that she does not like her partner to be overly jealous: "I don't mind my boyfriend going for meals with other female friends because I have trust in him, so if my boyfriend was overly jealous, then I would be angry. Would I be unfaithful? Of course not. I take my hat off to people who two-time because I would not have the time or energy to date two people at once, so it is better to be faithful." Talking of the recent terror attacks in Russia, it makes Jessica wonder if she should have children of her own.

Also, Jessica reveals that after shooting ends for this show in October, the hopes to be able to rest and go diving. She says: "I am currently negotiating three series from China, Taiwan and Singapore, but this year my health has really deteriorated and I am worried that I will be unable to cope. Moreover, each time I work in the Mainland, I come down with gastroenteritis, so after this series, I would like to take some rest first."

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a14cnt.html
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040908/20040908003201_0003.html



[Oriental Daily, The Sun & Ta Kung Pao 08/09/04]

Fifty Chinese gold-medallists gathered at the Hong Kong stadium last night for "The Pride of the Chinese - Olympic Stars Extravaganza" performance. From noon onwards, the performers such as Miriam Yeung and Joey Yung each took their turn on the stage for rehearsals and the fifty athletes arrived at around 4pm to prepare for the evening's performance. However, their tight schedules since arriving in Hong Kong had left them rather tired and many of the sporting stars could be seen catching a quick nap on the bus. Among the stars from sport and music taking part were 'diving prince' Tian Liang, 'diving princess' Guo Jing Jing, 'king of hurdles' Liu Xiang, Alan Tam, Hacken Lee, Kelly Chen, Andy Hui, Joey Yung, Miriam Yeung, Leo Ku and Alex Fong.

During rehearsals, singers and athletes had to give their all and among them "King of Hurdles" Liu Xiang worked well with Leo Ku in their duet, with Liu giving a very professional performance. In comparison, the table tennis representatives and opening act: Ma Lin and Chen Qi from China and Lee Ching and Ko Lai Chak from Hong Kong seemed rather nervous and sung out of tune, showing that even the bravest sporting hero can suffer from stage fright! Whilst singing the song 'Girl with Wings' with Joey Yung, Luo Xuejuan found it difficult to get into key, but Joey helped her out and the final result was not bad at all. Afterwards, Joey said: "I feel she has worked very hard as she was desperately trying to learn all the words in the afternoon. I was holding her hand whilst we were singing and I felt like a big sister to her."

Among all the stars, Liu Xiang was the most popular person of the show and the applause from the audience raised the roof as he duetted with Leo Ku, who was wearing a Chinese team kit, singing "Hao Xiang Hao Xiang" and then going on to comment on the friendliness of Hong Kong girls. Leo changed a line of the lyrics to say "Liu Xiang's legs are really long", making Liu turn to check on the length of his legs and causing some screams from the audience.

Of the singers taking part, Hacken Lee and Miriam Yeung were both suffering from illness and Miriam was steadily losing her voice during rehearsals and she was first to 'surrender' to the press later, saying: "My voice was croaky earlier during the awards ceremony in Taiwan and I had to take tablets to regain my voice then and I had used all my backup. I will have an injection and take medication for tonight's performance, but I have prepared a tape, so if I really can't do it then I will have to mime." Eventually at the performance, Miriam did have to use the tape and mime to the music for her performance because she felt that this was better than singing out of tune. She indicates that she chose a red outfit for the show because red represents China. When asked if she would be having her photo taken with the athletes, she says: "I tried to borrow a 7 megapixel digital camera from a friend, but she was worried about getting it wet in the rain and would not lend it to me!"

An amusing incident occurred as Kelly and Andy were waiting backstage when tennis sensations Li Ting and Sun Tiantian arrived to have their photos taken with them. After the girls had left, Kelly and Andy noticed that one of them had left behind a Chinese Olympic Team jacket and as the two started playfully fighting over who would claim the jacket, Sun arrived and said: "Sorry I can't give you the jacket, I have to take it with me!" leaving them rather red faced. Also, as Kelly stepped onto the stage, she spoke into the microphone, saying: "Has everyone had dinner yet?" and causing a few laughs.

This year's Miss Hong Kong winner Kate Tsui's performance as an MC was disastrous because as well as fluffing her lines during many of the interview sections, the worst mistake was during the interview for diving stars Lao Lishi and Li Ting, she pushed aside Wu Minxia. Luckily she realised her mistake immediately and apologised to her, but this left her rather embarrassed. Veteran MC Nat Chan also slipped up as he misread Ko Lai Chak's name as Ko Lai Ching and then totally forgot to introduce Lee Ching.

Although the show went on for an extra fifteen minutes longer than planned, TVB dare not cut the show for fear of inciting the wrath of the audience. Instead, "Twin of Brothers" was aired later than planned. Producer Chan Chi Kau indicated that miming was acceptable for the show because the size of the venue meant that it was safer than risking sound problems." In order to provide even more coverage of the athletes, TVB Jade will be airing the demonstration table tennis, badminton and diving programmes this afternoon and TVB Pearl will be showing volleyball and some highlights from the matches.

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a03cnt.html
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040908/20040908001455_0003.html
http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-9-8/UL-303160.htm
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040908/20040908001413_0003.html



[The Sun 08/09/04]

There were reports yesterday that Michelle Ye was dating Chinese diving gold medallist Xiong Ni, seeing him off at the airport and giving him a goodbye kiss. Michelle immediately responded and explained: "We are just good friends, earlier when I was in Athens, he helped me out a lot, so I was just repaying the favour as a local." She also says that the 'goodbye kiss' was just a peck on the cheek and purely good manners. As for whether they have a chance to develop later, she says: "I don't know what will happen in the future, but we are in separate lands now and there are no chances just yet." However, Michelle indicates that she will go to visit him in China after she finishes filming her series.

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20040908/20040908003110_0003.html



[Ta Kung Pao 08/09/04]

Ada Choi is a spokesperson for a mainland fashion label and after the good response to her set of spring/summer season ads, the company has offered her an additional fee to shoot the ad for the autumn/winter lines and have offered her an unlimited supply of clothes sponsorship. Ada headed out to Guangzhou to shoot the ads earlier, but due to transport problems, she was left in quite a rush.

Ada indicates that at the time, she was filming in Shanghai and in order to shoot the ad, she had to fly to Guangzhou the night before the shoot, do the work in the morning and then rush back to Shanghai to continue filming in the evening. During the half day shoot, she had to change into 80 different outfits and she gained the admiration of the photographer and the crew with her speed. Afterwards, she immediately rushed back to the airport, but the flight was delayed and she did not get back to Shanghai until 1am. At the time she was so exhausted that she nearly collapsed, but the Shanghai crew were waiting for her and she could not even return to the hotel first before heading straight to the studios to work through the night. Ada laughs: "This is money earned through sheer hard work."

With so much 'hard work money', Ada laughs that she has been very lucky this year because she has not only been filming series non-stop, she has also done nearly ten ads, but she has not thought about buying herself something valuable as a reward. She says: "My needs are very simple, I just want to do the work I have well and then go on vacation for a few months. I don't mind where I go, but I will definitely not go to China because I have been working there for almost all of this year."

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-9-8/UL-303147.htm



[Ta Kung Pao 08/09/04]

Gregory Lee and his brother Wing Hon have been signed as spokespersons for a haircare centre and yesterday they took part in a promotion and shared their experiences of losing their hair. Gregory's girlfriend Shirley Yeung and Shek Sau were also there to share haircare tips and Shirley received an award for the "Female Artiste with the Most Appealing Hair". Gregory indicated that a year ago, whilst filming for an ancient drama, he did not know how to look after blocked pores and this left him with some hair loss that even hair restoration lotion could not help. In order to avoid following in his father's footsteps and causing a receding hairline, he set about with girlfriend Shirley to gather information about how to resolve the problem. Finally, they found the centre the brothers were quickly signed as spokespersons.

When Gregory was asked if his girlfriend was worried about him losing his hair, he said: "Of course she was worried, so she helped me with my research. (Do you know that some hair restoration formulas can leave you impotent?) I have heard about this, so I daren't use them to avoid causing another problem." After an examination from the centre, they identified that the hair loss was caused by a genetic condition as well as some dead hair roots, so with treatment, they have overcome half of the problem and making progress.

Shirley indicates that she does not mind her boyfriend losing his hair too much, but he is very wary and luckily he is improving. Earlier, Shirley filmed a mooncake advertisement with her boyfriend and now working together for the centre, are they saving up to get married? Shirley seemed a little embarrassed as she laughed: "I will not get married so soon, I just hope that we both have more work. (Does your boyfriend mind that you are more busier than him?) No, he has not been unhappy about this as it is just what other people thing. He has his own clarity and I will support him." When asked if any sponsors want to sign them as a couple to be their spokespersons, she says: "If any product would like this, then of course I would be happy."

Also, with reports showing Gregory and Shirley out with Wing Hon as a threesome, Shirley was asked if this happened often and she smiled: "That time we just happened to share a car, there is no problem! It is more fun with more people around. (Will you introduce a girl to Wing Hon?) I will look around!"

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-9-8/UL-303148.htm