[Ta Kung Pao 25/10/04]

TVB's anniversary series "The Conqueror's Story" will be premiering tonight and a group of cast members including Adam Cheng, Kwong Wa, Melissa Ng, Cerina De Grace and Eileen Yeow took part in a promotional event in in a shopping mall yesterday playing games with the audience and handing out souvenirs in a buzzing atmosphere.

Adam had many fans there to support him and they presented him with a fruit basket. With a nomination for this year's "My Favourite Male Lead" award at the anniversary, it was revealed that Adam has received at least nine votes so far. He laughs: "The show hasn't even been aired yet, so they must be insider votes! (Are you confident in taking an award?) I am confident I will not win an award because the show has not been aired yet and we will lose out a little."

At this year's anniversary celebration, Adam will be doing a cha cha with eight beauties each wearing a hooter for Adam to squeeze. When the reporters warned Adam to be careful what he was squeezing to avoid being labelled a pervert, he laughs: "I will be wearing gloves, so there will be no sensation anyway. Also I have asked them not to wear their hooters near any sensitive regions. Anyway, TVB will not allow anything seedy in the show but if the viewers make it that way, then it is not surprising. I believe that it should be good fun. (You always perform with lots of lovely ladies.) One of my conditions is htat I have to work with beautiful women!"

This year's anniversary celebration producer Lam Ka Wing indicates that the hooters will be placed on the ladies' arms and knee positions, so their more sensitive areas will be avoided and he is not worried about the wrong message being sent out. This year's motto will be "Break out of Hong Kong and link up with the whole World", so the set will be dressed with the five continents of the world. As for comedy sketch "War and Beauty - the Heavy Mob", this is planned to include performances from TVB's 'Big Sisters' Lydia Shum, Carol Cheng, Liza Wang and Nancy Sit and Eric Tsang as the Empress, but at the moment, only Nancy has confirmed that she will take part. Carol and Liza are still considering it and Lydia is still in Singapore so her decision is unknown.

Also some results for a local vote among the audience of who they thought should win the anniversary awards for 'My Favourite Male/Female Lead Roles' was announced, with Sheren Tang taking 59 votes for 'War and Beauty', Charmaine Sheh receiving 15 votes and Ada Choi in third place with 7 votes. As for the men, Bobby Au Yeung's performance in 'Shine on You' brought him first place with 48 votes, Dayo Wong received 16 votes and Bowie Lam received 13 votes.

Kwong Wa's contract with TVB expired at the beginning of October and he will be leaving the company, but he has agreed to continue with promotional events for 'Conqueror'. He indicates that this time he did not want to renew his contract because he feels that after over ten years in the same mould, he is getting bored and hopes to find a new environment. When asked if he has made enough now and is ready for retirement, he laughs: "Everyone just works so hard for money with the aim of retirement and this means that they miss out on so many other things, but I hope that I can spend more time in getting acquainted with life. People only work to live, but life does not require too much money, especially as I am a vegetarian. (But your children are still studying?) Studying does not require too much money either."

As for whether he is maintaining good relations with TVB, Kwong Wa says: "I have good relationships with whoever I work with, whether it is ATV or Cable. (Will you be heading to a friendly opposition?) Who knows? I don't mind where I go as long as we get on." There appears to be a message in his words and as he is a buddhist, does he plan to become a monk? He laughs: "I do have plans to go to Taiwan and become a short term monk. (When?) Life is full of surprises, I just have this intention."

Talking of the female lead award at this year's TVB anniversary and Sheren being the strongest contender, Kwong Wa laughs: "She is good, without a doubt. Although I have not watched 'War', but her performance has been outstanding all along, but her luck had just not arrived yet. (If Sheren wins, will you be happy for her?) I will be happy for whoever wins. (Will you call her to congratulate her?) No, and I don't have her number anyway." He also asks the reporters if they have Sheren's number and when they say they do, he asks them if they have called her to congratulate her!

Also, whilst filming for "Conqueror" in the mainland earlier, there were rumours that Kwong had upset his co-star Melissa. In response to this, he just says: "There will be a day when the truth is revealed and a lot of things are tainted by human interaction. As long as there is nothing between us then it doesn't matter." On the other hand, Melissa says: "In TVB, Kwong Wa is one of my most frequent co-stars, so how can I not know about his personality? We all know that the working environment in the mainland is rather poor, so having little arguments is not unusual and my own mood was pretty bad, even arguing with the director, but the most important thing is that we were unhappy about the situation and it was not personal. (Will you work with Kwong Wa again?) I don't mind who I work with." In order to show that there was no animoscity between them, Melissa and Kwong Wa were happy to pose for a photo.

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-10-25/UL-321295.htm
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