[Ta Kung Pao 28/10/04]

Leo Ku joined Shirley Yeung, Maria Chan and Vivien Lok at the opening of a shoe shop yesterday and Marsha Yuen and Shirley's boyfriend Gregory Lee were also present. At the event, Leo drew a cartoon piece as a gift to the Far East Chief of the company.

Leo has always put a lot of focus on footwear because he likes to protect his feet. He says: "I remember when I was filming a series a few years ago, I had to wear a pair of cloth shoes in a battle scene and was speared in the foot. It swelled up and was the size of a mandarin. Although the crew immediately took me to the hospital, the location was quite far away and the hospital was rather basic and after all that I was just given a bowl of ice water for my foot. (Why did you not return to Hong Kong for treatment?) I had to work the next day and my foot was so swollen I could not walk, so I had to trouble the crew to carry me to work and the director changed the script to accommodate me." He says that it did not recover until a good two weeks later.

Owning over a hundred pairs of shoes himself, Leo admits that he is quite a shoe fanatic, but most of his shoes are sponsored with some that he has worn and others that he will not throw away for sentimental reasons. Sometimes he will give them away to his family, such as his brother but he will never take them to the second-hand store to sell.

Shirley's boyfriend Gregory Lee was also on hand at the promotion and when asked if he was there to keep an eye on her, he laughs: "Of course not, I am also a guest and I do trust her entirely, watching her is no use anyway." Then Shirley who was standing beside him added: "We are getting on just fine and are very stable."

When asked if they buy shoes for each other, Gregory says that they do not, but do give each other watches as they have different tastes in shoes. Gregory likes casual and stylish with a soft texture, whereas Shirley likes sports shoes as they are easily matched to an outfit. Shirley says that she often exchanges little gifts with her boyfriend, but she receives more than she gives because he is very sensitive compared to her clumsiness and forgetfulness. For example on one occasion she forgot to shut her car door, but luckily the security guard informed her and prevented her car from being stolen.

Marsha Yuen chose a pair of leather boots worth $1300 and in response to reports that boyfriend Patrick Tang becoming 'orphaned' by his record company, she says: "He has mentioned it to me but I do not know if the truth is the way he explained it. Although he feels that his progress is not as good as it could be, it is maybe not as bad as that! I feel that as he has the talent to sing, then he will receive the support. (Have you offered your opinion?) I have comforted him, but a lot of things have to be sorted out by him because I am unclear as to the situation. As for whether he will change to another company, it is up to him, but wherever he goes, I will still support him." Marsha was due to take part in a musical in November, but due to problems with the sponsors, it has been postponed until next year.

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-10-28/UL-322599.htm
http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-10-28/UL-322603.htm



[Ta Kung Pao]

Bernice Liu was a guest at a shoe shop opening yesterday and she joined in a game at the event where they had to guess her shoe size. When her foot was measured, she was found to be a size 39, showing she has fairly big feet!

Bernice was asked whether she was embarrassed at having her feet measured and she says: "No, earlier when I filmed the advertisement, it was all very relaxed and I have been sponsored for my shoes. To date, I have received over ten pairs." She adds that she took part in the end of filming party for "Healing Hands III" two days ago and this time it was organised by the artistes who all chipped in to have a meal together. Afterwards, she went straight home, so she does not know if they went to karaoke afterwards. On that night, Bowie Lam and Moses Chan both took part and when jokingly asked how her relationship with Moses was coming along, she says: "Still friends!" As for this year's anniversary award, Bernice says directly that as "Blossoming Hearts" and "Healing Hands" have not yet been aired, she does not have much confidence in receiving the 'Most Improved Female Artiste' award, but she will pin her hopes on next year.

Also, in response to the fight for the 'My Favourite Female Lead' award between the cast members of "War and Beauty" and Charmaine Sheh's confidence in winning, Bernice says that she has only watched a few episodes of the show, but all the female stars had a very clear performance and she understood it, so she feels that they are all worthy of the award. As for this series being a rare excellence in recent years, Bernice says that she hopes to be able to make such good series, but her biggest obstacle is that her Chinese is not good enough and it will be hard work for her to film an ancient drama, so she has to improve her Chinese first. She laughs that in "Virtues of Harmony", she did have an experience of playing an ancient character and she will be heading back to this series soon. Her forthcoming work will be preparing for the anniversary celebration where she will be doing a song and dance item.

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-10-28/UL-322596.htm



[The Sun 28/10/04]

Yoyo Mung has become a shop-owner yesterday as she opened her new reflexology centre in Happy Valley yesterday. Good friend Fiona Yuen was on hand to offer her congratulations and she received flowers from Dicky Cheung. Yoyo says that she did not want to 'borrow publicity' from other stars, so she did not invite any of her friends from the industry as guests, saying: "I would rather invite them to come and try it out instead."

She reveals that she will also be opening a Chiu Chow restaurant next month in the same area and she is one of four partners in the two businesses, each investing a six-figure sum. When asked if her boyfriend was one of the partners, she says: "I must emphasise I do not have a boyfriend, but there are no ex-boyfriends in the four of us. (Are you upset at investing a six-figure sum in one go?) Not at all! Being the boss for the first time is worth it but I am not used to people referring to me as the boss! If my friends come to try it I will give them a discount, but I don't know how to do reflexology myself."

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20041028/20041028005457_0003.html



[The Sun 28/10/04]

Mandy Cho has recently been working alongside Ron Ng and Sammul Chan in ancient drama "Courageous Kunlun" and acting in her first ancient series and riding on the promotion given to her by TVB, there have been accusations of her becoming rather spoilt, with a conceited attitude whilst filming and making the crew angry.

Report indicate that as Mandy's Chinese is not very good, she is always fluffing her lines during filming and causing NG's (outtakes). Even if the crew try to teach her, she ignores them and says in English to them that it is none of their business. She will wear a frown all the time and even the two male leads are not exempt from her behaviour. When Ron was asked about Mandy's behaviour, he admitted that she often has NG's, saying: "She is a newcomer after all and it is her first ancient drama, so we have to give her time to find her character. (Does she have an attitude?) Maybe she has a westerner personality and is very direct, so she upsets people easily. I don't find her conceited or hostile." As for Sammul, he says he does not want to take any notice of gossip and just wants to concentrate on his filming. Mandy herself had not yet responded at the time of going to print.

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20041028/20041028004853_0003.html



[The Sun 28/10/04]

Suffering from poor health recently, previously suffering from an eye condition, Michelle Ye was admitted into hospital yesterday with a high fever and was wheeled into the emergency room in a wheelchair. After inspection, she was diagnosed as having a severe infection in her throat and was kept in hospital for a night for observations.

Michelle was accompanied by a friend to the hospital yesterday and looking extremely fatigued, she was faint and dizzy as soon as she stepped out of the car and had to be suported by her friend. The hospital arranged for a wheelchair for her to take her into the emergency room. When the reporters asked her what was the matter, she just pointed at her throat and did not say anything. She was then pushed into the consultation room and the doctor inspected her, confirming that the fever and oozing from her throat was caused by a severe infection and she was instructed to stay in hospital for observation.

When she was later called by the reporters, Michelle indicated weakly that she had originally got up to go to work yesterday, but as her fever had not gone down, she had hot and cold flushes as well as nausea: "I had been to see the doctor the day before, but the injection did not help and when I woke up this morning it felt like the world was spinning and the hot and cold flushes was very hard to bear. I could see my throat was oozing pus when I looked in the mirror, so I asked a friend to take me to hospital. Then the doctor told me that the infection was quite severe and all my throat was oozing rather badly. I had wanted to go back to work, but the doctor would not let me and instructed me to stay in hospital for a few days."

Whilst in hospital, Michelle has had calls from her producer Wong Wai Sing and executive Chan Pui Wah to ask how she is and she feels very touched. Producer Wong says: "Michelle is a very good artiste and she called me to apologise for being absent yesterday. I told her that the most important thing is to get better, to get some rest and not to worry about progress. However, I told her that she will have to be prepared for some hard work when she recovers to make up for the lost time."

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20041028/20041028004953_0003.html



[Oriental Daily 28/10/04]

Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez's new film "Shall We Dance" was premiered in Hong Kong yesterday and many celebrity Richard Gere fans were attracted to the show, such as Pauline Yam, Angela Tong, Flora Chan, Kenness Yiu, Marsha Yuen and Nancy Sit. Angela mentions that she had once met Richard Gere in a hotel in India where she was filming a travel special: "At the time I daren't approach him and had to ask a crew member to go and ask if it was okay to have a photo with him. In the end he refused, but I saw that he was quite short in real life." Pauline is also a big fan of Gere and she says that she wishes her boyfriend to be as stylish and mature as him: "The best thing would be about eight years older than me. Older men have more sophistication."

Flora indicates that she has left TVB for over a year now and filmed two overseas series and some advertisements. When she was told that TVB still had her image for next year's calendar, whereas Maggie Cheung was not there, she said: "Really! I am very thankful to them. I do have a per-series contract with TVB, so if they have a good series, then I will film it." Marsha was asked about the emotional problems she has had with her boyfriend Patrick Tang and she says: "It was just problems with his work decisions. He is considering whether to renew his contract with TVB or to sign with Paco Wong. He doesn't like discussing these things with me because I will just make him choose, but as long as he is comfortable, then it is fine."

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a13cnt.html