[Ta Kung Pao & Oriental Daily 20/10/04]

TVB will soon be launching its own credit card scheme and cardholders will not only be able to take a tour of TVB City, they can also watch filming and ask for autographs from their favourite stars. After spending a certain amount with the card, they can also receive tickets to watch certain live shows. Raymond Lam and Charmaine Sheh filmed a set of advertisements for the cards yesterday in both modern and ancient costumes outside TVB City and in the ancient street.

When asked how many credit cards they have, Charmaine says that she does not have many cards because she is always working abroad, so she is afraid of forgetting to pay her bills. Also, with the high interest on the cards, she only has two cards. Hwoever, she likes to collect the different designs of credit cards, such as Hello Kitty and the Miss Hong Kong cards, but she will just collect the card and not spend anything on them. When did she get her first card? She says that it was when she was eighteen because she was studying abroad and her mother gave her a secondary card. However, she just used it for emergencies and did not have to spend on ti because she is very opposed to spending money that you do not have. As for whether she has received credit cards from men, she says she has never done this, laughing that this kind of thing only appears in dramas. She has never even spent on her boyfriends' cards because she has her own and does not want to rely on men and in any case, she prefers to use cash. After her hard work, she is now the landlady of two apartments.

Charmaine and Raymond will soon be heading out to Zhuhai and Singapore to film for new series "Yummy Yummy" and as they were both out in Beijing earlier filming for "Tossing Rain Turning Cloud", she has been away for nearly half of the year. She laughs: "We have almost been away from Hong Kong for over six months and avoided paying taxes!"

As the son of a rich family, Raymond has not got many credit cards and at the moment, he only has one. Although he has a secondary card from his father, he usually just uses his own one. Talking of his series "The Last Breakthrough" being aired next month, he says confidently: "I have total confidence in 'Breakthrough" because it has a good script as well as many touching scenes. It's a shame that this show will not be included in this year's anniversary show nominations, because the audience will have forgotten it by next year and it will lose out."

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-10-20/UL-319445.htm
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a07cnt.html



[Ta Kung Pao 20/10/04]

Kenix Kwok and Michael Tao appeared on daytime magazine show "Pleasure for Leisure" yesterday and discussed with the studio and home audience about the ending of "Shine on You". Talking of the ratings and reviews for the show, Kenix said: "Actually, it is very similar to that of 'War and Beauty' with many viewers eager to find out what will happen in the end and whether my character will choose Bobby or Michael. 'War' attracted OL (Office Lady) and housewife audiences, whereas 'Shine' is more geared towards teachers and students, who will want to follow the show. Michael and I have been nominated for the best partnership award this year and I am very happy about this."

Kenix will soon be teaming up with Joe Ma, Ella Koon, Raymond Cho, Ron Ng and John Chiang to film for new series "Hotel Troubles". Kenix says she knows Raymond and his girlfriend Keung Yi Lan (John's daughter) quite well and Raymond is a very likeable man, so she believes that John knows he is a good man and will not need him to impress. In order to convey her powerful businesswoman image in the new show, she will soon be cutting off her long hair that has taken her five years to grow and create a new look.

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-10-20/UL-319452.htm



[Ta Kung Pao & The Sun 20/10/04]

Kevin Cheng has had plenty of rumours lately, firstly linking him with 'Yu Fei' Sheren Tang and most recently, pulling him together with Shirley Yeung. Magazine reports accuse Shirley of 'seriously flirting' with him and with his fair share of female company, Kevin was the only man with four ladies at the promotion yesterday for "Split Second", working with Yoyo Mung, Claire Yiu, Fiona Yuen and Mandy Cho and the envy of many!

In response to the latest gossip, Kevin indicates helplessly that the media's imagination is getting bigger and bigger. He has not seen the reports in question and insists that he and Shirley are just friends. Earlier they filmed together in "Loving You" (aka "The Threat of Love") but they have not really kept in touch after filming ended. Shirley has been accused of being rather flirtatious all along, but Kevin says he does not feel this: "She has a boyfriend, don't mess around!"

As for his rumours with Sheren, Kevin says that after reading the report, he finds that about 10% of it is the truth. He says that he and Sheren are good friends, but they are not dating and for her to find her popularity, he is pleased for her because after so long in the industry, she is finally reaping the rewards.

Kevin and the four ladies demonstrated Thai Boxing in yesterday's promotion for "Split Second", but the four girls seemed rather hapless as they kept frightening Kevin into stepping back to avoid being kicked in critical areas. Kevin says that after watching a Thai Boxing match in Thailand, he has developed an interest for the sport upon returning to Hong Kong in the hope of making his figure even more attractive. He says that he has been learning for about two or three months: "If you have not learned it before, you will not know your own strength and it would be terrible if they kicked me. Usually when I am training, then I will wear suitable protection, but I didn't have it on for the promotion today."

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-10-20/UL-319449.htm
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20041020/20041020004243_0003.html



[The Sun & Oriental Daily 20/10/04]

Recently taking on a large number of advertisements, Louis Koo has recently shot a set of ads for Pentax cameras, with a mixed race model called Stephanie, who looks a little like Sonija Kwok, playing a pair of lovers. During filming, they got on very well, hugging each other like real lovers and even sharing the same sweater without any awkwardness and sharing many laughs as they got into the right positions!

With his birthday on the 21st of the month, Louis spent $70 million on a luxury home earlier and on his birthday, he will be holding a special promotional birthday party with his sponsors and fans.

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20041020/20041020003519_0003.html
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a18cnt.html



[The Sun 20/10/04]

Recently busy filming for "Courageous Kunlun", Sammul Chan seems to have met with a lot of bad luck lately. In the last three months, as well as his two car accidents that have left him with a lingering neck injury, another accident during filming has resulted in an eye infection. Sammul has been given a new nickname by his colleagues, who refer to him as 'Glass Tofu Man'. Reports indicate that because of his injuries, Sammul is suffering from terrible headaches, but because he does not want to affect the progress of the series, he insists on continuing with his work but because the filming schedules often span days folloing nights and nights following days, for an injured person, it is certainly taking its toll.

Three days ago, Sammul originally had a 6 am start and co-stars Ron Ng and Savio Tsang also headed into TVB City for make-up on time, but just as everything was ready, the crew received a call from Sammul who was unwell and was not expected to arrive until noon. After this, there were immediately complaints of: "That Glass Tofu Man! Always being ill! Maybe he has injured himself again!"

Ron also seemed rather frustrated by this and picked up his bag preparing to leave, but because his ancient costume wig needs time to put on, someone suggested to Ron he should wait a while. However, Ron responded before heading out: "I'm not waiting! Wait until he gets here first!"

When reporters called Sammul about this yesterday, he admitted that his eye had swollen up from the infection and so he took a days sick leave. He says: "In an earlier scene, I fell into a pile of sawdust and I developed an eye infection that meant I had to go into the Emergency Room for treatment. As I also have an allergic reaction, my eyes were very swollen when I woke up the next day, but I still thought of going back to work after visiting the hospital. If I was really being lazy, then I would not have rang the company at 7 am." Although Sammul caused some upset among his colleagues, he was supported by co-star Louisa So, who laughed that he may have a weak body, but he is very punctual for work usually.

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20041020/20041020003803_0003.html



[The Sun 20/10/04]

Ron Ng was filming yesterday for "Courageous Kunlun" and as he had previously injured his knee during filming, he had to wear kneepads. He says: "I have to try and avoid any scenes that need me to move my legs, so I have been relying on a stunt double, especially for running. (Can you do your fight scenes?) I can, but only if I am standing in one place, so I have been co-ordinating this with the director." He also refers to himself and Sammul Chan as the 'Heavenly Cripples'.

Ron will soon be partnering Ella Koon in new series "Hotel Troubles" and there will be plenty of kissing scenes, making Ella extremely happy. When asked about this, Ron laughs: "I am also very happy, but I think she was only joking! (She was so happy she was drooling!) I am drooling too. (Are you afraid that she will be sparked by you?) No, there are no romantic sparks between my co-stars and me and no rumours. Maybe it is me who is asking the producer for more kissing scenes!" As for his earlier scene with Linda Chung frightening her into moving backwards, Ron says: "Maybe there were just too many people watching at the time and she wasn't used to it."

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20041020/20041020003848_0003.html



[Oriental Daily 20/10/04]

After TVB's "Six Olympic Stars", the company will be promoting another six male and six female young artistes and these have now been confirmed as "Jade's New Soldiers" with the final shortlist to include Lai Lok Yi, Jack Wu, Chui Kin Pong, Charles Szeto, Lau Ka Chung, Vin Choi, Vivien Yeo, Fu Sze Sze, Cecilia Yeung, Winnie Shum, Linda Chung and Kwan Yi Tung. As well as becoming promotional ambassadors for TVB events, they will also become the target of promotion and focus by TVB and so there was little wonder at the level of competition to be on the shortlist.

TVB has been actively screen testing the potential of the newcomers and after discussion by the executives, this list was drawn up before General Manager Chan Chi Wan met with each of them. From the list of names, Miss Hong Kong winner Kate Tsui and first runner up Queenie Chu are not present, but second runner up Fu Sze Sze is on the list alongside fellow Miss Hong Kong contestants Cecilia Yeung and Winnie Shum.

As for Lai Lok Yi who was a member of the 'Six Olympic Stars' as well, it was felt that out of the six stars in the last promotion, only Lok Yi was left behind, so TVB are going to give him another push in the hope of making him a leading star.

The list of names has been confirmed by Mr Chan and he emphasises that TVB will continue to work on its legacy of producing newcomers for the industry, so for those who have not been selected this time, they should not become disheartened. He also admits that he has met with each of the twelve young stars and he is very pleased with them all. TVB will be arranging for them to receive dancing, singing and kung fu training in the hope that they will become all round artistes and outstanding new leading stars.

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a06cnt.html



[Oriental Daily 20/10/04]

Bowie Lam's popularity has increased tenfold after his appearance in "War and Beauty", so he is building on this by releasing his new album "Dreams of War and Beauty" to win over both the TV fans and the music fans. To satisfy the fans of "War", the album will include many versions of the theme songs to the series and in addition to this, Bowie has invited a number of TVB's female artistes to duet with him, including Gigi Lai, Yoyo Mung, Kenix Kwok and Maggie Siu and even Bobby Au Yeung has lent him a hand in a duet and some spoken lines in a song. The happiest thing for Bowie is that this is the first time recording for Yoyo, Kenix, Maggie and Bobby as they have never paid a visit into a real recording studio before this project. As a result, Bowie has promised them that if the album does well, he will pay for them all to go on holiday.

Bowie and Maggie were filming together yesterday for the "Spies and Dangerous Love" sales presentation clip yesterday and could not stop chatting to each other when they met. Bowie compliments Maggie's performance in their duet 'Caring Friend' and he says that he chose Maggie for this song especially: "The song tells of a pair of friends who encourage each other not to feel down because of failure in love or career and the words are very meaningful - 'Angriness and sadness will ruin your heart, Let it go and patience becomes golden, Take a step back from everything and don't dwell on it, Those who can bear it are the real strength'. (Did you ask Maggie to do this because of her breakdown in relationship with Ekin in '99 left her rather unhappy?) A little, I know she was very unhappy then, but she is fine now."

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