[Ta Kung Pao, Oriental Daily & The Sun 08/11/04]

***WARNING: SLIGHT SPOILER FOR "SPLIT SECOND" ***

Stars from "Split Second" Patrick Tam, Kevin Cheng, Yoyo Mung, Mandy Cho and Marco Ngai took part in a promotional event for a 3G mobile network yesterday and attracted a big crowd.

Since the show began airing, the ratings have been rather mediocre and there were reports yesterday that viewers were complaining about the logic of the storyline and how they were not properly researched. Responding to this, Kevin says: "The viewers now are really sharp, but for them to watch the show in so much detail it makes me happy. I did not know when the ICAC was established, so maybe we did overlook this and I am thankful to the viewer for pointing this out. (Are you worried about the series affecting the image of the police?) Everyone must understand that television is just a form of entertainment and the actors will always do their best to make it seem realistic, but I hope that the differences between fiction and reality can be identified and that this viewer will not take it all so seriously. Our aim is not to tarnish the reputation of the police and to be honest, my ambition when I was younger was to become a police officer."

As for many viewers saying that they did not understand the storyline, Patrick laughs: "Yeah! They don't understand yet they still continue watching! (There have been complaints about the plot.) Actually many movies are like this because they want to be fast paced, but complaints can be a good thing because it proves someone is watching. (Will you be disappointed at the ratings in the twenties since the show began airing?) A little, but it's not too bad and at least some people are talking about it."

Patrick also says that recently he has often been asked when 'he' would die (in the show) and he says: "The locals keep asking me when I will be dying in the show. In the finale, I have died 99%, but there is still a glimmer of hope."

Mandy has always had a little baby fat, but seeing her in her low waist jeans, she did not show any excess fat at all on her belly and when asked what her keep fit secret was, she says: "I have been busy filming for 'Courageous Kunlun' recently and although it is not really hard work, filming day and night has left me little time to sleep and as a result I have lost weight."

As well as filming, Mandy has also been practicing cartwheels for her anniversary item. She says: "I really don't know how to do cartwheels, so it is really difficult, but there are still over ten days until the anniversary and I am confident that I will master it."

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-11-8/UL-327049.htm
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20041108/20041107234452_0003.html
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a80cnt.html



[The Sun & Oriental Daily 08/11/04]

Myolie Wu had a very memorable 25th birthday on the 6th November! She had to film late into the night on the 5th for "Passion for Black Forest", but at 12 midnight, the show's producer Lam Chi Wah called everyone into the studio and the crew wheeled out a 12 lb mango cheesecake made by a famous baker to hold a surprise birthday party for Myolie, leaving her very touched. As well as the cast and crew from the show, Myolie also received a visit from Artiste Development Department Manager Chan Pui Wah at her party, showing how important she is to the company. Myolie says: "The birthday party was a lovely surprise and the cake they had made specially for me was delicious! (An executive made a late night visit just for you!) Well Pui Wah has always looked out for me!"

Frankie Lam was filming in a neighbouring studio and when he saw that Ms Chan had come to see Myolie, he laughs: "It looks like Pui Wah will have to take us all out to a restaurant for Myolie's birthday!" leaving Myolie a little speechless.

The first gift that Myolie received this year was from Michelle Ye and Michelle says: "I was working in the next studio and knew it was her birthday, so I brought her present with me." As for Myolie's juniors Charles Szeto and Vin Choi, they presented her with a scarf and gloves as a rather thoughtful gift. They said: "The weather is getting colder and we are afraid that big sis will catch cold."

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20041108/20041107233915_0003.html
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a66cnt.html



[Oriental Daily & The Sun 08/11/04]

Raymond Lam, Alex Fong (Lik Sun), 2R, Yumiko Cheng, Andy Hui, Carlo Ng and Sonija Kwok were among the more than twenty artistes taking part in yesterday's leg of the "Stepping up in Hong Kong" charity run at the Hong Kong International Finance Centre. Split into twelve teams along with the other contestants, a relay race was held up the 88 flights of stairs in the building, but after the strenuous run, Raymond suffered from fainting and nausea and had to receive treatment from the emergency teams.

TVB sent out a number of strong representatives for this event, but many of them turned out to be 'sickly soldiers'. Once the leader of the 'Six Olympic Stars', Raymond's performance was not on par as he ran against Rosanne, Yumiko and some other women for the 420m on a running machine. With a lot of hard work, he made it to the end of the course, but became faint and felt sick and with the help of the St John's Ambulance team had to wear an oxygen mask to recover before being taken to the medical centre for an examination. Whispers among the crowd were heard commenting: "Wah! What a weakling!"

Afterwards, Raymond said openly that as he has been filming, he has not done much exercise lately: "At first I thought that a few hundred metres would be okay, but after half way, I felt myself wheezing. Seeing that the girls beside me were still running, I had to keep going, but as soon as I finished, I felt really bad and I lost all feeling in my legs. I am very afraid of being called a weakling!" Raymond had his blood pressure checked in the medical room and found that he is lacking in red blood cells and was immediately sick. Luckily he recovered soon and was able to sign autographs for his fans, but he says that he will never do such exercise again without preparing for it.

Rosanne and Yumiko also did not feel very well, but were not as bad as Raymond and after a short lie down, they were fine. Coming in last, Rosanne said: "I used to run in the school team, but maybe as I am on my period and not eaten properly, then after about 15 minutes, I felt short of breath and had a short blackout. I am fine now after a little rest."

Leo Ku and Queenie Chu's team won the race, but Leo suffered cramp in his leg and had to receive treatment from the medics. Leo says: "I was going to use some explosive power and I ran as well as I could at the start, but after the run, I sat down and felt very uncomfortable." As for swimming athlete Alex and exercise enthusiast Carlo, they both managed to get through without any problems, even after running 32 flights of stairs, showing their great ability.

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a57cnt.html
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20041108/20041107234805_0003.html



[Ta Kung Pao & Oriental Daily 08/11/04]

A charity premiere was held for the movie "Super Size Me" on Saturday and many artistes and their families attended, including Bernice Liu, Yoyo Mung, Belinda Hamnett, Clarence Hui, Nancy Sit and Priscilla Ku.

Bernice, Yoyo and Belinda have been rehearsing together for the TVB anniversary event and Bernice has already started to rehearse her dance that includes some wire work. She says that she can handle it, but the areas where the wire holds her weight are quite painful. Talking of many artistes currently rehearsing their dance routines meeting difficulties in some of the moves and even injuring themselves, Berncie says that when she was practising her drum dance, her hands became red and swollen, so she is sacrificing a lot for this performance.

Yoyo will be taking part in the 'Cha Cha' with Adam Cheng and a group of other ladies and when Adam mentioned the dance earlier, she couldn't help laughing out loud. When Yoyo was asked whether she was afraid of Adam touching her sensitive parts, she laughs that she is a little afraid, especially as she does not know whether her costume on the night will be sexy or not. However, the most difficult thing for Yoyo is to dance well because she says that she does not dance very often and this is her first dance performance on screen. She remembers when she was filming a movie by Mak Siu Fai earlier, she had to dance and be very excited for the scene, but she could not even remember the dance steps, never mind her acting and in the end, the director had to arrange for a group of other actors to do the dance with her before she could complete the scene.

When Nancy arrived at the cinema early, she immediately bought a hamburger and a drink to eat in the theatre. She says that she does not support fast food, but she did not have time to eat. Why did she arrive early at the cinema? Nancy says that her son Shek Yiu Ting and Priscilla Ku's husband's son Andrew are representing the 'Z Club' from their international school at this charity premiere so she has come with her daughter to show her support.

Nancy says that the proceeds of the charity showing will be given to the Xining Children's Home and during the summer holiday, she had taken her son to this place and they felt very sorry for the orphans there and had thought about adopting some. As a result, Nancy had an idea to arrange this special charity premiere and contact her friends to take part. Also there will be a charity concert on the 12th December to raise even more money.

Talking of fast food, Nancy thinks back to many years ago when she was first divorced and was feeling very down, her children bought her a portion of chips and she felt very touched by this. However, after her children grew older, she does not agree with them eating too much junk food for their health's sake.

Nancy was asked to comment on the recent news of Cherrie Ying's arrest for possession of drugs and as the mother of three children, Nancy sighed that this is a nasty wind blowing through the entertainment industry: "The criminals tempt young people with drugs and this is very wrong. Artistes work so hard to gain fame and popularity and they may ruin their entire career through this. With so many previous examples already, why do they still do this? They must really be hurting their parents and that needs to be punished."

Priscilla Ku took part in the event with her husband and although she did not contact any of the guests to come, she did offer her support by buying some tickets. She also reminded her son to do more charity work, but not just for popularity and to make sure that all the financial details are clearly identified. Janet Ma also attended with her three children and she laughs that their favourite food is hamburgers and chips, so she will try to limit how much they eat.

[Em's note: If you are wondering why the article is talking about fast food, then read this review and all will be revealed!]

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-11-8/UL-327044.htm
http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-11-8/UL-327043.htm
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a64cnt.html



[Oriental Daily & The Sun 08/11/04]

Bernice Liu took part in the "Tung Wah Charity Tennis Competition" yesterday and this was the first time she had played in a tennis tournament and so she was a little frightened, but would do her best for the charity event. She says: "I only know how to dance and have never learned to play tennis." Little wonder that Bernice seemed rather clumsy in her game and eventually lost the match. Afterwards, she says: "It was great fun, but it was really sunny and quite hard work. I could easily have got sunstroke!"

With reports that she is trying to win back the favour of Hawick Lau, Bernice's face immediately dropped when asked about this and said that she would not talk about this again. When asked if she has sent SmS messages to Hawick, she says: "I have always sent them, we are good friends so we keep in touch. (There have been reports that Moses Chan was told by Catherine Tsang that he should put his focus on his career and not start dating?) I don't know about this. (Will you not be dating in the near future and concentrate on your career?) I have always focussed on my work, but I will not say that I will not date."

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a54cnt.html
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20041108/20041107234527_0003.html



[Oriental Daily & The Sun 08/11/04]

Bobo Chan and Jack Wu were filming earlier for a scene in "Passion for Black Forest" where Bobo is tied up by the maniacal John Tang in a lab that goes up in flames. Trapped in a sea of fire, Bobo is eventually rescued in a dangerous scene by Jack Wu who braves the flames to rescue the beauty.

During the filming, surrounded by flames in the heat and smoke, Jack says that he did not have any protective equipment. He laughs that he handed his life over to the backstage crew, saying: "Although I was worried, there were many people around me with fire extinguishers and my life was truly in their hands. Luckily everyone kept to their stations and nothing happened as it was all very safe." As for Bobo, she says that she was very frightened in the scene but she was very careful and would not go near the flames as well as wetting her body beforehand so she did not catch fire.

As the scene was made up of many special effects techniques, all the artistes were well away from most of the flames and there was a lot of fire fighting equipment on hand to deal with any emergencies. The shoot went very smoothly and the actors escaped without any burns.

In the scene, a rather perverted John shows off his final invention a 7th Generation Electronic Tongue that he places near to Bobo's face for her to share the happiness he gains from it. Bobo says: "Don't get the wrong idea! The electronic tongue is used to taste cakes and he ties me up in the lab so that he can demonstrate it to me. It is only when I struggle that I knock over some chemicals resulting in a fire and my screen boyfriend Jack comes in to rescue me."

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20041108/20041107234238_0003.html
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a73cnt.html



[The Sun & Oriental Daily 08/11/04]

TVB's anniversary awards ceremony is approaching and although she has been nominated for a number of awards, Claire Yiu does not hold out much confidence of winning, but she says that if she has to cast a vote, she would still vote for herself!

Claire was modelling some outfits for a wedding gown show yesterday, but as her dress was rather loose, her strap fell down during the show. However, she kept her cool and managed to get away with it. Claire has been nominated for her performances in "Angels of Mission", "Split Second" and "Life begins at Forty" for the 'My Favourite TV Character' award and also for 'Most Improved Female Artiste'. She says modestly: "I don't stand a chance of winning an award, but it is still an encouragement for me."

When asked about when she will be getting married to her boyfriend of five year's Thomas Lam, she says that they are still just at the dating stage. Talking of her perfect partner, she says that they have to be comfortable together and he has to be able to make her happy. Looks are not important really. She laughs: "My Chinese zodiac sign will have a lot of romance next year, so maybe I will hold out and see if I have a lot of suitors next year. I haven't been pursued in a long time. (Will that not make your boyfriend rather insecure?) Well then it's time for him to improve his act then!"

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a68cnt.html
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20041108/20041107233548_0003.html