[Ta Kung Pao 25/12/04]

TVB new series "Powder and Rouge" held its costume tryout yesterday and cast members including Gigi Lai, Moses Chan, Yoyo Mung, Anne Heung, Mandy Cho, Kiki Sheung, Michael Tong and Chan Hung Lit all took part. During the event, Moses was asked to be a model for the ladies to try out their make up skills using a variety of powder and rouge.

Gigi was wearing a chipao and a fox pelt as well as a traditional hair style, making her look even more stunning than usual. She laughs: "Filming series set in the Early Nationalist period has one advantage and that is that the costumes and accessories are all provided by the company, unlike in modern series where you have to remember which outfit you were wearing that day and wear your own clothes." As she is a dog lover, when Gigi was wearing the fox skin shawl, she felt a little uneasy because she likened it to wearing a dead dog around her shoulders and felt very guilty. As a result, she called out to people to love animals and not wear their fur, but if is is sponsored or artificial, then she will not mind.

Talking of the show having many female stars, is Gigi worried that it will raise as many rumours as "War and Beauty" did? She smiles: "It will not, because this is not "War and Rouge" and all of the other stars in the show are nice people. I am positive there will be no rumours because Moses and I play brother and sister and my husband will be played by Ram Tseung." Out of the other female leads, Gigi knows Anne the best because they worked together in "Riches and Stitches", but this is her first time working with Yoyo, Mandy and Kiki. Of her scenes, there are many opposite Kiki and as she has always admired Kiki's acting, she hopes that she can create some sparks between them.

Gigi smiles: "Recently the series I have made have been female orientated series and many of them have four characters in the title, maybe this is lucky for me." As her character has to look beautiful in this show, Gigi will be taking steps to maintain her skin and will be making the most of her resting time. Take Christmas Eve for example, after having dinner with her family, she will be heading home to have a good nights sleep. She laughs: "This show will begin filming in January and as I will be appearing in all 30 episodes, then I don't think I will be getting very much sleep then, so I am making the most of the time I have now, almost like hibernating." Also she plans that she will continue to lose weight because this show like "War" requires her to constantly wear a lot of lipstick and to avoid smudging it, she daren't eat whilst in costume. She says: "I am currently just 100 lbs and I am worried I will fall into the 90's when I start filming."

For Christmas Day, Moses has a day off, but he has nothing special arranged and will just be sleeping at home. When asked if he has prepared a present for rumoured girlfriend Bernice Liu, he smiles and says: "Don't start that again! I rarely celebrate festivals anyway, but this year I bought a Christmas tree for myself and it is the first time I have had one because I never had one when I was young, but after I had bought it, I found I did not have much use for it because after returning home from work, it was already daytime. (Has Bernice bought you a present then?) Please don't! Give me a break from rumours please!"

In the new series, Moses is a wasteful and destructive son in the family, but luckily he changes his ways to rebuild the family name. Talking of whether he is worried about gossip arising with so many female stars in the show, he smiles: "In terms of gossip, men are usually just in the crowd who listens."

Moses will be heading out on Boxing Day to the mainland for a stage performance and in the festive period, he has only accepted this one job. Turning away so many offers, has he lost a lot of money? He says flippantly: "It is destiny, it doesn't matter, if I have it then fine, if I don't it is okay."

Mandy plays a rich girl who has studied in Japan and has a very modern attitude and will be wearing a swimsuit in some scenes. Although it will be a very conservative costume, Mandy has started to keep fit for this.

As there will be many talented actors in the series, does Mandy feel pressurised by this? She says that she is actually pleased that she can learn from them, so even if she is not required in a scene, she will still stay on set to watch how the others perform. As for whether she will win an award on this show, she laughs that she is still a newcomer and she dare not think about awards just yet. Is she worried there will be a lot of gossip with so many ladies around? She says: "In this big family there will only be conflict from the inside and this will not be taken externally." She indicates that in "Split Second" and "Guts of Man" (Courageous Kunlun) she has been working mainly with male stars and she has been looking forward to working with other female stars.

As for Christmas Eve plans, Mandy plans to have a party at home with her family. She indicates tht each year at Christmas, her friends will all gather at her home to celebrate. When asked whether she has been invited on a date by any men, she smiles: "No! Do not think I have many people pursuing me, I usually just stay at home!"

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[Ta Kung Pao 25/12/04]

Leila Tong was at a fashion show in Tuen Mun Plaza, where the models were a group of children and Leila played 'big sister' to them all before helping to choose the one with the best modelling potential.

As it was Christmas Eve, then as well as taking part in this event, Leila then had to rush to Dongguan in the evening to take part in a countdown event. Leila says that during the festive period, she has taken on a number of shows and her income is not bad. When asked if she has made a lot of money, she smiles and says she has not calculated it yet. On Christmas Day, she says happily that she will have time to go and watch a movie with her friend.

Recently Leila has been busy promoting "The Last Breakthrough" and with the show's ratings not being able to break past the 30 points mark, she says she is not disappointed because there have been good reviews after the series has been aired and this makes her happy already. For the Chinese New Year, she will be busy filming in the mainland, working with Alex To and Benny Chan. Originally this series was due to begin filming this year, but it was delayed. Afterwards, she will return to TVB to film a new series.

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2004-12-25/UL-346097.htm