[Oriental Daily & The Sun 30/01/05]

Miss Chinese International 2005 - Results

Winner - Leanne Li (Vancouver)
First Runner Up - Fala Chen (New York)
Second Runner Up - Jessica Young (Melbourne)
Miss Cosmopolitan Beauty (Local Phone/Text Vote) - Kate Tsui (Hong Kong)
Miss Friendship - Jolene Chin (Kuala Lumpur)

The Miss Chinese International Pageant 2005 was held at TKO TVB City yesterday and after many rounds of selection, the title was awarded to 22 year-old Leanne Li from Vancouver. Hot favourite Fala Chen was only able to make second place, with outsider Jessica Young from Melbourne taking third place. When Hong Kong's Kate Tsui was chosen for the top five, there were many shouts from the audience, but she did not make the top three, taking only the 'Miss Cosmopolitan Beauty' award as a consolation. The 'Miss Friendship' award had earlier been announced as Jolene Chin from Kuala Lumpur.

Leanne hails from Shanghai and is currently studying at university. Her ambition is to become either a producer or an artiste. Leanne says that she was always confident in herself and just enjoyed the contest calmly without any pressure. With Kate Tsui winning the local phone vote, she does not feel that this was a consolation prize, because she was chosen by the Hong Kong and China audience. Judge Andy Lau praised thet top three contestants, saying that Leanne has the look of a winner, Fala has the beauty of a star and Jessica has a wonderful singing voice. As for why Kate Tsui did not reach the top three, Andy felt that this was due to her having too much pressure put on her.

This year's show was themed "Eternal Beauty - Touching Hearts for Five Thousand Years" and the contestants paraded in various period costumes that were very beautiful, but in one of the swimwear items, the girls wore white bikinis that resembled underwear and the thin material at times showed a little more than was decent, causing complaints from some of the audience.

Additional MCI 2005 coverage:



1. When Annie Chang was performing her ribbon dance, the ribbon got caught on her body, leaving her rather embarrassed, but she did not trip over. After nearly overexposing herself in the overly tight swimsuit earlier, she had exchanged her costume for a larger size that was very safe, but it completely covered up her amazing figure, losing her some points perhaps.

2. TVB's Executive Chairman Sir Run Run Shaw and Mona Fong did not sit together at the MCI show as Sir Run Run was accompanied by last year's First Runner Up Mandy Cho. They laughed and chatted throughout the event and Sir Run Run kept brushing across Mandy's fur coat.

3. Kelly Wang stole the show in the swimwear event with her 35.5 bust and her expression of 'selling milk' as she twisted her body around caused a roar from the audience.

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a17cnt.html
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20050130/20050130020500_0003.html
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20050130/20050130020500_0003_3.html
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20050130/20050130020500_0003_2.html
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20050130/20050130020500_0003_1.html



[Oriental Daily & The Sun 30/01/05]

Gigi Lai, Anne Heung, Kiki Sheung, Moses Chan and Sharon Chan were all back at work yesterday filming for "Rouge and Powder" and as the scene was for a birthday celebration, the ladies all had to wear their chipaos and furs for the function. Gigi was a little unwilling to wear fur because she is the SPCA ambassador.

Gigi says: "Last time, when I appeared at the costume fitting, the Society contacted me asking why I had to wear it. I explained that the show was set in the thirties and research indicates that the ladies of the era liked to wear fur and that TVB had not bought any additional fur for this show's costumes as these have all been taken from the wardrobe department's existing stocks. Some are antiques that could have been worn by Deborah Dik in the past. I am an artiste, so in order for the show to be made, I am prepared to roll around in the sand, so wearing a fur is not a massive issue, but when I am wearing it, I do feel rather uncomfortable, because it is cruel and I would urge people not to buy any more fur." Fortunately, the society is very understanding of Gigi's predicament and has not put any pressure on her. In fact, there is more pressure from the show being filmed until April and Gigi having to maintain her figure to fit in her chipao costumes until then.

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http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20050130/20050130014309_0003.html



[The Sun & Oriental Daily 30/01/05]

Raymond Lam and Leila Tong took part in in a charity sale of Fortune Bamboo yesterday and also received a fortune reading from renowned Geomancy expert Lee Shing Chak. Born in the year of the Goat, Raymond's romance luck for this year is so-so and he will be subject to a lot of rumours. With the earlier press surrounding his 'close encounters' with women in Singapore, Raymond laughs it off, saying that it does not matter whether or not his romance is blossoming because he is a Fujian native and in their traditions, the plum blossom is not placed at home over the new year.

As for Rooster Leila, this year is a direct clash and so her romance and interpersonal luck will be rather slow. She says: "My manager will offer blessings to help me revert the clash of the horoscopes, but I will also do this and buy myself a windmill for good luck." Master Li also says that those born in the Dragon will bring good luck to Leila, but she says she has no intention of hitching up with a young male Dragon. She says: "I will wear a little dragon or look for a youngster dragon, but I won't bother with the older ones." Although their romance luck will not make great bounds, they both say that they don't mind and went on to buy some bamboo plants to bring in more success in their work. This can be done by putting the bamboo stem on the West Side of the home.

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20050130/20050130021416_0003.html
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a10cnt.html