[Ta Kung Pao, The Sun & Oriental Daily 01/02/05]

After "War and Beauty", the latest TVB production to be pestered by gossip appears to be "Rouge and Powder" as the reports yesterday suggested accusations of arrogance and rule breaking by Yoyo Mung. However, as the cast filmed a funeral scene on location in Ma On Shan yesterday, Yoyo, Gigi Lai, Moses Chan, Anne Heung and Mandy Cho all seemed to get along fine, chatting and laughing and with Mandy even helping Yoyo out with her hairclip.

In response to the allegations, Gigi says she has not seen the actual report, but was asked about this by the press earlier and she had to ask them in return what was happening. She says that she does not have many scenes with Yoyo in the show, but she is a very lively and direct person and very tomboyish, so she makes a good friend because this type of person is less scheming. When asked about the suggestion that her "War and Beauty" co-star Sheren Tang has upset TVB and therefore been left out of some high profile TVB events, Gigi responded: "I don't want to comment as I am not a TVB executive. I think it is just publicity."

Mandy has worked together with Yoyo before in "Split Second", but they did not have many scenes together. This time, they have more chances to work together and she has not heard anything bad said about Yoyo. She feels that all this gossip about fighting and hatred is quite amusing.

Yoyo herself responded by saying: "Nothing of the sort has happened, for fear of sounding cliched, we are all getting along very well. Even producer Mui Siu Ching has denied it and I don't believe that the crew or fellow cast members would say that about me."

http://www.takungpao.com/news/2005-2-1/UL-360568.htm
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a11cnt.html
http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20050201/20050201010106_0003.html



[Oriental Daily 01/02/05]

When one is popular, the gossip will follow and earlier whilst 'Yu Fei' Sheren Tang was away from Hong Kong, news reports broke suggesting that on the grounds of only winning the 'veteran' award at the TVB Anniversary, she refused to film TVB series "Rouge and Powder" or to shoot a special "Jade Idols" special, leaving TVB executives rather unhappy and pondering over freezing her work.

After returning from New York, Sheren took part in a radio broadcast in the early hours of yesterday morning before holding a press conference, where she faced the negative press rather with a relaxed air: "It was because my schedule clashed that I couldn't film 'Rouge' and I did request leave from TVB, but everyone is too sensitive. It is not a great deal and this is a false report anyway. As for 'Jade Idols', they didn't invite me on the show and after taking my vacation, my schedule is very packed, so when the company asked me to fit them in, I couldn't."

Sheren says that she does not believe that TVB are so petty that they will freeze her work, especially as this is a very normal occurrence: "Some people just have a very wild imagination. Many people think that I will be annoyed at not winning the female lead award, but in fact I have not been angry at all. This was all in 2004 and after seeing the Tsunami disaster, then I would be silly to be annoyed by these minor incidents. It is all material, so don't make it all so complicated." When asked if she feels that she has too strong a character and this will make her lose out? Sheren laughs: "I have lost out for so many years already, so I cannot be a celebrity, just an artiste. A happy artiste, I don't need to be smart, but I do have intelligence."

Sheren does not think too much about incidents of last year as she prefers to look forward and set new targets for herself: "Recently, my health has not been too good. After filming so much, it is hard on the body, so from March and April onwards, I will take more rest and balance my work, my home life and my health."

http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a15cnt.html



[The Sun & Oriental Daily 01/02/05]

Kam Shek Kai is the manager of Michael Tao and Halina Tam and yesterday, he married his girlfriend of many years Yu Fung Chu, holding a 34 table banquet in a hotel in the evening. However, Michael was unable to attend the ceremony because he was busy filming and the couple's matchmaker Kiki Sheung was also absent because of work.

Best man Marco Ngai and chief bridesmaid Fiona Yuen led the group of celebrity "Brothers and Sisters" including Halina Tam, Gilbert Lam and Louis Yuen as they played games with the newlyweds, the funniest and most disgusting of which was a 'poo in a nappy' made from bananas and chocolate sauce that the groom and his 'brothers' were forced to eat when they picked up the bride. As Halina was having so much fun, she almost forgot that he was her manager and when Gilbert and Marco mocked: "Are you not afraid that you won't get paid if you play tricks on your boss?". However, Ah Kai's words: "It is the best day of my life, everyone gets paid!" brought a sigh of relief to Halina.

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20050201/20050201010415_0003.html
http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a03cnt.html



[Oriental Daily & The Sun 01/02/05]

Saturday's Miss Chinese International Pageant achieved average ratings of 24 points, which was quite respectable, but there have been criticisms that some of the girls' swimsuits resemble lingerie and the Hong Kong Broadcasting Authority has received 8 complaints about the show, all aimed at the swimwear section of the show.

Complaints included the swimsuits being too revealing and degrading to women, unsuitable and a bad influence to children. TVB's External Affairs Assistant Chief Tsang Sing Ming responded to this, thanking the viewers for their comments, but TVB itself has not received any complaints as yet. He adds that the swimsuits worn by the girls are of an international fashion standard, but TVB will take on board the experience and there will be lessons learned from the post-event production review.



The winners of the pageant were out and about again collecting their prizes from the sponsors and in total received $228,000 of watches, $100,000 of skincare products and health foods and $100,000 in cash. When asked about their comments on the swimsuits, they all said that they were fine. Kate Tsui added: "For the show to only receive 8 complaints from the whole of Hong Kong, then that is a small number really. It is a very personal opinion." She wore a black swimsuit on the evening and she said jokingly: "I didn't really notice the other girls in their white swimsuits because we were very rushed and I had to watch a tape to review the show."

Winner Leanne Li and first runner up Fala Chen both wore pink swimsuits and did not think that they were too revealing. Leanne smiles: "That is what swimwear is like!" As for Fala, she responds: "Every beauty pageant has a swimwear section for the judges to look at the contestants' figures. I felt very comfortable and I saw the other girls were very happy too."

Second runner up Jessica Young and 'Miss Friendship' Jolene Chin both wore white swimsuits, but did not think that they were disadvantaged. Jessica even says: "It was not like underwear, the material was like swimwear and I felt it looked quite good." Jolene added: "It was okay and the sparkly sequins were quite unusual."

http://the-sun.com.hk/channels/ent/20050201/20050201010604_0003.html http://orientaldaily.com.hk/ent/ent_a08cnt.html