TVB Entertainment News

To promote his new album P.S. I Love You, singer Hins Cheung accepted an interview with Commercial Radio yesterday. During the interview, Hins revealed that he will be a guest on ATV’s new musical show in the coming weeks. With regard to fellow singer Eason Chan’s earlier collaboration with ATV on a musical special that wasn’t able to ‘save’ the station’s ratings, Hins replied: “To be honest, it’s really the ‘usual ratings’ factor coming into play, as some stations will always have naturally high ratings. I won’t stop collaborating with a party because of this – to me, it’s fair competition…I won’t look at things with that type of mentality.” (Is your collaboration also ‘saving’ the ratings?) “Can’t think of it like that – it’s mutual promotion for the artist and TV station. ATV is able to penetrate places such as Hunan and Pearl River Delta and still get good ratings there – it really depends on what you as an artist are looking for.”

Hins admitted that due to the ongoing royalty dispute, his attitude toward the various media platforms has changed: “The shows that I go on now have a higher level of quality, plus they will notify you 2-3 weeks in advance what you need to prepare, not as rushed as before.” Hins also indicated that for the artists they interview, ATV would shoot promotional posters for them like they do in film. Asked whether he thinks TVB churns out large quantities of productions without regard to quality, Hins replied: “Perhaps TVB has a large number of artists, so may not be able to do some of these things. Now that some of the singers have more options [due to the royalty dispute], there are more opportunities. The happiest thing for a singer is being able to sing their song in its entirety.”

Janice Man Wing Shan, Candy Lo Hau Yam, Lam Lei and director Law Wing Cheong yesterday promoted their new film PUNISHED (BO YING) on Metro Radio. In the film Janice played Anthony Wong Chau Sun's daughter who suffered abuses after Lam Lei kidnapped her. She was not only beaten but also forced fed incense ash. The director said, "The kidnapper probably wouldn't feed you dessert." Lam Lei also said that during the performance he could not hold back. Janice honestly said that she was injured a little but would rather be a little more realistic. As for the most dangerous scene, she was tied to a chair and the kidnapper had to kick her along with the chair into the air. Did she use a double? She said, "Yes, but the double only demonstrated. I did my own stunt. I trusted the director so I gave my all."

Although Lam Lei had to hit Janice, he was not comfortable. In one scene he had to kick Janice, after a dozen kicks or so his leg was also injured. In addition during his fight scene with Richie Jen (Yam Yin Chai), everyone was injured. Law Wing Cheong worked with Janice for the first time. He praised her as very smart, in particular her scared expression was very well performed. Janice explained that because she really was scared. Candy had one scene in which she, Wong Chau Sun and Siu Chai jumped from the second floors on wires. She tripped and was injured, afterward she did not dare to let her mother know. Janice at the Hong Kong Film Award won Best Dressed. She said that before hand she did not know that the event had this award so it was a surprise.

Jacky Cheung Hok Yau after completing the fifth show of his concert series two nights ago took a two day break before continuing on with the remaining 15 shows. During this break, Hok Yau after the show two nights ago announced good news. He urged friends to give rice instead of floral arrangements, through the St. James' Settlement People's Food Bank for the needy in Hong Kong. Now over 7,000 kg of rice was already raised. Friends who donated included Andy Lau Tak Wa, Nicholas Tse Ting Fung and Cecilia Cheung Pak Chi, Kelly Chen Wai Lam, Tong Hok Tak, Julian Cheung Chi Lam and Anita Yuen Wing Yi, Joey Yung Cho Yi and others.

When Hok Yau appeared he tripped on the bags of rice on the stage. Hok Yau sat on the bag and joked, "After the concert my legs are inevitably wobbly, haha." Later, manager Chan Suk Fun and Director Andrew Lau Wai Keung who produced the concert music film and animation cut a cake to celebrate the successful performance.

Hok Yau was unable to attend the Hong Kong Film Award due to his concert. Hok Yau said that he never thought that he would be a Best Actor nominee. Because the character in the film was very light, he was surprised to be nominated and joked that he treated it like he won twice.

He also did not forget to congratulate Best Actor Nicholas Tse Ting Fung. Were the results what he expected? He said that he did not have any expectation so he did not think about it before. However he has seen Lau Ka Ling's award winning film and thought that the film revolved around the male character. Ka Ling and the other actress Li Bingbing did not have a lot of screen time, but Ka Ling performed very well. Did he feel bad for his co-star Tang Wei? Hok Yau said, "No, because every nominee are of a certain caliber. You might as well say no matter who won you had to feel bad for the others." Ting Fung defeated four elders. Hok Yau said learning has no order, not to mention that Nick Cheung Ka Fai already won Best Actor two years ago and Chow Yun Fat was a Best Actor frequent guest. Would Hok Yau see Best Actor as a goal? He honestly said, "You can be only if you put in an effort, I really haven't so I don't deserve the award."

Vonnie Lui Hoi Yan, Hiro Hayama (Yip San Ho), Tony Ho Wa Chiu, producer Stephen Shiu Jr. and theme song performer Sukie Shek Wing Lei two nights ago attended the (3D YUK PO TUEN ji GIK LOK BO GAM) celebration. Stephen Shiu Jr. announced that the film after five days in release in Hong Kong passed 14 million at the box office, after one day in release in Taiwan it made close to NT$5 million.

Lui Hoi Yan was excited about the box office success. "I just returned from promoting the film in Taiwan, such a good performance truly is very rare." Speaking of many online criticism about her being the promotion selling point but she did not perform in the buff in the film. Even her topless scene only lasted two seconds. Some even questioned whether she used a double and demanded a "refund". Lui Hoi Yan stressed that she did not use a double. Because during the shoot she was thinner, visually there was a difference. As for why she was not fully naked, she explained, "My character is a hermaphrodite, I am topless but I covered up below. The third spot that everyone saw on screen required computer generated effects."

Did she feel that was like lying to the audience? She was upset and said, "I didn't lie to anyone!" Then she broke down and said, "It took a lot of courage for me to play this character, but instead I was criticized. I am an actress but viewers make me sound like a prostitute. I am just one of the four actresses, why don't viewers stomp on the other actresses? They just point all their arrows at me. I feel humiliated. If it's like this why not just cut out my topless scenes and don't bother." Hiro Hayama consoled her. "Don't cry, tonight is a celebration! Actually she truly gave for the film and worked very hard on her performance."

Would Lui Hoi Yan no longer make category III film? She said that this incident would not affect her decision. In the future whether she would perform in the buff she would make up her mind according to the script. In addition, Stephen Shiu Jr said, "Young people now mistake adult video for category III films. They think that they spend over HK$100 to watch 3D adult video at the movies and criticize that after watching the movie they have no biological response. They have no idea what category III film restrictions are. Since they have an opinion, later when the film will be released on video I will lengthen Lui Hoi Yan's topless scene. (How much longer?) It should be four seconds. On May Day golden week the film will also release an extended edition, which will have 15 minutes more sex scenes that were cut earlier to satisfy everyone."

TVB and ATV's TV Rating battle is not ending. Yesterday TVB announced the TV rating results, and said ATV's Sunday broadcast of the "30th HK Film Awards Presentation" only got 7 points, peaking at 11 points. ATV said that this unlikely because TVB's rating reports only uses a sample of 650 households and that some people suspect TVB "fabricated" the results to attack ATV. Yesterday TVB, CSM Media Research and the HK Association of Accredited Advertising Agencies released a joint statement. Regarding to the "fabricated TV ratings" comment, which is believed to be offensive and a serious accusation with no evidence, damages the corporation's reputation, and under deep disappointment, TVB retains the right to take all legal action necessary.

Damages reputation

The statement mentioned that Hong Kong's TV rating report is measured according to the international standards and adopts global advanced technology to undergo TV viewership research. It is the only research recognized in the TV and Advertising industries. Recording of TV ratings started in 1992 as PeopleMeter, in the past 20 years, the sample numbers and research technology had substantial improvement. Today, the research is already covering the new digital TV, LED/LCD viewers and more.

Criticizes ATV's telephone research is out

The statement also indirectly criticized that when ATV and Hong Kong University jointly started research over the telephone, "[they] used telephones to measure the viewership, that is technology used before 1978 and does not fit with today's complex and constant changing TV and Advertising industries. It does not fit with the standards today and the method had already been abandoned long ago."

Sammul Chan and Fish Leong were recording for ATV's program Enrich Your Lifestyle yesterday. First time stepping into ATV, Sammul had the Executive (Yip Ka Po) to accompany him. When asked if he's signing a contract with ATV? He laughed: "I am just taking a tour to visit the boss and Producer Gary Tang, see if there are any opportunities to collaborate."

Yip Ka Po reveals that he already invited Sammul to attend the ATV Anniversary and has intentions to have him participate in a ATV anniversary series. Towards this, Sammul smiled: "Because in the last half year, I will be in Mainland shooting, so I'm arranging the jobs for next year now. (Attending ATV's anniversary, is he afraid TVB might cut him off?) I went on TVB's anniversaries for so many years, it's fair, I will go on iCable's too!"

Yesterday morning, Tavia Yeung posted a photo of her swollen forehead, she wrote: "I carelessly bumped my head in the parking garage, it's swollen now. I woke up this morning and got a 'big bun' on my head... God... I am so stupid, so painful!" Reporters contacted her to see how she's doing, Tavia expressed she was at the Beauty Salon's parking garage and carelessly bumped her head on the concrete, so painful: "At the time when I bumped my head, I really felt like I was about to faint. Luckily, I had a hat on, still swollen though, but no bruises. Now it's slowly getting better! (Afraid to have shocked the brain, no checkup?) Not necessary, if that happened I would be feeling nauseous, and I don't have this feeling." However, she found joy in sorrows and joked that there's luck coming to her, so she must buy herself a lottery ticket. The accident was not anything serious, so Tavia went back to work and continued shooting her new series.