PERHAPS there is good reason why Canto-pop singers try to be so elusive and secretive about their love interests after all. It looks as if popularity levels for Ekin Cheng and Gigi Leung Wing-kei have reached drastic lows since rumours of their romance surfaced last month. In an Internet survey conducted last week, Leung polled 768 votes to be named the 'Most Disliked Canto-pop Star' while Cheng came in second place, 150 votes behind. Trailing a distant third was an undoubtedly very relieved Daniel Chan Hiu-tung, who has topped the list quite frequently. Of course, it was not just the fact that Cheng and Leung were seeing each other but also that Cheng was still officially romantically linked with TVB actress Maggie Siu Mei-kei at the time. Although Cheng initially denied the new romance, he came clean about it after readers of a Chinese magazine saw the couple locked in intimate embraces and kisses on the busy streets of Japan.
Cheung's king-sized clanger OOPS! is probably all Jacky Cheung Hok-yau can say now to an embarrassing gaffe that occurred during his concert in Taiwan last weekend. The Canto-pop king, who was recently awarded a World Outstanding Youth award, unwittingly let loose an obscenity when teased by good friend Harlem Yu. Yu, who was a guest at the concert, had teased Cheung about looking like a girl and Cheung had said what he thought was the equivalent for 'Get out of here!' but instead actually meant the male genitals. His audience of more than 40,000 fans was more tickled than shocked by this and the whole auditorium - including Yu - burst out laughing.
Cheung, who obviously knew he had said something wrong, shut up immediately. It was not until after the show that his assistants told him exactly what he had said. All the singer could do was shake his head helplessly - and look for Yu in order to throttle him. Apparently, it was Yu who had misled him about the phrase in the first place. Some friend he was! More than just good friends IT looks as if things are going quite well between Hong Kong-turned-Hollywood director Peter Chan Ho-sun and actress/radio host Sandra Ng Kwun-yu. As usual, both had avoided questions of a romance by reiterating that they were 'just good friends' but lately, it has seemed that the duo had been making time to spend together. Chan, who still has film business in the SAR, has been back quite often and has been photographed with Ng by paparazzi, while Ad-lib sources have told us that Ng has been hopping over to the US too.
And last week, the couple was finally photographed hand in hand in Bangkok, where Chan was attending the Asia Pacific Film Conference as a guest. When asked, a coy Ng told paparazzi that she had arrived later than Chan and was just there to have a short break from work with other friends such as director Vincent Kok Tak-chiu. When asked if she had met Chan's parents, who reside in Thailand, Ng's answer was a sweet smile. We guess that means yes.
Actor quells rumours ACTOR Ray Lui Leung-wai is working hard to put to rest speculation that he is on the verge of bankruptcy. Ever since his divorce from singer Cally Kwong Mei-wan two years ago, life does not seem to have been running too smoothly for Lui: he was burnt when he saved a child from a building fire when he was filming a commercial in the mainland and there have been frequent reports that he was one of those who got severely burnt in the shares and property markets when the economy took a dive.
Recent speculation arose when a bank put out a notice that he owed them more than $300,000 in arrears for a car purchase and would have to declare bankruptcy if he couldn't pay up. Lui said that the car - which had been purchased under a company name - actually belonged to a friend of his and he had just been the guarantor for it. Since the friend skipped out on the payments, the bank was holding him liable, he said. Recently, he told reporters that he was financially sound and investors were still willing to put in $20 million for him to produce a film.
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