Amorous Aaron's antics on VCD
HELL hath no fury like this man scorned . . . the guy in question is an Australian-Chinese who created a scandal when he secretly videotaped heart-throb Aaron Kwok Fu-shing putting the moves on his girlfriend last month. Despite the Australian man selling the video footage to a local Chinese newspaper for A$20,000 (about HK$100,000) Kwok's reputation seemed to have escaped unscathed after the initial shock.
However, last week there were again new rumours that certain parties had decided to cash in on the scandal and were releasing the fuzzy footage on video compact discs. They must figure that if The Blair Witch Project could pull in that much box office on fuzzy images, so could they.
Sealed fate HATS off to Ng Mang-tat for his fighting spirit. The former Stephen Chiau Sing-chi side-kick in films such as Pandora's Box and God Of Cookery has not let two failed businesses stop him from investing in a new venture: distributing seal oil tablets.
Ng, who lost more than HK$5 million in a failed paging company and a liquor business in China, was recommended the product when he developed diabetes recently. After taking the tablets, he noticed an improvement in his condition and decided to become a shareholder in the company by investing HK$1 million. When the actor is not filming, he can be found in his Tsim Sha Tsui office introducing the product to showbiz friends. With Hong Kong's health fad and having more control over a business in the SAR than in China, Ng says he feels more confident about this new venture.
High-flying KUNG FU star Jet Li Lienjie and former beauty queen Nina Li Chi's HK$5 million wedding reception at the stars' new Hollywood home cost the Chinese press a pretty penny, too. Reporters - barred from attending the intimate five-table dinner by security personnel until after the reception - resorted to hiring a helicopter to circle the house so they could take pictures.
Initial hire started at US$390 (about HK$2,700) an hour but when chopper hire companies got wind of the urgency, prices started climbing to as high as US$5,000 an hour. But it allowed the press - and their readers - to see how nicely the grounds were laid out with red lanterns and how spotlights romantically cast shadows of the word 'celebration'.
After seven years of secret romancing, the three-month-pregnant bride must be glad to be out in the open at last.
Stunt stonewalling MICHELLE Yeoh Choo Kheng has once again showed her mettle on the set of Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. In one scene filmed at Beijing's Ming Tombs, her character is required to battle bandits on top of a dam and Yeoh insisted on doing her own stunts. It meant being strung up on a wire for four or five hours a day.
However, the stunt co-ordinator in charge of pulling the wire tugged a little too hard and sent her crashing into a stone wall, leaving her with bruised knees and a tear or two. But an hour's rest later, the plucky Yeoh was back on the wire again ready for the next take.
No wonder they have started calling her 'Woman of Steel' on the set.
