My fair Zhao
MAINLAND actress Zhao Wei is the hottest name in the business these days following the runaway success of the television series My Fair Princess and its sequel (ATV Home, 8.30pm). On her visit to Hong Kong, the Shanghai native has been mobbed and followed by fans and paparazzi but her fame has also spread to Taiwan. Zhao recently released her debut album, Swallow, and sales soared straight past the 600,000-unit mark, putting her on par with the island republic's top names, Sherry Cheng Huei-mei (A-mei) and Richie Jen. Even Hong Kong's diva, Faye Wong, cannot hold a torch to her with her last album selling only about 400,000 copies.
Singing in the rain SHERRY Cheng's popularity has clearly been unaffected by the brouhaha over Zhao Wei as the singer has been playing to packed houses on the mainland. Despite the economic blues, ticket sales for her scheduled concerts at the old Kai Tak airport site on September 10 and 12 have been quite brisk. Fans can be assured that, come rain or storm, A-mei will try to ensure the show goes on, just as she showed in Guangzhou last week. Despite the havoc created by Typhoon Sam, a towel-wrapped Cheng continued singing and dancing for her 30,000 fans. We only hope that the throat infection that has been bothering her - and forced her to cancel two shows - will have cleared up by the time she gets to Hong Kong.
Anita Yuen's Taiwan triumph FAILURE in Hong Kong does not automatically mean failure in Taiwan, as Anita Yuen Wing-yee has found out.
Her television series Hua Mu Lan won only average ratings when it was shown on ATV Home earlier this year but the series has been such a success in Taiwan that the award-winning Yuen was voted the most popular actress by 6,000 respondents in a survey run by a television station there. With the film industry in the doldrums and no suitable roles for her, Yuen has been concentrating her efforts on television series for the mainland and Taiwanese markets. Hua Mu Lan was made during a freezing winter but at least her efforts have not been in vain.
Labels don't stick RUMOUR is rife that Jacky Cheung Hok-yau may say goodbye to a relationship going back more than a decade. It isn't the one he has with his wife of course, but the one with his record label.
Cheung has been a PolyGram artist since he started his career in the 1980s but, since Universal Music acquired the label last year, PolyGram has ceased to exist. Cheung's contract is up for renewal later this year - and since he has commented that he felt no sense of belonging under the 'new' label - there might be a chance that he might opt for a new company. He has admitted that he is being courted by a few labels, one of which is a Universal subsidiary, What's Music. But he says he will see what Universal's plans are before making a decision.