[Ta Kung Pao 09/06/06]

The story of the modern man, "Pain of Men" will begin airing next Tuesday and a promotional event entitled "Little Women dance versus Big Men"was held yesterday, where the ladies from "La Femme Desperado, such as Sheren Tang, Kate Tsui and Natalie Wong were paired up with the men from "Pain", Damian Lau, Ron Ng and Woo Fung and together with other cast members such as Toby Leung and Florence Kwok, they gave a big display of ballroom dancing. Sheren and Damian's performance was less than shining and they were totally out of step. Talking of the pain of being a man, Damian lost his usual calm demeanor and poured his heart out, much to everyone's surprise, but then he explained that he was just joking.

For Sheren, who does not know how to dance, she thought that Damian would be an expert, but the pressure was lifted from her when she realised how badly he was coping and found his skills to be worse than hers. She laughs: "I have never learned to danced ballroom before, except when I had to film a telemovie earlier where I had a couple of lessons. I wanted to continue after that, but I couldn't find a male partner. At first Zac Koo had offered to go with me, but then I didn't have time, so dancing for me is an improvisation and it looks terrible. I have lost my confidence, so if I have to dance, then I will even forget how to act. (Do you want to find a boyfriend soon to be your partner?) Dance partners are hard enough to find, never mind boyfriends, so I will not be looking in this way." As well as dancing being her worst nightmare, Sheren's other phobia is horseriding, especially now she is getting older. She smiles: "Horses know if you can ride or not and once I was tossed up in the air. Although I didn't fall, I was so afraid that I burst into tears!"

When Damian revealed that he was interested in learning to dance, he was called upon by the reporters to ask Sheren to be his partner, to which he immediately replied: "Yes!" Asked if he thought the ratings for "Pain" would top those of "Femme", he says he does not know, but he does know that the series is very good and he has given his all.

Kate was paired up with 'Dancing King' Woo Fung and she says she was quite nervous about this, before praising him for his good memory for all the dance steps. Asked if she was attracted by his dancing, she smiles: "What? He is a senior, I know he was very good looking in his youth, but he still looks good now."

As a former dancer, Ron found no difficulty with the dancing because when he was in the profession, his favourite dance was ballroom and he found ballet boring. Ron says that ballroom is very popular and many of his friends have taken an exam for a licence to teach it. Some have even gone to China, as many rich housewives like this kind of dance and the income from this is quite substantial. Asked if anyone has introduced him to a rich housewife, Ron says: "Not yet. (Has anyone asked you for a price?) No, so I am a little embarrassed about that, but my friend once asked me if I would sell myself for a week for a few million dollars. (Would you?) I work hard myself. (Being bought up is still working?) I would still prefer to act and make series." Ron says that when he was young, he often saw his mother dancing and at the time, he would hold his mum's hand and spin around. When it was suggested his mum is a rich housewife, Ron laughs: "No, I have bought her up." Ron has never been asked for a price, nor has he taken part in a 'private dinner', laughing that he does not have time to go out to eat.

http://www.takungpao.com.hk/news/06/06/09/UL-577122.htm
http://www.takungpao.com.hk/news/06/06/09/UL-577124.htm



[Ta Kung Pao 09/06/06]

TVB's sitcom "Welcome to the House" has recently been reported on by a tabloid magazine as having poor ratings and cast fighting, leading to the sponsors becoming angry with them. In order to clarify this situation, TVB's Assistant Director of Programming Ho Koon Chung held an emergency press conference. He says he was very surprised to read the reports, because the contents are not true. Since it began airing in April, the show has had average ratings of 28 to 29 points, equating to over 1.8 million viewers. Originally the show's 120 episodes had been planned to take it to September, but now the company has exended its run by a further 120 episodes running until next March. The sponsors have been growing as well, so in response to these malicious reports, Mr Ho says the company will reserve the right to seek legal action against them.

Mr Ho also adds that the 23 point ratings indicated by the report is quoting a figure from one interval and then dwelling on this. The sponsors were also misled into making a comment. At the moment, "Welcome to the House" has twelve sponsors, the highest number for any series in history. As for the reports about Raymond Cho and Johnson Lee falling out, Mr Ho says that he has checked this with the production team and the producer and they say that this has not happened. Even the two involved have denied this. Mr Ho adds: "There is a lot of negativity in society today and I hope that people will stop making things up. This show has over a million viewers, proving that there are a lot of supporters. With this extension, it is another record for new series." As for whether the cast would change with the extension to the series, Mr Ho says that the basic cast will not change, but there will be some new characters.

http://www.takungpao.com.hk/news/06/06/09/UL-577116.htm