©2004 Fann Wong Singapore

2004   June 18, 2004 Starry, starry night Media Asia's roster of A-list stars dazzled all present at Raffles Hotel THE reason for the occasion was business and stocks, but Wednesday night at the Raffles Hotel was anything but dry. Movie company Media Asia Entertainment Group flew in their roster of talent ?some of the biggest in Hong Kong ?to commemorate their initial public offering listing on the Singapore Exchange. (And to impress potential investors too, of course.) Media Asia Entertainment Group, if you don't already know, is the film production house behind the hit Infernal Affairs trilogy. Four of Infernal's stars ?Edison Chen, Leon Lai, Anthony Wong and Chapman To ?graced the event at the Raffles Hotel. They were accompanied by popular actors Ritchie Ren, Maggie Q and Kenny Bee. Sammi Cheng, who will perform here in August, fell ill and did not show up. Naturally, business was the furthest thing from the minds of the stars present. Edison Chen, who will star in the upcoming film, Initial D, gushed about his co-star, Taiwanese R&B artist, Jay Chou. "He's a shy guy. When I first met him, he sat at a corner," he said. "I talked to him and told him that I love his music. We became ?I wouldn't say very close friends, but friends. When he wasn't expressing his love for Chou, Chen spent most of the night with sultry Maggie Q, giggling away at whatever the other had to say. A journalist present began wondering whether the two were an item. (Needless to say, that particular star-struck writer wasn't there to report on numbers and figures, either.) Dressed in a short, red dress, half-Vietnamese, half-French Maggie Q will be playing the Eurasian daughter of Fann Wong and a German actor in an upcoming production, tentatively titled House of Harmony. When she did grant a few minutes of her precious time to speak with the press, the actress responded to criticism that she's nothing more than a pretty face. "People say: 'You're such a clich?as a model-turned-actress'," she said. "But I'm proud of that. It helped me get to where I want to be." As for Ritchie Ren, he spoke only of his career, as if he was hoping to be offered a role right there and then. "If I had a choice, I would love to star in films like Jiang Hu, where I can be a hero!" macho man Ren muttered. "I would like to act as a character with integrity." The "highlight" of the night had to be former "Heavenly King" Leon Lai. For 10 full minutes, he "dazzled" about half a dozen journalists present with ?his low-cut, green T-shirt, which he wore under a black jacket. A sombre-looking Lai went on and on about how he haggled with a designer to buy the T-shirt. "My tee was supposed to cost HK$1,000 ($220)," he said. "But that's too expensive for a T-shirt! The designer finally gave it to me for HK$250!" Source: Today