[News]
In the next step of TVB's road to the Olympics, the launch party for June 12th's "Number 1 Celebrity Land Games" and July 17th's "Number 1 Celebrity Water Games" was held yesterday at the Miramar Hotel in a swearing in ceremony entitled "Athens Olympics - Creating a New Path Together" attended by over two hundred artistes representing over twenty different shows who all received their battle orders from General Manager Chan Chi Wan. The competitions are open for any teams grouped in series and shows to take part with guest team members from the singers and other people being placed into Nat Chan's team. The company has put up prizes worth $2 million to encourage the artistes to take part.
The atmosphere was electric, but
the enthusiasm for the water games was not as great as the land games. As a result, Mr Chan picked out top swimmers and former Hong Kong team representatives Alex Fong (Lik San), Tang Ho Kwong, Lee Kai Gam and Szeto Shui Kei to take part, but Alex and Tang Ho Kwong have refused, not giving in to TVB's wish for a showdown. Variety and sporting shows Section Manager Wong Ka Leung responded to the result that the water games were less popular, saying that they want to get the land games sorted first and if this goes well then more people will volunteer for the water games. The games aim to promote the Olympic spirit and team work and Mr Chan also hopes that the contest will help the artistes to relax, have some fun and take a break from their pressurised jobs.
Mr Chan also went on to clarify the rumours about TVB's most recent spate of redundancies, insisting that there is no such operation in place and people left after the studio relocation projects were completed. Some people were offered alternative positions and others were terminated due to poor performance. Once the company restructure is in place, they will be taking on more staff, including more artistes and singers.
Cutie Mui represented her show "Friday Variety" and their team wore a totally red outfit, chanting their slogan, displaying great unity and were the most outstanding team on the day. Mr Chan joked when he saw them and asked: "Is your underwear all red as well?"
Among the artistes present at the event were Alex Fong, Flora Chan, Gigi Lai, Christine Ng, Jade Kwan, Shirley Yeung, Ron Ng, Raymond Lam, Fiona Yuen and this year's Miss Hong Kong contestants. The interest in the water games was especially low among the female artistes as Shirley Yeung says: "I can run, but I'd have to think about swimming." Wong Yeuk Tung is not a strong swimmer, so she does not want to take part and come last. Even Ron Ng has said he will only take part in the land games, with only Bosco Wong putting himself forward for the water games.
Mr Chan also revealed that the budget for the broadcast of this year's Olympics will total $50 million and they have secured exclusive rights to co-operate with China's Central Television Company.
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TVB's six Olympic Stars took part in the premiere of their music video yesterday and each had their own group of fans to support them, with Ron and Sammul's fans taking the majority. During the event, Sammul was signing autographs for one of the fans when she said: "I am here for Kenneth Ma!" leaving Sammul rather embarrassed, but he turned it around by saying: "I don't mind, all six of us are great friends and the company gave us all an equal amount of tickets for all our fans so there should be no fighting."
Bosco Wong is pleased with the success of "To Love With No Regrets" and indicated he is feeling more relaxed after hearing the praises from the board. Bosco will be heading out to Beijing on 15th to film for "Tossing Rain Turning Wind" and will stay there for four months. As the weather in Beijing will be hot and sunny, Bosco, who has a fear of the heat, will be taking plenty of anti-sun products with him. He also adds that Raymond will be employing two assistants there and when asked how many he would be taking on, he laughs: "I will employ one, for each assistant, the cost is a few thousand dollars, so if I get any more I will be giving them all my salary!"
As for Raymond Lam and Ron Ng who are recently rumoured to be feuding, then of course the usual denials were abound as Ron says: "Of course you look away when you are eating, if we looked at each other, then you would say we are gay, then I'd rather have the feuding rumours. (Earlier, it was suggested you were at odds with Fiona Sit, is this a problem with you?) No, I don't think so. Maybe my exterior is too cool, making people misunderstand me." Afterwards, Ron appeared at a sweet distribution event in the Mong Kok streets and attracted over a hundred passers-by tp watch, but luckily no-one got too close.
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TVB welcomed in the Olympic Games yesterday by holding its own "Number 1 Track & Field Games" at Wanchai Sports Ground yesterday with 200 artistes taking part in the events. Among them, one of the Olympic Stars Ron Ng fainted with exhaustion and had to be treated by Dr Lee Ka Yan.
TVB's "Six Olympic Stars" were the centre of attention and as the weather yesterday was incredibly hot, five people felt unwell and had to be treated by the medical team. Ron Ng was among these patients after fainting from exhaustion. As he had been busy the previous evening filming for "Police Cadet Brave Hearts" throughout the night and had not had enough sleep, after taking part in several events such as the 100m sprint and the 4x100m relay, he felt very unwell and his body gave in. He was immediately taken into the medical room for treatment, where he was diagnosed as having lack of rest, leaving him with a very fast pulse. After resting for ten minutes, Ron immediately got changed for the flag raising ceremony and after finishing all his tasks, he asked to be released early so he could go home and rest before starting filming again early today. Dr Lee indicated that Ron's health is not very good and he should look after himself. Whilst Ron was resting, his fellow 'Olympic Stars' dropped by to visit him.
As Ron was unwell, MC Sammul Chan stepped into his place to run in the relay, taking on the final lap. Lai Lok Yi and Bosco Wong took the first two laps and then Kenneth Ma took the third lap, but dropped the baton, leaving the Olympic Stars team in last place for this race. Raymond Lam is currently filming in Beijing and so was unable to fulfil his role as 'Olympic Star' at this event. The organisers requested during rehearsals that they should take things more seriously and Sammul later explained that they were not playing, but without Raymond Lam present, they weren't sure how they would be able to hold up the long banner. When asked about whether the situation has improved with his filming alongside Fiona Sit, he says that she is getting better now and she is using less cheat sheets, but is still facing a lot of NG's.
Sister of Steven from Boyz, Jenny Cheung accidentally fell over and grazed her legs as she ran for the finish line in the ladies 4x50m relay, but she still managed to take first place. She says that she used to be in the athletics team when she was at school and spending a long time practising, she still has the form. Also, Miss Hong Kong number 16 Emily Wong entered the 800m, but later felt a pain in her chest and a numbness in her legs. The doctors indicated that she was overheating, but she was fine after some rest.
The event started at 10 am with the heats for all the events with those qualifying moving onto the finals in the afternoon. Many of the stars did not want to stay all day in the sun, so they lost intentionally in the heat. Among them Joey Yung indicated that she did not want to go through as she had another event in the afternoon. Shirley Yeung took part in three events, including high jump, long jump and the ladies 60m sprint. She says that this is the first time she has tried high jump and although she has injured her back before, this had little effect.
Natalis Chan led the flag raising ceremony and revealed that he had not had a chance to look closely at this year's Miss Hong Kong contestants yet, but he will be MC at this year's final. He has been to Italy especially to pick out a few suits for the event and has spent a six figure sum on some unique outfits.

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TVB has recently set up its own recording section to promote its own artistes into singing the theme songs and sub-themes for series, keeping the benefits for their own staff. After many auditions from artistes, this policy is now in place and after the 'Six Olympic Stars' recording the TVB Olympic Games theme, there is a queue of artistes ready and waiting to record the theme songs for upcoming series.
TVB's deputy resourcing director Lok Yik Ling indicates: "The 'Olympic Stars' have recorded two songs and the response from these have been good, with some external recording companies asking if they can cover the song with their own singers. With such a good sucess, we have decided to allow the stars of some recently completed and nearly completed shows to sing their own theme songs. For example, Myolie Wu and Ron Ng will be singing the theme to 'Destinies of the Western Chamber' in a duet, Moses Chan will be doing the theme to 'Blossoming Hearts' and the first one that you will hear will be the theme to the 'Hearts of Fencing' continuation show 'Prints on Red Sands', because this show has already been scheduled to be aired in August during the summer holidays."
As for the new series 'Treasure in the Family' starring Alex Fong (Lik San) and Hawick Lau, although the new policy means that Hawick will have the chance to sing a song for the show, the theme will still belong to singing star Alex. Producer Wong Sum Wai explains: "Before the policy came into place, we had already discussed the theme tune with Alex as part of the package for him to appear in the show, so this remains unaffected."
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Ron Ng and Lai Lok Yi were among the Olympic Stars that took part in a friendly bout against Bosco Wong and Amy Kwok's 'To Love With No Regrets Team' as they battled in table tennis, rowing machine relay and penalty shootout. Talking of TVB's forthcoming Water Games, Ron Ng revealed that he cannot swim: "In the past I have learned, but I am not stylish enough when I swim, so I would rather not do it." However, he will take part in the 100m sprint.
Also, Amy Kwok's show "To Love With No Regrets" has had some very good ratings in the first week and she has been dubbed as TVB's lucky star. To this, she says: "At first I was quite worried and it is great luck that the show has done so well."
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