[starizblue]

With Miss Chinese International 2004 complete, the overseas recruitment begins for the 2004 Miss Hong Kong pageant today as the beauty contests follow on one after another. This year's contest will take place on the same day as the opening of the Athens Olympic Games on August 13th and will consist of just one final show. Although the semi-finals have been scrapped this year, in the run up to the contest there will be six or seven special Olympic-themed showcases of around an hour where the contestants will appear and do different activities with points all counting towards the finals.

This year's five Miss Hong Kong winners took part in the press conference today and when Mandy Cho saw clips of her winning, she became very emotional saying she could not believe she has experienced so much in six months. She says: "I will look out for pretty girls around me and tell them to apply. (Will your sister be entering?) She is only seventeen and studying in Australia, maybe in a few years time, but I will definitely support her if she does."

The three newly crowned Miss Chinese International winners received their awards from Squina boss Chan Sai Kit yesterday and winner Linda Chung took part in the screen tests yesterday together with nine of the other contestants at TVB. The girls seemed very interested in performing and didn't even mind wearing bikinis and being a prop to Mandy Cho. They will be taking part in a music special for Aaron Kwok that stars Mandy and the other girls will be guest starring as models. In response to being a support to Mandy, Jessica Xu said that she didn't mind and was happy to meet Aaron: "I think that Aaron is like a prince from a cartoon on a white horse and I will ask him for an autograph and a picture together."

The obedience of these girls has raised interest in TVB's Deputy Chairman Fong Yat Wah, who has openly said she will offer them artiste contracts. Winner Linda Chung says of Miss Fong: "I am very thankful to her. I am interested in showbiz, but I need to return to Vancouver first." She indicates that she will decide whether she will return to enter TVB afterwards.

Although the MCI girls were all very talented, they did little to attract the viewers as Saturday's show only attracted 19 points, falling on last year's 21 points.

http://www.tvbspacenews.blogspot.com/

This post has been edited by starizblue: 20 January 2004 - 12:20 AM