It wasn’t the usual suspects who revealed their, er, talents last night.

Constance Song, Ng Hui, Chen Liping and Xiang Yun turned up the heat at the Star Awards 2012 Show 2 held at Marina Bay Sands.

Song’s sheer, peekaboo Jiki outfit titillated, while Ng revealed plenty of cleavage and legs in her sexy black dress.

In comparison, the usual bevy of babes such as Michelle Chia, Rebecca Lim and Rui En were rather modestly decked out from head-to-toe.

Said Rui En: “I’m not into showing cleavage as I’m conservative and I don’t feel the need to.

“The limit is showing off my shoulders. I won’t reveal my legs too.”

Results of Star Awards 2012 (Show 2)

Best Drama Serial: On The Fringe

Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes:
1. Rebecca Lim
2. Yvonne Lim
3. Rui En
4. Kym Ng
5. Vivian Lai
6. Paige Chua
7. Jeanette Aw
8. Cynthia Koh
9. Joanne Peh
10. Ann Kok

Source: The New Paper, Asiaone

THE hilarious skit at Star Awards Show 1 on Sunday night was meant to be a comic relief for all, but two of the actors being made fun of did not seem impressed.

Last night’s Star Awards Show 1, telecast live over Channel 8, featured a skit spoofing the cast of local dramas Devotion, A Song to Remember and Code of Honour.

Not even the biggest and most popular names on Caldecott Hill were spared.

Zoe Tay, Chen Hanwei, Joanne Peh, Elvin Ng, Qi Yuwu and Eelyn Kok were all made fun of.

But Rui En and Zhang Yaodong did not appear amused.

Rui En looked moody for the rest of the night, despite winning Favourite Female Character and Favourite Onscreen Couple with Ng.

In her acceptance speech, she said cryptically: “We are here to film (dramas), not create news.”

In the skit, TV host Quan Yifeng – in an impressive career comeback since her scuffle with a taxi driver – pretended to be Rui En and objected to filming a rape scene.

It was an obvious throwback to the controversy between Rui En and Zhang Yaodong last August.

Back then, Zhang had talked to the media about a rape scene he did with Rui En in the drama On the Fringe.

Rui En, who was working in Malaysia then, immediately wrote a heated blog post, stressing the fact that she is against doing kissing and rape scenes.

That particular scene was in fact a failed rape attempt, she clarified.

She also hinted that Zhang had twisted the truth to try to make headlines and stay in the limelight.

Zhang subsequently told the media he had used the wrong words, adding that he is not a Chinese teacher who is precise about words.

Last night, when reporters asked Rui En if she was offended, she replied with a curt “No”.

Funny skit?

“The skit provided entertainment value. I was prepared that (the controversy with Zhang) would be mentioned either in Star Awards Show 1 or Show 2,” she said.

When The New Paper spoke to Zhang, he too was curt.

“I don’t think the skit went overboard. It was very funny. I’m okay with it because I don’t think too much into it,” he said.

Ironically, the two of them are filming the period drama Joys of Life and have many scenes together.

How are relations between the two of them now?

Zhang replied in Mandarin: “We are not familiar with each other (before the controversy). Now we are even less familiar. We are still colleagues.”

When asked the same question, Rui En said: “Things are professional (between us). We are just doing our jobs.

“There’s nothing different and it’s just the way I behave with everyone else.

“To me, (the incident) is over. I think I’ll work with him again (in the future), and why make things difficult for everyone?”

Star Awards Show 1 winners

Favourite Female Character: Zhang Yale in A Tale of Two Cities, played by Rui En

Favourite On-screen Couple: Rui En and Elvin Ng in Code of Honour

Best Screenplay: Ang Eng Tee for On the Fringe and Chen Sew Khoon/Lau Chin Poon for The In-Laws

Best Drama Editing: Teo Pit Hong Joyce for On the Fringe

Source: The New Paper, Asiaone

After almost a decade, Mediacorp has returned to Tuas TV World to shoot the new Channel 8 drama Joys Of Life.

Once the jewel in our local dramas, TV World, about the size of four football fields, was the backdrop for memorable shows like Tofu Street, The Price Of Peace and Wok Of Life.

It was created to look like a bustling town of the 1950s and has three main streets that lead to a three-storey cinema, a railway station, a fire station, a city hall, a church, several mansions and rows of Chinese shophouses.

About 10 years ago, the company gave up the area, which is next to the Tuas checkpoint.

Then last month, MediaCorp returned to TV World to film Channel 8′s 30th anniversary period drama, Joys of Life. The series, which stars Chen Liping, Zheng Geping, Rui En, Huang Wenyong, Chew Chor Meng and Taiwanese artistes Alien Huang and Cynthia Wang, will start airing in June.

Costly

So it became financially unwise and costly to maintain TV World.

Since then, some scenes in period dramas were also filmed in MediaCorp’s own backyard in Caldecott, where busy streets were recreated.

Younger artistes like Rui En, 31, have never filmed in TV World before, but her friends remember the place and told her about it.

“My first impression of the place is that it’s very, very cute. I didn’t know it existed until I was told we were to film here,” she told The New Paper.

“I didn’t grow up in this era (1950s), and it’s very foreign (to me). It’s very nice to have a location to help you with the acting.”

Her friends have also shared stories of how the place is haunted, but Rui En said she has never felt uneasy there, even at night.

She plays a tragic character who is forced to marry a stranger to pay off her adoptive father’s debt.

Joys of Life 花样人间 debuts 26 June 2012 9pm on Channel 8.

Source: The New Paper, Asiaone

Princess or Queen?

These are all labels, said Peh, who was called one of the Seven Princesses of MediaCorp, along with Felicia Chin, Fiona Xie, Jeanette Aw, Rui En, Dawn Yeoh and Jesseca Liu.

She became known as the next Queen of Caldecott Hill after four of the actresses left MediaCorp.

Peh stressed: “I’d rather work for something more substantial and real, like a role, than for a label.

“I’ve just returned from a holiday in London and there, terms like ‘princess’ and ‘queen’ are very real.

Here, they are just name tags in entertainment.”

Source: Asiaone