Babe, me?
She may have been calm and cool about her nomination, but her second Babe Of The Year win – with a record-breaking 6,405 votes – made actress Rui En “flabbergasted”.
In an email to The New Paper, the 31-year old said she was “bewildered” when she first heard the news about how many votes she had received this year.
She beat Jeanette Aw, who received 804 votes, and YouTube star Munah Bagharib, who received 183 votes.
“My fans… I have no words for how incredibly committed they are,” she said.
“Truly, any and all awards actually belong to RBKD, all my fans and them alone.”
RBKD, the moniker for Rui En’s fan club, was also responsible for her first Flame Awards trophy, also for Babe Of The Year, back in early 2009.
Then, she was up against this year’s nominee, Jeanette Aw, as well as Joanne Peh, both of whom had shined in blockbuster drama The Little Nyonya.
She had also been nonchalant about her chances then, saying it would be “The Little Nyonya year”.
Up against Aw again this year, as well as hot newcomer Munah Bagharib, Rui En declined to talk about her chances.
Now that she has won again, she is somewhat amused.
“I really am the sort to head down to the kopi tiam in shorts and slippers. Highly un-babe-like…” she said.
She had a few stern words for The New Paper about the title, too.
“I…have to be honest. Babe is really not one of the most favourite words of mine. To me, ‘babe’ means swaddled in pastel blankets and also had a lot of very strong Christmas connotations,” she said.
All right, we hear you. A name change may be in order. Who are we to argue with someone who has had such a great year in showbiz?
Her Babe Of The Year win caps a year of trophies, including Favourite Female Character at the Star Awards for her role in A Tale of 2 Cities, and Best Actress at the recent Asian Television Awards for her role in Unriddle 2.
All, one must note, without seemingly overly eager and overexposed or the opposite of completely catty or cold.
It is her refreshing “real-ness” that endears her to her fans, who “stretched” themselves this year to make sure she took home the Babe Of The Year title again.
RBKD fan club president Peh Xin Yi, 25 told The New Paper that this year, they heeded Rui En’s advice to “vote within their means”, but they strategised to ensure their idol would emerge tops.
“Our fan club has more than 90 members, but we posted about the Babe Of The Year voting through Facebook (where Rui En has more than 116,000 fans) and Twitter,” said the club president.
“We had one member who wanted to set aside $100 to vote for her (each SMS costs 20 cents), but we stopped her as we don’t believe in having one person vote excessively.
“That’s why we promoted it online.
“Flame Awards was one of the first we got for her (RBKD was formed in Nov 2008).
“It’s a great way to end the year.”
Juliana June Rasul
Source: The New Paper, Asiaone
Categorised in A Tale of 2 Cities ä¹åœ¨åŒåŸŽ, Asian Television Awards, Asian Television Awards 2012, asiaone.com, EN, Flame Awards, Flame Awards 2009, Flame Awards 2012, RBKD, Star Awards, Star Awards 2012, The New Paper, Unriddle 2 最ç«ææ¡£ 2.
