By Charlene Chua
He thinks that the local entertainment scene has been way too stagnant by his standards.
So call it a hero’s complex if you must, but Ken Lim is determined to “revive†it.
The head honcho of Hype Records is convinced that the next big star will rise from the melting pot that is Asia.
So why can’t it be Singapore?
In his mission to put the little red dot on the showbiz map, he has created his own reality TV singing competition, The Final 1, which has the added component of taking viewers through the whole process of packaging a reality show contestant into an artiste.
Local artistes currently signed to Hype Records include actresses Rui En and Jeanette Aw and Singapore Idol winners Hady Mirza and Taufik Batisah.
Source: The New Paper, The Straits Times Communities, Asiaone
Categorised in asiaone.com, EN, The New Paper, The Straits Times Communities.
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.
Top acting awards go to MediaCorp’s Rui En and TVB’s Moses Chan
By Yip Wai Yee
Singaporeans Rui En and Michelle Chong were given top awards at the 17th Asian Television Awards.
Rui En won the award got Best Actress In A Leading Role, for her role as a criminal investigation department officer in crime drama Unriddle 2, while Chong received the award for Best Comedy Performance By An Actor/Actress for her spot-on impersonations in news parody sketch show The Noose.
Both stars, however, did not attend the glitzy event held at Shangri-La Hotel here on Thursday night.
Rui En, 31, tells Life! that she could not attend as she was filming a new drama series. She says: “I am both surprised and honoured by the award.
For me, the work and the craft have always been my focus, and awards are the icing on the cake.”
She adds: “Getting the award for Unriddle 2 makes me immensely happy given that I love the role.”
The annual awards show, organised by Singapore-headquartered media company Contineo Media, recognises excellence in production, programming and performance in TV productions around Asia.
This year, there was a total of 48 award categories for entries from 13 Asian countries. The results were determined by a panel of 48 judges comprising media industry players from around Asia.
Source: The Straits Times, Asiaone
Categorised in Asian Television Awards, Asian Television Awards 2012, asiaone.com, EN, The Straits Times, Unriddle 2 最ç«ææ¡£ 2.
Asian stars gathered in Singapore yesterday for the 17th Asian Television Awards held at the Shangri-La hotel.
Organised by Television Asia Plus magazine, it was established in 1994 to recognise excellence in production, programming and performance in TV productions around Asia.
The glitzy event saw red carpet appearances from Taiwan actors Lee Wei and Lucas Luo, plus local stars Ann Kok, Christopher Lee and Chen Hanwei, followed by a gala dinner.
The big winners of the night included local actresses Rui En and Michelle Chong. Rui En won for Best Actress In A Leading Role for her role as a criminal investigation department (CID) officer in crime drama Unriddle 2, while Chong received the award for Best Comedy Performance By An Actor/Actress for her spot-on impersonations in news parody sketch show The Noose.
Rui En won for Best Actress In A Leading Role for her role as a criminal investigation department (CID) officer in crime drama Unriddle 2. She wasn’t there to pick up her award.
Source: Asiaone
Categorised in Asian Television Awards, Asian Television Awards 2012, asiaone.com, EN, Unriddle 2 最ç«ææ¡£ 2.
By Juliana June Rasul
Taufik, 30, was in Seoul mid-October for the ABU TV Song Festival, a concert to go with Korea’s ABU Radio Song Festival, Asia’s version of the Eurovision Song Contest.
Upcoming
No word yet on whether there’ll be any cross-cultural collaboration for Taufik’s upcoming English album, which he’s currently working on.
His most recent single Sky’s The Limit, which also features the vocals of his fellow Hype Records artiste Rui En, stayed at the top of the charts on 987FM for two weeks.
Source: The New Paper, Asiaone, Lollipop
Categorised in asiaone.com, EN, Lollipop, Sky's the Limit, The New Paper.
By Charlene Chua
He’s playing his first baddie role, but will you hate him for it?
Tonelli, 36, told The New Paper: “The Channel 8 audience are very invested in the characters that they watch on TV, they really believe these shows.
“When my character was good, I received lots of compliments. But when his insecurities caused him to be less amiable (he wasn’t even a bad person), I started hearing that my Mandarin sucked on the show.
The good guys that he has played on-screen include Jeanette Aw’s character’s suitor in Channel 8 blockbuster drama The Little Nyonya (2008) and Rui En’s character’s suitor in Channel 8 drama Joys Of Life (2012).
Source: The New Paper, Asiaone
Categorised in asiaone.com, EN, Joys of Life èŠ±æ ·äººé—´, The New Paper.
By Kwok Kar Peng
Shaun will return at the end of January to shoot the Channel 8 drama The Dream Makers, which is about larger-than-life personalities in the showbiz industry. The show will also star Zoe Tay, Jeanette Aw and Rui En.
The Dream Makers 志在四方 debuts 24 June 2013 9pm on Channel 8.
Source: The New Paper, Asiaone
Categorised in 50th TV Anniversary, asiaone.com, EN, The Dream Makers 志在四方, The New Paper.
His fall from grace has not been for nothing.
China-born MediaCorp actor Dai Yangtian, 28, may have lost his popularity and his fan club in the two years he spent breaking into the China market.
But he believes the time away from local showbiz has made him a “real” actor.
Dai actually seems to be making a small-screen comeback of sorts – his other Channel 8 drama Poetic Justice, starring Rui En, Rebecca Lim and Desmond Tan, premieres on Sept 11 at 9pm.
He was left out twice in consecutive years for the Star Awards Top 10 Most Popular Male Artistes, which runs on public votes, and his fan club, DAInamics, disbanded around May because its president quit.
Perhaps his increased dedication to his craft and improved acting skills will win back his fans.
Dai said the ex-president of his fan club stepped down for health reasons and no one else stepped up to replace her “because of some situation within”.
“Now, I will try to recruit the fans back through my Facebook and Weibo pages.”
When asked how the fan club’s disbandment had affected him personally and professionally, he replied: “If you mean not winning awards, I’d say I’ve never cared much about it.”
He added he will be holding a meeting with some fans at the end of this month to talk about setting up a new fan club.
Poetic Justice 微笑æ£ä¹‰ debuts 11 September 2012 9pm on Channel 8.
Source: The New Paper, Asiaone
Categorised in asiaone.com, Poetic Justice 微笑æ£ä¹‰, The New Paper.
By Tan Kee Yun
He gives us lots of eye candy
What’s a Jay Chou video without the requisite babe?
Household names (S.H.E’s Hebe Tien in Retreat and Chinese actress Zhou Xun in Besieged From All Sides), lesser-known models and exotic European faces have appeared in his videos.
Others include Taiwanese actresses Alice Tzeng, Jessie Chiang and Cherry Hsia, as well as Singapore TV star Rui En.
Source: The New Paper, Asiaone
Categorised in asiaone.com, EN, The New Paper.
