Friday, February 25, 2011

We've reached the annual return of one of the most significant award for Hong Kong TV industry - Next TV Award.

From 2002 to 2010, Charmaine has been ranked in Top 10 Artistes for 9 years in a row. With her recent arm injury and contract renewal issues with TVB, 2011 may prove to be a challenging and bittersweet year for her.

Let us fans gather our support for Charmaine by voting through Next TV Awards - the forever Queen of our hearts!

As usual, I will provide the voting guideline for those who doesn't understand Chinese. Please do go through the entire guide below carefully before voting.

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1: Go to Next TV Awards voting page at

http://nexttvawards.next.hk/voting.html

2. The 1st voting category is Top 10 TV Artistes


Please tick the box underneath Charmaine's picture. No. 23 佘詩曼

Proceed to next page, scroll to bottom and click on this button:


3. Next is the 2nd category Top 10 TV Shows


Please tick No.8 公主嫁到 [Can't Buy Me Love]

Proceed to next page, scroll to bottom and click on this button:


4. The next two categories are for Most Potential Male and Female Artistes, please choose one for each category and proceed to next page by clicking on next button (same as shown above).

5. The final award category is the Sponsors Awards.


Charmaine is nominated for Philips Brilliant Charisma Award, please tick underneath her picture 03 佘詩曼.

You must also vote for one artiste from other sponsors award.

Finalize your vote by clicking on the confirm button at the bottom:



6. Finally, you will be asked to enter your personal details.



Next TV Award have added a new feature this year, fans can create a special award for their idol. If you wish to create a special award for Charmaine, remember to key in her name 佘詩曼 in the 2nd box.

Note: Do not copy the text in suggestion text above, because one of it is Actor/Actress I Both Love and Hate. Lol, you do not want to give Charmaine such awkward title.


Enter your details as follow. Apart from the HK ID number, you can 'fictionalize' the rest of the information. The HK ID sample is shown in red, please do not use the same number.

If you are not a HK citizen, this is where the ID generator (click to download) come in handy.

Download and run the file (if your pc doesn't support Chinese character, the words on the software might be jumbled up, but don't worry - follow my instructions and it will still work).

• Select Hong Kong from the scroll bar.
• Click 产生 button to generate ID number
• Click (2) until a HK ID with 8 digit including alphabet appears. Sometimes it will generate 9 digit, you can use that as well
• Copy and paste the first 7 digit (alphabet + number) into the first box (Sample in the pic 'D551014')
• Paste the remaining one digit in the last box. (Sample in the pic '8')
• Passport number is optional, so let's just save time and skip it.

Enter phone number, email and mailing address as per instructed in the sample above. To finish voting, click on the confirm button on the lower left.


7. You will be brought to a 'Thank You' page. There, you are done voting for Charmaine!

Voting officially ends on March 6, 2011 (6:00pm). Please hurry and cast your important vote(s) for Charmaine!

p.s. Don't forget to vote for Charmaine at Singapore Entertainment Awards as well!

[Mingpao, Oriental Daily 25/02/2011]

Charmaine Sheh's management contract with TVB will be expiring middle of this year. There are rumors saying that she decided to expand her career in Mainland China after being offered a two year contract worth HKD15 million. Yesterday Charmaine responded to the rumors and expressed that no formal decision has been made yet. Once she decided, she will make an official announcement. Is it true that she has been offer a lucrative contract of HKD15 million? Charmaine said that money is not her top consideration; she places the highest importance on her future career development.

Even though Charmaine has not made the final decision, a group of TVB ex-colleagues such as Felix Wong and Leung Si Ho etc strongly supported her in leaving 'maternal home'. Felix left message to Charmaine through Weibo saying: [The fish will not grow bigger unless moving to another pond]. He said that while opportunities may always come by, the best opportunity is very rare. He hope this advice, once given to him by a veteran actor can be used on Charmaine as well; asking her to consider thoroughly. Charmaine replied to Felix saying that she will try her best to repay those who supported and have high expectations for her. Leung Si Ho also said that he will always support her.

As for TVB artist Linda Chung, she congratulates Charmaine and expressed that every artistes wished to earn China Yuan. In Eileen Cha's radio show, Koni Lui said Charmaine deserves such good reward for her hard work all these years.

However, TVB executive Virginia Lok denies that they offered HKD10 million in order to retain Charmaine. "We are still negotiating. Even if she leaves TVB, we still can collaborate again like Sheren Tang and Ada Choi. (Since TVB nurtured Charmaine, is there any hard feelings?) No hard feelings, actually TVB commission rate are the lowest in the industry." In addition, she denies postponing Charmaine's series [When Heaven Burns] to anniversary slot as bargaining chip to promote her winning TV Queen award.

Do not repost.

Sehseh: Let's be patient and wait for Charmaine's official announcement. I believe that Charmaine can make the best decision for herself - and proving to everyone that she made the right choice.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

[Apple Daily 24/02/2011]

TVB Fadans continue to diminish over the year. Charmaine Sheh who joined TVB since 1997 has decided to end her contract with her 14 years employer after it expires in May. Earlier when she was filming in Mainland China, she was offered by a Mainland production company with a two year contract worth HKD15 million. This treatment is obviously better compared to TVB's filming fee of HKD20, 000 per episode. In addition, there were rumors of wealthy Mainland suitors vying for her affection. With the promising prospect in both career and romance, the 35 years old Charmaine decides to leave her maternal home and develop her career up north.

According to sources, Charmaine receives HKD20, 000 per episode filming TVB series. However, her fees increased 5 fold in Mainland China. TVB did placed importance in retaining Charmaine and executive Virginia Lok have started discussing contract renewal with her since October last year. As the discussion did not progress smoothly, Charmaine did not renew her contract and resulted in losing the TV Queen award to Sheren Tang.

While attending an event last month, Charmaine graciously admits that she is currently discussing contract renewal with TVB. She dropped hints: "The Mainland China market is very big; there are demands for more actors. They also have higher pay." In order to retain their biological daughter, TVB broke record by offering her a two year contract worth HKD10 million. However, it's still a considerable gap compared to the amount offered by the Mainland China company. No wonder Charmaine have not penned her agreement yet. Virginia poured in her final effort and was seen having dinner with Charmaine in Causeway Bay last week. Also present at the dinner is Sir Run Run Shaw trusted executive Chan Fai Kwong. They hoped to persuade Charmaine to stay.

Though TVB tried persuading her with various benefits, Charmaine has already made up her mind, hence requesting difficult contract terms to make TVB give up. Charmaine is not afraid of upsetting TVB and used her arm injury as an excuse to not film producer Mui Siu Ching’s [Forensic Heroes 3]. Due to the unresolved contract renewal agreement, TVB quietly removed her series [When Heaven Burns] from April slot and replaced it with Michael Tse’s [Relic of an Emissary].

Apart from the attraction of China Yuan (currency), Charmaine also hopes to find Mr. Right soon. She has plenty of wealthy Mainland suitors vying for her affection but she has not found a suitable one yet. With promising career and romance prospect, Charmaine decides to give Mainland China a try. Regarding the news of Charmaine leaving TVB, Virginia replied via telephone: "We are still negotiating, she did proposed some conditions and we need to consider first." Yesterday reporter attempted to contact Charmaine for clarifications but she has not responded yet.

TVB continue to be in predicament as siusang Bowie Lam was also indicated not renewing his expiring contract. He was rumored to expand his career in Mainland China as well. Patrick Tam who has earned a lot filming in Mainland China for the past 10 years admitted that the pay is really good and he earned up to HKD100, 000 per episode filming Mainland series. In his phone interview, he said: "I definitely feel that the treatment given in Mainland drama is much better. The China Yuan currency has been growing too. Mainland China has a huge market, if the series get aired throughout the whole country; we have more than 10 billions of audiences. This gives us actors a great sense of satisfaction. The production crew takes their job seriously; they have good directors and high demands toward the actors."

Do not repost.

Sehseh: The article certainly exaggerated on Charmaine's TVB filming fee – she is reported to earn between HKD30k – 36k per episode, not a meager HKD20k. However, it is true that Mainland China is able to offer popular HK artistes around HKD100k per episode. In addition, they offer humane filming schedule with the cast getting at least 5-8 hours of rest daily. In TVB, getting 4 hours of sleep is like a pot of gold.

So far, Charmaine has not publicly confirmed whether she will be staying or leaving, therefore the above news is just speculation. However, I do think that there is a high possibility of her leaving from her weibo reply to Felix Wong today.

Felix's message: "There are plenty of opportunities, but the best opportunity does not (come by easily). In the past, a veteran advised me that: [The fish cannot grow bigger unless it moves into another pond], today I wish to use them on you. Charmaine, please consider thoroughly. Best wishes and support, Wong Wah!"

Charmaine's reply: "I will try my very best to repay the people who supported and have high expectation of me."

p.s. If the pictures in my blog is appearing as frog icons, it's because Imageshack changed their sharing settings. Please sign up a free account with Imageshack and refresh the page. As long as you're logged in, you should be able to view the pictures.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

This morning, TVB revealed that [Sister Fa] filming pictures were leaked ahead of schedule and they suspect insiders has been making profits out of them. They announced that they will be taking legal action, however - fans who are posting these pictures with intention of promoting their idols will not be accounted for.

This is not the first time that promotional stills were leaked ahead of time. However, fans shouldn't be blamed as they thought they purchased the pictures from legal sites (TVB are known to sell series pics to photo sites such as Tungstar, Sina etc).

Anyway, today's news have generated much publicity for [Sister Fa], therefore it ain't such a bad news at all. I doubt TVB would have made a big fuss if Raymond and Charmaine is not starring in it.

The promotional stills is in the post below, I will temporarily keep it here until receiving further notice from Raymond Forest whether we should take it all down entirely.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Credit to 古都一丝绿 from Raymond Forest 玉树林峰. For more pictures, click Link 1 (other cast) and Link 2 (Raymond).