We read the tabloids so you don't have to
In the movies an actress can select her roles, but in Hong Kong's tabloid soap opera you have no say in how you're cast, and for actress Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi the script is turning nasty . . .
UNHAPPY BIRTHDAY
A month ago, Three Weekly magazine's fung shui man predicted Cecilia would commit suicide some time in June. This week, on the occasion of her 23rd birthday, the tabloids appeared to be doing all they could to push the nervy It-girl to the brink.
Her apparent crime - apart from being beautiful and the best actress Hong Kong has produced since Maggie Cheung Man-yuk - is her rudeness to the reporters who hound her. Her real crime, of course, was being dumped a few months ago by Cantodom's most eligible bachelor, Nicholas Tse Ting-fung. She has since been forced into the role of the 'spurned woman' and is portrayed as a Canto version of the bunny-boiler from Basic Instinct.
On Saturday, the eve of her unhappy birthday, the press lined up with especially venomous offerings. Cecilia was appearing at the 1:99 charity show at Hong Kong Stadium. The tabloids played down the fact she appeared for free and that she recently donated $100,000 of her own money to a fund for the elderly. They also made no attempt to share in the spirit of the occasion. 'Cecilia showed her true colours backstage,' reports Oriental Sunday, 'flirting with any man she could'. Its cover story, 'Five hours of sneaky backstage pictures', doesn't provide much evidence to support this claim beyond a long lens shot of her vest as she bows to the crowd. 'Cecilia exposes half a breast sphere,' runs the caption. You can't blame other Canto-stars for giving Cecilia a wide berth. Those who do talk to her find themselves written into the tabloids' Cecilia script.
Is she hitting on Hacken Lee, wonders one magazine. Look at her flirt with Aaron, declares another. Even her ex-boyfriends from years ago find themselves being stalked by Express Weekly's paparazzi for a story which describes the 'fun everyone else seems to be having without Cecilia'.
