TVB Celebrity News

It may be a tough year ahead for the former beauty queen, after she was cheated of her money and lost in the stock market.

Former beauty queen and actress Elaine Ng was rumoured to have received alimony, worth about HK$30 million (S$5 million), and a monthly allowance of NT$400,000 (S$17,000) 12 years ago after she gave birth to kungfu superstar Jackie Chan's daughter Etta Ng.

The conditions of payment was both Elaine and Etta must remain in Shanghai, China.

However, Jackie insisted that he had never paid the actress the said money.

Lately, Elaine sold her properties in Shanghai and relocated to Hong Kong, because of her daughter's education.

The former actress took on a hosting gig at $1,000 per episode, in order to earn extra income for her family. However, she could hardly make ends meet because of her expenses, which included her daughter's needs, car and residence.

Recently, the actress reportedly told her friend that she gave a six-figure sum (S$17,000) to her uncle's ex-girlfriend, to invest in setting up a children talent class.

However, the girl vanished with her money, causing Elaine to post on her microblog, "Help, I'm devastated."

Elaine's future appeared bleak, after her show was cancelled a few months ago. In desperation, the actress signed on with Hong Kong broadcast station TVB, although her paycheck was halved.

When approached, Elaine admitted to reporters that she was cheated and was in desperate need of money.

The media then asked if Jackie had stopped giving her money, to which Elaine's expression darkened immediately.

"I've never said he had given me money before," she said.

A few days ago, when Jackie's son Jaycee Chan was asked if he would help Elaine and her daughter through their hard time, the actor replied, "I don't want my mother to be unhappy. I don't keep contact with them." 

Yesterday Raymond Lam, Elaine Ng, Kate Tsui, Ella Koon attended the costume fitting for TVB new series Thunderous Drug Raid. Lead actor Michael Miu was absent because he was busy with other matters.

It turns out that Raymond and Elaine's relationship dates back to when Raymond first debuted and worked as TVB8's host. Back then because of the 'Siu Lung Lui' incident, Raymond was able to interview her: "Over 10 years ago, I interviewed Elaine Ng before. It was that incident, which gave me the only chance to see her. After so many years, she is still my senior after all. (At the time did you speak up during the interview?) Yes, actually it was just a surrounding interview because at the time, there were too many other reporters at the scene." Raymond reveals this is his first time portraying a member in the law enforcement, and is fortunate that shooting starts after the Lunar New Year, giving him time for him to physically train himself.

Elaine's last TVB series was Legal Entanglement (2001), and this will be her comeback series after 10 years. She was asked how she became interested in accepting this series? She said: "A 30 episode story is very good. Also, I've been watching my partner Michael Miu's works since The Fearless Duo (1984), many of my female friends are envious that I get to work with him. They also said Michael's looks are better than the past. (Are there any kiss scenes?) I don't know. We do have a relationship in the series, and have a child after the divorce. (Will you refuse to kiss scenes?) Television is different from film. After all there is a limit. Artists don't really have much that they we don't want to shoot, just as long as its not a kiss scene during the time we eat." When speaking of Raymond once interviewed her in the past, Elaine frankly expressed it's been too long that she can't remember. It's been over 10 years, but she does remember one time they had hot pot in Shanghai.

Kate appeared as a pregnant woman for the costume fitting, she expressed she doesn't know who's baby she's carrying yet because the plot has not been fully confirmed. It is possible she's pretending to be pregnant to traffic drugs. Kate said: "I have the most miserable role in this series. In order to raise my younger brother, I had to sell pirated material and work as a 'boxer' at a bar. Later, I become a known 'Drug Queen'. The role really has a lot of room for development, so I must thank the producer. This Lunar New Year, I will have homework to do, since I need to know how to play the drinking game 'chai mui' and have to use a lot of slang words."

As for Ella Koon, not counting the series she guest starred in, it has been 6 years since she's been in a TVB series. When asked if she had to confirm who her partner was before accepting? Ella said: "I trust TVB's selections, feels quite suitable for me to portray. (Will you avoid series with Ron Ng?) This time I'm very happy to collaborate with Raymond Lam because we never collaborated before. Many of my female friends screamed when they learned about this, I will really have to enjoy these 3 months. (Any kiss scenes?) I don't think so, the story is about me having a crush on Raymond, he later chooses Kate Tsui."

On Aug 10, former beauty queen-turned-host Elaine Ng made her official comeback to showbiz.

She had begun recording for her upcoming talk show Women's Talk, with the first episode featuring her good friends including Anita Yuen and Emily Kwan.

Elaine reacted strongly when asked if she was worried that her former lover Jackie Chan would be mentioned in the program. She emphasised that her daughter is hers and has no relationship with the martial arts superstar.

The former beauty queen confessed that she might mention her daughter in her program and described Jackie as a "third party".

"I won't talk about any third parties. It's boring to keep bringing up the past," Elaine said.

With the paparazzi constantly tailing and interviewing her daughter Etta, Elaine commented that she is starting to feel the power of the media. The host let on that the paparazzi "even went to my house, making me feel like I don't have any privacy".

"It's uncomfortable and insecure," she added, "Luckily, my daughter is English-educated and is not very good in Chinese."

The host also said that she's not used to media reports on her new residence and suggested the media "not to go over if you can. I would not be relocating for now".

Recently, it was reported that Jackie's wife Joan Lin left Hong Kong after knowing that Elaine returned.

"All those news are redundant. Transportation is very convenient these days; it's easy to go to Taiwan. The report said that Joan's mood was affected when she heard my name. It might be due to the bad weather. They might have placed too much thought into it," Elaine laughed.

A meeting with Jackie seems unavoidable since Elaine is bent on returning to showbiz. When asked if she was prepared for it, the actress said, "I knew someone would ask me this, it's really nothing special."

Earlier, former actress Elaine Ng indicated to the Media that she would be returning to live in Hong Kong permanently with her daughter. According to reports, when HK Cable TV station i-Cable heard about her return, they immediately jumped on the opportunity and invited her to collaborate with them, with plans to have her host a 13 episode food and drink-themed show. Due to the fact that Samuel Tsang, the Executive Director of i-Cable, was Elaine’s god-brother, she immediately agreed to collaborate with them.

Unexpectedly, top executives at TVB found out about the impending collaboration and in efforts not to let “fertile waters flow to others’ fields”, a TVB exec personally called up Elaine to talk to her about collaborating with them instead. At first, Elaine did not agree to the collaboration, however the TVB exec told her that if she collaborates with i-Cable, then they [TVB] will never invite her for any opportunities again. That left Elaine with no choice but to discuss with her god-brother Samuel Tsang at i-Cable to see if something could be worked out.

According to sources, Mr. Tsang was not happy with TVB trying to ‘cut in line’ and felt that they ‘lacked manners’ proceeding this way, however because he did not want to negatively impact his god-sister [Elaine]’s future, he agreed to withdraw his invitation to collaborate.

Yesterday, our reporter called i-Cable’s spokesperson to verify the report. The spokesperson admitted that Mr. Tsang had already started discussing the collaboration with Elaine as early as 6 months ago and most of the details had already been worked out, including who her hosting partner would be as well as the format of the show, etc. – the only thing pending was for Elaine to physically return to HK to start the job. However, as of right now, all plans are off. With regard to TVB’s actions of ‘intercepting’ the deal, the spokesperson stated that she did not want to comment on how other stations operate.

When asked about their ‘interference’ in the collaboration, TVB’s Director of Foreign Affairs, Tsang Sing Ming confirmed that Elaine would indeed be collaborating with them on a show made especially for her, however he denied that the station ‘cut in line’: “With this matter, can’t really say that we are ‘intercepting’. My recollection is that Elaine Ng still has a contract with TVB. A TVB-contracted artist or any artist who will soon be contracted with TVB should already clearly know whether it is appropriate for them to appear on other TV stations.”