TVB News World - Asian Entertainment News Daily

The war between the free TV stations can happen any moment now. Ricky Wong's new television station, CityTelecom's (CTI) license will be formally issued soon. Since last year, Ricky had been poaching TVB artists and employees and because of the high degree of freedom and good pay, it was said many Siu Sang, FaDans and the Green Leaves have been considering to switch over. Among them includes TV Queen candidate Maggie Cheung, who is confirmed to move over to become Ricky's valued artist!

Maggie's series War and Beauty and Old Time Buddy are well acclaimed series, and in 2003 she was crowned TV Queen for her role as Lui Sei Leung in King of Yesterday and Tomorrow. After an unfortunate brief hiatus due to an illness, Maggie returns to TVB, but her value in the company does not compare to the past. Earlier she participated in new series Ladder to Heaven, but her limelight was stolen by the 'fresh new couple' Moses Chan and Aimee Chan. She quickly felt the need to leave, so last year although she made it on the Top 5 for TV Queen at the TVB Anniversary Awards, the discouraged Maggie did not attend the ceremony.

It was said, Ricky has great appreciation for Maggie and that he moved her by offering her HK$14,000 per episode. This is 7 times higher than what she gets in TVB. A palace-themed drama has also been tailored for her to start in August and air in November in attempt to incite TVB during their anniversary. She will have a great chance to fight TVB's grand production War and Beauty II! In fact, she was initially invited to take part in another grand production series The Great Eunuch with Wayne Lai and play Empress Dowager Cixi, but at the time she was already thinking of leaving, so eventually the role was given to Michelle Yim. However, Maggie still haven't announced to the public about her decision, all because of her relationship with TVB. Regarding this, her assistant Miss Lam expressed Maggie is currently in Beijing filming and cannot respond now.

Ladder to Heaven's shooting had just completed, but because lead actress Maggie has already decided to move to Ricky's CTI, it was rumored the series will be 'buried' in the storage. Soon to retire producer Lee Tim Shing is also the producer of Ladder. Yesterday he strongly supported his new series over the phone: "I don't think so right? This was a high-budgeted series. (Have TVB mentioned this series?) Nope, but I'm not thinking about it, what does it have to do with me?! (Has post-production started?) Just started editing. (When will it be airing?) There is no schedule yet, so TVB won't be handling this series as a priority, but I have time, so I'm editing it first!"

Also, it was said Charmaine Sheh is in the lineup to move over as well, but she still has a contract with TVB, just that her management company is collaborating with CityTelecom. As for Kenix Kwok and Jessica Hsuan, it has not been confirmed if they are joining CTI yet.

Source: Oriental Daily
Translated by: aZnangel @ AsianEU Forum