Collective Famewhoring: Star Awards 2005

Another year, another Star Awards. Another opportunity for the "stars" of Mediacorp to show off dubious fashion on stage. Another windfall for telecom companies. Another piggy-bank busting bout of phone-voting. Another blatant display of self-congratulations.

I didn't watch the whole thing from start to end (I tend to tune out of the long introductory banters, and the musical performances), but I caught all the main awards.

Talking points:

1) I think Zoe Tay hates Fann Wong.
Their rivalry for the Number 1 position at Mediacorp has always seemed friendly, although neither pretended to be bossom buddies with the other (I think they are just much too different in personality and temperament to be really close). But tonight, Zoe Tay displayed a bit of manipulation that reminded me of the concubines in War and Beauty. She again took it upon herself to push Chris Lee and Fann Wong together. Last year, she was pushing for them to kiss. This year, she was pushing him to propose. It was just painful to watch how obviously embarassed and distressed she made Fann Wong. This is not the action of a well-meaning friend. I suspect that Zoe Tay was engaging in a deliberate bit of bitchery disguised as good-natured teasing and matronly patronage.

2) Zoe Tay: errr, what was she doing there?
Since she was not nominated for an acting awards, and was not eligible for the Top 10 awards, she seemed like surplus requirement most of the night. And yet, there she was, interjecting when Chen Han Wei won his Best Actor award. I know that they are good friends, but was that really necessary? As for the bit of nonsense with Christopher Lee and Fann Wong, who made her the resident match-maker? She just came across as such a typical nosey-parker, busy-body housewife. I hate to say it, but that display was rather low-class. So much for the glamourous clothes and the endorsements of diamonds and other such classy products.

3) Cut out the pointless banter
While I am getting on Zoe Tay's case, the discussion with Christy Chung about beautiful mothers was really self-indulgent, self-promoting and more famewhorish than any of the thank-you speeches we had all night. (To be fair, Christy Chung brought it up first). But it wasn't just these two; the Taiwanese presenters for the Hosting award went up to where the nominees were seated, and did ... what, exactly? That exercise did not achieve anything other than to delay proceedings by another few minutes.

4) Cameramen and producers: learn some subtlety!
When the presenters of the Lead Acting awards were discussing how actors can convey emotions and communicate using their eyes, we were treated to a gratuitous shot of Kelvin Tan, the visually impaired winner of Project Superstar. Oy, could we try to be less heavy-handed about these things?

5) Lost in translation.
Every year, there are foreign stars invited who do not speak Mandarin with a high degree of comfort. I am all for inviting such talent to up the glamour quotient, but could we grant them the dispensation to speak the whatever language they are more comfortable with? In Hong Kong, I have seen them invite stars from Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China. The invited presenters speak their own languages, and have a co-presenter who is able to translate to Cantonese.

6) Who's the bigger superstar?
Okay - Lydia Sum vs Christy Chung; Patrick Tse Yin vs Andy Hui. Chung and Hui are definitely younger, and probably more "in", but in terms of legend status, we are definitely looking at Sum and Tse. And yet, the plum presenter slots - ie, the last two of the night, the Top 10 Awards - were given to Chung and Hui.

7) Fashion statements
When Joanne Peh had to push up the neckline of her strapless dress, I thought she should have worn her shawl on stage. That just did not look good of TV.
The female shoes this year went the high stilletto way. Huang Biren is probably the tallest woman there and still she wore the highest heels of the night! Wow, those must be killers to walk on.
Zoe Tay's dress was very nice indeed, especially next to Christ Chung's overly-fussy number.
I really liked Jeanette Aw's white dress, but the netting showing below the hemline was too precious.
The men were very soberly dressed, very conventional suits seemed to be the order of the day.
In all, an elegant night, fashion-wise.