Star Gazing

Greetings and salutations, fellow stargazers! This is May Seah, your Showbiz Sista, sneaking a peek at the cross-dressing Dennis Chew.

The Y.E.S. 93.3FM DJ plays the fussy, heartlanderish Aunty Lucy on the popular variety show Paris and Milan, currently airing on MediaCorp TV Channel 8. The character has become unexpectedly popular. “Paris and Milan was only supposed to be one season with 13 episodes,” Dennis told Showbiz Sista. “But the response was overwhelming, so they decided to add another series of eleven more episodes.”

That’s not all—Aunty Lucy is also getting her own straight-to-DVD movie, which is directed by Gerald Lee and also stars Christy Yow Wei Min as her daughter and David Aw Junyao as her son. You should be able to find it in stores in October.

With her wig of curls, glasses and ill-fitting blouse, Aunty Lucy is the latest in a string of caricatures of matronly figures played by cross-dressing men. “She’s always bitching about people,” said Dennis. “I hope to see more of her on TV, bitching about others, which the audience really likes.” Ah yes, there’s nothing like pure malice to get people going. Is Dennis himself bitchy too? “A bit, sometimes! Aunty Lucy and I are similar in that I don’t think before I talk—I’m always very straightforward. She’s like me, but she’s female. She got nice body.” Hey, is that Phua Chu Kang’s wig?

Well, okay, so it’s funny to see a man play a comedic woman. We loved Liang Popo, we love Kumar, and we laughed when male actors got dressed up as female TV characters at last year’s Channel 8 anniversary show (Dennis played Chen Liping’s Aiyoyo character, remember?). So how come it’s not funny but instead, a little uncomfortable, to see the cross-dressing lady-men at Orchard Towers?

Or, why don’t we have as many women cross-dressing as men in the name of comedy? Is it not funny when the gender-bending is the other way round? Okay, so Felicia Chin did get prettied up as a guy in The Ultimatum, but she didn’t get any LOLs out of Showbiz Sista.

What do you think? Showbiz Sista would love to hear your thoughts. In the meantime, she’s signing out. Live long and pop corn!

Catch Paris and Milan on Thursdays at 8pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.

Greetings and salutations, fellow stargazers. This just in from May Seah, your Showbiz Sista: Thanks to work stress, Joanne Peh is looking a bit peaky of late.

Just kidding. It’s Joanne made up for her role in the upcoming MediaCorp TV Channel 8 drama, Your Hand In Mine. Stay tuned for more! This has been Showbiz Sista, not making any appointments with Woffles Wu just yet. Live long and pop corn!

Tags: Channel 8, Joanne Peh, Showbiz Sista, Your Hand In Mine

Greetings and salutations, fellow stargazers! This is May Seah, your Showbiz Sista, overdosing on cuteness with Øistein Kristiansen. That’s right, the crayon-wielding, super-doodling host of kiddie art shows such as Art Factory, Cows ‘n’ Crayons and the upcoming Doodlechamps has just rolled out his own line of children’s apparel, and it’s cute enough to eat!

Øøps—that might have not been the best expression to use, considering Øistein’s most famous doodles are of cute cows and chickens. Sorry, hardcore vegetarians, I take that back!

So why has Oistein turned prêt-a-porter designer? “After nine years of being on TV, people have told me millions of times how much they love my cartoons,” Øistein told Showbiz Sista. “So I thought, ‘Let’s see if people would like to wear these.’ This has grown out of the fact that I started on TV, with shows produced by a Singapore company that have gone out across the world.”

The Øistein’s World collection was launched over the weekend at Takashimaya shopping centre. Here’s Øistein demonstrating his dynamic doodling derring-do.

Showbiz Sista, signing out. Live long and pop corn!

Tags: Doodlechamps, Oistein Kristiansen, Showbiz Sista

Greetings and salutations, fellow stargazers! This is May Seah, your Showbiz Sista, saying watch out Wayne Brady! There’s going to be a Mandarin version of Don’t Forget The Lyrics on MediaCorp TV Channel 8, and Taiwanese funnyman Zeng Guo Cheng is the resplendent host. And he’s a huge one. Yup, even bigger than Wayne’s.

In fact, it’s quite possibly the largest microphone we’ve ever seen.

The show that could win you $500,000 if you can remember the lyrics to popular songs through the ages sees contestants singing along to a giant karaoke screen until the lyrics suddenly disappear. They must then get the words of the next line correct to win money.

“I love singing, dancing and music,” said Guo Cheng. “I used to go to the KTV lounge three or four times a week. Jacky Cheung is my favourite singer. If I didn’t like singing, then hosting this show would be difficult!”

How far does he think he’d get if he were to be a contestant on the show? “If I could progress to the third or fourth level, it would be good. The categories are really vague – that makes it fun!”

The wacky host, who has done some variety show hosting in Singapore before and is considering buying a house here, isn’t at all worried about Singaporean contestants being shy or reserved. “Eight out of 10 are lively!” he said. “Singaporeans are warm people. Singapore is my second home … I think fate has brought me here.” 

Some of the impressionable contestants will include a 29-year-old woman in the construction business. “She was a girl-next-door whose whole family loved to sing,” Guo Cheng recalled. “She didn’t have a great voice or spiffy moves, but you could tell she loved to sing.” Then there was a Jacky Cheung and Andy Lau impersonator with wonky teeth. “Once he opened his mouth, everyone was impressed. He had a moving voice that was full of feeling.”

Were there girls who were so enamoured of him that they forgot their lyrics? “Naturally,” he replied without batting an eyelid. 

It must have been that huge microphone he was swinging about. Let’s see that thing one more time.

Catch the Mandarin version of Don’t Forget The Lyrics starting Aug 25 at 8pm on MediaCorp TV Channel 8.

Showbiz Sista, signing out. Live long and pop corn!

Tags: Channel 8, Don't Forget The Lyrics, Showbiz Sista, Zeng Guo Cheng

Greetings and salutations, fellow stargazers! May Seah, your Showbiz Sista, was in London the other week, where I was fortunate enough to attend a taping of the BBC’s Friday Night With Jonathan Ross.

He may noy be much to look at but Jonathan Ross is a riot.

Now, we don’t get the show here just yet, but Jonathan Ross is the guy known for getting suspended for making prank calls together with Russell Brand on The Russell Brand Show, and various other controversies. Friday Night is Ross’s talk show where big-name celebs come on and are subject to his rude, crude and fabulous brand of humour.

On that particular evening, Showbiz Sista was mere metres away from the legendary Quentin Tarantino and the super sexy Denzel Washington!

Quentin was there to talk about his latest movie, Inglourious Basterds, in which Brad Pitt leads a group of Jewish-American soldiers who ambush and kill Nazi patrols and desecrate their corpses, but leave one alive to tell others. He told a great story about how he got Brad to take the role.

Quentin Tarantino's got a big mouth. And he's not afraid to use it.

“We’ve always wanted to work together,” said Quentin about himself and Brad. “I’m writing the script, and I get halfway into it. And I start to think, ‘Well, who could possibly play this role?’ And then I’m like, ‘Oh, actually, Brad Pitt would be really good in this.’

“Then I continue writing a little bit more and I’m like, ‘Brad Pitt would be effing awesome.’ And then by the time I get to the end of it, it’s like, ‘Okay, now I’m screwed – I have to get Brad Pitt or it’s not going to work!’

Brad Pitt and his porn-stache in Inglorious Basterds.

“He was one of the first people to get a script as soon as I finished it. He lives on a vineyard in France. So I hopped on a plane to go and talk to him. Since he lives on a vineyard and they actually make really nice rosé, he opens a bottle, pouring it and drinking and talking, and I think a smoking apparatus found its way outside at some point! So then we’re just talking about the movie and having a good time, and then hours turn into more hours. We woke up …”

“In bed with each other?” Jonathan Ross queried, to which Quentin laughed. “We counted the bottles, and there were eight empty rosé bottles!”

“And then you look up and there’s Angelina going, ‘You brought another director home?’ quipped Jonathan. Heh heh.
Guess what else? Quentin would like to do a Bond movie. “The reason they did Casino Royale all comes down to me,” he bragged. “I made a point that I said I wanted to do Casino Royale. They were already on record as saying that the movie was unfilmable. But then after I said it, then the big thing on the Internet was that was what the fans wanted to see. And so they were like, ‘Oh, maybe it’s not so unfilmable after all.’

“I wouldn’t have done it with Daniel Craig. I would’ve done it with Pierce Brosnan.” One imagines that would have been a very different film.

Then Denzel Washington talked about putting on weight for his latest movie, The Taking of Pelham 123. When Jonathan asked how his wife felt about it, Denzel said: “I think every wife wants their husband to be plump. Fatten ‘em up. She cooks all this food for me but she doesn’t eat it.”

“You think they want you fat so that you won’t run?” said Jonathan.

“Take you off to market, yeah!” said Denzel. That’s some serious conspiracy theory …

A chubby Denzel on screen.

“I heard talk that they’re making a film on the life of Barack Obama, and that your name has been thrown in the ring as the lead candidate to play him, and indeed he said that he would like you to play him,” said Jonathan.

“He’s got bigger ears than me!” Denzel replied. “He invited me to come play basketball with him.”

“What’s the protocol there?” Jonathan asked. “Because you can’t beat him. You’re not allowed.”

“I’d beat the hell out of him!” said Denzel in a snarly voice. “Boom! Take that, President! Take that!”

A hot Denzel in real life.

Showbiz Sista would love to see that showdown. In the meantime, though, I contented myself with watching ’80s supergroup a-ha perform songs from their latest comeback album, Foot Of The Mountain, which was released this year. Morten Harket looks pretty good for a remnant of the ’80’s, doesn’t he?

Morten Harket from a-ha proving the 80s did have aesthetic value.

Tags: Showbiz Sista