[News] TVB Fights for Charmaine Sheh’s Return.

[News] TVB Fights for Charmaine Sheh’s Return.

Cr. - .jaynestars

After discontinuing her TVB management contract with TVB, Charmaine Sheh (佘詩曼) shifted the focus of her acting career to mainland China. The 37-year-old has since filmed two mainland Chinese dramas, Legend of Yuan Empire Founder <建元风云> and Marry into the Purple <嫁入豪门>, after signing with her current management, MediaQuiz, in 2011.

Both HKTV and TVB’s frequent collaborator, EEG, has publicly expressed their interest in being Charmaine’s new management agency after she left TVB two years ago. In the past year, EEG’s management team recruited Irene Wan (溫碧霞), Michelle Yim (米雪), Kara Hui (惠英紅), and Simon Yam (任達華) into their agency.

However, Charmaine chose to sign with the new Hong Kong-based management agency MediaQuiz, which has close ties with mainland China. Former TVB actress Bernice Liu (廖碧兒), and actor Joe Ma (馬德鐘), have also signed with the same company.
Despite her exit, Charmaine remains in close contact with TVB. The actress still has 20 episodes left in her TVB filming contract.

Earlier reports indicated that TVB executive, Catherine Tsang (曾勵珍), wanted Charmaine to return to TVB to film wuxia drama, Cold Mountain, Hidden Dragon <寒山潛龍>, with Kevin Cheng (鄭 嘉穎). However, Kevin, who is occupied with his flourishing career in mainland China, turned down the offer. Charmaine subsequently expressed that she was not interested in filming the wuxia drama as well.

A close source to TVB said, “Eric Tsang (曾志偉) tried convincing Charmaine to come back, but she was not interested. Last year, TVB executives hinted to Charmaine that she had a great chance to win TV Queen for When Heaven Burns <天與地>, but Charmaine said she didn’t want to go. She doesn’t care about the award.”

Charmaine revealed that she is interested in returning to film You’re Hired 2 <絕代商驕>, if the project comes through. With his ratings guarantee performances in past TVB dramas, Charmaine’s You’re Hired costar Dayo Wong (黃 子華) has recently agreed to return to TVB to film a yet-to-be announced comedy drama. Numerous actresses are currently auditioning for the spot as female lead in Dayo’s new drama. Besides Charmaine, Sheren Tang (鄧萃雯) also expressed her interest in collaborating with Dayo.

The insider said, “Charmaine is interested, but TVB has provisos. They want Charmaine to sign a [long-term] contract. Not many people are like Kevin Cheng. He has the qualifications to turn down TVB’s offers. After all, he is earning 500,000 RMB per episode in China. On the other hand, Charmaine may not get these benefits if she signs with TVB.”