Mimi Lo: “TVB Wasted My Youth!”
Thirty-eight-year old Mimi Lo (羅敏莊) has been at TVB for 13 years, portraying small roles in numerous dramas. According to Sudden Weekly, she ranted to the media about being poorly treated by the company. Mimi’s contract with TVB is almost over, but no one bothered to contact her about its renewal.
Mimi said dishearteningly, “The funny thing is, TVB says I owe them show debts, and yet they don’t give me opportunities to work. I gave my youth to TVB, and what is the result?”
Feeling unjust for his wife, Power Chan (陳國邦) publicly exclaimed, “Mimi does not have enough show debts to pay back TVB. I think the system needs to be adjusted. It’s not that she doesn’t want to accept jobs, but because the producers haven’t been contacting her. It’s not fair if they keep demanding the show debts.”
The show debt issue started last year in November, when Mimi gave birth to her baby daughter. Her pregnancy had been an accident, and at the time, she occasionally appeared in variety shows instead of filming dramas. Mimi revealed, “When I was taking care of my daughter, I still called TVB to ask if there was anything they wanted me to do. They told me there was nothing suitable. However, within a month, I received a call saying, ‘You owe the company over a hundred show debts, so quickly get back to work!” It’s so unreasonable. It’s not that I’m not willing to work. In fact, I can take on any job. Even acting as a passerby is fine too. I was always on standby, but they didn’t contact me at all. Now that my contract is almost over, they’re saying that I owe them?”
Currently, Mimi acts as a host for The Green Room <今日 VIP> and Pleasure & Leisure <都市閒情>, which allow her to pay back 12 show debts a month. Despite this, she will be unable to be free of debts by the time her contract ends. Dissatisfied with TVB, Mimi said, “At this point, even if they contact me, I will not be renewing my contract!” Furthermore, Power believes it is best for his wife to rest at home and take care of their daughter.
Virginia Lok Responds to Issue
TVB management executive, Virginia Lok (樂易玲), explained that the company usually contacts the artists one month prior their contract’s expiration date. She will be contacting Mimi in the next two months. Regarding the problem with show debts, Ms. Lok said, “Before she had her baby, there were producers asking her to film dramas. But her manager gave them a really busy schedule, so the producers retreated. As far as I know, she does not owe more than a hundred show debts. Plus, we did let her host The Green Room and Pleasure & Leisure.”
Would Mimi have to pay fines if she is unable to pay the show debts before her contract ends? “Let’s not talk about this!” Ms. Lok said.
Mimi’s Response
Despite Sudden Weekly’s flagrant report about her dissatisfaction about TVB, Mimi claimed that her words were distorted by the publication. She wrote on her Weibo, “What [I] said has been distorted. I have already been the victim of fleeting fortunes this year and ‘offended many people.'”
Source: Sudden Weekly #918 via kuangaitvb.com
This article is written by Shirley for JayneStars.com.
So is this report credible? It’s based on Sudden Weekly’s article but Mimi said it distorted her words. Any clarifications?
This report and Mimi’s claim of published article distorted her words reminded me of Fala’s incident recently, whereby her manager pointed a Singapore newspaper about distorting Fala’s words.
What the heck happened to artistes and media relationship now? As if HK media publishing fabricated tabloid report is not enough, now exlusive interviews may not be genuine either. Oh God.
I think an artiste has to get one of his/her fans to do interviews with him/her. Any anti-fans will easily RUIN and distort the whole interview.
Ric,
The first half of the article is based on Sudden Weekly’s report of Mimi’s dissatisfaction. The last paragraph states Mimi’s response, so it is up to the reader what to think.
When you think about it, it’s scary in terms of how much power reporters have with regard to the word choice of articles, and it just isn’t worth the effort or money to go suing the magazine for a poor worded paper, unless major harm is done.
Especially in the showbiz, fairness is very subjective. But Mimi has been in TVB for many years and does deserve an opportunity to be cast in a lead role more than some of the newcomers that had 1-2 cameos and then jumped to lead actress roles.
Well nowadays, it seems like reporters have ALL the power-they dont need to purposely interview artists’ to write up reports, I mean, what’s the point? It’d be the waste of their time and the time of artists’ since all their reports seem to be distorted, blown out of proportion or created through their wild imaginations IMO.
She’s not a good actress. She should of left tvb long time ago if she was not satisfy. She’s gonna ruin her husband career with TVB.
Are you kidding me?? Mimi Is a very good actress! A very versatile one too! She is so much better then those overly promoted actress, The problem with Mimi is she is very cute appearance and personality wise, she doesn’t have that sex appeal I guess. Her and power are both very good artist! And even if she wasn’t good how the heck is she going to ruin her husband’s career???
She is badmouthing tvb when Power chan is thinking of renewing his contract with tvb. I mean come one is never good to badmouth your boss, the only thing its lead to is trouble.
Well said HAZEL…
You think all those new goddesses are good actresses. They can’t even speak proper Cantonese. Mimi Lo is decent in her acting and could be better if she’s given a good role to act. She sings very well compared to those new singers/actresses who can’t sing.
Well says Sandcherry, you are right…she is much better than all the newbies..
spot on!
Well said sandcherry! I wonder how some people get promoted when they are so bad at what they are paid to do. Unfortunately looks play such a huge part that real talents often get sidelined. Sigh…
those so called “goddesses” aren’t even pretty anyway. None of them i find attractive at all.
Another example of distorted interview?
However I’m more concerned with is the debts of Mimi to Txb. I like to see her in the shows hence hope she’ll continue to do host job.
Hmm.. I do believe Mimi when she said that they distorted her words because the tone is a lot different than what was reported earlier. Also, I don’t think she would say that she wasted her youth at TVB because it was because of this performance on a tvb program that boosted her popularity and even gave her the opportunity to host JSG for a few years, along with releasing a few cds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XZk9hIs2uU
MiMi is a smart girl I dont think she will rant to the media even if she is not happy- that’s like career suicide!
She’s talented & fun to watch, hope her career will pick up!
I knew knew TVB was that complicated
TVB , please wake up.
Stop treating artise like these, or else many will leave.
I don’t think TVB is suitable for actresses like Mimi. She should switch over to HKTV and try her luck over at that station.
In a sense, I’m not surprised if the report is only partially true, as that’s how the tabloid culture in HK operates – in fact, the tabloids always mix in true and untrue stuff in their reports in attempts to lend credibility to themselves (this isn’t just speculation – there have been exposes done by former tabloid reporters who actually revealed exactly how tabloid magazines work in HK and what their strategies are as well as how they ‘target’ certain artists for their reports). This is nothing new – the HK tabloids have operated this way for decades (except now instead of the 70/30 rule – referring to how much ‘false’ information they include in a report versus how much ‘true’ information — it’s more like 60/40 or even 50/50).
And yes, I do agree that it’s probably not worth the effort to sue because of how much time and money it wastes (plus many times, the damage is already done in that the artists’ reputations are already impacted, since there are way too many audiences out there who will believe tabloids as fact without question). But there are some successful examples of artists who do sue and end up winning – take Alan Tam for example: he recently won a lawsuit against a tabloid for slandering his reputation by falsely reporting that he was ‘visiting’ prostitutes while filming in China years ago…sure, it took him 6 years of court battles to eventually come out on top (the tabloid not only was penalized, they also had to publish an apology to Alan in their magazine as well as admit that they falsified the report), plus all the time and energy spent on the side battling the issue, but hey, it was time well spent. Unfortunately though, not all artists have the time or patience (or the money) to persist in years of litigation against a tabloid….
why should she worry? she has power to support her and child, they have money and complaining?
why should she not complain? she’s obviously being ‘bullied’ by the big-shots at tvb. would you sit down and allow this bullying to happen if you’re in her situation? i think not
What is show debts? Contractual obligations of certain number of appearances?
Funn,
Yes that’s correct.
Yup…it’s a ‘policy’ that TVB has had in place dating back decades. If the artist doesn’t fulfill the required number of ‘shows’ in their contract, then they will be ‘fined’ by the company – meaning that they are required to pay TVB for the shows not fulfilled. The thing that sucks about this ‘policy’ is that enforcement can be very strict or very lax depending on who the artist is and who is doing the enforcing.
To be honest, it’s a really stupid policy to have, since ultimately, TVB is the one who controls the artists’ appearances in shows for the most part, especially when TVB is not consistent with the enforcement of it. I mean, it’s not like an artist can walk up to a producer and say “I want to be part of the series you’re producing”….the amount of work that an artist has in general – especially if they are under management contract – is controlled by TVB, so for them to penalize an artist for not having enough shows is already ridiculous to begin with (it sounds more like a money-gauging scheme than anything else). These are the types of antiquated lame policies that TVB really needs to get rid of, especially if they want to continue to be a formidable competitor when the new stations come into play soon…
@llwy12: I thought I’d read something similar to Mimi’s situation. And yep, you actually did the translation on that article on Wong Hei not fulfilling the contractual required number of shows so may have to pay a fine for it.
http://asianfanatics.net/forum/topic/756612-wong-hei-is-afraid-virginia-lok-may-make-another-move/
@claimine: Yup…Wong Hei definitely mentioned it before in his interviews as part of the reason (amongst others) on why he left. Which is why I also don’t doubt that there is some amount of validity to Mimi Lo not being able to fulfill her contractual show obligation (though the way in which the article relayed it is suspect) because if we look back on her career the past few years (even before her pregnancy), she actually never got a whole lot of ‘work’ from TVB to begin with (the tabloids probably took advantage of this fact to add fuel to the fire even more).
Actually, two points mentioned in the article are true – 1) the piece about TVB not approaching certain artists for contract renewal discussions in a timely manner and in some cases, even failing to recognize that certain artists’ contracts will be expiring soon (and thereby letting the contract expiration dates come and go without realizing it and not initiating contract renewal talks period, resulting in those artists leaving the company)….TVB’s current chairman Norman Leung actually admitted this several years ago when the ‘poaching’ by CTI/HKTV was at its height; 2) the piece about certain artists not being able to fulfill the number of shows in their contract and having to pay a fine because of it.
There have been a slew of former TVB artists (in the past 2 years especially) who had mentioned the above 2 points as part of the reasons why they left TVB (majority of them of course were veteran ‘green leaf’ artists). A few of them even said that they never hear from TVB’s artists department or their management for years and then all of a sudden, out of the blue, they receive a phone call from them (TVB) saying that they owe the company money for unfulfilled shows – it’s almost like TVB management has been asleep at the wheel for years but then when money is involved, TVB management suddenly ‘wakes up’ and starts taking the aggressive approach…it’s sad, but at the same time, sort of funny…
I heard about this policy only recently… Back in the days, I only heard that if you don’t do what is stated in your contract that they make take you to court. No wonder many have left or want to leave TVB, but sadly some don’t have a choice and need to stay since they have no where else to go if they want to continue acting.
She can be cast in a horror flick from above pic alone….. hahaha..
It’s not TVB’s fault…she chose her path.
Its not TVB’s fault…haha
she only came to realise it until now..