| Carina Lau | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese name | 劉嘉玲 (Traditional) | |||||||||
| Chinese name | 刘嘉玲 (Simplified) | |||||||||
| Pinyin | Liú Jiālíng (Mandarin) | |||||||||
| Jyutping | Lau4 Gaa1ling4 (Cantonese) | |||||||||
| Ancestry | Rongxian, Guangxi | |||||||||
| Born | December 8, 1965 Suzhou, China |
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| Occupation | actress, singer | |||||||||
| Genre(s) | Mandopop | |||||||||
| Label(s) | EMI | |||||||||
| Spouse(s) | Tony Leung Chiu-Wai (July 21, 2008 - ) |
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Carina Lau Kar-ling (born December 8, 1965 in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China with family roots in Rongxian, Guangxi, China) is a Hong Kong actress. She was especially notable in the 1980s for her girl-next-door type roles in films.[1]
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Lau was born in Suzhou, China in 1965. She emigrated to Hong Kong at the age of fifteen, and joined TVB acting classes.[2]
She has been in a relationship with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai since 1989. The couple married on 21 July, 2008 at the Uma Paro resort in Bhutan in front of about 100 guests.[3] According to Ming Pao Daily News, Faye Wong took the couple to India to visit the 17th Karmapa, together with her husband, actor Li Yapeng. They had an audience with the Karmapa, who suggested Bhutan as a wedding venue.[4] The wedding itself cost more than HK$30 million and Lau's 12 carat Cartier wedding ring is worth over HK$10 million.[5] They have been a celebrity couple for 19 years.[6] Guests included singer Faye Wong who performed for them on their special day. Hong Kong director Wong Kar-Wai also directed the ceremony.[6] They were also introduced to Bhutanese royalty by fellow actor Eric Tsang.[7] Other guests include Stanley Kwan and Brigitte Lin. The hotel was also heavily guarded to keep the paparazzi away.[8]
The wedding created a media frenzy in Hong Kong, with companies spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to pursue the wedding party.[9]
She is currently the CEO of Hong Kong's TVMART channel. Since being appointed as executive president, she is not expected to continue as CEO for longer than seven months, due to a loss of 40 million Taiwan Dollars.[10]
As for the reasons of the company's downward operation, Hong Kong residents are not used to shopping via television and also, the shopping channel invited hosts from the serious news channel, two of which made it a failure.[10]
Hong Kong actress Carina Lau was invited to be CEO because the company coveted her fame and influence. Carina told the media that because she was not that well educated, the decisions made by her might have some negative influence on the company.[10]
In 1990, during the filming of Days of Being Wild, Lau was abducted for several hours, and topless photos of her were taken. At the time, local papers, through Reuters news agency, reported that Lau was kidnapped, though a police report was not filed.[1] [11] It was believed that the man behind the kidnapping is a show business entrepreneur with whom Lau was having a financial dispute. Leung has said that Lau never wanted to talk about what happened in those missing hours with anyone, including him.[12]
Lau revealed in 2008 that she was abducted by four men working for a triad boss, as "punishment" for having refused a film offer.[2] She said that she had not been taken advantage of during her two-hour ordeal.[13]
In October 2002 naked pictures of Carina Lau were published in East Week magazine. Lau's kidnapping supposedly took place roughly 12 years earlier.[14]
The nude photos revealed the actress in distress. Massive protests and petitions were held by fellow Hong Kong entertainers, and media ethics by Hong Kong tabloids and gossip magazines were questioned.[14] The magazine was shut down in November 2002, to resumed only in late 2003.[1][15]
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