Events Celeb Spotlight TV Talk Media Beat Events extended till Sept 30 (Sun) Kallang Theatre The tragic Miss Saigon is creating a phenomenon of its own in Singapore! Kim, Chris and the scheming Engineer have evidently stuck such a chord with audiences here that the Singapore run of the musical will be extended for the 4th time till Sept 30. As the last of the 4 big musicals of Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera and Cats, Miss Saigon took 5 years to make its way here, and looks like everyone feels that the wait is worthwhile! Get your tickets here before they run out yet again. Aug 6 to Sept 14 Design-a-pod-uniform Calling all design students of La Salle-SIA College of the Arts, Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Raffles LaSalle International Design School and Temasek Polytechnic! The retail staff at pod wants to invite you to design an "exciting, refreshing and daring" uniform for them. Think you can meet the challenge? Pick up the contest kit from your school, or call 235-1025 for more information. The winning designer will be rewarded with $3,000 cash, a Nokia mobile phone and 1-year free subscription to pod. Sept 8 (Sat), 7pm Suntec City Convention Hall It's a starry feast that you would not want to miss! Catch your fave celebs and DJs up close and personal in the Singapore Hit Awards and witness the glamourous event 'live'. Organised by MediaCorp Radio y.e.s.93.3FM, Radio Card and UOB Credit Card holders are entitlement to 15% discount to the tickets -- priced at $31, $51 and $81 -- at all Ticketcharge outlets. Log on to its official website for the full listing of awards and their nominees.Also, read our recent features on nominees Freya Lin and Daniel Chan. Sept 14 (Sat), 8pm Singapore Indoor Stadium The wait is over, the ticket sales is now open! Fans of Andy Hui, charge your way to any Sistic outlet to chope that best seat in his upcoming concert. Early birds can stand to win special passes to his post-concert celebration reception! Tickets are priced at $46, $66, $86, $106 and $151 and StarHub's mobile and Internet subscribers enjoy 15% off. For more information, log on to the concert's official website (that's us!) where you can also send your wishes to Andy! Sept 29 (Sat), 8pm Singapore Indoor Stadium Here's something to whet your appetite if you're on a musical binge after Miss Saigon! Magic of Love is Singapore's first production to merge a musical with magic and it will star the father and daughter team, Lawrence and Priscilla Khong. They will perform live illusion tricks of levitation and disappearances to be incorporated into the story of the pair making a living as the star act at the Golden Melodies Cabaret routine set in 1937 Shanghai. The joint effort between the Singapore cast and its Las Vegas illusionists Jeff McBride and Eugene Burger will unveil brand new magic choreographed specially for Magic of Love. The production will also showcase music from local composer Iskander Ismail, fresh talent in the form of Skye, a budding singer, Lee Weng Kee of Happy Belly fame and theatre familiar, Chua Enlai. Tickets are available at Sistic outlets for the one-night only performance at $18, $28 and $38. Sept 30 (Sun), 8pm Suntec City, Convention Hall 602 & 603 Those who haven't got enough of Christian, Mark, Ben and Paul, you can start thanking the cosmic forces, for the ballad-crooning quartet and all their snazzy dance moved will be back in Singapore end Sept! The pop group which made good with hit tunes like Same Old Brand New You, Like a Rose and their cover version of Ah-Ha's Take on Me has always had a soft spot for Singapore, and even made their video for No More here. The British lads are back to woo fans and critics alike with their self-penned songs from their popular The A List and debut album Here We Come in a one-night only A-List World Tour. Grab your tickets here or a1 will be gone before you can ask," Who's Westlife?" Celeb spotlight Singer-actress Aaliyah, who shot to fame in Jet Li's hip flick Romeo Must Die perished in a plane crash on Saturday (Aug 25). The 22-year old was killed along with 8 others as her plane crashed just shortly after taking off. She was flying back home to the States with her crew after wrapping up one of her music videos shoots in the Bahamas. Aaliyah had just released her self-named third album last month and completed the yet-to-be-screened Anne Rice vampire movie Queen of the Damned. She was making great headway as an actress and carving more than just a name for herself with her music before her career was ended so abruptly. "Aaliyah's family is devastated at the loss of their loving daughter and sister," said a statement from the singer's publicist, PMK. You've seen him lounging on the the sofas after sipping his Heaven and Earth tea, now you'll see in the upcoming Talentime 2001 as a host, too! He will also appear alongside Qi Yuwu and Priscelia Chan in a Chinese production loosely titled, Bukit Ho Swee. The star in-the-making is Allan Wu and MediaCorp has just signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the model-turned-host/actor. "I am very happy that the company will be giving me a chance to try out a little of everything," says the former MTV VJ. "We believe that Allan has the potential to do well in Singapore and even go beyond the regions," says Mr Chan Long Jong, COO of MediaCorp Studios. "Singapore is like this perfect fit for me!" says the effectively bilingual bachelor, who is eager to take up new challenges to learn and experience more. Watch out for this hunk who'll be hotting up the small screen soon! Move over Christina, Britney Spears is back with a new album and she's on a roll to conquer the world again! With no less than the high-flying 18th MTV Video Music Awards for the world premiere of her newest single I'm a Slave 4 U, the reigning queen of teen pop is also up for nomination for Best Pop Video with her earlier hit song Stronger at this year's awards. 'NSync's newly-released Pop is also running for the same nomination and both Britney and beau Justin Timberlake recently received awards at the Teens' Choice Awards on August 12. Britney's yet-to-be-titled 3rd album will be released in Singapore on November 5. Watch out for MTV's Video Music Awards, to be held at the Metropolitan Opera House, New York on September 9. TV Talk According to Min Sheng Daily's report on August 31, the ratings for Madame White Snake -- a co-production between MediaCorp Studios and Yang Pei Pei Production House starring MediaCorp artistes, Fann Wong and Christopher Lee -- has been picking up since its debut on China TV (Taiwan) 2 weeks ago. The ratings for the show hit an all time high of 6.3%, making it the top rated drama serial shown on the 4 channels in Taiwan on August 29. MediaCorp Radio DJs successfully raised $59,000 for MediaCorp TV's nominated charity, the Community Chest of Singapore, through Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Shown on Channel 8 over 2 nights (August 29 and 30), the special edition of the top-rated game show featured deejays Dasmond Koh, Zhou Chongqing, Xu Bing, Xie Yiling, Mary Bukoh, Chen Liyi, Wang Lizhen, Zhuang Zhefang, Ling Lingzhi, Feng Huishi, Dongfang Billy and Violet Fenying from Chinese stations FM 93.3, FM 95.8 and FM 97.2. The viewership ratings for the first night also hit a high of 21 per cent (800,000 viewers). Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? is shown every Wednesday and Thursday at 8pm on Channel 8. A million dollars is enough to make anyone do anything to earn it and the latest brainchild of the reality TV era is The Amazing Race. Tracking the journeys of 11 duos across the globe starting from New York City's Central Park. The teams will only get directions and instructions as they arrive at each location and the whole adventure just screams Jerry Bruckheimer (the show's Executive Producer), who was also the genius behind epics like Pearl Harbor and Armageddon . The race route covers 35,000 miles of high-speed travel to be completed in 31 days so watch out for it as Channel 5 brings you the programmes just 2 hours after its American broadcast! The Amazing Race kicks off on September 6, Thursdays at 3pm (satellite feed) and the second telecast runs on Saturdays at 10pm, on Channel 5. A brand new drama series is here to remind us that life is beautiful! Thendral, a 13-part half-hourly series that deals with human emotions and day-to-day life hopes to tug at the emotional heartstrings of viewers. So remember to tune in for your weekly dose of screen humanity every Friday starting from September 7 at 8pm on Vasantham Central. Lydia Sum, one of Asia's biggest comedians, has come together with local veteran television personalities, Koh Chieng Mun and Samuel Chong to bring you barrels of laughter in comedy, Living with Lydia. Said Mr Ng Say Yong, Vice-President of Production 5, MediaCorp Studios, "Lydia has been an institution in her own right in the Asian entertainment circuit. We saw her at the Star Awards presentation and it struck us that it would be great to get her to act in an English production." Be sure to watch out for it when the show premieres by year end -- only on Channel 5! Want to know how crowd-favourite Top Fun, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, Phua Chu Kang, 2MM and Mr Kiasu showed up on your list of favourite TV programmes? We've got weekly updates for you on the Top 10 TV shows among all local free-to-air channels, so check it out! Media Beat Chicken Rice War has been invited to the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival which will be held from Sept 6 to 15. Co-invested by Raintree Pictures, a member of MediaCorp Studios, and the Singapore Film Commission, the movie has made waves in many festivals. It played to a sold-out audience in Shanghai Film Festival, and again scored at the Sydney Asia Pacific Film Festival. The movie was first released in Singapore in Nov last year. TOP