Star Awards 2018: What You Didn't See On TV

Year after year, we’ve heard the stars complain to us about how hungry they are before, during and, um, after the awards. So this year, we made sure that didn’t happen by surprising them with the most sinful of local snacks like curry puffs, chicken nuggets and ondeh ondeh. Stars like Kimberly Wang, Chen Liping, and Carrie Wong didn’t hesitate one bit before stuffing their faces silly, while Ya Hui and Huang Biren, well, declined to ruin their eat-clean diet. “I don’t want to stain my teeth,” reasoned Biren. Oh, okay… (Psst, we have video evidence here.)

Felicia Chin ducked out of the theatre midway through the show to get her make-up touched up. We espied her holding onto one of her assistants for support, whispering that her feet hurt. We don’t blame her — she’d been tottering around in sky-high stilettos. “Oh no, I didn’t hide my pain well enough! The shoes are stunning, and go very well with my dress. They also elongate my legs. But naturally, it hurts after I’ve been standing in them for a while. It's been a while since my feet hurt, so I guess I've been standing too long today and the skin of my feet has grown a bit thinner. But I still love my heels!” Psst, Jeffrey Xu, foot massage?

“I want to kiss the trophy that Paige [Chua] kissed,” Desmond Tan quipped when he was asked to pose with a random trophy for a pic. He then grabbed the trophy that Paige had been holding just seconds earlier, pointed out a lipstick mark she’d left behind, then planted a kiss right on it. “Kiss me [instead]!” Paige declared. Des’ response? “Can I?” Oh, you two, behave.

Sorry, Andrea De Cruz, but if Pierre Png had his way, he’d be kissing more than just Quan Yifeng, whom he snogged when he collected his Top 10 Most Popular Male Artiste trophy. “I did kiss Yifeng during rehearsals. Paige Chua also dared me to kiss Liu Lingling! And there’s supposed to be a kiss between Desmond [Tan] and me if either of us won [Best Actor], but I want to say Desmond chickened out,” he says, laughing. Des, if you’re reading this, Pierre’s still waiting.

Pan Lingling has hubby dearest Huang Shinan to thank for her fifth Top 10 Most Popular Female Artiste win (and her first in 18 years). “Last night, my elder son and I made calls [to vote for her] until this morning,” he said. “And I rallied a lot of my friends in my various chat groups — my student’s association, army mates and my Boys’ Association — and they were all very ‘on’ and would support me by [voting for her] every day.” Apparently, Shinan saw his wife disappointed year after year and wanted to fulfill her dream of standing on stage again this year. Sweet or what?

Well, actually it takes four people to carry Kym Ng's massive floor-length gown just so she can walk. “The Empress Dowager is here!” the superhost announced when she shuffled past us backstage.

Lee Teng had to sit through a whopping five hours for, not one, but two hairstylists to complete this braided ’do. When quizzed by Jeremy Chan backstage, Lee Teng joked that it was inspired by Jeremy’s previous hairstyle (remember a time when Mr Jesseca Liu had dreadlocks?). So on top of going home empty-handed (he missed out on the Top 10 Most Popular Male Artiste and Best Programme Host awards), he has the unenviable (and painful?) task of undoing those dreads-ful locks.

We love Ya Hui's super-cool plastic mini-skirt that she wore before she got glammed up. “I got it from [Chinese label] Ochirly in Shenzhen when I was filming there. They sell ordinary denim shorts for over $300, but I couldn’t bear to splurge, so I got this skirt instead, which costs $100,” she says.