Being a virgin has never been so cool. Not since Britney Spears claimed she was still a virgin (even though she probably wasn’t) has the subject been so topical in the United States.

Americans are still flocking to the cinemas to watch the central character not having sex - a trend that would certainly damage the box-office receipts at Yangtze Cinema and Sharon Stone’s career.

But The 40-Year-Old Virgin, starring comic actor Steve Carell, pulled in about US$16.4 million ($27.66) at the North American box office last week to keep the No 1 spot and hold off The Brothers Grimm.

Cult director Terry Gilliam (Brazil) directed the fantasy-horror, which stars Matt Damon and enjoyed a healthy opening weekend, but it’s the middle-aged virgin looking for love that has really got Americans talking.

Damon less popular than a 40-year-old virgin? Whatever next? Movies about birds who almost die having sex?

Well, funnily enough, March of the Penguins stormed into the Singaporean Top 10, battling through the Antarctic blizzards to reach No 3. The French documentary grossed $104,823 over the four-day weekend, making it the highest opening box-office total for a documentary in recent years.

With all that snow and cold weather, perhaps Singaporeans are eager to learn about something they’ve never experienced - rather like The 40-Year-Old Virgin.

March of the Penguins is tarnished a little by the dialogue, which is so soppy it could’ve been written by a child. Take a bow, Robert Rodriguez.

The writer-director asked his son Racer, then seven, to give him an idea for a children’s movie and little Racer rattled off the outline for Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl.

The movie is awful, which just goes to show, you should never trust anyone called Racer (or a person who calls his son Racer - which borders on child abuse).

Despite one poor review after another, Singaporeans have been flocking to see Shark & Lava, pushing the movie into the No 2 slot.

But there’s no stopping The Maid. Singaporeans love to be terrified just as Americans love to be titillated. Studio executives are probably working on a sequel now, titled, The 40-Year-Old Virgin Maid.

The longer she goes without sex, the more terrifying she becomes. It’s a million-dollar idea and auditions will be held in Geylang shortly.

Channel News Asia

SINGAPORE : When British comedy “The Office” was nominated in two Golden Globe categories last year, it raised more than a couple of eyebrows.

One of the most original, ground-breaking comedies in the last decade, it deservedly went on to win Best TV Comedy, while its lead actor/co-creator Ricky Gervais took home the Best Comedy Actor award.

More raised eyebrows. And it wasn’t because the hilarious mockumentary on office culture wasn’t a quality show. It is because hardly anyone in America had heard of it.

Gervais still loves to tell the anecdote when The Office team went up to collect the award for Best TV Comedy, the camera allegedly caught Clint Eastwood mouthing the words, “Who the **** are these guys?” to someone at his table.

But the confusion was understandable. How could a show that very few Americans have heard about trump the likes of “Arrested Development” and “Sex in the City?”

Firstly, The Office was shown on cable channel BBC America, which attracts a small but loyal audience.

Secondly, the Golden Globes are handed out by the more cosmopolitan Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

Thirdly, critics love BBC America.

So, how will Singaporeans respond to the acclaimed BBC Prime channel, which StarHub launches on Sept 1?

StarHub Cable TV will package BBC Prime together with four new channels under the Family Plus group of digital channels.

The Family Plus group of 14 channels is available at $12 a month to cable subscribers who have a digital set-top box.

The British Broadcasting Corporation is arguably the world’s most famous TV and radio broadcaster, but it won’t be easy winning over younger Singaporeans weaned on MTV, Friends and Frasier.

Singaporeans have been weaned on a diet of American programmes. On terrestrial channels, the only alternative to local programmes is often American fare - with the obvious exception of Mr Bean.

Peggy Koh, a cable TV subscriber, felt the programmes on BBC Prime are too niche for her liking. The 24-year-old admitted that the only BBC show she has heard about is chart show Top of the Pops, a 41-year-old pop music institution.

“It is going to be a mammoth task to overcome the influence of American TV here. Besides, PMEBs hardly watch TV these days. They’re online most of the time,” she said.

But Wayne Dunsford, worldwide director of channels at BBC is confident that BBC programmes will appeal to Asian audiences - especially as an alternative to the abundance of American TV shows.

“Apart from BBC World, there are no other international British channels. One of BBC Prime’s unique propositions is its Britishness,” said Dunsford, who also pointed out that BBC productions such as Blackadder and The Office were well received in Asia when they were broadcast here.

“The channel also has appeal as a window to Great Britain. For many reasons, people around the world, including Asia, have an interest in the UK or aspects thereof.

“The fact that London has just won the bid for the 2012 Olympics will only fuel that interest further,” Dunsford added.

The programmes that BBC Prime offers cut across all genres, including comedy, hospital dramas, detective series, costume dramas, game shows, music chart shows and award-winning documentaries.

For Asia, the programme schedule will feature a blend of classic shows such as “Yes, Minister”, “Keeping Up Appearances” and “Fawlty Towers”, as well as current hit shows.

According to StarHub, the interest shown by new and existing subscribers for BBC Prime has been encouraging.

“We expect more upgrades and sign-ons to the Family Plus digital group. The group will be officially introduced on Sept 1,” said Sandie Lee, StarHub’s senior vice-president, cable TV services.

Some Singaporeans hope the launch of BBC Prime will provide respite from trashy TV. Henry Li, 27, said: “I’m really looking forward to watching BBC Prime.

“At last, we will finally have some intelligent TV in Singapore.” -

Channel News Asia

SINGAPORE : The Health Promotion Board has picked Taufik Batisah as its first Smoke-Free Ambassador.

It hopes the Singapore Idol, a smoker since the age of 12, can inspire others with his own story of pure determination, which helped him kick the habit in months.

For many smokers, they can only dream of being smoke free.

Taufik had never thought twice about lighting up till a few months ago.

He came down with a serious throat infection soon after winning the Idol title, as a result of smoking too much from the stress.

That was when he was faced with two choices — kick the habit or put his singing career in jeopardy.

Said Taufik, “I want to be healthier and I don’t want to die young and have throat cancer, and it’s a choice that I make for myself. If actually being an Idol, people can follow me, that would be amazing.”

In an earlier interview on Channel NewsAsia, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan had issued the challenge to Taufik to quit.

Statistics have shown that the percentage of women in the 18 to 29 age group who smoke has jumped from 5.2 percent in 1998 to 6.6 percent last year.

Said Mr Khaw, “The young people, those girls, I don’t think they look at me as their idol, but they might look towards Taufik. So I quickly checked up, is Taufik a smoker. Unfortunately Taufik is a smoker, so I got to work on Taufik because hopefully if Taufik changes his habit and he can influence hopefully thousands of young boys and girls to follow suit and drop this habit.”

That job has now landed on Taufik now that he has quit with the help of a “Quit Buddy” he could call when he felt the urge to light up.

He also went for counselling sessions.

After just a few months he managed to stub it out the smoking habit completely.

The Singapore Idol will appear in some of the Board’s quit smoking events and it hopes to get more like him to help those who want to kick the habit.

Said Taufik, “To whoever’s trying to quit smoking, it’s definitely possible!” - CNA /ct

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