[S I M T A N]

Many aspiring actors rose to fame after taking part in the annual Star Search award contest. Others went for auditions, and after a few acting jobs on the soap, they gained prominence. Ann Kok was reported to have started her acting career in the eighties, which means she was a child actress at the onset of her incredibly long career spanning some 40 years. From the time she was a child, acting must have beckoned to her.

Many who had a lot of staying power went on to become household names. A household face is not just a face in the crowd. They're recognizable faces in the entertainment industry. For obvious reasons, Mediacorp has always discouraged their artists, esp the A-listers, in their employ from taking public transport. They should preferably rely on cars as a means of transportation.

Celebrities often find it hard to escape the glare of public scrutiny after being thrust into the limelight. Anything untoward about their appearance or movement is bound to set tongues wagging. If fans notice a change in a star's appearance - from, for instance, a fairly pretty face to a stunning face - you could hear whispers that she's gone under the knife of a plastic surgeon.

Once, a well-known actress married beneath her - to an extra. Her hordes of fans found the marital mismatch a bit hard to swallow at first. When they sobered up, they accused the extra of trying to piggyback on his famous actress wife's success. Their prediction became a self-fulfilling prophecy when the lowly actor went on to become as famous as his wife. These sorts of stories about sex and famous people are keeping the rumour mill churning. Ann Kok remains the piece of the puzzle, and it seems hard to solve.

Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, be it a typo, a factual error or just an oversight. I made the mistake of stating Ann Kok's acting career had taken off in the '80s when in fact it began in the '90s. I gleaned the erroneous info from a Chinese entertainment website which I'm now not able to recall and retrieve. If I had read the 8th post of this thread that conspicuously shows the real commencement period of Ann's career, I wouldn't have come to grief. That's what comes from not checking my post thoroughly.

When you write a lot, you tend to make a mistake or two, but I think this isn't a big issue in forum talking shop. It's helluva big issue when it's going for publication. Mine was a simple oversight, but you made a big thing out of it, as if it was a malicious distortion of the fact, but in point of fact it was an unintentional distortion of the length of Ann's career - from 30 years to 40 years or thereabouts.

You said the "10-year untruth" would be buried in the ground of falsehood. Nay, it won't be dead and buried just yet as it is still standing tall for all to see in post 8. I cannot thank Oyk enough for pointing out my mistake. It's against our principles to ignore or cover up each other mistakes. When we made a mistake, we jolly well own up to it. This goes to show that he's a principled person. I made a simple mistake, but I'm sure that didn't take away from my overall, well-thought-out essay written in good faith.