Language Plagues Cannes Best Actor

Cannes best actor winner Tony Leung Chiu-wai said he spent two months memorizing the script for the new Ang Lee spy thriller "Lust, Caution," a painstaking process because the dialogue is delivered in Mandarin, instead of his native Cantonese.

Leung is a Hong Kong native, where the southern Chinese dialect of Cantonese is most common. Mandarin is China's national language.

"Mandarin is not my native tongue, so I have to spend a significant amount of time memorizing the script," Leung said at a news conference in Shanghai on Wednesday to promote another movie, "Confession of Pain."

Faye Wong to attend fund-raising party

Hong Kong pop diva Faye Wong will make her first public appearance for Yanran Angel Foundation on Dec. 26, after she waved goodbye to her fans at a solo concert in Guangzhou in January 2005.

According to media reports, Wong will appear with her husband, actor Li Yapeng, at a dinner party in Beijing thrown by Yanran Angel, a charity foundation for children with harelip.

Attendees will donate 20,000 yuan (2,480 U.S. dollars) each to the foundation. Li, the chairman of the foundation, said about 400 people will attend the party.

It only took about four months to set up the foundation, Li revealed. "In China, only if you donated at least 10 million yuan, you can set up a foundation. But everyone understands the situation of my daughter, so the government only asks us to donate 1 million yuan."

Wong's second daughter Li Yan was born with a cleft palate in May. The family had sought medical care in the United States. Li Yapeng said the baby will get her second operation in March, when she is 10 months old. Li also said he plans to shoot a movie titled, "Kiss My Little Hare," to make more people aware about problems faced by children with harelip.