Two road accidents in just four months.
Will they have any adverse impact on Rui En, who will receive the All-Time Favourite Artiste award at the Star Awards this Sunday?
The answer, in a nutshell, is not much.
The All-Time Favourite Artiste award is given only to those who have won the Top 10 Most Popular Female or Male Artiste award 10 times, and is an indication of her popularity and longevity as a star.
Rui En is also in the running for four other awards, including Best Actress and Favourite Female Character.
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“Her quality of work will speak on her behalf and will probably overshadow the incident. I doubt (the incidents) will affect her popularity very much,” said Artist.Entertainment talent agency founder Wendy Ho.
An artist liaison officer with a media company here, who declined to be named, agreed.
And with the Star Awards looming, he thinks “there is no such thing as bad publicity”.
“There will be more attention on her this year, and in terms of votes, it might not be a bad thing for her,” he added.
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Beam Artistes head and lawyer Samuel Seow thinks that the general public will usually “forgive and forget after a while”.
Mr Seow brought up the examples of celebrities who had brushes with the law, like Christopher Lee and Terence Cao.
In 2007, Lee was jailed for four weeks, fined $4,500, and banned from driving for three years after he was found guilty of drink driving and hit-and-run charges.
In 2006, Cao was banned from driving for two years and fined $4,100 after failing a breathalyser test.
Both actors have maintained their successful acting careers.
Mr Seow said: “Rui En has had a very successful upswing in her career which has lasted many years. Many may have forgotten that she started out as a singer under Hype Records, but never really made it big until after many years of toil.
“I remember speaking to (Hype Records head) Ken Lim about her many years ago, and he told me that Singapore was not ready then for an artist like her with an attitude.
“Singaporeans eventually embraced her. I don’t think her loyal fans will be affected by this incident.”
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‘COOL’ PERSONA
Mr Seow said Rui En has always had a “cool” public persona, and did not think that “she has a reputation for being spoilt or rude”.
He advised her to “remain strong” and “focus on supporting the overall objectives behind her image”.
He also added that “honest, swift and credible action can save her brand from long-term PR damage”.
“In this world of social media, the audience resents it when artists do not come clean quickly and they don’t like to be ‘cheated’, as seen in the recent controversy over Rebecca Lim’s ‘retirement publicity stunt’.
“As the saying in the PR world goes, ‘Tell it first, tell it fast’.”
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This article was first published on April 15, 2016.
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