Elaine Chao Visits the Valley (in National News) Beware Rogue Immigration Consultants! (in Bay Area News) Aftermath of the Spy Plane Standoff (in Business) San Francisco International Film Fest (in A&E) Emil Amok: The Puckheads Think They're Funny (in Opinion)

Getting Trophies, Insight, Reel

Yan Yan Zhang

The Trophy Girl: The glamorous, tall, Asian woman escorting the stars across the stage and handing each one their precious gold statuettes at the most recent Academy Awards was none other than Yan Yan Zhang, a 5'11" model with L.A. Models. “It was very exciting to be at the Academy Awards,” recalls Zhang. “Everyone was very nice and professional.” Zhang, born in Beijing, was a recognized runway model in Asia and Europe before landing in the United States. For the past two years, she has been one of the preview designer models for the Academy Awards, and also a runway model for San Francisco’s Macy’s “Passport” events. Married with two children, Zhang is working on her acting skills and hopes to star in a traditional Chinese period film.

Finding Spiritual Freedom and True Love: Speaking of Chinese period pieces, look for the opening of Pavilion of Women on May 4 in San Francisco. The film stars acclaimed actor Willem Dafoe, and introduces Luo Yan (Girl Students Dormitory, The Girl in Red), a film star in her native China, who now lives in Los Angeles. Yan personally supervised the project from inception to finish, not only starring, but also producing the film and co-writing the screenplay. The film, based on Nobel Prize-winning author Pearl S. Buck’s book by the same title, deals with the cultural clashes between Western Christianity, free love and ancient Eastern Feudalism. When the Chinese government finally allowed the publication of Buck’s books in China in 1994, Yan started thinking of adapting the book into a film script. “I immediately fell in love with Pavilion of Women because I grew up in Shanghai with my grandparents, who were similar to the novel’s Wu family,” remembers Yan. Yan also had the advantage of having known upper-class society during her childhood in Shanghai, which gave her special insight into Madame Wu. Yan used all her connections in China to get permission to shoot in Suzhou — coined “Oriental Venice” — a historical garden city an hour’s drive from Shanghai and Zhou Zhuang. She was also able to shoot in Liu Garden, Wang Shi Garden, Ou Garden and Carve House, perfectly preserved family estates similar to the Wu family compound described in Buck’s novel. Although the production was plagued with crises, both natural (flooding and below zero temperatures) and man-made (crowded tour groups walking through the set, just off camera), Yan returned to L.A. exhausted but triumphant, having proven that Hollywood and Beijing could make movies together.

Getting Reel: Steven Liu, co-founder and president of Santa Monica-based Reelplay, Inc., is excited about their recent deal with 20^th Century Fox Television Distribution. “We believe that the web-based platform ReelPlay is building for us will enhance our sales and marketing efforts, by enabling us to more efficiently communicate with program buyers, journalists and viewers,” said Mark Kaner of 20^th Century Fox TV Distribution. Reelplay, Inc.’s business is centered around the buying and selling of feature films and television programming. The company has also aggregated a huge amount of listings, synopses stills, credits, key art and trailers, and currently attracts over 25,000 subscribers to its databases, up from 2,600 last March. Stay “reel” close for further developments.