As blogged at Vox, my friend and Lucire colleague Caleigh Cheung (pictured on the left, with Alistair Kwun, on the real Shortland Street) made her début as Lily Choi in episode 3,701 of Shortland Street, New Zealand’s prime-time network medical soap opera.
   There was no mention of soap and there was certainly no opera being played, but it looks like Caleigh’s role will go on to greater things. She tells me her accent is relevant to the plot.
   Fans will hate me when I say my watching Caleigh has brought my sum total of Shortland Street-watching to 15 minutes. I caught 10 minutes of it in 2000 in a skiing scene with actress Claire Chitham. I accidentally watched it while giving a university lecture, while I had given the students a snack break after the first hour.
   I have probably met more Street stars than most people. The difference is that I did not know who they were. I kept looking out for Sister Scott and Dr Albert, and realized I had the wrong show. The last TV doctor whose fictional exploits I followed was one Dr O’Neill on The Love Boat, then he transformed himself from looking like Dick van Patten to looking like Bernie Kopell by the second cruise, then changed his name to Adam Bricker in the third. Now, come on, that’s fascinating.
   It’s going to be a good year for Cal, with another series being filmed where she is the lead actress.
   Some of us are geared to watching soaps and some of us are not. I’m afraid I am one of the latter, who prefers things concluded in self-contained episodes. Life, to me, is far more interesting a soap to watch and be a part of.
   It also does not cease to amaze me the extracurricular activities our team gets up to. Not long ago, I blogged about Avidiva, the singing group formed by JY&A veteran Jennifer Hamilton. Now we have an actress on prime-time TV. This is the modern organization: people living their lives, doing the things they love, and companies providing them the freedom—and in some cases the means—to do so. Dictatorial management is so very nineteenth century. Posted by Jack Yan, 00:30  permalink

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