HONG KONG actress Carol Cheng is getting 'married' but she is not saying to whom.

'It may be to Terence Cao, Utt or even Kumar,' she teases, in between takes of a shoot for the returning season of Channel 5's Oh Carol! at the Church of the Nativity of The Blessed Virgin Mary in Upper Serangoon Road yesterday.

-- FRANCIS ONG
She plays a single senior advertising executive called Carol in the sitcom which made its debut last year.

Looking radiant in an all-white ensemble of bridal veil, diamante-strapped halter and pants, Cheng is in the midst of a wedding scene for the pilot episode of season two, which airs on Sept 23.

The first season ended with a cliffhanger which left viewers guessing whether she would go for Cao, who played a widower, or Thai MTV VJ Utt, with whom she had a fling.

Cao is nowhere to be seen but both Utt and comedian Kumar, who plays her chummy colleague, are sitting on pews awaiting their turns.

For Cheng, the church's serenity is a welcome change from the gloom in Hong Kong which has been afflicted with the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) and where 'things have really hit rock-bottom'.

'But good things have come out of it. Hong Kong is much cleaner now,' she says.

Another good thing is that it has tamed the Hong Kong paparazzi, making them less voracious, she says.

Late last month, tabloids insinuated that Cheng was unfilial after her 76-year-old mother died without anyone knowing until a security guard smelt her body decomposing in her apartment a few days later.

'That's why I don't read the papers. I'm not bothered because people who know me know what I'm like,' she says.

Viewers will get to know her - and the cast - better in the new season of Oh Carol!, which also has an episode on Sars.

'We were not very familiar with one another in the last season. It gets better this time, there's less ha-ha-ha comedy, and we get developed deeper as characters,' she says.

Oh Carol! returns to Channel 5 on Sept 23.