A local lingerie company exchanged evidence with one of Hong Kong's top film stars and an advertising agency yesterday as part of a series of lawsuits over a TV ad that ran into problems.

The lingerie maker, Shanghai Bosideng Enterprise Development Co Ltd, hired actress Maggie Cheung to perform in the advertisement, which was supposed to be shot by Hong Kong-based Jet Tone+Limited.

The ad wasn't finished in time, so Bosideng ended up doctoring a photo of the actress - using her face and the body of a model - to create a static ad that ran on CCTV, according to the suits.

Bosideng is suing Jet Tone and Cheung for not making the ad, while the two defendants are countersuing Bosideng over the doctored picture.

The Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court is dealing with both of the lawsuits.

Bosideng is demanding Jet Tone return nearly 2 million yuan (US$240,964) it received as advanced payments for the ad. It also wants the two defendants to pay 3.95 million Hong Kong dollars (US$506,390) in compensation and terminate the contract.

Jet Tone is asking for nearly 10 million yuan in its countersuit over breach of contract. Cheung is suing for 1 yuan for image infringement.

Bosideng said it signed a 10 million yuan contract with Jet Tone on August 9 last year.According to the contract, Jet Tone was to provide layouts and pictures for the ad and get approval for Bosideng before shooting the commercial.

"But by the deadline of September 10, Jet Tone didn't provide anything. We had to entrust another ad company to design a layout and faxed it to Jet Tone, hoping it can shoot the ad in time," said Yuan Yaxing, Bosideng's lawyer.

(Shanghai Daily October 27, 2005)