Yeoh licensed to thrill but Superman's ex fails to fly
By: IAN MARKHAM-SMITH
Friday October 17 1997
Tomorrow may already be dead for one Bond beauty but the career of another actress in the latest 007 film is definitely on the up.
A secret test screening of Tomorrow Never Dies has revealed that movie fans hate the character played by former television star Teri Hatcher, while they are knocked out by Michelle Yeoh.
MGM executives held the screening in Britain last week to judge audience reaction.
The hand-picked viewers were asked what they did and did not like about the movie and what they thought of each character and the actor playing that part.
Unfortunately for former Lois and Clark star Hatcher, who is expecting her first child soon, the audience reaction was a resounding, "Oh, oh, no". They gave her a thumbs down, voting her the least liked character in the 18th Bond movie.
And surprisingly, James Bond star Pierce Brosnan was not their favourite. He came in second, with third place going to Jonathan Pryce's villainous character.
The audience's overwhelming favourite was martial arts actress Yeoh, who got her start making kung fu films in Hong Kong.
As a result the film, which is due to be released in December, is hurriedly being re-cut.
Hatcher's 15 minutes of fame on the silver screen are being cut down to three, while extra scenes involving Yeoh - which originally ended up on the cutting room floor - are now being added.
"Now, that's something to get a girl both stirred and shaken," said leading Hollywood movie columnist Ted Casablanca, who discovered the cover-up.
"Being a Bond girl is a death-defying act. As history has shown, it tends to make or break a career. It looks like we got a new corpse in Tomorrow Never Dies.
"Ironically, the babe on a slab this time already had a pretty decent reputation.
"The actress whose big screen career may be destroyed faster than a speeding bullet is none other than Hatcher.
"Teri had better like her new mothering job of pampering," he quipped.
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