HONG KONG starlet Gillian Chung's supporting role in the movie was to have lasted all of five minutes.

But even that was too long for the descendents of Ms Fu Zhi Fang, wife of the late Chinese opera master Mei Lan Fang on whom the movie is based.

All because Gillian was involved in the Edison Chen sex scandal in which photographs of the two in various compromising positions were released on the Internet early this year.

Gillian's cameo in the biopic, Mei Lan Fang, would have helped her to ease her way back to showbiz after her fall from grace.

But that appears to have run aground, Apple Daily reported.

The movie stars Zhang Ziyi and Leon Lai.

The real-life son of the character she plays, Mr Mei Bao Jiu, has vehemently objected to Gillian playing his mother.

A spokesman for the family said that the family has already requested to have Gillian's role completely cut.

The spokesman told Apple Daily: 'Perhaps to some people those photographs (of Gillian) don't mean much.

'But to the family of Mei Lan Fang, how can they accept their mother and grandmother being linked to such an incident?'

It is as yet unclear how Gillian feels about the incident. Gillian's manager, Mani Fok, couldn't be contacted, the report added.

This article was first published in The New Paper on Sep 6, 2008.