FIRED ASSISTANT

Sammi also fired her personal assistant in March last year after suspecting the latter of leaking news to reporters.

Hong Kong weekly Easyfinder claimed that Sammi's older sister was so worried about her mental health that she tried dragging her to see a psychiatrist, but Sammi had refused to cooperate with the doctor.

Then things got worse when production for Everlasting Regret started last November.

The movie, based on a novel by well-known Shanghai writer Wang Anyi, is about the tragic life of beauty queen Wang Qiyao.

It traces her days as Miss Shanghai in the late 1940s through to her murder in the mid-1980s.

The role of Qiyao required Sammi to gain and lose weight repeatedly, as well as to age from a teenager to someone in her 50s.

Amid swirling rumours of Sammi's suspected lymphatic cancer after she appeared with a bloated face at a press conference were also stories of her increasingly erratic behaviour.

An earlier report claimed that when filming in Shanghai, Sammi had holed herself up in her hotel for three weeks, and communicated with the outside world only with slips of paper passed under her door.

SHOCKED

Co-star Tony Leung Kar Fai, who has been valiantly quashing talk of Sammi's cancer (see report, right), admitted that even he had been shocked by how immersed Sammi was in her role.

He told reporters: 'There was a scene where I had to tell her about her lover's death, and the director had left it up to Sammi to decide how she wanted to express herself.

'When the cameras rolled, Sammi suddenly struck her head against the wall, and she was using a lot of force.

'She was crying hysterically and couldn't stop even after the director yelled cut.

'We were all so shocked!'

Sammi also drove crew members into a panic once when she went missing after requesting a toilet break.

They found her 30 minutes later, sobbing uncontrollably in a corner, and production had to be halted for a week for Sammi to recover.

When a difficult emotional scene subjected Sammi to more than 60 retakes, she reportedly threw a fit and tore her script to shreds.

Sammi's frequent breaks from filming resulted in a two-month delay in the production schedule.

After production wrapped in May, Sammi has not been seen in public.

At her last interview with Ming Pao Weekly on 1 May, Sammi had said: 'I know everyone is concerned, but I'm really free from illnesses and pain. I just had two weeks of mumps.'

But she abruptly cancelled a media conference to announce the signing of her new record deal two weeks ago, citing personal reasons.

Wallace has repeatedly stressed that Sammi is only 'resting' and would be back in action soon.

Stanley has also spoken out to assure reporters that Sammi will make an appearance in July when she resumes post-production work for Everlasting Regret.

And perhaps then, the questions about her well-being can finally be answered.