'Extreme heat' turned Singapore to 'Sincapore' on 'Crazy Rich Asians' red carpet
UPDATE: Warner Bros said in a statement on Saturday (11 August) that the lettering of the STB logo melted due to hot weather.
Crazy Rich Asians was filmed mostly in Singapore but the premiere of the romantic comedy in Hollywood earlier this week may have caused a bit of head-scratching for some of the attendees. Where exactly is this place called “Sincapore” as shown on a backdrop panel at the red carpet event on Tuesday (7 August)?
A number of photos showing the panel with the words “Sincapore Passion Made Poss ble” have been circulating online, which was a misspelling of the Singapore Tourism Board’s (STB’s) tagline, “Singapore: Passion Made Possible”. The “i” in the word “possible” was also missing in the tagline.
The errors can be seen in photographs showing several celebrities – including Singaporean stars – walking on the red carpet at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles. Other photographs showed that there were no errors in the STB tagline on other panels.
STB, Singapore’s government tourism agency, initially said the error was likely due to the lettering falling off the panel; Warner Bros, the studio behind the movie, later said the lettering melted due to “extreme heat”.
According to the US National Weather Service, the temperature in Los Angeles on Tuesday evening ranged from 25 degrees Celsius to 31 degrees Celsius.
STB has been riding on the Crazy Rich Asians hype to promote the city-state as a travel destination. Based on a best-selling novel by Kevin Kwan, the movie has been highly anticipated as it is one of the rare Hollywood productions to feature an all-Asian cast.
In response to queries from Yahoo Lifestyle Singapore, STB’s regional director for the Americas, Kershing Goh, said, “Prior to the official start of the premiere, STB had inspected and ensured the accuracy of our Passion Made Possible logo on the numerous event backdrop panels.”
“It is most unfortunate that some time during the red carpet, part of the lettering of our logo on one of the panels must have fallen off,” Goh added.
Goh said an STB team on the ground was asked to leave the red carpet prior to the arrival of the cast, in line with the protocol at movie premieres.
“As Warner Brothers is our partner in this matter, STB has reached out to them for comments and is awaiting a reply from them,” she said.
A Warner Bros spokesperson said on Saturday (11 August), “The Los Angeles premiere of Warner Bros. Pictures’ Crazy Rich Asians was a celebration of both the film and the beauty and excitement of Singapore. Unfortunately, due to extreme heat that day, some of the lettering on our red carpet wall melted after the event commenced and, in some photography, Singapore appears to be misspelled. We sincerely apologise for any distress or embarrassment this may have caused.”
Crazy Rich Asians revolves around the romance between an American-born Chinese economics professor (Constance Wu) and her Singaporean boyfriend (Henry Golding), who is from a fabulously wealthy family. The movie also stars Malaysian superstar Michelle Yeoh and Singaporean actors such as Pierre Png, Tan Kheng Hua, Selena Tan and Fiona Xie.
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