Elusive Miss HK not welcome to share in beauty pageant's crowning glory

'In the event the winner cannot perform her duties, the first runner-up will take her place.'

There's a reason why beauty pageant hosts always quote this line. Sometimes the winner doesn't fulfil all her obligations.

This seems to be the case with last year's Miss Hong Kong, Edelweiss Cheung Shu-nga (pictured).

TVB announced on Tuesday that Cheung will not carry out the ritual crowning of the winner at this year's pageant on Saturday at the Hong Kong Coliseum. Instead, the role will be offered to prominent socialite and 1977's Miss Hong Kong Loletta Chu Ling-ling. The 23-year-old Cheung won't be at the event at all.

'No, she will not,' confirmed the event's co-ordinating manager Chan Ka-yeung. 'She has not carried out her responsibility as a Miss Hong Kong in the past year and we won't have her in the show to avoid embarrassment.'

For whatever reason, Cheung refused to accept numerous jobs the station assigned to her, which also explains why the 2008 runner-up, Skye Chan Sin-yeung, represented Hong Kong in the Miss World and Miss Chinese International pageants.