When we asked Joanne Peh backstage at the recent Star Awards Show 2 whether she was wearing a bra or taking anti-wardrobe malfunction precautions, she fired back point blank that we're obsessed with breasts - hers included.

Er, guilty as charged?

Given the local actress' 10 years in showbiz, she should be familiar with the rules of the game.

You are at the biggest and glitziest TV awards ceremony in Singapore.

The media will, as history has shown, devote pages to bitching about the hit-and-miss threads and the amount of skin bared.

So if you don't want reporters asking about your bosom buddies, then don't show them to the world.

For the uninformed, Peh wore two gowns that night - both of which had plunging V-necks that ended a few inches above her belly button.

Let's not forget, this is the same woman who revealed major "side cleavage" in an equally attention-grabbing Gucci dress at Star Awards two years ago that won her our Flame Awards Flasher Of The Year title.

Over the past few years, her assets continue to fascinate the public after she first flaunted them in a bikini for the Channel 8 drama Beach.Ball.Babes and again on the Channel 8 cooking show 3-Plus-1.

Hmm, we sense a pattern here.

However, we wonder if Peh is glad we focused on her breasts, and not how local viewers have been crying kelong in the Chinese newspapers over her Best Actress win for her role as a materialistic girl in the Channel 8 drama A Tale Of 2 Cities.

Career high

The jeers will die down in the next week or so, and life will go on for Peh, who's surely on a career high.

MediaCorp loves her, her fans love her and so does DJ-boyfriend Bobby Tonelli.

Us? We're not so sure.

Something's changed after she won the Star Awards 2010 Female Media Darling award.

She seems to have turned into such a sophisticated, cosmopolitan woman that she's lost that down-to-earth Singapore girl appeal.

Still, given the opportunities she gets at MediaCorp, it would seem likely that great things will be in store for Peh if she chooses to stay with the mothership.

But after what happened to Dai Yangtian - who incidentally won the Male Media Darling award the same year Peh won hers - our crystal ball has become way too hazy.

At that time, we had predicted that China-born Dai would rule Caldecott Hill alongside current king Elvin Ng.

Now, he's hit rock bottom.

This article was first published in The New Paper.