KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 3 — Veteran actor Eric Tsang has brushed off the act of kissing a model whom he did not know during her birthday celebration recently.

The 69-year-old, who is also the general manager of Hong Kong broadcaster TVB, claimed that he was asked by friends to join in the celebration although he was at a different event, Dimsum Daily HK reported.

Speaking to reporters when attending the STARS Academy 2 event on Sunday, Tsang said he was at a caviar-tasting event organised by Royal Caviar Club where the model, identified only by her name Lebara, held her birthday bash.

His friends then invited him over to the 26-year-old birthday party to sing her a song.

After singing the song, Tsang planted his lips close to the model's and the clip has gone viral on social media.

This despite the twice married father of four insisting he does not know the model and maintained that it was normal to give a birthday kiss as it is a polite gesture.

Meanwhile, Miss Hong Kong 2021 contestant Wynn Jiang dropped a bombshell that participants of the pageant were asked to wear swimsuits so that Tsang and TVB high ranking officials could look at them.

The 24-year-old was responding to a recent report quoting Hong Kong’s Independent Police Complaints Council member Helen Yu as questioning the need for the swimsuit segment in the pageant.

According to Wynn, who dropped out of the competition after the semi-finals due to poor pay offered by TVB, contestants were judged based on their appearances in the swimwear and their personality and the whole process would be recorded on camera, 8days reported.

Yu reportedly said it was okay to wear little when one was swimming but questioned the need to do so during the pageant's question-and-answer segment in an air-conditioned room, while facing people like Tsang with their eyes wide open and fixed on the contestants.

"Why must you wear a bikini to answer questions?” asked Yu, who was a former education director.

Prior to this, Tsang blamed his lack of height, after claims that he stared at Miss Hong Kong participants’ chests during the swimwear segment.

Responding for the first time to comments made by a member of Hong Kong’s Independent Police Complaints Council (IPCC), Tsang said given his 1.59-metre height, he could ‘only look in that direction’, 8days reported.