OFF THE VINE: Where have all the party animals of Asia's media scene disappeared to?

<p>Reports are still filtering through of scandalous behaviour at the </p><p>Publishers Ball in Hong Kong, but so far, it's rather tame compared to </p><p>previous years. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>What about the year when senior industry figures were caught </p><p>skinny-dipping in the Grand Hyatt swimming pool? Or the year a couple </p><p>was caught in flagrante delicto in the gent's loo? Or the year a </p><p>well-known lesbian couple engaged in a snogarama in full view of panting </p><p>ballgoers? </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>So what did this year's ballgoers do? The odd illicit snog here and </p><p>there, an occasional punch in the head. Nothing special. And as for </p><p>photos, the most scandalous one we could find starred one of our own </p><p>staff, who remains unnamed for her own safety (see pic to the </p><p>right). </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>But what ballgoers did do particularly well this year was drink. Ball </p><p>boozemeister Simon "Horror" Humphreys of Reader's Digest reports a </p><p>record intake of 320 bottles of wine, 300 bottles of champagne, 12 </p><p>bottles of scotch, six bottles of cognac, six bottles of port and 48 </p><p>bottles of vodka. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Plus vats of beer for the working class. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Not bad for 550 people. On wine alone, it's more than a bottle a head; </p><p>then you add the spirits, and deduct from the numbers the prissy ones </p><p>who don't drink, and that 60 of the guests had after-11pm "gatecrasher" </p><p>tickets ... We estimate the majority of ballgoers drank at least three </p><p>bottles each. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>