Mallika’s Red Carpet Faux Pas

Mallika’s Red Carpet Faux Pas • This Argument Has Meat • The Serial Philanderer

Mallika Sherawat, in a silver number that revealed more than it concealed, was the first person to show up on the red carpet of the Academy Awards last Sunday. She made a solo entry so early in the afternoon that even all the TV cameras hadn’t yet taken their positions. A nervous PR person rallied around her, asking news presenters if they’d like to interview her. Most hadn’t heard of her, a few obliged.

The red carpet at the Oscars, on a normally busy year, can take anything between an hour to two to work. Between posing for still photographers and making stops at every ‘important’ network camera, there is some serious work to be done. With dozens of other stars working the same carpet, it’s usually a slow, long walk to the end, before you turn right into the Kodak Theatre for the big ceremony. Someone, unfortunately, must’ve advised Mallika incorrectly. Arriving at least an hour before the carpet got crowded, it took her less than 30 minutes to get from one end to the other, with only a handful of stops for quick interviews.

Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan, on the other hand, timed themselves perfectly. They showed up later on a busy carpet, traipsed slowly down the queue of photographers and TV cameras, and happily took questions from several presenters who appeared dazzled by Aishwarya’s bronze Armani ensemble. The Bachchans didn’t run into Mallika on the carpet, and a source reveals that they studiously avoided bumping into her inside the main Theatre.

Who would have guessed! Shahid Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra called it off over…of all things, a chicken sandwich! A source close to the actors reveals that the famously vegetarian Shahid lost his cool on then-girlfriend Priyanka a few weeks ago when she landed up at his home, munching on a chicken sandwich.

The stars, who live in the same Yari Road apartment complex but in different wings, have been an on-off couple for the last three years. Just weeks ago, when Priyanka dropped into his flat, still finishing her half-eaten breakfast, Shahid ordered her to throw away the sandwich before stepping into the house. He insisted that he’s strictly off meat, and subscribes to a Guru who advises that no meat be brought into his home either. Priyanka, who allegedly felt her boyfriend was over-reacting, asked him to cool down, but that didn’t go down well with Shahid who is believed to have slammed the door on her, and ignored her calls for the next two days.

When the actress reportedly turned up at his door three days later, tired of his immature behaviour (and bearing no meat of any kind!), he’s believed to have instructed his domestic help to tell her he wasn’t home. Humiliated, and determined to not take this lying down, the actress apparently decided she was done with him.

Friends of Shahid aren’t surprised. They insist he takes his Guru’s sermons very seriously, and cannot so much as bear to be at the same table as anyone who’s eating meat. He famously converted his ex-girlfriend Kareena Kapoor to vegetarianism when they were seeing each other more than five years ago, and after breaking up with him, she’s believed to have told friends that staying away from meat was the hardest thing about being in a relationship with Shahid.

Priyanka, who hasn’t made up with Shahid since the sandwich incident, can now have her chicken and eat it too!

A prominent Goa designer is believed to have called up the editor of a celebrity magazine recently and blasted her for running a cover story on a leading male star that projected him as Bollywood’s ideal ‘family man’. The designer insisted that the star was anything but a committed husband, and was in fact a serial philanderer. He claimed that several female models who had auditioned for roles in films he was either producing or starring in, had complained that they’d been more or less directly told that they wouldn’t even be considered for the part if they were unwilling to ‘make the star happy’.

It’s no secret in Bollywood that the actor, behind his intensely private image, is known to have a roving eye. He famously romanced a string of 90s actresses before finally marrying a respected leading lady with whom he now has two children. A credible actor, capable of delivering strong performances, he is notorious for having little control over his libido. Insiders insist he tends to stay away from his high-profile female co-stars (because those kind of hook-ups invariably tend to get noticed and quickly leaked), and preys instead on starry-eyed hopefuls in smaller, supporting roles.

About The Author

Rajeev Masand

•