No, she's not dressed to kill for a Hindi film. Not yet. Maria Goretti, MTV's Most Wanted VJ, is checking out theatre. She's playing a "nutty" wife in the bedroom comedy Champagne on the House, loosely based on the English play Darling I'm Ready. Outline: Two couples in two rooms, wrong man with the wrong woman, a gay waiter, lots of bubbly. So what's a TV speciality doing on stage? Director Sandeep Sikand has great faith in his new recruit: "Maria is such a live wire I knew only she could play the part." The two-hour drama opens February and also has actor Sameer Soni and Grasim Mr India Vivan Bhatena. It has been likened to a "David Dhawan film". Guess that says it all. Switching Jobs

Odd Scores

So what's Tamil director Vasanth up to now? He's the guy who got heavyweight playback singer S.P. Balasubramaniam to sing a breathless number in his 1990s smash hit Kaeladi Kanmani. An incorrigible music buff, he's the guy who's known to throw surprises. The latest is his new film, Yei Nee Romba Azhaga Irukkae (Hey! you are very beautiful) starring heartthrob-pair Shaam and Sneha. So what's new? He's getting five young music directors to score each of the five songs in the film: Ramesh Vinayagam, Srinivas, Murugan, Jayasankar and Aravindan. Certainly no A.R. Rahmans-in-the-making, but Vasanth (inset) has a ready reason: "All of them wanted a break and it was difficult to refuse. This was the only way I could give them all a chance."

Icing On the Cake

Pawar (fourth from right) blowing out the candles with well-wishers

Sharad Pawar takes the cake for this one. For his 61st birthday, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader was gifted a 61-ft, 614 kg, S-shaped cream cake at the NCP headquarters in Mumbai. In attendance were Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, corporate czars Anil Ambani and Nusli Wadia. The last time pastry chef Dilip Patil whipped up a cake (350 kg) for Pawar was for his 48th birthday. This time, Patil laboured for three days mindful of Pawar's 40-year climb to national politics-the cake had a theme, progressing from rural vistas to the Parliament. Cost: Rs 82,000. Was the Limca Book of Records in attendance too?

Talent Talk

She has that all-essential plus for glamourdom: a pout. But that's not why Pooja, 20, is Channel [V]'s new VJ. She's trained in jazz, tango, tap, and as her publicist says, she's "hot". Spotted by a channel honcho in a Delhi shopping mall, she will now talk male bashing and food with celebrity guests on the show What Women Want airing the day before Christmas. A student of Delhi's Lady Shri Ram College, she is also a model. Another bullet of information: she's a Buddhist. Says Pooja: "Nothing in life is a coincidence!" She's also clever, no?

-Compiled by Methil Renuka