PM's Qawwal Squad

A potential diplomatic disaster awaited the Indians when Pervez Musharraf handed Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a painting at the UN meet in New York. The PM, apparently, was not prepared with a return gift. To avert the awkward moment, Manmohan, along with senior delegation leaders Natwar Singh and J.N. Dixit, formed an impromptu qawwal squad and recited couplets to the Pakistani prez. While Manmohan held forth on historic mistakes that future centuries pay for ("Kuchh aise bhi manzar hain tareekh ki nazron mein/lamhon ne khata ki, sadiyon ne saza payi"), Natwar made appropriate noises about better relations ("Jis taraf dekha na tha, us taraf dekha to hai") between the two countries. Wah-wah to diplomatic prose.

Double Disclosure

There's a bit of both Disclosure and Basic Instinct here. Even as a newspaper has released phone records of Priyanka Chopra double-dialling both to-be-launched producer-son Harman Baweja and actor Akshay Kumar, there's another dirty linen moment coming up. The actor has a Sharon Stone second in Aitraaz, the Abbas-Mastan film inspired by the Kobe Bryant rape case. Promos of the film show her in a white mini, crossing and uncrossing her legs in front of Kumar and saying seductively "Do you want something cold or something hot?" Her own phone records seem to suggest she likes 'em both hot and cold all at once.

Friendship Special

This should stop Perizaad Zorabian from whining about how her unconventional beauty doesn't get her mainstream roles. She will do an item in Satya Bol. When Sanjay Upadhyay, who directed her in her first acting venture, TV serial Hum Pardesi Ho Gaye, asked Zorabian to do the item, she just couldn't say no. And we thought she was just waiting to say yes.

Item Calls

Why is filmmaker Piyush Jha so tickled? Because he is getting calls asking for his King of Bollywood leading lady's phone number. Not to congratulate the one-time size 12 British supermodel Sophie Dahl on her role in the Bollywood spoof, but to offer her music video appearances. "I haven't conveyed these messages to Sophie since she's gone into hibernation to write her second novel, but I'm certain she'll be fairly outraged," laughs Jha. Or then again, maybe Dahl, who shook quite a mean leg in the film's song Gaon ki gori will be item game. Yana Gupta, Negar Khan and other foreign imports, guard your turf.

-Compiled by Kanika Gahlaut

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