Slumdog Millionaire Childstar Rubina Ali consents to trafficking bid by father…

Hullo Folks,

Rubina Ali, the famous child star from the Oscar-winning movie SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, escaped a major human-trafficking bid when her father, Rafiq Qureshi offered to sell her for about $300,000 to British reporters, posing undercover as Sheikhs based in Dubai. The incident has sparked a frenzy of sorts in the international media. The report comes right after Rubina,9, had been approached by a major US magazine for a photoshoot, offering her a major sum.

Qureshi had been, reportedly, contemplating this move since the movie’s unanticipated success and was entertaining similar offers from other parties as well.He even raised his asking price post the film’s stupendous success. Though having denied all allegations about the incident initially, Qureshi later confessed to fielding numerous lucrative deals pertaining to the sale of his star-daughter.

The father of three says the move was planned for the betterment of his darling daughter’s future prospects. It may, however, be noted that Danny Boyle, the movie’s director, had provided apartments to Ali and her co-star, Azharuddin in the Mumbai suburbs; besides setting up a trust fund to sponsor their future education.

The incident comes as a total shocker to the entertainment industry that dismissed the story as ‘completely fabricated’. Ali, who played the younger avatar of Latika, the female protagonist in the movie, was completely unaware of the whole fiasco as she cheerfully chatted and joked with the undercover reporters. Though a case has been filed against Qureshi on charges of human trafficking, what remains to be seen is the nature of punishment awarded to him, providing he is the sole caretaker of his daughter. In wake of the incident, several protest campaigns have been launched throughout the country. But, the question that remains to be answered is- are thy really worth it? Watch this space for the next update

Zac Efron Engaged?

In a recent surge of events, media reports are rife with the speculation that teenage sensation Zac Efron has been engaged to his long time girlfriend, Vanessa Hudgens. The High School Musical star has neither confirmed nor denied these reports, which has sparked a frenzy of sorts amongst millions of his female fans.

Efron and Hudgens at the HSM:3 Premiere

Though he has made no bones about his love for Hudgens, his co-star from HSM series, he has also, in the same breath, confessed to having a commitment-phobia regarding all of his romantic liaisons. The 21 year old star has emphasised that his current priority was his career and that he was looking forward to doing something dissimilar from the de-rigoure song-and-dance routines he has so successfully done in the entire HSM series.

Fans of Efron would now get to see him in a Disney-produced sitcom ’17 AGAIN’, where he’ll be playing the role of a 37-year old loser who somehow turns 17 again and gets back to his purple days…

Reverting back to the Efron-Hudgens story, this is not first time that insider reports have initiated such baseless rumours. Similar reports were published a few years back when the second of HSM movies were releasing. Dismissed in not-so-soft-terms back then, the couple had laughed off the matter citing it would be too immature on their part to contemplate an issue of this proportion without giving any consideration to their thriving careers.

Other than the whole now-engaged-now-not episode, the two has been making waves with their antics off-screen as well. While Efron has recently shot for Interview magazine’s April edition with a nude Australian model, La Hudgen, too, found herself flanked by controversy when some expletive shots of her earlier days were leaked on the internet… Looks like the two are already making up for a saucy couple. Let’s just keep the rumour mills alive… Cheers to the next Power-Couple of Hollywood.

Quaint Quentin shuts Cowell up, livens up Idol proceedings!

And Cowell is bogged down,,, finally!!!!

Keeping in sync with its tradition of getting A-list celebrities to be judges and mentors, American Idol managed a major draw when it got Hollywood’s very own king of chutzpah, Quentin Tarantino, on board.

QUENTIN TARANTINO

A self-confessed A.I. fan, Tarantino has appeared on the show four seasons back. However, this time around he is believed to be more of a ‘guide’ to the contestants rather than judging them. Though viewers might enjoy a battle of wits between the Pulp Fiction director and the much loved and hated Simon Cowell, insider reports are abuzz with news of some other major highlights…

For instance, it is being speculated that this may be the last of what we see of Lil Round, with all major betting sites offering excellent odds against her ousting from the show. A group performance of all the seven finalists is also scheduled tonight with a special rendition of Bryan Adams’ all-time hit ‘Everything I do’ by Anoop Desai.

As has always been the case with all reality shows in its genre, an unexpected twist is anticipated towards the end. (I personally won’t mind Tarantino breaking into an impromptu dance sequence.) Perhaps, this move on the show’s part may help revive the dwindling fortunes of the show (as suggested by the latest TRP ratings), largely because the Cowell-effect is dying a slow death and the rest of them have hardly anything substantial. So, in all probability, we will see a whole lot of celebrities thronging the Idol in a bid to boost the TRPs and reclaim the position it once commanded on the smallscreen. Who knows, we may even see The President himself being present to crown the next Idol. Till then, let’s just hope that Ryan Seacrest has some smart tricks up his sleeve to keep the fun part alive…