Srinivas Padma: Personal Musings on Life, Growth, and Connections

Hollywood superstar Brad Pitt’s representatives have hit out at Vanity Fair magazine after it splashed seminaked photos of the actor on the cover of its December issue. The photos of Pitt — shown standing in nothing but a pair of boxer shorts and a pair of socks — were taken by artistic photographer Robert Wilson in September 2005 But while Pitt signed a legal release when the photograph was taken, he was oblivious they would end up on Vanity Fair’s cover more than a year later. “We are very disappointed that Vanity Fair has chosen to put an unautho rised cover on their magazine,” a spokesperson for Pitt said on Tuesday. A statement from Vanity Fair said Brad Pitt’s managers had been notified on October 5 of the decision to use the photo for its special “art” issue. The magazine defended the decision, saying it had obtained the right to use all Wilson’s photographs taken as he put together a study of video portraits. “Vanity Fair decided to do a story on Wilson’s video portraits and ob

India’s ambassador to international cinema and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai on Wednesday celebrated her 33rd birthday, with the screening of her latest Hindi movie Umrao Jaan and a visit to a temple. “Aishwarya ushered in her birthday at midnight with a screening of Umrao Jaan, organised by the film’s director J.P. Dutta and was thrilled to be watching the results of six months of hard work,” Rai’s business manager Hari Singh said. “She visited the Siddhivinayak temple this morning and will spend the day attending to phone calls, SMS’ and emails by her friends, relatives and numerous fans. Since she has not been here for the last few years on her birthdays, she is making the most of it and spending time with her family,” he said. Rai has been seen in public after a long absence, promoting her forthcoming film Umrao Jaan, in which she plays the lead role with Abhishek Bachchan. The anticipation for the movie has been heightened after speculation in the media that she and Abhishek wer

Ms Clinton has had some pretty amusing moments on the campaign trail By PATRICK HEALY New York Times Service Close friends of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton are always saying that she has a great sense of humour — witty, sarcastic, playful — and that sceptical voters would come around if they saw that part of her personality. Well, sceptical voters, take note: Ms Clinton has had some pretty amusing moments on the campaign trail this fall, wearing her personality on her sleeve more than she has in the past. This campaign season has been something of a dress rehearsal for Ms Clinton, as she considers auditioning for a bigger role in 2008. Her political issues, campaign advertisements and public persona are being calibrated for her to go national — if she decides to go for it. Thursday was a good example: She appeared before a group of black clergy members in Lower Manhattan, sounding conservative-friendly themes about faith and adoption, and reminiscing about her minister and church pot

THIS EMAIL HAS BEEN FORWARDED BY THE COUSIN OF ONE OF DHOOM 2’S ASSISTANT EDITOR John Abraham is in Dhoom 2 but appears only in flashbacks ? Aishwarya Rai is an undercover cop working for Abhishek but does end up falling for Hrithik. ? Hrithik Roshan is John Abraham/Kabir! At you see Johnthe originala the end of jump off cliff but he doesn’t die. In Dhoom 2 you will find out that he survives and goes to Dubai. There he pulls off some robberies and is quite content until he learns that after doing away with his motorcycle gang Abhishek now heads Mumbai’s Crime Branch division with Uday and Bipasha as his deputies. Desperate for some revenge but knowing full well that he would be recognised easily if he was to set foot in Mumbai Kabir heads to the US for some plastic surgery and voila! John Abraham a.k.a Kabir becomes Hrithik Roshan a.k.a Aryan. The film starts with a pre-credit sequence of Hrithik stealing diamonds from a moving train and the story of Kabir (above) is narrated in a f

The former chief executive of Computer Associates International Inc. was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $8 million on Thursday in an accounting fraud scandal estimated to have cost investors $400 million at one of the world’s largest software companies. Mr Sanjay Kumar, 44, had pleaded guilty in April to obstruction of justice and securities fraud charges at the company, which since has been renamed CA Inc. “I know that I was wrong and there was no excuse for my conduct,” Mr Kumar told the judge while reading impassively from a statement at his sentencing at federal court in Brooklyn. “I do apologise for my mistakes and ask for forgiveness from all involved.” Under federal sentencing guidelines, Mr Kumar could have faced life in prison but the judge called that punishment unreasonable. Prosecutor Eric Komitee argued Mr Kumar should be severely punished as the architect of an elaborate cover-up that was “the most brazen in the modern era of corporate crime.” The defence sough

By SIGAL RATNER-ARIAS New York: Shakira dominated the Latin Grammy awards as she won a leading four trophies, including album of the year for Fijacion Oral Vol. 1 and song and record of the year honours for La Tortura, her smouldering duet with Alejandro Sanz. Though Shakira, who also won best female pop vocal album, stole the spotlight at the event on Thursday night — gyrating her way through a rendition of La Tortura with her chest heaving and hips swaying — she also took the time to shine a light on one of the most heated issues in the US, that of immigrants working in this country illegally. She threw her support to those trying to become citizens as they work without documentation. “I hope soon they will receive they recognition they deserve from the government,” the Colombian superstar said. The engineers of Fijacion Oral Vol. 1 also won a Grammy. Three awards, including best new artist, went to Puerto Rican reggaeton duo Calle 13 during the New York debut for the awards show h

Jennifer Lopez has reportedly gone on a special diet to help her get pregnant. The Latin beauty, who is married to singer Marc Anthony , has apparently been trying to conceive for months and is said to have changed her eating habits to increase her fertility. Speculation was further fuelled when J.Lo turned up for an awards ceremony in New York looking slimmer than usual and appeared to have lost her curvy trademark figure. An onlooker said, “It looked like it had gone.” The 37-year-old star has said on many occasions that having a family is one of her ambitions in life, and she has sparked pregnancy rumours on several occasions in the past. Just months after she tied the knot with Marc in 2003, J.Lo was reported to be expecting his baby. Earlier this year, rumours surfaced again when Lopez suddenly pulled out of the movie version of hit TV series Dallas. It was later revealed she quit the project because she was unhappy with the script.