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EYECATCHERS
Mousy Muse
 Jacqueline
Lundquist, the headline-spawning wife of the US Ambassador, has now
made her literary debut along with her three-year-old son Samuel.
The children's book, There's A Mouse In Roosevelt House, is a partly real
account of an impish mouse that interrupts important meetings and dinners
at the ambassador's residence and leaves with Clinton's Air Force One
for the White House. "The last bit was fantasised by my son,"
says Lundquist. Now we know that mousetraps don't work in her house. She's
glad.
Cover
Your Tracks
 The
dress Sonali Bendre is wearing in the picture is not the one for
which she was arrested by the Mumbai Police because it "hurt the
religious sentiments of the people". But try and imagine it: a trifle
diaphanous, thigh-length, lemon yellow kurta printed with reverent utterances
and emblems like Om and Om Namah Shivay. The photographer who captured
the oomphish shot for the cover of Showtime magazine in 1998 as well as
the fashion designer who masterminded the cuts and the former editor were
also arrested (though they all got away with a bail of Rs 12,000). At
the time of release an overcautious Bendre even covered her face ... but
maybe that was just to avoid the Press.
Sign
On
 The
figure to beat is $1.8 million (Rs 8.25 crore). Hari Kunzru, 31,
an obscure London-based Anglo-Kashmiri hack has taken the lead in gigantic
first-book deals after his novel, The Impressionist, was snapped up by
Penguin Books. Kunzru, "overjoyed" by the attention, describes
the novel as "Midnight's Children meets Tom Jones", the journey
of a boy of mixed parentage who studies at Oxford (like Kunzru) and becomes
an anthropologist. "I just hope that the positive reaction from the
publishers translates into positive reaction from the public." Not
waiting for the popular verdict, the cocksure author is already on another
novel ... and another big paycheck.
For
a Laugh
 How
long could an over-emotive actress continue without giving audiences a
proper laugh? Obviously Rekha needed a break after the combined
intensity of Zubeida, Madam X, Bulandi and about two-dozen other such
solemn tales. Twenty years after she did her last comedy, Khoobsoorat,
the laugh-getter is back with Mujhe Meri Biwi Se Bachao, the story
of an overweight wife who takes on a weight loss exercise after being
kidnapped by a young couple. Producer Prakash Mehra, who influenced this
character transition, said the actress did a "wonderful job of losing
and gaining weight". She's had practice, remember.
Compiled by Methil Renuka
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