Close Encounter

Geri Halliwell agreed to be a tycoon's date for £500,000 but former Channel V veejay Laila Rouass turned down a £1 million date with an Arab sheikh. Rouass, 29, now a star on British TV, had also said no to a shoot with Playboy. So what's a good Indian girl like her doing getting offers like these? Her role as a randy bisexual in the TV series Footballers' Wives may explain it. Close up-close encounters of a different kind, eh?

Fired But Fine

Followers of The Apprentice, the workplace-reality show, saw him charm Donald Trump with his bow-ties and use of words such as "puffery" and "baubles." Though Raj Bhakta, 29, faced the "You're Fired" line in week nine, he has become somewhat of a star. He judged the Miss USA beauty contest and will be at the Bollywood Awards in New York. But it's not money and honey that count for Bhakta. He also spearheads the Coalition for the Advancement of the Republic, an advocacy initiative to foster better India-US relations..

Golden Girl

The lip-locks in Hey Ram and Monsoon Wedding worked. Then Vasundhara Das hit a high note with her band Arya, which has performed the world over. Now the intelligent man's Kareena Kapoor has struck gold for the third time. This time, literally, in her role as ambassador for Asia's largest gold fair, the Festival of Gold held in Bangalore. "India consumes the most gold in the world," beams the gold-laden, light-eyed gal. Is this what they mean by a golden opportunity?

Princely Tales

When they went to London to meet the would-be queen, they were clad in kurta-pyjama. They returned in sharp new suits. Raghunath Medge and Sopan Mare were given the gift by the groom Prince Charles, who had met them on his last visit to India. "We went in our usual clothes, but as it was very cold there Prince Charles gifted us suits and sweaters," says Medge, president of Mumbai's tiffin box supply chain association. The Prince of Wales introduced them to his wife and urged them to spend one more day in London. Perhaps the Prince was only returning the dabbawallas' hospitality.

-Compiled by Kanika Gahlaut

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