Rani Mukherjee: Leading the ladies

The woman on top

This Women's Day, 'move over mom, sis and granny' say hello to Rekha, Lata and Rani,' invites MTV. With a daylong focus on the Woman on Top, the channel, on March 8, gives viewers a chance to catch their favourite actresses, singers and item girls. Now that Rani Mukherjee has been crowned Black beauty, she can mighty well stand up and be counted as a flag-bearer for her species on Women's Day. The youth channel gets the actress talking about significant moments in her life from childhood to her recent successes. The Story of Rani is her decade-long journey to the top, which goes on air at 10.30 am and 7 pm. Joining Rani on the day are ageless songstresses Asha Bhosle and Lata Mangeshkar in Asha on Top and Lata on Top. The rest of the schedule includes Top Scenes, some of the best movie clips that feature women, Filmi Women on Top, that focuses on the Bollywood beauties of today and Item Girls on Top and Remix Girls on Top, 'the specials without which the day would be incomplete'.

There's also MTV's tribute to the Classic Women on Top that features black-and-white leading ladies like Nutan, Madhubala, et al. Keeping them company would be Indipop Women on Top and finally, the International Women on Top ' Shakira, Britney, Christina and the like.

There's more. You can SMS <TOP> space <name of scene> to 6882 every time you spot a scene where a woman is on top! There are up to 200 gift hampers to be won worth Rs 1,000 each.

Returning to the heroine on top, Rani Mukherjee was there to cheer 50 winners of Nestle Munch and Cartoon Network's contest Megatoon Republic from across India. Adding some toony flavour to the event, Cartoon Network's most famous kindergarten trio, The Powerpuff Girls, and the resident cool dude Johnny Bravo shook a leg. Rani joined in when a number from Hum Tum was played. She wowed her young fans by interacting with them, quizzing them and subsequently, the winners of the on-the-spot quiz got their photographs taken with the superstar. The winners were also treated to a screening of the popular kids' movie, Scooby Doo.

Hitch stars Will Smith and Amber Valleta: In the spotlight

No hitch here

Just a couple of days before the Oscars, there was the French equivalent, the Cesar Awards. The focus film for Cesars this year was Hitch, with most of its cast including Will Smith, Eva Mendes and Amber Valleta attending the ceremony.

Smith was also presented with a lifetime achievement award, called the C'sar d'Honneur. Monica Bellucci, last seen in The Passion of the Christ, presented Smith with the award, the past recipients of which include Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood, Spike Lee, Johnny Depp and Michael Douglas.

Adnan Sami: Lage raho

Food funda

If you thought Adnan Sami was only into scouting talent as he moved from one city to another for the [V] Super Singer Contest, well, you are a tad wrong.

As he kept looking for the golden voice, he also checked out the best of local delicacies each place had to offer. In Delhi, he tried the famous samosas of Connaught Place, in Chandigarh he gorged on kulcha-chhole and Tandoori Chicken, in Jaipur it was dal-bati-churma, the biryani and haleem in Hyderabad, poha-jalebi, kachori and lassi in Indore, and Karimin, the famous backwaters fish in Kerala.

In Calcutta' Jhalmuri and, of course, mishti doi.