Doing good

Vivek Oberoi’s acting career may be down in the dumps, but he is sure winning accolades in other areas. Oberoi is the only Bollywood star to be listed in the prestigious Forbes Asian Heroes of Philanthropy list, which recognised his contribution in the fields of health, education and disaster relief. In fact, he is also the youngest Indian to be featured in the august list, which includes Shiv Nadar of HCL Technologies, Azim Premji of Wipro and Grandhi Mallikarjuna Rao of the GMR Group. Oberoi has long been associated with various social causes and has reportedly donated $3 million and helped raise US$25 million to support charitable institutions. Well done, we say.

Sandal scandal

Hot Pakistani actress Veena Malik can be real cold with guys who rub her up the wrong way. Malik, who is all set to appear as a celebrity judge in UTV Bindass’s reality show Superstud — The School of Flirt, says that she goes livid if a guy is so tactless as to ask her questions about her age or weight. While shooting for the show, which is all about picking up flirting skills, she declared that if a man ever put those rude posers to her, she would hit him with her high heels! Asmit Patel, with whom Malik had a sizzling on-screen romance in Bigg Boss 4, and who happens to feature in Superstuds as well, admitted that he too has got the thick end of her sandals at times. Now, why’s that, we wonder.

Two clever

Former Indian Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda knows how to pull a fast one. The Janata Dal (S) supremo announced that he would sit on a hunger strike in front of Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa’s house in Bangalore to protest the step-motherly treatment the government was giving to his home constituency, Hassan. No harm in that. After all, as Anna Hazare and Ramdev have shown, hunger strikes are the flavour of the season. But Gowda is no common hunger striker. The day he picked to go hungry to promote the cause of his hapless constituents happened to be ekadashi — when he fasts anyway. Call it killing two birds with one stone.

Dancing dude

Guess who’s been bitten by Aamir Khan’s perfectionism bug? It’s none other than Hrithik Roshan. The actor, who recently made his television debut in Just Dance, a dance reality show on Star Plus, is apparently miffed that he doesn’t get to practise his dancing steps as rigorously as he likes to before shooting starts. As a judge he is supposed to perform popular dance numbers on the show sometimes. But television, with its tight schedules, gives him little time to prepare before his performances are recorded — and that bothers the man. His co-judges Vaibhavi Merchant and Farah Khan feel he is taking his perfectionism a tad too far. Well, Roshan boy, sometimes it’s best to kick back your heels and show some spontaneity!

Tweet tidings

Want news about the stars? Then go to Twitter. The social networking site has become the ‘‘it’’ platform for movie stars of every hue. So if Amitabh Bachchan chose it to announce his impending dadahood, others like Rajinikanth are using it to keep their fans up to date about the state of their health. Only, Rajini being Rajini, the updates come by proxy — from his son-in-law Dhanush, who is also an actor. Dhanush was the one who kept the fans and the media informed about his superstar pop-in-law’s health while he was being treated in Singapore. This week he also went on Twitter to rubbish a news report that Rajinikanth was “skinny” and weak after his illness. “He looks as stylish as ever. God bless,” he tweeted. Amen to that.