They are successful and they are on the most desired list of almost every man around us. But one thing these women don’t have is the approval of their own sex. A t2 list of women women love to hate (or are jealous of)...

Carla Bruni

She’s been leading a fairytale life. From a former supermodel and aspiring popstar, the Italian born Carla Bruni has catapulted herself to the status of the First Lady of France. But she doesn’t seem to have worked her way into the hearts of many women. We wonder why. Is it Sarkozy? We don’t think so, because most women don’t really fancy him. Is it her looks? But there are so many others who look as good. Is it her success? But there are so many other supermodels.

We think we grudge the fact that she has got everything — too easy. She was born to culture and money. She is the daughter of Italian concert pianist Marysa Borini and step-daughter of industrialist and classical composer Alberto Bruni Tedeschi. She took to the ramp, though she didn’t need the money — and left it scorching. She prefers Dostoyevsky to Vogue. She sings. She sets Yeats, Emily Dickinson and Auden to music.

But what stings most is the hold that the stunner has on men. Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton and Donald Trump are just a few men that Bruni has had in her collection. It took her a mere three months to get the French President on a leash. Her reputation of a man-eater precedes her, because she announces it herself. “I am a tamer (of men), a cat, an Italian…. Monogamy bores me terribly,” is what Bruni told Le Figaro magazine in February last year. She greeted a journalist topless, saying “Sorry for being topless”.

She is also a stealer of men. Justine Levy, the former wife of Bruni’s former lover Raphael Enthoven, the father of Bruni’s son, calls Bruni in her novel “a praying mantis” with “a Terminator smile”.

“Carla Bruni is in the news for nothing. She is known more for the men that she has been linked with,” says media professional Dipti Singh. Bruni is not First Lady material. That’s what a lot of women think.

“The way they made a public spectacle of themselves and their affair was pretty disgusting. It was no better than a circus,” says 21-year-old college student Neha Jain.

But there are some women who dislike her for all the right reasons. “Bruni is beautiful, has amazing presence and comes from a cerebral background. I feel threatened by her. I feel she has the power to reduce me to nothing,” admits media professional Chandrani Mukherjee.

Maybe what we dislike most is her guts — for she is out there doing everything that we want to do. A bit of a predator, a bit of a Cleopatra. The hot, sizzling power woman. We are jealous. Really. Only if we had her genes…

Paris Hilton

Think Paris Hilton, think dumb. And annoying. And in-your-face. And always around. And never apologising. Paris Hilton is the trashy brainless Hollywood version of Carla Bruni. Paris Hilton makes us want to scream. Born with a silver spoon in her mouth, the 27-year-old leads a perpetual adult teenage fantasy life. She didn’t know till a few years ago that London was in the UK. And she keeps that silly flashbulb smile on as she visits nightclub after nightclub, while we toil and struggle. She is the goddess of mindlessness and she is worshipped in large numbers.

It makes sensible women angry. “I can’t believe someone can be silly enough to want to trademark her name. Just because Paris is rich doesn’t mean that she has the licence to do absurd things,” says homemaker Mandira Awasthi. Life is unfair. But worse — we have a suspicion that Paris is not really as dumb as she would like us to believe. She is smart enough to turn her dumb act into money.

A below par actress and an even worse singer, she features in numerous videos showing her having sex publicly, and she is said to have made good money out of them. In a recent interview, Paris expresses her happiness at being flat-chested and her puzzlement at women who wanted bigger breasts.

Everything makes news. “Paris is an airhead and yet men drool over her. That really invites the ire of other women,”smiles freelance photographer Kaustav Saikia. We grit our teeth.

Riya Sen

The younger of the Sen siblings is the desi Paris Hilton. While most men seem to like everything about her — the nasal twang, the airs, the pointed dumbness and the oh-so-nyaka attitude (mom Moon Moon is nyaka but nice), it has every woman seeing red. “I have seen so many intelligent men ‘dumbing’ down in Riya Sen’s company, but having no qualms about it. I have been indignant, but I have also secretly admired Riya for the fascinating hold she has over men,” says college student Roshni Chatterjee (name changed on request).

Women also think Riya is out of touch with reality. Women think she is not intelligent enough to disguise her pretentiousness. She is also thought to be lacking sister Raima’s acting talents and charm. “I admire the way Raima has conducted her Bolly-Tolly career, but all Riya has to show are a couple of cameos in nondescript films, some item numbers and of course the Ashmit Patel MMS scandal,” says home-maker Niharika Sen.

Has it made a difference to Riya? No. “You know I take lot of interest in sexy men. If I find someone really worth seducing, I don’t leave the opportunity. But it happens the other way too. Loads of young guys die for me,” said Riya in an interview.

And recently Salman Rushdie spent long hours with Riya dressed in a backless outfit, “talking” at the Aurus nightspot. The writer of Midnight’s Children and the winner of the Booker of Bookers. What can one say? Only that the child is father of the man.

Angelina Jolie

Ask a man about Angelina Jolie and he will go weak in the knees (we are deliberately not aiming too high). Ask a woman about Angelina Jolie and you will get two reactions: some will go weak in the knees too, but many will turn up their noses. And the latter group seems to be increasing in number with time. The fact that Angelina has Brad Pitt as arm candy is not the sole reason. Men may go ga-ga over Angelina, but most women feel that Angelina is just sexy — and irritating. “Those kissable bee-stung lips may turn on men, but apart from that Angelina is extremely average looking. In fact, I don’t find her hot at all,” says IT professional Malini Chowdhury. Women also seem to be a tad weary of the doting mother image that Jolie seems to have cultivated. “I hate the fact that she parades her kids everywhere. It all looks a little too pretentious and unreal to me,” adds Malini. The home-breaker in Jolie hasn’t gone down well with women either. “Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston made a ‘real’ couple. Brangelina somehow lacks that spark, that chemistry,” says college student Anurima Kakkar. Some women don’t like the 13 tattoos all over her body — yet another exhibitionist streak!

Pamela Anderson

The woman who in an interview stated “I don’t know why people consider me stupid, I’m actually really smart,” is liked by men for all the obvious reasons. And hated by women for the same reasons. The Baywatch slo-mo shots of a bursting-at-the-seams Anderson running on the beach in a red lifeguard swimsuit may have been a huge hit with ALL men, but it makes women feel tired. “Being sexy is fine, but overt sexuality like Pamela Anderson’s is in extremely bad taste. I don’t know how men consider that a turn-on,” protests schoolteacher Vandita Vyas. Well, men have always liked that. The breast implants that she based an entire career on (and which she has subsequently removed — the implants and her career both) did not seem to turn them off either. Her dalliances with various men (with quite a few pornographic home videos that did the rounds) also seem to endear her more to men. “The whole world has seen her naked. That’s such an eerie feeling,” laughs advertising professional Gargi Ghosh. Men love her more for that. They think of her as a nice, sweet, warm, generous girl, without complications, the kind they would like to bring home — whenever mom isn’t there. Women don’t like that.

Mandira Bedi

A pretty face who makes no sense when she tries to talk cricket. Otherwise too. Women seem pretty united in their dislike of Mandira Bedi. But things weren’t this bad always. As the central protagonist of the Doordarshan soap Shanti, Mandira did have quite a few female fans. That has dwindled ever since Mandy allowed her noodle straps to do all the talking on television. “Mandira is just not cut out to be a cricket ‘expert’. Granted that she is glamorous, but she also needs to know the game. She just tries to bring unnecessary glamour and misplaced sex appeal to a serious sport like cricket,” says homemaker Chitra Chatterjee. But men don’t mind. As long there’s something moving on screen — ball or belle...