?Why are responsible mainstream magazines resorting to cheap, baseless slanderous gossip?just to enhance sales??

Aishwarya Rai has had a tough day. She has just finished dubbing the whole day and is expected to fly off to LA the same night. But there?s no strain on the most famous face in India. Dressed in blue jeans, a creamish top with a jacket, her hair plays impish pranks around her dancing eyes at her beautifully appointed residence in Bandra (suburban Mumbai), she looks like a college girl just discovering the treacheries of life.

Aishwarya is agitated. In its new issue a news magazine states that Anil Ambani has developed more than a passing interest in the ravishing Rai and that marriage plans have been discussed. Sitting with her legs curled up, looking no more than 24 (outer limit!) Ash doesn?t know whether to laugh or cry. She opts for the former.

A very close friend says, ?Ash hardly knows Anil Ambani! What are they talking about? They?ve met a couple of times socially and now they?re supposed to be marrying him? Puhleeze! Just because she doesn?t retaliate or keep issuing clarifications media persons think they can get away with any and everything? Well, sorry, I don?t buy that. The thought of marrying Mr Anil Ambani is as alien to Ash as migrating to the moon. And they have the gall to even drag in ?a filmstar and SP supporter? who supposedly came to her parents with a marriage proposal from Mr Ambani. Hello? I thought only gossip magazines wrote such baseless rubbish to sell copies.?

Twelve years ago Ash had dragged a magazine to court for saying she had something to do with Akshay Kumar and that they created a scene by a poolside. It turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. The wheel seems to have turned a full circle.? The friend pauses for breath and Aishwarya takes over, ?Damage to a celebrity?s image is so irrevocable. The other day a morning paper wrote that I was keeping mum about my international projects because it suited me to do so. They even wrote that I chose to keep mum over a Buddha project where my name was splashed around. But please tell me when did I ever say I was going to be in a Buddha project? Some announcement is made far away in Bodh Gaya where my name is mentioned for a project about which I?ve no idea. How am I supposed to monitor everything that?s announced about my career without my knowledge? No, I never said I?m doing a James Bond film, or a film with Chris Tucker of Buddha. Why pull me up for not issuing clarifications all day long??

Aishwarya also refutes a report that she walked out of a screening of Raincoat at the Bangladesh film festival. ?I haven?t ever been to Bangladesh in my life! So where?s the question of walking out? Besides, I was in Agra when I was supposed to have walked out in Bangladesh!

?Maybe I was getting married to Mr Ambani under the moonlit Taj Mahal.? For the record, the man in Aishwarya?s life isn?t an Ambani but an Oberoi.