Saba and the City

Recently, actress Saba Qamar stirred a bit of a controversy — not an awful lot, just a bit — when she said she doesn’t like Karachi and only visits the city for work. The comment elicited a stern response from politician Shama Junejo, who criticised the actress for her remark. Things didn’t end there. Former model and actor Iffat Omar jumped in, arguing that “Kya zabardasti pasand karein?” [Should we be forced to like a city?]. Subsequently, Saba Q tried to salvage the situation by saying she was just expressing an opinion during an interview, and it was not her intention to hurt anyone. While all this was happening, Karachi, quietly in a corner, wondered: ‘What’s wrong with these people?’

Game of Love

You would’ve probably thought that Chris Martin (Coldplay’s frontman) would remain single for a little while after breaking up with his fiancee, actress Dakota Johnson, in June this year. (He had been with Dakota J for eight years and, before that, he was married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow for 13 years!) Nope. Rumour has it that he is now going out with actress Sophie Turner of Game of Thrones fame, who had finalised her divorce with singer Joe Jonas last year. Both have been keeping mum about their relationship, but certain peeps have spotted them together. That’s what you call A Sky Full of Stars!

A Royal Boo

On October 28, Prince Harry (is he still a prince? Oh, it’s Andrew who is no longer a prince!) and his wife, Meghan Markle, went to a World Series game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays. As per tradition, members of the audience, especially celebs, are shown on a giant screen called a Jumbotron during the match. When the camera caught the two of them, people started to boo. This was quite an embarrassing moment for Prince Harry. For Meghan M, well, she might come up with a reality show based on the booing.

Inebriated!

Last week, Colin Farrell related a story about “one of the worst days” of his professional life on Stephen Colbert’s show. The Irish actor said that, in 2002, he got a chance to work with Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg’s Minority Report. His birthday fell during the shooting of the film, and he partied a bit too hard and had a little too much to drink at night. He turned up on set the next morning without having any sleep, not fully in his senses and tried to get by by drinking more beer. He said he needed 46 takes to get a single line of dialogue right. “Tom wasn’t very happy with me,” said Colin F. Typical Irish understatement. It took him three years but at least he went to rehab.

The Salman Factor

It seems that Bollywood is abuzz these days with extremely controversial remarks about Salman Khan. First, it was his Dabangg director Abhinav Kashyap who spoke bitterly about Salman K’s allegedly manipulative ways (he is still going at it). After that, ad filmmaker Prahlad Kakkar stepped up to the plate and claimed Salman K was “very physical” with Aishwarya Rai when they were together. Now, it’s actor and dancer and Salman K friend Raghav Juyal, whose (positive) narration of a Salman K story about what transpired at the latter’s farmhouse can’t be reproduced here — too much horsing around. As for Salman K, he’s chosen not to take on these stories head-on publicly. As they say, even denial only gives stories more legs.

An Exes Reunion?

It is not yet confirmed, but we need to inform our readers. Rumour has it that Ranbir Kapoor and Deepika Padukone will act together after a gap of many years, in a film directed by their mutual friend Ayan Mukerji. The unnamed project is supposedly a family drama. If that happens, it will pull a huge number of people into cinema halls, because Ranbir K and Deepika P were once an off-screen item, a steady one at that. Then they fell apart and got married to other people who did not approve of their working together… Now the times, they might be a-changin’.

Published in Dawn, ICON, November 9th, 2025