Controversial marriages in news?

Perhaps Ranbir Kapoor may not have a direct role to play in this, but rumours about his short fling with a socialite have got the other butterflies under the scanner as well. As it is, the new way of gossiping is the ‘guess who’ way. The readers love guessing while the media plays safe. And the scandal makes it to all the juicy internet sites. So while Ranbir is being linked with a Mumbai socialite who has had several flings with married men in the past, the tattletales have gone crazy posting their own comments on who it could be. Since some of the giveaways said she had a teenage daughter and that she was separated from her husband, people started speculating that it was Queenie Dhody, now Singh. No one cared to think that she also has another son and that she has no sister-in-law who is a Bollywood designer. So from calling her horny to a good looking cougar, they unabashedly attacked poor Queenie who has been in a steady relationship for a while now. Ironical, because the real culprit or should I say object of Ranbir’s short-lived fancy, got away. Yes, this lady does have a sister-in-law who happens to be a designer and her Bollywood connection is that she, at one point, worked with Bollywood designer Manish Malhotra. Interestingly, RK was also supposed to have been dating Nandita Mahtani who is close friends with the family of Ranbir’s SoBo love interest. Though common friends are already claiming that the fling may be over, because the socialite in question doesn’t smile or blush anymore when Ranbir’s name is mentioned. Things seemed to have soured between them. Wow! The Kapoor boy surely lives in the fast lane and he is my idea of a perfect and desirable stud.There is another marriage under the scanner.Sheetal Mafatlal, who last made news when the Mumbai customs put her behind theslammer for undeclared jewellery, is once again a hot topic for chin-wag atparties. Amidst rumours about trouble in this marriage, while her husband Atulyais in London, Sheetal apparently managed to move some very expensive antiquepaintings out of her matrimonial home here in Mumbai. Who knows she may have hadher legitimate reasons. But one thing is for sure, after her last tryst withcustoms, she isn’t taking the paintings undeclared anywhere on an airplanein a hurry.POW WOWThe ‘people of the week’ listwould start with socialite-turned-designer Ramona Narang Rodella who is now ingreat demand with the B-Town girls. Deepika Padukone recently bought a dozenoutfits. Hmmm... seems like the fiasco where Bipasha Basu and Ameesha Patel bothended up at an event with similar dresses designed by Ramona seems to haveworked in the designer’s favour.Debbie and Arun Hitkari alsomake it to the POW WOW list with the brand new SoBo home that takes your breathaway.Are star homes less opulent and classy than SoBo homes? HasRanbir already moved on to romancing another heroine? We will tell you all thisand more on Tentalize and Page 3 only on Zoom because it is India’s numberone Bollywood channel.Simi Chandoke is the Editor-in-Chief,Lifestyle and Society, ZoomViews expressed by columnists in Bombay Timesare their own, and not that of the paper.