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World's biggest scandals were mostly matters of the flesh. Photofeature »
Few lives have run through such a varied gamut in so short a time and been so eventful. Protima Bedi. The almost-show-all model to the show-all streaker whose bare-dare blitz on the Bombay roads and the Juhu beach remains unmatched till date. No wonder then that the mere mention of her name brings salacious smiles on faces.

India's original flower child, she flaunted an I-care-a-damn attitude and sluiced through double standards and pseudo-morality in society. For the teen gang, she became an icon of the 1970s.

There was practically nothing she did not try in just 39 years - an open marriage with Kabir Bedi, relationships with artists, politicians, fought off ugly memories of a childhood rape and the hurt of being the unwanted child. Then the immediate and extreme switch to an Odissi danseuse who toiled with her own hands to create Nrityagram.

In her own words: "I did what I bloody well felt like doing."
 
 
HTTabloid » DareBareIndians » Dressing Down
Thu, Dec 19, 2002
A glam ma'am to Gaurima - Protima has done it all. India's original flower child...
Fri, Dec 20, 2002
A navy officer, a playboy & an English beauty and ... three deadly shots. Nanavati files.
Sat, Dec 21, 2002
It was sex, lies and videotape, oops! polaroid pics flashed by the Gandhi bahu, Maneka.
Strange, the sex lives of our netas leave India cold... It is either that or we have not produced the right kind of editor for a tabloid.
Our libel laws are very "iffy" and loose. A sharp savvy publisher could exploit the loopholes and get away with murder here. I think India is ready for a full, frontal tabloid. more »
- Shobha De
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Dressing Down!!!
Vijaya Sharma skins the tabloid press to reveal how pulp reporters pull all stops "to give the public what it wants".

Francois Navarre carefully scales an eight-foot high wall armed with a telephoto lens. He has to be careful for his own sake and for the sake of the camera which costs a fortune.

But his target is equally priceless. Next door, in her backyard, the star of the television soap Friends, Jennifer Aniston, lies sunbathing in her undies feeling safe that behind the wall she is free to be as she wills. But what will the stalkerazzi not do for that million dollar shot of a celebrity in the buff!

Days later, Celebrity Skin celebrates the scoop with the title "Raw and Raunchy". Soon, the photos are all over the tabloid press, including the High Society and the Daily Sport in Britain, the Voici in France and the Iva Tremila in Italy.

Nothing new here! Exclusive celebrity photos have always meant spiralling sales for tabloids and big bucks for the paparazzi. In the late 1960s, photographer Ron Gallela stalked Jacqueline Kennedy and her kids everywhere, till she had the court order him to keep his distance.

Dead ends

The biggest catch for the tabloids was, indeed, Princess Diana. If she went to the gym, she made news! If she did not go to the gym, she still made news! Her dinner at Harrod's made news! Her husband's girlfriend made news! Her stud on the farm made news! Her butler made news!

Little wonder, jobbers such as Glenn Harvey and Mark Saunders spent 90 per cent of their time stalking her. Naturally, after her death they found themselves quite lost and kind of out of job.  more »

   
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