Shah Rukh Khan isn’t intimidated by the full body-scan machines recently installed at London airports — in fact, he’s been signing printouts of his X-rays.
The actor revealed on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross — a weekend show on UK television — that he had turned the
controversial machines into a public relations opportunity at Heathrow.
“I’m always stopped by security, because of the name. And I think its okay: the western world is a little bit worried, paranoid and touchy, I guess, and feely when they’re frisking you,” Khan said.
He was explaining how his new film My Name Is Khan was about a Muslim named Khan on a mission to tell the US President he is not a terrorist.
“I was in London recently going through the airport and these new machines have come up, the body scans. You’ve got to see them. It makes you embarrassed — if you’re not well endowed.
Khan said he did not know that the scans — installed after last year’s abortive Christmas Day bombing of a transatlantic flight —showed every detail of the body.
“Then I saw these girls —they had these printouts. I looked at them. I thought they were some forms you had to fill. I said ‘give them to me’ — and you could see everything inside. So I autographed them for them.”
Khan’s experience is being cited by conservative US commentators as evidence that claims that such images would not be saved or distributed were untrue.