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Witerati| Come September, come sizzle & sanity
The two actors were the toast of social media too; there were more reels of the dashing duo, one of them even silver haired, popping up on Instagram than of younger bling ‘n’ botox babes, thankfully
Come September. Ah, it’s that time of year again.
Come September, come sizzle, drizzle and fizzle.
Well, September rolled off this time not so much with a Rock Hudson-esque feel, but rather with a Clooney moment well Pitt-ed.
Thanks to the Venice Film Festival.
The Festival saw Hollywood heartthrobs George Clooney and Brad Pitt’s bro-mance splash to the next level.
What with the two Hollywood hunks painting the town red, their partners in tow. Gallivanting down gondolas to revelry at Ristorante, they virtually set the Grand Canal on fire. The duo was in Venice for the premiere of their film “Wolfs”.
When in Venice, do as Clooney-Pitt do
Never did the sixties look so swinging, so sexy.
The energy that the two 60-plus dudes brought to the red carpet - pranking to prancing - could put many of us under-60s to shame.
Their energy may even put our very own Bollywood Khans to shame. For, by the time they are 60 plus, they might be wobbling on to the red carpet, not in their best foot forward.
The two actors were the toast of social media too. There were more reels of the dashing duo, one of them even silver haired, popping up on Instagram than of younger bling ‘n’ botox babes, thankfully.
But what took the cake, or perhaps even the entire bakery, was the show they staged at the famous Venice eatery, Ristorante Da Ivo.
The actors switched roles to don aprons and play waiters. Clooney stole the show by playing impromptu host and ambling up to each table, pretending to take orders. With his hilarious takes on the menu, he left the guests in splits. Pitt was happy to play his sidekick. Between the two of them, they dished out a much-loved recipe - laughter.
Can we imagine our King Khans, a Big B or other Bollywood biggies being so grounded and switching roles thus? On a faux set, say on a Kapil Sharma show, perhaps. Reel life, yes. But real life? No.
Do we Indians not get to witness such charmingly grounded, no-frills star behaviour because our celebrities take themselves too seriously? Or the reason we do not get to see this Clooney-like charisma in our street-side places is because our Bollywood biggies are too hoity-toity to have such a brand of humour and humility?
Monochrome motherhood
Come September, and how it also ushered another kind of sizzle and fizzle on the social media.
The maternity shoot of actors Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh sent Twitterverse into a tizzy for more reasons than one.
For one, it was so aesthetically done. What came as a pleasant surprise was that a couturier synonymous with brides, with his signature lehengas, had now fashioned a celebrity mom-to-be.
That monochromatic maternity moment mounted on a million social media reels - a baby bump showcased in sheer black flounce and frill from the Sabyasachi New York Collection.
It doesn’t get more chic than this.
It may all seem fluff on the face of it, but it had a serious intent perhaps.
What this social media moment was meant to do was to fizzle out the trolling. It was meant to shame or silence those trolls who had body-shamed the actress for faking her baby bump. Remember, how even media voices like Faye D’Souza had had to come out openly to slam Deepika’s body-shamers.
With every second Bollywood babe bombarding social media with their baby bump these days, it seems that’s the new barometer for motherhood - a fancily accoutered baby bump packaged and paraded as status update.
Come September, come sanity. All we can hope for is that the body-shamers have been suitably silenced and can leave the B-town couple alone to welcome their September baby in peace.
The curious case of “Honey, I shrunk the killjoys!”
chetnakeer@yahoo.com
