Sunday, November 24, 2002		Lead Article

Hollywood hues
Showtime folks!

WHY is the sex symbol of yore, Gina Lollobrigida, looking so happy with life? "It’s something to do with bras," she told a startled old British journalist.

But before the sniffing salts could be rushed in, Gina soothened the lady’s nerves, saying that she was putting up an exhibition devoted to bras. She and her partner in the venture, Samuele Mazza, have already stacked up over 2,000 different kinds of bras including those made of stone, wood, glass, plastic and aluminum.

"The bra has the fascinating tradition of tantalizing. There’s always a tension between what it conceals and what it reveals," says the 67-year-old star of hits like Go Naked in The World and Come September. And she should know. Old-timers remember her for what her bras revealed rather than what they concealed!

Poor Bruce Willis. The tough cop of the Die Hard series has suffered loss of face. Fearing that fans may be put off by his real-life appearance, he had 10 days of footage chopped off his new film Angel Fire at a personal cost of over a million dollars.

During the shooting of the film in which he plays a safe-cracking burglar, he forgot to take off his four-hoop earrings in his pierced left ear.

"That’ll be the end of me," he pleaded with the producers. "I look like a cross between a gypsy and a gay. Not a burglar," The Tri-Star producers reluctantly consented to re-shoot when Willis agreed to foot the whopping bill.

Poor Michael Fox. Recently, he realised he wasn’t the universal superstar he believed he was. At least not in New England where he had some free time on his hand recently.

He walked confidently into a movie hall with friends and asked for tickets to see a film show. He was politely told that he was out of luck as the show had been sold out.

"I hope you know whom you’re talking to?" he told the ticket clerk. I’m Michael J. Fox," The manager, looking ostensibly bored, drawled, "And who, pray, is Michael J. Fox?"

The star didn’t know where to look and walk out sheepishly, wondering whether he had selected the right career!

Believe it or not, for almost a decade now Meryl Streep has been breathing fire ever since Madonna pipped her for the title role of Evita. But recently the star of huge hits like She Devil and Death Becomes Her, decided to stay calm when she saw the singer walk into New York’s Fire Island restaurant.

To show that bygones were bygones Meryl even smiled — but Madonna swept by and gave her the royal snub, leaving Meryl speechless with embarrassment. Madonna looked through the superstar, focusing her attention on her muscular identical-twin bodyguards instead. And her arrogance is not without reason. To rub salt on Streep’s wounds, Andrew Lloyd Webber who gave music for Evita had not stopped raving about Madonna’s performance and liberally recommends her name for any big banner musical.