Sonam Kapoor: ‘A no-pregnancy clause makes sense’

Also, a suburban car sales rep wins Jimmy Fallon's Fingers on a 4x4 contest; Mary Kom biopic due out on October 2; Holbrook’s Mark Twain show reaches 60th year; man gets jail for trespassing at Selena Gomez home.

Sonam Kapoor. AFP photo / STR

Sonam Kapoor: ‘A no-pregnancy clause makes sense’

In an interview with the Hindustan Times, the Bollywood actress Sonam Kapoor said she finds nothing wrong with signing a contract with a no-pregnancy clause.

“It makes sense ... It’s professional,” Sonam said when asked of her views on a no-pregnancy clause in film contracts in Bollywood. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong in that. I think it’s normal.”

The issue has become a topic of debate in India after it was recently reported that the actress Vidya Balan had opted out of a couple of films — or was dropped — because she is pregnant. Balan, who married the producer Siddharth Roy Kapur in December last year, has denied the reports.

Suburban car sales rep wins Jimmy Fallon’s contest

Currie Motors Ford’s salesman and Tinley Park resident Pete Porzio has won Jimmy Fallon’s Fingers on a 4x4 contest, and will be the lucky dealer to sell Fallon his new Ford 150 King Ranch.

A total of 10 Ford car sales representatives from across the country reached out and touched a lorry last Monday, all vying for a chance to sell a new ride to The Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon.

After 38 hours and 52 minutes, Porzio had outlasted all the other contestants.

“They’ll each put one hand on the lorry, and leave it there for as long as they can,” Fallon said when he announced the contest on his show. “Whoever holds it there the longest, without taking it off, I’m going to buy the lorry for that person.” – The National staff

Madhur Bhandarkar would like to make a Marathi-language film

The National Award-winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar says he is game for either directing or producing a Marathi-language film, but only if he finds an interesting story to tell.

“Being a Maharashtrian and a Mumbaikar, I would definitely like to make a Marathi-language film provided I get a good subject,” Bhandarkar told reporters at the special screening Wednesday of the Marathi film Yellow.

Bhandarkar is currently busy with his next Hindi film Madamji, starring Priyanka Chopra. — IANS

Holbrook’s Mark Twain show reaches 60th year

Hal Holbrook is in the midst of a theatre marathon. This marks the 60th consecutive year Holbrook has staged his one-man show Mark Twain Tonight, relating the satire and social commentary of the late writer and humorist to audiences today.

The 89-year-old actor has been playing Mark Twain solo since a 1954 assembly at Lock Haven State Teachers College in Pennsylvania. He has taken the show to Broadway, to the South during the civil rights era and on tour in Europe.

Ahead of Holbrook’s stop at the National Theatre in Washington on Friday and Saturday, he says Twain has been the central current of his life.

This year he has added new material on the Bible, the labour movement and a number from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. — AP

Mary Kom film to release on Gandhi Jayanti

Mary Kom, the Bollywood biopic on the Olympic medal-winning boxer M C Mary Kom starring Priyanka Chopra, is due out on October 2, the birth anniversary of Gandhi.

The film by Viacom18 Motion Pictures film is directed by Omung Kumar.

Taking forward the phenomenal success of the recently released Queen, the studio has also announced that its action thriller Gabbar, co-starring Akshay Kumar and Shruti Hassan and directed by Krish, will be released in January 2015, coinciding with India’s Republic Day weekend.

Man gets jail for trespassing at Selena Gomez home

Prosecutors say a man charged with trespassing at Selena Gomez’s home has been sentenced to 45 days in jail and ordered to stay away from the singer-actress.

Los Angeles district attorney’s spokesman Ricardo Santiago says Che Cruz admitted trespassing at an initial court appearance Wednesday and was immediately sentenced. Cruz was arrested Sunday in Gomez’s guesthouse and was charged Wednesday with one count of misdemeanour trespassing.

Santiago says Cruz was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to stay away from Gomez and her home in Calabasas, California.

Authorities say Gomez arrived home Sunday night and called security after hearing noises on the property. Gomez rose to fame as the star of the TV series “Wizards of Waverly Place.” – AP