Celebrity chitchat: Secrets and revelations

Ladies take the spotlight.

KARACHI: Although we don’t always admit it, we love to read about celebrity theatrics (off-screen and on-screen) every now and then in order to add a little zing to our daily routines.

While certain celebs like to hide their personal matters, others prefer to reveal all. “Mad Men” starlet January Jones falls into the former category and is very good at keeping things under wraps. After Jones gave birth to her baby boy Xander Dane this month, many thought the child’s father’s identity would finally be revealed. But to much dismay, the daddy mystery continues, as the 33-year-old starlet has kept everything hush-hush by leaving the father’s name off her newborn’s birth certificate.

This news is creating a lot of whispers in Tinselville and the media alike; according to TMZ.com, she left a “big, fat blank spot” on Xander’s birth certificate where she’s supposed to write down the father’s name. TMZ attained the document, filed with the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which shows Jones’ son, Xander, was born on September 13.

Jones, who has previously dated actor Ashton Kutcher, singer Josh Groban and “Saturday Night Live” star Jason Sudekis, announced earlier in April that she was expecting her first child and since the actor had been cast as Emma Frost in X-Men: First Class, rumours were afloat that director Matthew Vaughn, married to supermodel Claudia Schiffer, could be the father. However Vaughn denied the claim, according to British newspaper Daily Mail’s website

On the other hand, scantily-dressed R&B singer Rihanna revealed a bit too much and shocked those who saw her. Many men would be thrilled to have a famous pop beauty undress on their doorstep, but for 61-year-old farmer Alan Graham this was an absolute outrage. Grammy-winning singer Rihanna, dressed in a bandana bikini and torn blue jeans, was shooting a video for her single “We Found Love” in Graham’s corn field near Bangor, Ireland on September 26, and locals gathered at the field shooting site to witness the “Rude Boy” hit-maker’s moves.

Irish newspapers reported that she briefly posed topless. “The young lady in question was ceasing to be dressed in an appropriate manner,” farmer Alan Graham, a deeply religious Protestant local council member, told Ireland’s national broadcaster RTE on Tuesday. Graham said that he was fetching his tractor when he saw her cavorting in the field and thought it was unacceptable. He also added that, “I had never heard of Rihanna until someone called me requesting the use of my land. If someone wants to borrow my field and things become inappropriate, then enough is enough. Everything that was going to take place was not made clear to me. She (Rihanna) understood where I was coming from. We shook hands and parted company on good terms,” reported dailymail.co.uk.

It is not the first time the Grammy winner has caused offence with her provocative outfits. According to dailymail.co.uk, “her raunchy performance on last year’s ‘X Factor’ final, watched live by more than a million young children, led to ITV being flooded with complaints from shocked viewers.” Media regulator Ofcom, which received 2,868 complaints regarding “X Factor”, emphasised that, “We want to make sure that during family primetime shows, people are very much in safe territory and sticking to the rules.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 30^th,  2011.