Vanity Fair

MS Dhoni
Invisible hero MS Dhoni Photo: Fotocorp

Out of the Picture
It’s Tunbridge Wells all over again. Well, almost. A BBC strike means that no video footage exists of Kapil Dev’s magnificent 175 — then the highest ODI score by an Indian — against Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup. MS Dhoni’s match-winning 224 against Australia this week faces a similar fate, as a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) directive to ban independent photo agencies and retain photo rights meant that newspapers around the world (and posterity) were denied any images of the iconic innings. Also, Australian fans could only hear their team’s destruction, as the ABC pulled out of the series because of the BCCI’s astronomical broadcast fees.
 
Veena MalikKiss and Tell
The liplock that rakes in big moolah
Veena Malik has proven herself adept at being famous for being famous. Now, she’s gone legit by breaking a Guinness World Record, baby! It’s not a made-up record that is a record because nobody else would ever think of doing it, this one’s bona fide. So, on her 29th birthday, the Pakistani actress got the contestants of the reality show The City that Never Sleeps — Bollywood Hunt to kiss her hand over a 100 times in one minute. Talk about getting real, eh!
 
MC Hammer
On guard MC Hammer

Under the Hammer
Rapper MC Hammer was arrested for obstructing and resisting a police officer which, he says, was a case of racial profiling. The “chubby Elvis-looking dude,” as he describes the cop, asked him if he was on probation or parole, a question Hammer claims he was asked because he is black. “Only thing more dangerous than a scared man with a gun,” he tweeted, “is a scared man with an agenda, a gun and a badge.” The policeman then tried to haul Hammer out of the car, “but forgot he is on a steady donut diet.”
 
 
Seth Macfarlane
‘Our next presenter needs no introduction’
Seth Macfarlane (Who then promptly left the Oscars stage. To be fair, Meryl Streep doesn’t need one)