hurley's "hello" hindu hoo-haa

[Herbie von Smalls]

from saturday's Financial Times:

 

..TX.-

The Indian nuptials of Elizabeth Hurley and Arun Nayar this week

turned into every celebrity wedding planner's ultimate nightmare.

Vinod Nayar, Arun's 66-year-old father, has disowned the couple,

after he found himself evicted by bouncers for breaching a strict "no

camera" rule in a {GBP}2m ($3.9m) deal Ms Hurley had signed with

Hello! The celebrity magazine was planning an exclusive 53-page

spread in the launch issue of its new Indian edition, which promised

"larger-than-life romances, 'bling' homes, to-die-for fashion,

'giga-gorgeous' women and men, all packaged into a high gloss

monthly".

..TX.-

"My wife and I were publicly humiliated and treated like social

outcasts for the sake of a {GBP}2m magazine deal," Nayar Sr. said,

claiming that Ms Hurley had been "openly reluctant" to invite her

future husband's Indian relatives and had ordered his eviction from

the ceremony at a palace hotel in Jodhpur.

..TX.-

"I have totally disowned them [his sons]. I want nothing more to do

with them or their wives . . . They didn't even have the manners to

invite my 87-year-old mother."

..TX.-

Any bride in India knows that winning over influential women in the

groom's family will determine her future happiness. Ms Hurley,

however, failed to allow Mr Nayar's stepmother to cash in on her

fleeting fame, reportedly refusing to wear a {GBP}35,000 necklace

made by a local jewellery company that had signed Mrs Nayar as a

brand ambassador just before the wedding and scolding her for giving

interviews about her new "daughter-in-law". The Nayars cancelled

their own planned party, fearing the golden couple would not show.

..TX.-

This week, comedy turned to farce when a still furious Nayar Sr.

agreed to testify in support of activists seeking to have Ms Hurley

jailed for offending religious sensibilities. A Jodhpur court is

examining a complaint from a Hindu religious activist alleging that

Ms Hurley and Mr Nayar, a half-Indian, half-German software

entrepreneur who grew up in Leeds, northern England, had made a

"mockery of Hindu customs". It claims the marriage was undertaken

"for commercial purposes" and that Ms Hurley defiled Hindu traditions

by displaying too much cleavage. Her couturier, Rohit Bal, yesterday

denied there had been any "skin-show" and said the litigation was

"nothing but a cheap publicity stunt".

..TX.-

Even though Ms Hurley and Mr Nayar face no risk of imprisonment - the

crime of deliberately and maliciously causing religious offence in

theory carries a maximum sentence of three years - the newlyweds may

face the tedious prospect of clearing their names in India's slow,

inefficient and corrupt courts. Jodhpur's lower courts are swamped by

a backlog of 80,000 cases, with the average case taking 1,420 days to

resolve, according to the World Bank. Ms Hurley and Mr Nayar, if the

"curse of Hello!" lives up to its reputation, may find the process of

throwing out the complaint drags on longer than the marriage itself.

[fyds]

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[Herbie von Smalls]

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[fyds]

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[John am Rhein]

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