Shilpa Shetty fever in Australia

Our very own Shilpa Shetty was all over the media this last week in Melbourne. First I caught a picture of her much talked about almost-smooch with Richard Gere in the evening tabloid MX and then Thursday morning she was on the highly rated 'Today' breakfast show on Kerry Packers Channel Nine. There's also a rumour that she will make an appearance on the Australian version of Big Brother that's now in its seventh edition. Throughout the interview the interviewer referred to her as a 'Bollywood superstar' and probed her about the various controversies that has kept her in the public eye throughout the last six months. Dismissing the furores as just the Indian media's overeactions, she made no apologies for the much-talked about kiss...infact calling Gere 'cute' and the gesture 'innocent'. Must say a certain Ash must be sulking that her Bollywood contemporary has so quickly achieved the worldwide acclaim that she herself craved for. Just goes to prove nothing captures the imagination like controversy...not even backless dresses at Cannes and lip locks with Dylan McDermott. The Shetty sisters have certainly learnt this fact fast, with younger sister Shamita's pantiless pictures adorning every smut site on the internet. One can almost see a face-off with Ms.Shetty' asking "tera paas kya hai?" and Ash's reposite probably being "mere paas...mere paas Abhi hai"