Short on Hollywood gossip? Imports suffice

The Indian film industry made world headlines this week as top film stars Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan announced their plans to get married.

Interestingly, the couple's announcement follows only days after their new movie Guru made history in Toronto by becoming the first Bollywood (as the Indian film industry is known) movie to ever hold its premiere outside of India.

However, the couple's plans come at an especially auspicious moment for the Indian film industry, which is funded in part by the Indian government. The government last week announced its plan to corner 5 percent of the international film market, more than double what it presently controls, and hopes to use Indian cinema as a medium to spread Indian culture and ideas, reported the Financial Times on Saturday.

Bollywood films are known for their sappy love plots, elaborate dance routines and complete lack of any sexual content.

The timing of the engagement might not be a cause for sounding sham bells, but too many things seem to be in the couple's financial interest. Bachchan's family owns most of Bollywood, Rai is considered too old to get married in Indian society and the announcement comes just as the Indian government says they want to increase their market share. Could there be any better way to kick off their new line?

Talk of peace, actions of conflict

When U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the Middle East this past weekend, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas had just made a public statement imploring Palestinians to "turn their guns against Israelis" and not each other. The remarks were followed by an equally peace-promoting action by Israel's Department of Housing, which announced its plan to begin bidding on the construction of new homes in the Palestinian West Bank, an act forbidden under the current U.S.-backed peace plan.

Nevertheless, over breakfast with Rice on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to participate in peace talks with Abbas sometime in the next three to four weeks. Abbas met with Rice over the weekend and also agreed to the talks.

The negotiations will be the second time the two leaders have met but the first time they will meet to explicitly discuss the peace process and the creation of a Palestinian state.

The announcement may prove meaningless, as Israel is still demanding the return of its kidnapped soldier, Gilad Shalet, being held somewhere in Gaza, and the Palestinians are demanding their own sovereign state.

Israel says it will only agree to a Palestinian state if that state recognizes Israel's right to exist, which the Hamas-led Palestinian government refuses to do.

Iran builds buses and bikes for Latin America

Just as Condoleezza Rice traveled to the Middle East securing support for Israeli/Palestinian peace negotiations and Arab leaders' support against Iran Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a visit to Latin America last weekend.

Crowds of people greeted Ahmadinejad, holding photos of the president and waving Nicaragua's Sandinista Socialist Party flags.

Nicaragua's new president and former Sandinista Daniel Ortega spent time touring with Ahmadinejad and emphasized the collaborative nature of their relationship.

"We are conspiring against hunger, poverty and misery," Ortega told a crowd in the slums of Managua, The Associated Press reported.

The Iranian president promised to help fight Nicaragua's "common enemies," a term interpreted by some in the American media to mean the U.S. government. The only enemies Ortega specifically mentioned were poverty and underdevelopment in Latin America's second poorest nation.

Ahmadinejad also visited Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan President, and the two jointly agreed to begin a $2 billion development fund to help fight poverty and accelerate economic growth in the developing world.

Ahmadinejad also met Bolivia's leftist President Evo Morales and was present at the inauguration of Ecuador's new socialist President Rafael Correa yesterday.

Ahmadinejad's trip was a good way for the Iranian leader to avoid questions about Rice's visit while at home and also to put pressure on the United States in Latin America, which the United States has always considered its "backyard."

The real question is if the United States can get Iraq straightened out and put even more pressure on Iran in its backyard.