Amuse-Biatch Heterosexual Monday: “Show, Girl”: In Preparation for Top Chef: Las Vegas, Padma Lakshmi Shows Us How to Play the Slots

Though, given her penchant for billionaires, possums, it’s certain to take more than a nickel if you want to play.

Padma Lakshmi Picks Up a New (Well, Actually, Old) Teddy

Yes, possums, there is actually a story to go with that photo. Following her split from Salman Rushdie, Padma Lakshmi was linked to Teddy Forstmann, a then-67-year-old Republican billionaire who had also dated Elizabeth Hurley and Princess Diana. (Fun tidbit: According to The Evening Standard, "American intelligence agencies were bugging Princess Diana's telephone over her relationship with a US billionaire,...tycoon Teddy Forstmann....").

At the time, the newspaper reports about Padma's new old man were denied, and it was claimed that if Padma and Teddy had been seen together, it was only because Teddy's company was doing licensing and endorsement deals for Padma. Then the ever-reliable Page Six reported that Padma was dating billionaire Adam Dell, as in, "Dude, you're getting a Padma."

And now, the still-ever-so-reliable Page Six is reporting that, no, actually, Padma is disporting herself with billionaire Teddy after all. From this story, it would seem that Teddy does indeed walk softly, but is he carrying a big stick? Teddy is 30 years older than Padma and seven years older than Salman Rushdie, prompting Miss XaXa to ask, "Does she like them well-aged, or, well, agèd?"

Is Padma Lakshmi Looking for a Member of the Second Husbands' Club?

Possums, not being Miami "fashionistas" (or whatever) or Bravo insiders, we have no bloomin' idea who this man with Padma Lakshmi is. Or, as Miss XaXa put it, "Who the hell is that guy and where the hell is Padma's hand?"

We, being more demure, wondered more about the placement of his hand. And oh Padma's smile....

"She's probably thinking of seafood sausage, the one CJ made," we suggested. "Or the one she just found," Miss XaXa snorted in reply.

We remembered items in the gossip columns linking Padma to billionaire Ted Forstmann, but Forstmann doesn't look like that (maybe 30 years ago). Could it be his son? Or maybe he has the mother of all plastic surgeons.

At any rate, possums, if you know who the mystery blond is, do let us know, please.

Leave a little comment or drop us a little line. You know where to go. It'll probably turn out to be a perfectly innocent photo with some Bravo producer, but we'd still like to know.














Actually, there was another picture from the three-hour cruise that particularly intrigued us. Ignoring our chaste allusions to photographs by Jacques-Henri Lartigue, Miss XaXa spoke her mind: "Padma puts on MFMalarkey's pants and look what happens."

Amuse-Biatch Heterosexual Monday: Padma Lakshmi Alive and Well and Guest-Starring on "Dame Chocolate"

Or so it would appear from this Greg Kadel photograph in GQ, which illustrates an article in which, according to the subhead, Padma discusses "why being stripped naked and covered in chocolate has always been her fantasy."

Of course, it turns out to be the usual GQ choc-teasing, and no such details are forthcoming.

And while she may not be guest-starring on Dame Chocolate after all, she certainly has been living a little telenovela of her own. Indeed, possums, we were quite worried about the Lady Rushdie after her Bravo blog posted this message:

"Due to personal reasons, I will be taking some time off from my blog. I want to thank all of you who have left messages of support for me."

We, more than anyone, know just how difficult and taxing (right hand on forehead, left hand on breast) blogging can be. We envisioned her sitting at home, fetchingly ensconced in a fainting couch, her hair picturesquely disarrayed on the antimacassar, one hand clutching a balled cambric handkerchief scented with orange-blossom water, the other hand gripping a spoon newly emerged from a container of Chubby Soon-to-Be Ex-Hubby ice cream, as she bemoaned the end of her marriage to Sir Salman Rushdie.

Naturally, then, we were pleased to read that whatever personal reasons are keeping Lady Rushdie from her electronic goose-quill pen haven't completely incapacitated her. To wit, this mention in The Hollywood Reporter:

"Padma Lakshmi, co-host of the popular Bravo reality series "Top Chef," was at the gym when a friend called to tell her about the show's two nominations. "I was lifting dumbbells when my friend Christina called. She said: 'You're going to need a dress. You're going to the Emmys.' " The nominations came just in time, Lakshmi said, and hopefully will give the top-rated show an added boost as they prepare to shoot the finale in Aspen, Colo. "It's a nice thing to happen right now," she said. "It'll give ('Top Chef') a shot in the arm. I'm really happy and proud to be a part of that crew." Before taping begins for the next season, which takes place in Chicago, Lakshmi is preparing for the release of her book, "Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet," in the fall and looking for an apartment in New York."

And, according to the New York Daily News, she has of late become a fast friend to, and turned up on the front burner of, 67-year-old "[b]illionaire Ted Forstmann..., whose consorts have included Elizabeth Hurley and Princess Diana...." Forstmann's company, International Management Group, "is due to announce a slate of endorsement and licensing projects for Lakshmi."

So let's see. Going to the Emmys. Consorting with a billionaire. Shopping for a luxury apartment. Yup, if we had those kinds of personal reasons, we wouldn't be blogging either. Padma may go to the gym, but she is definitely no dumb belle.