Padma plus TED.JPG KXB is one sharp, articulate, distinguished mutineer— which is why I hardly expected to find that HE deposited the hot gossip on our news tab! I love people who defy expectations, especially when they provide us with such apposite summer entertainment while doing so. Yay KXB!

Padma Lakshmi might be dating a billionaire?

Of whom we have never

Whom we have never

One who ain’t famous??

Via NYC’s other other paper:

Billionaire Ted Forstmann has trained his gaze on another world-class beauty.
The financier, whose consorts have included Elizabeth Hurley and Princess Diana, has become a fast friend of model, chef and actress Padma Lakshmi.
Their mouthpieces maintain that the two are not dating. But that hasn’t stopped some from noticing that Forstmann has appeared in Lakshmi’s life just as her husband, author Salman Rushdie, is leaving it.

Allegedly, the two are spending time together because IMG (Forstmann’s own!) will be representing her.

As early as this week, we hear, IMG is due to announce a slate of endorsement and licensing projects for Lakshmi. “IMG is global, and so is Padma’s appeal,” says one insider. “It’s a good marriage.”
Did someone say marriage?

The proof isn’t in the picture!

Lakshmi seemed a little guarded when she and Forstmann arrived together at the Elie Wiesel Foundation tribute to Oprah Winfrey at the Waldorf in May. When a photographer snapped her with Forstmann, Lakshmi asked the photog to delete the image - supposedly because the shot was blurry. She agreed to pose again - but not with Forstmann.
Rushdie suggested in a statement this month that Lakshmi was the one who wanted out of their union - that he “agreed to divorce … because of her desire to end their marriage.”

For those who think some of us are finding this mirchier than we need to:

Though he’s seven years older than Sir Salman, Forstmann seems well fixed to counsel the shapely author of “Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet.”
One industry source does find it “a little odd that Teddy is taking such an interest in Padma’s career. It’s not the side of the business he usually focuses on.”
But, perhaps in the case of Lakshmi, he’s more willing to be hands-on.

Ba-dum-bum. :D