Rrrrrrrrrrrr.

Earlier this week I read a salacious article claiming that innocent little Latika Frieda Pinto is really a shady McShadester:

The star of Slumdog Millionaire has been hiding a secret husband whom she ditched after the film became a hit, it was claimed today.

Freida Pinto, 24, is said to have married Rohan Antao at a ceremony in Goa in December 2007 but last month ended their relationship. The couple were previously thought only to have been engaged… Their relationship appears to have foundered in the wake of Slumdog Millionaire’s success. Pinto, who plays the main love interest, was nominated for a Bafta and the film won a Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by a cast.

It is claimed that Mr Antao, a Mumbai-based executive, supported Pinto during filming but ‘she just stopped calling him’ at the time of the Golden Globes this year, according to reports today. [Link]

If you check out the picture of Mr. Antao you can’t help but come to the conclusion that the poor chap never had a chance. In reality you can only date so far outside of your attractiveness league and the fact that guys like Salman Rushdie have a lock on the statistical outlier category means that the Rohan Antaos of the world are headed for disaster. Then I read another article yesterday that got me to re-think this all a bit. Perhaps Frieda is innocent and Antao is possessive and delusional.

Rohan gradually started to feel their relationship slip through his fingers as she spent more time away from him—jetting round the world promoting the film with gawky 18-year-old Skins star Dev.

He went on: “I didn’t go with her. I had my own work to do and we weren’t supposed to be seen together. She told me it was a requirement, so I had to get on with it.

“But it was all too much too soon for her. She was staying in five-star hotels and being driven by chauffeurs—it was quite a change.”And she was always with Dev, doing press publicity. They certainly did a brilliant job promoting a film about a couple in love! I knew there was chemistry between them, but she said she had no feelings towards him at that time…”
But Rohan’s frustration boiled over when Freida was again with him at the Toronto Film Festival last September.

He sent Dev an angry text message questioning: “You do know she is engaged, don’t you?” Dev never responded.

Rohan went on: “I asked Freida to spend less time with Dev, but she refused. She was comfortable with him, and we were talking over the phone less and less. I was ticked off with Dev—and her.” [Link]

So why do I suspect Rohan might be making up details of Frieda’s supposed infidelity? Have you actually seen Slumdog? I can’t think of another recent movie in which there was so little chemistry between the two main characters. It is the reason Slumdog is an above-average movie instead of a great one. If I was having an illicit affair with Ms. Pinto offscreen you better believe I would behave like a bear on a bunny in my scenes with her on camera. My passion would bleed through when I screamed “Latikaaaa…” or did that little dance at the end. Dev Patel, throughout the film, had the blank expression of a boy who had popped his “juice box” too early. He didn’t show the confidence or poise required to handle the bombshell in the photograph at the top. I think in reality Rohan probably got increasingly jealous as he saw his girlfriend blow-up internationally and the whole Dev thing was just made up in his mind. Either that or Dev Patel will propose on stage tonight and prove me wrong.