I was raped at 16, but kept silent: Indian American model-actor Padma Lakshmi

Agencies
September 27, 2018

Washington, Sept 27: American TV personality, author, actor, and model Padma Lakshmi recently opened up about being raped as a teenager.

In reference to the sexual assault accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh that allegedly went unreported for decades, Lakshmi wrote an Op-Ed for The New York Times.

In the piece, the 'Top Chef' host mentioned that she was 7 years old when she was assaulted for the first time and 16 years old when she was raped.

Narrating the ordeal, Lakshmi said that she dated a 23-year-old "charming and handsome" college student when she was 16, who would "flirt" with her at her part-time retail job at a mall in Los Angeles. But just a few months into the relationship, Lakshmi said that he sexually assaulted her while she was asleep.

"When we went out, he would park the car and come in and sit on our couch and talk to my mother," she recalled in the piece. "He never brought me home late on a school night. We were intimate to a point, but he knew that I was a virgin and that I was unsure of when I would be ready to have sex."

On New year's eve three decades ago, Lakshmi said that after a night out with her boyfriend, she fell asleep at his apartment. "The next thing I remember is waking up to a very sharp stabbing pain like a knife blade between my legs. He was on top of me," the star wrote. "I asked, 'What are you doing?' He said, 'It will only hurt for a while.'"

Unaware of what date rape meant at that point in time, Lakshmi said she was unsure of whether the incident classified as rape or sex, but continued to tell her future boyfriends that she was a virgin. "Emotionally, I still was," she noted.

Lakshmi further explained how, when she was 7 years old, she was sent to India to live with her grandparents for a year after she told her mother and stepfather that a relative had touched her inappropriately and put her hand on his penis. "The lesson was: If you speak up, you will be cast out," the star said.

"I have nothing to gain by talking about this. But we all have a lot to lose if we put a time limit on telling the truth about sexual assault and if we hold on to the codes of silence that, for generations, have allowed men to hurt women with impunity," she concluded.

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News Network
March 5,2020

New Delhi, Mar 5: Urging netizens to adopt traditional salutation styles like 'namaste' and 'salaam' to greet everyone in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, megastar Salman Khan on Thursday shared a picture from his workout session.

Flaunting his perfectly chiselled body, the 'Sultan' actor shared a picture of himself sitting on a pull-down machine with folded hands as a mark of Indian tradition 'namaste'.

"Namashkaar ... hamari sabhyata mein namaste aur salaam hai! Jab #coronavirus Khatam ho jaye tab Haath milao aur gale lago...." he captioned the picture.

Khan recently touched the mark of 30 million followers on Instagram on Saturday and shared a short video on the platform thanking his fans for it.

In the video, he first thanked fans with folded hands and then a salute.

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Agencies
January 5,2020

Los Angeles: Kevin Feige may have confirmed that the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) will be getting its first transgender superhero but the Marvel Studios has said there is no definite timeline for that.

During a Q&A at the New York Film Academy, a fan had asked Feige about whether the studio plans to introduce LGBTQ characters into the MCU, "specifically the trans characters".

To this, the Marvel Studios president had replied, "Yes, absolutely, yes... And very soon. In a movie that we're shooting right now."

But sources in the company clarified to Variety that Feige only confirmed the first part of the comments that a trans character will appear in the MCU in future but he did not give a time period.

Though Feige did not reveal the name of the project that will introduce a LGBTQ character, fans speculate that he may have been referring to "The Eternals".

The film, which will feature an ensemble cast of Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kit Harington and others, is set to unveil a gay superhero in the MCU.

Marvel Studios has been making efforts to incorporate more diversity in its films after the success of "Black Panther", which featured a virtually all-black cast, and its first woman-fronted superhero movie "Captain Marvel".

"Avengers: Endgame", which became the highest grossing movie of all-time, had featured the MCU's first gay character, a cameo by director Joe Russo.

In 2020, the studio has two releases -- Scarlett Johansson-starrer "Black Widow" and "The Eternals" -- which have been helmed by women directors.

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News Network
July 3,2020

Mumbai, Jun 3: Investigators will subject the cloth allegedly used by actor Sushant Singh Rajput to hang himself to "tensile strength" analysis to determine whether it can bear the weight similar to that of the filmstar, as part of probe into his death, an official said on Friday.

Rajput (34) was found hanging at his suburban Bandra residence on June 14.

According to the investigators, the actor ended his life by hanging himself from the ceiling using a green coloured night gown made of cotton.

No suicide note was found from the spot, the police had said then.

Besides viscera from the actors body, the police also sent the gown for chemical and forensic analysis at the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) in suburban Kalina, he said.

It will take at least three more days to get final forensic report, the official said.

To ascertain the exact cause of death, forensic experts will check pattern of ligature marks around the actors neck and also determine the strength of the gown with the help of "tensile strength" analysis, he said.

The tensile strength test will technically establish whether the cloth can bear around 80kg, the weight of the actor, he said.

The test will help determine if there was any foul play, the official said.

Tensile strength is maximum load that a material can support without fracture when being stretched.

Viscera analysis will help in checking whether there were any traces of chemical, poisonous or narcotics substance in his body, the official said.

"Usually, it takes eight to ten working days to get s report from the FSL in regular cases. But since this case is sensitive, experts are taking more precautions to avoid any kind of error in their analysis," the official said.

The forensic report of the actors mobile phone is also awaited, he said.

Recently, the police received the final post-mortem report of the actor from Cooper Hospital, which mentioned the cause of the death as asphyxia due to hanging"

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