When Gwyneth Paltrow showed up in Rome for the premiere of Iron Man, the movie star was riding high. And so were the hemline of her little black dress and her stiletto heels.

The transformation from sweet young mom to hotter-than-ever Hollywood property was mostly thanks to the choice of shoes. Paltrow wore tottering Alexander McQueen six-inch, or 15-centimeter, heels for the London premiere. And then in Italy, the apotheosis of current style, she chose lacy, racy shoes by the Italian designer Giuseppe Zanotti, with heels a (literally) staggering seven inches high.

Suddenly, the shoe's the thing. And it is mostly because the big brands that have made a killing with designer handbags have switched their attention to feet, where nothing is too fancy, frivolous, froufrou or fetishistic to fit with fashion.

Gladiator sandals are a favorite fashion weapon and are one of the rare practical looks this summer. You can actually walk on the flat soles with strips of leather climbing the calf - as opposed to the myriad fanciful shoes that require a car and driver to deposit you to a restaurant doorway and a minder/lover to help you negotiate the stairs.

Next in line for practicality are platform soles, unless they are as club-sandwich-thick as those infamous "chopines," worn by prostitutes in Venice in the 15th century and inevitably taken up by the fashionable. Yet even those solid shoes, so stylishly re-invented by Salvatore Ferragamo in the 1940s, are now offered at their most fantastical. McQueen had platforms balanced on twin planks that turned his models into geishas, while John Galliano's Dior shoes had heels curving like two caressing fingers.

What exactly is going on in a world where "the height of fashion" is taking on a sinister new meaning, as luxury footwear mirrors the fetish business?

Shoes are taking a trip in order to convince customers that they are as essential an accessory - and as ever-changing - as a designer bag. Hence all the colored snakeskin, animal print suede and hardware embellishment that have moved from purse to feet. Nothing better illustrates that message than Chanel's platform shoes with matching mini-bag round the ankle.

Of course, there have long been haute cobblers, like the mysterious Yantorny in the Belle Époque, who made shoes from embroidered antique textiles, laying these objects of desire in a Russian leather trunk lined in velvet. Or there was André Perugia, whose 1920s dance shoes would accompany the exotic collections of Paul Poiret.

But throughout the 20th century, shoemakers were specialists. They were sometimes tapped by fashion designers, as when the haute cobbler Roger Vivier collaborated with Christian Dior, just as Manolo Blahnik has for the last 30 years worked with all the great couture names.

Now the big brands are in competition with specialists and vice versa. Vivier - revived by Diego della Valle of Tod's and designed by Bruno Frissoni - has a high-end couture line of its own. Christian Louboutin and Jimmy Choo are current shoe stars in their own right. Ferragamo's shoe partnership with Ermenegildo Zegna is a rare example of a designer collaboration.

So it is the fashion brands that are pushing creativity to its limits, sending out models whose terrified teetering turns the runway into a high wire act. And yes, there are tumbles. And no, the audience does not concentrate on the clothes.

Yet the system seems to work. When Prada shoes with heels that looked like carved flora and fauna from a nightmare fairy tale went on sale, there was a stampede. In fact, the more weird and wonderful the shoes the better they sell. Just like those money-spinning handbags, there are waiting lists for the shoe of the season and they are even being given identifying names.

Can footwear really match up to the power of the purse? (Significantly, Marc Jacobs re-launched the dead-as-a-Dodo idea of matching shoes and bag at Louis Vuitton.)

It's no longer about cold wars. The starry world of Bollywood is busy with caustic combats instead. So Aamir Khan writes a cheeky blog entry describing his smelly dog named Shahrukh while Amitabh Bachchan rates Shah Rukh Khan's new reality show as "Panchvi Fail". Bachchan goes on to compare Panchvi Pass's ratings with his own high-ranking KBC show. Salman Khan is brattish as usual, checking on Akshay Kumar's fee before naming his price.

The gloves are off in Bollywood. While yesteryear stars Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor and other antagonists kept their mutual dislike private, today the bitching is out in the open. The change has perhaps to do with Bollywood's changing dynamics. Bachchan has reportedly been paid over Rs 100 crore for his blog, so dishing out controversy is part of the domain, quips an industry watcher. Aamir probably felt that Bachchan was stealing the limelight, so he posted a mischievous comment. Two months ago, Aamir had demoted SRK, calling him the Number 2 star of the industry.

"Suddenly it's no longer a politically correct, diplomatic Bollywood," says a media observer. "Bachchan, who over the years has been the epitome of modesty and political correctness, has thrown caution to the winds, especially in his blog. The others seem to be following suit. One doesn't know whether this is for the better or worse."

Salman Khan, not given to something as literary as a blog, makes his views clear in more prosaic ways. He has been openly attacking actors like John Abraham and Vivek Oberoi and refuses to acknowledge their presence at public events. Khan's latest bete noire is Akshay Kumar, not because his girlfriend Katrina is more comfortable with Akshay than him but because Akshay charges more. Says an insider, "A corporate approached Salman with a project and quoted Akshay's price to him. The actor told the reps that he would charge at least Rs 5 crore more than that."

The media has a definite role to play in flaring up star wars-take, for instance, the recent reports of friction between Rajnikanth and Shah Rukh Khan over a film. "The media tried to rake up another controversy between Shah Rukh and Hrithik over the Krazzy 4 song-reports said that Rakesh Roshan was not promoting Shah Rukh's song and only focusing on Hrithik's number," says an observer, who adds that stars are certainly more aggressive these days. "It stems from a variety of factors," he says. "It's like a chain reaction-one unsavoury reference engenders a series of retorts and rejoinders. The combination of factors-a highly active media with a growing penchant for tabloidish reporting, an increasingly competitive stance, and high stakes-is probably responsible for this kind of situation. But it could just be a temporary phase."

"There's been rivalry in the film industry from the days of Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor," says an industry insider. "But all they did was not cross each other's path. They would not work together, and each one forbade his 'regular' heroine from working with his rival." Bharathi Pradhan, a senior film journalist, says that even if stars of yesteryear spoke out, the media was not such a tremendous presence and there were no blogs. "What Aamir Khan has done is in bad taste," she says.

If you think Simon Cowell's public criticism of the current season of American Idol were tough, you should hear what our favorite broadcast curmudgeon is saying behind the scenes.

According to Cowell, the entire Idol concept needs a major overhaul. "The whole thing needs to be blown up," Cowell reportedly has told staff members.

"And if he had his druthers, and there weren't all kinds of tightly-written contracts, Simon would love to see Paula [Abdul], Ryan [Seacrest] and even Randy [Jackson] replaced by fresh talent," said a longtime Idol production executive, who asked not to be named, since that person was not authorized to speak for the show.

"We need to come up a new way to find contestants, as well," Cowell is quoted as saying at a recent staff meeting. "Everything we do needs to be examined ... including the sets, the audition process, the choice of musical genres for the final weeks of competition and even how we handle the audience [for the live performances] and say goodbye to the people eliminated," said Cowell.

While American Idol is still very popular, it has seen a significant drop-off in ratings this season - leading Cowell and other Idol honchos to begin thinking of ways to re-invigorate their very valuable franchise. Reportedly, Cowell has also raised the idea of bringing in a secondary - and female - host to work with Seacrest - similar to how Dancing with the Stars uses Samantha Harris to compliment Tom Bergeron.

It'll be David vs. David. Syesha Mercado was voted off American Idol Wednesday night, paving the way for the expected showdown between David Archuleta and David Cook.

Mercado, a 21-year-old actress from Sarasota, Fla., was the last woman standing on the top-rated Fox contest. The big-voiced belter surpassed a more accomplished singer (Carly Smithson), a fan favorite (Brooke White) and a statuesque country crooner (Kristy Lee Cook).

While other contestants floundered, Mercado challenged herself with ambitious song choices like Sam Cooke's 'A Change Is Gonna Come'. She showed more personality - and lots of leg - while swiveling her hips in a glittery gold minidress for a rendition of 'Proud Mary'. She cried when Paula Abdul gave her a standing ovation last week.

Abdul held the sugar on Tuesday's performance show, telling Mercado that she thought her performance of 'Hit Me Up' wasn't "good enough to get into the finals."

With Mercado out of the way, American Idol can now fully hype the David vs. David matchup.

There's Archuleta, the 17-year-old singing prodigy from Murray, Utah, with the overly involved stage dad. And there's Cook, the 25-year-old former bartender from Blue Springs, Mo., with an emo edge that the angelic Arculeta lacks.

Who will snag the title next Wednesday?

It was a full house at the premiere of the animated Kung Fu Panda. The film that features voices of Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Black and Lucy Liu pulled in massive stars and headlines.

Not exactly a melodramatic drama, Kung Fu Panda is actually one of the lighter films that premiered at Cannes Film Festival, in the tradition of the Shrek franchise.

Angelina Jolie was present and was joined later by boyfriend Brad Pitt. Other three stars of the film, Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman and Lucy Liu were also present, who revealed their personal bits about fighting and early years of growing up.

Eva Longaria came as did Abhishek Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai and these three made it, thanks to the courtesy of L 'Oreal, the French cosmetics giant that is one of the main sponsors of Cannes. Singer Natalie Imbruglia and producer George Lucas also made an appearance.

Jack Black plays Po in the film, a lazy panda who yearns to protect his village as a great martial artist. Black agreed that his casting as Po was perfect.

"Pandas naturally have some lazy attributes that I can relate to," said Black. "They're a mellow, Zen-like creature. Eating a little bamboo, and then just laying out daydreaming. I brought a little of that."

Angelina who voices Tigress, the lazy bear's fearsome martial arts rival, admitted that she was super excited to play a tiger. "I have a tiger tattoo on my back, and my kids talk to it all the time," she said as her co-stars laughed. "They do! They just like to say hi to it, and paint it with fingerpaints. It's like a little friend."

Lucy Liu meanwhile voices Viper, a snake who is a fighter for the good guys while veteran Dustin Hoffman plays an instructor.

"I did a year of karate, and also a year of judo," said Black. "It was the coolest. I wanted to get a colored belt."

"Did you break a board?" Hoffman asked dryly.

Black conceded, "No. I didn't go that far."

The four stars recalled memories from their early years about the ability to fight.

Black recalled an incident about a fight when he was 11.

"Some kid in the hallway just started picking a fight with me. He had some problems at home, clearly, and was taking it out on me. I didn't want to fight, but he forced me. … We started fighting, and I realized quickly I was much stronger than him, and I started to enjoy the fight a little. This was my finishing move: I forced him to give me a piggyback ride, and - this is horrible - I kinda punched him in the back of the head. Horrible! But I didn't want to fight!"

"It's always the nice guy," Jolie added, shaking her head. "Who would've guessed?"

Angelina too acknowledged some old fights from her own early days.

"I hit somebody once for saying something about somebody I really cared about. I was in early high school. Another time, I was called out for a fight, but I think I was so nervous that I kind of just wanted to get it over with. I came to it with, 'Let's just do it. Let's just do this.' I didn't want to talk. I just wanted to fight, because I was scared. But I think that energy, that excitement to fight, actually scared the other person, and we ended up not fighting. It wasn't a game plan. I was genuinely scared."

But surprisingly enough, Lucy Liu, who has kicked some serious action on the big screen before in films like Kill Bill and Charlie's Angels never had fighting incidents as a kid but she did take up boxing as an adult.

"Just for agility, and to test it out, I went into a boxing ring with this other girl. She punched me square in the nose. It was so painful! I didn't break my nose, but I did see stars. That was it, the end of it for me. … I don't think I'm strong enough to take it."

One major headline news was Angelina Jolie's pregnancy. Jack Black slipped up, confirming speculation that Brad and Angelina are getting ready for twins this time.

Angelina didn't volunteer giving away any news until Jack made a crack and jokingly said that the couple will "have as many as (the) 'Brady Bunch' when you have these."

"It's confirmed?" followed

"Yeah, yeah, we've confirmed that already," Jolie said. "Well, Jack's just confirmed it actually."

"Is that true?" Black said jokingly.

"Yeah, you did," Jolie replied.

"Sorry," Black said.

But Angelina didn't lose her cool at Black or even the press.

She insisted that she is up to the rigours of the festival, where she has two films (Kung Fu Panda and Changeling) in competition. "It's not such hard work, I'm just sitting and talking a lot and everybody is being very nice to me. Everybody said if I was feeling too pregnant I didn't have to come, so I'm feeling all right," she said.

"I actually haven't completely decided but we are certainly thinking of France," she said at the press conference to launch the film. "French is a second language in our house. I'm still learning so I'm not going to attempt it here today. My children are starting to speak French so being here is very good for their language skills."

Deepika, whose debut movie Om Shanti Om turned her into a household name, chatted exclusively to HT City yesterday via telephone from Bangkok, confirming that she and Ranbir are engaged to be married.

She spoke about their marriage plans, squashed rumours of a rift and declared that, in five years, she hoped to be "Mrs Kapoor and the leading lady of Bollywood". "It was love at first sight. We were introduced by a mutual friend and we liked each other but we needed time for our love to grow before we could make a commitment."

Deepika confessed that Ranbir proposed to her at the time of their debut releases in November last year. "And I happily said yes."

The couple met a few months earlier. She said she accepted because she was happy, deeply in love and the couple had the blessings of their parents.

"Our parents are happy with our relationship." With their parents blessings it looks like history may just be repeating itself. Ranbir's parents Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh met in 1975 on a film set and were married five years later.

She laughed off rumours that her schedule had put a strain on their love. The two squeezed in quality time a few days ago when Ranbir flew to Bangkok where she was shooting Chandni Chowk to China. "We read about the rumours of our split and had a gala time laughing."

She said some of the rumours had been hurtful. "At times it can be really upsetting. As we are open about our relationship, people should give some amount of respect to our relationship by not cooking up rumours," she said.

The latest gossip is that raunchy pictures of her with actor Upen Patel, aired on television recently, had deeply upset Ranbir. Not so, said Deepika, "Ranbir has already seen my portfolio and that was a shoot for designer Wendell Rodricks two years back when I was modelling. I am not ashamed of it."

The star said the couple had learned not to allow such talk to affect them: "It's ridiculous and now it has stopped affecting us also. We will decide how to conduct our relationship and nobody has a right to take us for granted and write any rubbish about us."

Deepika said while it was tough being away from him, Ranbir had been supportive and loving while she completed back to back movies. "Ranbir understands as he is a part of the fraternity. The gelling force of our relationship is that we understand each other really well."

The actress has just completed three movies. Her next release will be Yash Raj's Bachna Ae Haseeno starring the two lovebirds.

Kareena Kapoor is the new Czarina of Bollywood. With Rani, Preity, Aishwarya and Priyanka doing selective films, or no films at all, Kareena's become the hot favourite amongst filmmakers.

And the Czarina's on a roll, bagging films and collecting awards at the same time.

Apparently, the latest in her kitty is Ajay Devgan's second directorial venture, which he's going to announce very soon. The actor-turned-director whose U, Me Aur Hum with wife Kajol generated a mixed response from the audience, is reportedly all set to direct another film and this time, he has opted for Kareena instead of Kajol.

"Ajay and Kareena's jodi was a hit in Omkara. Distributors want to cash in on their chemistry. Ajay, too, wants to recreate that magic with his second directorial venture," says an insider.

The two are also starring in Golmaal Returns. And that's not all. If the industry is abuzz with Bebo doing Ajay's film, then there's yet another story that's creating ripples. It's rumoured that Kareena has stepped into Kajol's shoes yet again. "She is being considered for Shahrukh Khan's much awaited film, My Name is Khan," says the source. Industrywallahs say that it won't be long before the Bollywood Badshah makes the announcement himself.

It was rumoured that Sonam Kapoor was going to play the female lead opposite Shahrukh Khan in director Aditya Chopra's Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, but the young actress says she was never offered the role.

In fact, she feels much relieved that Aditya Chopra has finalised Anushka Sharma for the female lead for his third directorial venture.

"Since the film was announced, speculation started about me being in the project. But I was never offered the film! I don't know where this whole thing started, honestly," Sonam, who debuted with Saawariya, told IANS.

"I did visit Adi a couple of times like any other actor, but not for any particular role. Maybe people saw me entering Yash Raj. Nowadays, even if an actress passes by Yash Raj she's rumoured to have signed a film with them."

But Anushka resembles Sonam.

"Does she? Is that a compliment to me or to her? I know it required someone very Punjabi and young. I've just played a fullon Punjabi girl in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra's Dilli 6. Even in Saawariya, I was in full elaborate Indian clothes. Now I need a change of pace and grace."

Maybe a hot sizzling chic-and-trendy babe?

"Yeah, maybe. I'm not signing anything in a hurry. I've all the time in the world and the best advisor any actress in Bollywood could have. My dad (Anil Kapoor)."

Wouldn't Anurag Basu's Kites with Hrithik Roshan with its sizzling international-looking heroine's character have been the right vehicle to change Sonam's demure desi image from her first two films?

Apparently, Sonam was offered the role that Latin actress Barbara Morris is now doing. But she baulked at the amount of skin show it required.Sonam is tight-lipped about Kites.

"All I'll say is I'd never do anything to compromise myself or my family, or any film where I've to cringe at the premiere."

The humanitarian organization founded by actor George Clooney and other "Ocean's Thirteen" stars has donated 250,000 dollars to help children and families in Myanmar affected by Cyclone Nargis.

Not On Our Watch said it will provide an additional matching contribution of up to US$250,000 to the relief agency Save the Children for every dollar donated to its emergency relief fund for cyclone victims.

The nonprofit organization was founded by Clooney, fellow actors Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, producer Jerry Weintraub and human rights lawyer David Pressman to focus global attention and resources on ending mass atrocities and human rights violations around the world. It has donated millions of dollars to help the 2.5 million people in Darfur uprooted by the five-year conflict .

Alex Wagner, executive director of Not on Our Watch, said the organization chose Save the Children for the donations because it is one of the few aid agencies on the ground in Myanmar and has already helped over 100,000 people around the capital, Yangon, and in the hard-hit Irrawaddy delta, including about 40,000 children under the age of 12.

"Until the military regime prioritizes the welfare of its own citizens and allows full-scale deployment of relief operations, we must continue to support the very few that stand in a position to help combat this crisis," Wagner said in a statement recently.