A war of words has erupted between Jennifer Lopez’s team and camp Shah Rukh Khan, after articles appeared in the US and UK slamming the pop queen for turning down SRK’s offer to perform at the IPL opening ceremony on April 2 .
JLo’s team has reportedly accused Red Chillies of ‘planting’ stories in the media, to tarnish her image.
An official from Red Chillies on condition of anonymity said that it is the star’s IPL team that is to be blamed. “They were handling the quotes (money and budgets) so the leak had come from them. You will see some of the foreign tabloids point to an IPL official for the leak. The event management team at Red Chillies wouldn’t dare do that,” said the official.
But aren’t the IPL and the event management teams closely integrated to that of KKR? “I can assure you that the leak hasn’t come from us. The only other people who knew about the deal were the IPL guys. You should ask them,” the official added.
The damning articles, the first of which appeared on March 28, in the New York Post, criticised JLo for her ‘diva demands’, and quoted an official saying that her manager Benny Medina had demanded a private jet and a personal chef as part of her hospitality in Kolkata, among other things.
While the demands would not seem extraordinary for an artiste of her stature, Team JLo had the article removed from the website. But by then the ‘news’ had gone viral. According to sources, Medina has shot off an angry mail to a member of Red Chillies Entertainment, alleging that vital and confidential information about the deal was selectively leaked out to the US media.
Some of JLo’s fans have also insinuated that the bad press may be a fall-out of the singer rejecting Shah Rukh’s offer at the last moment, sending him scurrying for a replacement.
On his part, Medina has denied that JLo ‘out priced’ herself from the event, courtesy her demands. Instead, he claims she was busy recording an album, which is why she decided to turn down the offer to perform before billions of viewers.
JLo’s team is very upset that her image has been tarnished.” Medina hasn’t threatened Red Chillies with a lawsuit but this could have far reaching effects for any other international star performing for SRK, according to the source. (Agencies)
