Growing Trend of Desis Playing Non-Ethnic Roles?

Aasif Mandvi of the Daily Show plays a swarmy book publisher named Bob Spaulding in the new Sandra Bullock film The Proposal. Mandvi’s character is the third instance I’ve seen recently where a desi is cast in a non-ethnic role: Aziz Ansari’s Tom Haverford on Parks and Recreation and Kal Penn’s Lawrence Kutner being the two others.

Has any one else noticed this? Is this a trend?

Adam Lambert Says In a “Weird Way” Success was for Freddie

It should come as as no surprise that American Idol runner up Adam Lambert considers late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury a musical hero. In an interview with Oprah.com Adam pays tribute to the mustachioed one:

SS: Seems to me you could take over as the lead singer of Queen.

AL: Freddie Mercury is an idol of mine. The quality and the attack and passion in which he’d sing is totally inspirational to me. And, his story. He was living in a time when you couldn’t be as honest and open about your lifestyle. I’m very fortunate to be in 2009, and I kind of feel like in some weird way this is for him and all the other artists who haven’t been able to be real.

(Via MJ’s Big Blog)

Bollywood Returns to So You Think You Can Dance!

Choreographer Nakul Dev Mahajan returned to So You Think You Can Dance last week to choreograph Caitlin and Jason’s performance to (what else?) Jai Ho.

An interesting performance, but not nearly as memorable as Joshua and Katie’s delightful dance to Dhoom Tana last season.

Monica Yunus Gets Married: This Week’s NY Times Wedding Announcements

Monica Yunus, a New York-based opera singer and the daughter of Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, was married last weekend. Here’s Monica singing Je Veux Vivre on YouTube.

There was also a Hindu wedding this week in Massachusetts.