“Sort ‘em out”
At a recent meeting of his inner cabal, The Great Khan, in an expansive mood, spoke about his “accountability campaign” against the Opposition. According to our mole, he said that he was much maligned as the accountability tsar whereas he claimed, it was The Boyz who’ve been at him for the longest time to “sort ‘em out”. Of course, he didn’t deny his own relish for the blood sport but sought to divide the blame, as it were. This is interesting, given the view that is assiduously propagated in the media by The Boyz’ acolytes that the blood lust is The Great Khan’s obsession and the former are a moderating influence.
The Diana industry
As we know, there has been a revival of interest in the British Royal Family in recent years, various members having caused ripples with their controversial conduct. The obsession with the late Princess Diana has also seen a revival, following her second son Prince Harry’s departure from the royal fold. While some of the productions have had mixed reviews — the recent film “Spencer” comes to mind — the Netflix serial “The Crown” has received accolades from across the world. Created and principally written by Peter Morgan, we hear various friends and acquaintances of the Royals were also consulted in the process. One of these was apparently Jemima Khan. We hear she lobbied hard with Morgan (they were reportedly close friends) to include in the teleserial Princess Diana’s relationship with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan, for which she made that famous trip to Lahore, facilitated by Mr & Mrs Khan who were married and living in Lahore at the time.
Peter Morgan didn’t think this chapter merited attention and told Jemima Khan so. At this, we hear, she took recourse to social media and spelt out her disappointment at the “exploitation” and “misrepresentation” of her late friend Princess Diana, and asked for the removal of her name from The Crown’s credits.
Miffed with this public spat, Peter Morgan’s team hit back in a statement to the Sunday Times, “Jemima Khan has been a friend, fan and a vocal public supporter of The Crown since season one. She has been part of a wide network of well-informed and varied sources who have provided extensive background information to our writers and research team, providing context for the drama that is The Crown. She has never been contracted as a writer on the series.”
No song & dance
At a recent event honouring artistes who have contributed to the ISPR’s media ventures, The Great Khan mouthed the usual platitudes and made to leave the venue. The assembled artistes, who had been tripping over themselves eulogising The Great Khan’s leadership, were most disappointed and asked him to stay on to witness their performance. “I don’t listen to music”, he declared and off he went. Obviously, qawwali does not qualify as “music”, given that The Khan recently hosted a Mehfil-e-Samaa at his home. He was taking about everything else. Who can deny the all-embracing impact of Her Holiness’s teachings?
