New Delhi, Aug 4 - There are stories and rumours galore about film stars, but celebrities are no longer willing to tolerate gossip that will affect their relationships. Many like Aishwarya Rai, Saif Ali Khan and Akshay Kumar have threatened legal action to stop gossip-mongers from spreading false news about their personal lives.
Recently an article titled, 'Career more important than family', published by a website infuriated Aishwarya so much that she issued a statement saying she would take legal action against those who are spreading rumours about her.
According to Archana Sadanand of Imagesmiths, who handles the publicity for Aishwarya, a celebrity's life is in the public domain but circulating untrue statements about them affects their personal lives.
'Yes, a celebrity's life is there in the public domain but writing things that are untrue and attributing false statements to them affect their personal lives and in such cases the best way out is legal recourse,' Archana told IANS.
'A rumour is a rumour until it takes the shape of newsprint or media space... when we authenticate any such information by broadcasting, we in a way are adding to our readership or viewership.
'But we seem to forget that a life, a person is attached to such rumours and in most cases these rumours have a snowball effect,' said Archana, whose client list also includes big names like Akshay Kumar and Imran Khan.
In the past actors like Saif Ali Khan and Akshay too have threatened legal action against gossip-mongers.
Saif was at the receiving end when The New York Post reported that he had thrown attitude in a local bar and was thrown out. He then threatened to take the newspaper to court.
'I'm considering taking legal action against the paper. The article is slanderous and completely baseless,' Saif, who was shooting for Siddharth Anand's 'Tara Rum Pum' then, had said.
Akshay too decided to act against those spreading rumours of a discord in his married life with Twinkle Khanna.
Akshay and Twinkle's spokesperson released a statement that said: 'They will not stand for false and malicious reporting by any publication any more. They have sent a legal notice to the publication concerned for the false report that they published on July 24, 2007, and they will take them to court.