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USA March 18, 1999 VNN3357 Star's Photo Stunt Enrages Hindus FROM THE NEW YORK POST  USA, Mar 18 (VNN) — Copyright 1999 N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved. The New York Post March 16, 1999, Tuesday SECTION: All Editions; Pg. 008 HEADLINE: STAR'S PHOTO STUNT ENRAGES HINDUS THE Hindu community is up in arms over a photo in the current issue of Vanity Fair which shows actor Mike Myers as a religious deity. Hindu activists say the photo of the star of "Wayne's World" and "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" mocks their beliefs and insults their faith. The South Asian Journalists' Association, SAJA, has posted the photos on their website, [www.saja.org] where an e-mail chat room is now buzzing with condemnations of the pictures. In a two-page spread - shot by notoriously provocative lensman David LaChapelle - Myers appears with a partially shaved hairstyle favored by those in the Chanakya sect. Myers wears saffron-colored silk robes, traditional mehndi body paintings, and a jeweled bindi on his forehead. In a jab at celebrities like Madonna who have recently embraced Hinduism as a fashion statement, Myers has "Call my agent" henna-painted onto his hand and poses holding a palm-pilot personal organizer that reads "Om." An accompanying photo shows Myers seated in the lotus positon with an elongated tongue like the Hindu goddess Kali, and surrounded by naked, blue-skinned models and an odd "monkey" god. "I'm all for irreverence and wit, but this incensed me," wrote one SAJA member in a letter posted on the site. Now, SAJA scribes are flooding Vanity Fair's editors with e- mail protests. "What bothers me is the ease with which religious symbols important to a peripheral group can be appropriated and used in this manner," wrote one distraught Hindu. "I wonder if VF would have the nerve to depict other culturally central symbols in this manner," the letter continues. An editorial blurb in the issue says LaChapelle "enlisted some Hare Krishna friends [including Manjari, daughter of Bhagavan ex- guru] to help him shoot Myers as an Eastern demigod. They instructed LaChapelle on the details - gold body paint, robe, mehndi and bindi hand and face markings." The blurb goes on to gloat, "Myers really went for the whole thing." Too bad some Hindu readers aren't quite as enthusiastic. Comment on this Story This story URL: http://vaishnava-news-network.org/usa/US9903/US18-3357.html
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