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'Slumdog' star gets new home

The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 6, 2009

One of the impoverished child stars from "Slumdog Millionaire" will move from his Mumbai, India, shanty home into a new apartment, his mother said Sunday.

"On Friday, we got the keys," said Shameem Ismail, the mother of child star Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail, who played the young Salim in the Oscar-winning hit.

The family started moving in over the weekend, bringing pots and pans, a television set, and their bird cage. They plan to fully relocate by Tuesday, she said.

Both Azhar and his co-star, Rubina Ali, lost their homes in May after civic authorities demolished parts of the slum where they lived.

Within days of the demolition, Azhar's family rebuilt their home - a shanty of corrugated metal, wood and blankets, meager protection against the pounding monsoon rains sweeping across Mumbai.

But the filmmakers bought Azhar a 250-square-foot one-bedroom apartment on the ground floor of a building in the Santa Cruz neighborhood of Mumbai, not far from where he now lives and attends school.

The $50,000 apartment will be transferred to Azhar's name when he turns 18, provided he finishes school, said Nirja Mattoo, who helps oversee the Jai Ho trust set up by "Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle and producer Christian Colson. The fund is meant to secure an education, housing and a living allowance for the two children.

Mattoo said Sunday that the trust is still looking for an apartment for Rubina, who has lived with relatives in the slum since the demolition.

Group seeks to ban TV use of 'midget'

Little people are calling on the Federal Communications Commission to ban the use of the word "midget" on broadcast TV.

The group Little People of America said Sunday the word is just as offensive as racial slurs.

The request was prompted by an April episode of NBC's "Celebrity Apprentice" that the group said was demeaning.

In the episode, contestants created a detergent ad called "Jesse James and the Midgets." The contestants, including Joan Rivers, suggested bathing little people in the detergent and hanging them to dry.

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