Bollywood actress had sex with troops

SYDNEY (AFP)

Claims that a Bollywood actress had sex with troops while touring an Australian military base in Afghanistan were under investigation, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said yesterday.
Rudd was reluctant to comment on the sex scandal claims surrounding London-based Australian actress Tania Zaetta — who has denied the allegations — saying it was best left to Australia’s defence department.
“As I understand it, these matters are under investigation within the defence department and I will leave it for that investigation to reach its own conclusions,” Rudd told reporters.
The allegations surround a tour to Australian military bases in Afghanistan last month undertaken by Zaetta and a number of other entertainers.
Sydney’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reported that unsubstantiated claims Zaetta had sex with troops at one of the bases were detailed in a departmental briefing note prepared for Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon.
Zaetta has strenuously denied the allegations, describing them as “ridiculous” and “hurtful”.
She said she was never alone with any soldiers and the entertainers were in full view at all times, even requiring an escort to walk to and from the toilets.
“There’s not one iota of truth to it,” she told Channel Nine television yesterday. Zaetta said there may have been tensions with other performers because of the attention she received on the tour.
“But I still don’t think that irritating somebody is any grounds to make up such horrible, disgusting, vicious, nasty allegations,” she said The actress said she wanted an apology from the defence department and feared the scandal could derail her Bollywood career.
“Not only my family name but my career, that I’ve worked so hard for, is suddenly at stake here,” she said.
“In an industry, being Bollywood, where it’s taken me pretty much 10 years to get a look in there and two years of having to move into India, a pretty damn tough country to move into as a single foreigner girl ... when things like this get into countries like that, it’s not taken lightly.
“Sex scandals, rumoured, alleged, bad Chinese whispers, whatever it is, aren’t taken lightly in a country like that.” Zaetta, 37, rose to prominence in Australia as a game show host and went on to feature in a number of Bollywood productions, including a recent Charlie’s Angels-style hit, “Mr. Black, Mr. White.” Fitzgibbon said he had ordered an inquiry into how his briefing note — officially referred to as a “hot issue brief” — became public.