Indian star Shah Rukh Khan's wax figure, just revealed at Madame Tussauds Times Square. Photo by Alex Oliveira/startraksphoto.com, courtesy of Gitesh Pandya.

As celebrated Bollywood film star, Shah Rukh Khan (whose latest film My Name is Khan is out on DVD now), made his debut at Madame Tussauds New York Wax Museum in Times Square last week — a part of the museum’s “Bollywood Zone” which includes film legend Amitabh Bachchan — we couldn’t help but wonder, which other Asian and Asian American greats have been immortalized in wax figure by the popular tourist attraction?

Aishwarya Rai, left, with her wax figure likeness.

Seems like, not many.

After some sleuthing, we have found martial arts kings Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee at the Madame Tussauds Hollywood location and a tense-looking Tiger Woods at the Vegas location. And of course there’s Indian film legend Aishwarya Rai in the museum’s London location.

As for rest of the ladies? Fuggetabout it. The closest figurine we spotted even resembling an Asian woman was an eerie Michael Jackson figure made as part of a Jackson tribute at the Washington, D.C. museum.

The wax figure of Michelle Yeoh.

For the rest of us itching to cuddle up with wax figures of Lucy Liu or Michelle Yeoh, we’ll have to travel a bit farther — to a Hong Kong, Shanghai or soon-to-be-opened Bangkok location to get our fix. ‘Cause frankly, putting your arms around an Asian-looking Michael Jackson just doesn’t cut it.

I am a hopeless klutz. I walk into walls, run into doors, and whack myself in the face with the hanger as I leave dressing rooms. Class and sophistication is something I am in desperate need of.

And maybe this “Rachel” short sleeve dress from Voom by Joy Han can save me from my lack of refinement because this little number exudes it. With delicate origami pleating in the front and belted waist, this slim fitting, scoopneck  puff-sleeved dress almost guarantees a stylish look. In a lovely coral color, it’ll be a good way to say hello to fall.

Perhaps it’ll even help me regain my dignity.

If you think that people are finally getting sick of waiting three hours in line to get their tacos and grilled cheeses cooked from an automobile, think again.

The Food Network is serving food trucks hot off the grill in their new reality cooking competition series, The Great Food Truck Race. The Tyler Florence-hosted show will feature seven food trucks as they compete in challenges across the country, vying for business and cooking prowess.  The trucks’ culinary offerings range from the zesty Ragin’ Cajun to the romantic Crepes Bonaparte.

The "Nomsters," Jennifer Green, David Kien and Misa Chien.

We’re personally rooting for the truck with the most adorable moniker — the Nom Nom Truck.  Founded by UCLA grads Vietnamese American Jennifer Green and Chinese-Dutch American Misa Chien, and managed by Asian American David Kien, Nom Nom Truck serves up fresh and tasty Vietnamese sandwiches (banh mi) and tacos. Vietnamese sandwiches have long been a hidden gem of L.A. and it’s time the whole country knew about it!

The trucks’ journey starts in San Diego and ends in New York, with one truck eliminated each week and the winner walking away with the $50,000 grand prize.

Get your salivary glands ready as the show premieres tonight, Sunday, August 15, at 10 pm.

Tyler Florence, left, and the food truck competitors.

This Fulton Satchel in Brown by Navoh Handbags is perfect for this fall. Made from the finest faux leather, you won’t have to worry about whether PETA will come knocking on your door as you tote this handsome chocolate-covered handbag. With a front zipper compartment and top zipper closure, this bag includes a removable adjustable shoulder strap, great for switching up your bag-carrying look. Inside, you’ll find two cell phone pouches, perfect for your bulky Blackberry and iTouch.

Trust me chikas, if there’s a bag you want to buy for looking classy this fall, it’s this bag.

“Domestic violence is no stranger to any race of ethnicity; it knows no economic station, and Becky’s Fund has found compelling ways to confront it in all of its forms and in all its hiding places.” — excerpt from Becky’s Fund mission statement.

If you can find the office that was donated by the law firm of Wiltshire and Grannis in Washington D.C., you will find the starting point of Becky’s Fund, a 501 (c)(3) national nonprofit organization dedicated to bring attention and awareness to domestic violence.

Becky Lee, front middle, and some of the Girl Scouts she works with and teaches about healthy relationships.

Founder and Executive Director Becky Lee began this nonprofit in hopes of preventing domestic violence. Lee first became aware of the issue after a college lecture by a criminal attorney whose cases focused on acquitting women who had been incarcerated for killing their abusers in self-defense. After this eye-opening experience, Lee switched from her pre-med track to women’s studies at the University of Michigan. She went on to receive her law degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. For the past 12 years, she has been working on issues surrounding domestic violence survivors as an advocate, a policy associate, and an attorney. One thing she quickly learned was that there is little public discussion about domestic violence and almost nothing is done to address it openly.

Becky Lee and a friend.

One of the reasons Lee decided to try out on the CBS prime time reality show Survivor: Cook Islands was to garner enough funds to begin a nonprofit. She won second place and used all of her prize money to start Becky’s Fund. Though it initially started out to help domestic violence survivors by supporting small domestic violence organizations who were already working to serve battered women, since then, Becky’s Fund has expanded its goals to foster awareness, encourage advocacy and activism, and provide support directly to victims.

Becky's Fund works with women and girls of all backgrounds to help teach them about domestic violence.

With this mission, Becky’s Fund provides many resources to assist domestic violence victims which include but are not limited to transportation/health care providers, lawyers, and social workers. It also works to serve the specific needs of abused immigrant women as the challenges they face also include cultural and language barriers. With a culture of shame and silence in many Asian cultures, immigrant women are even less inclined to come forward to seek help. One in three women are victims of domestic violence. This is a sister, a friend, a mother, a co-worker. In order to empower them, we must listen. And Becky’s Fund aims to do that with their mission and their participation in the Pepsi Refresh Challenge. You can help, too. All it takes is a click.

With the $50,000 Becky’s Fund hopes to get through the Pepsi Refresh Challenge, Becky’s Fund wants to create the first ever domestic violence phone application. By the end of its development, it will include a GPS/panic button for women who are in a crisis situation; a zip code locator for nearby shelters, hospitals, advocates; photo logging capabilities; and a privacy/security feature that will prevent their abusers from seeing or hacking into the application.

You can help victims of domestic violence by voting for Becky’s Fund today and every day for the entire month of August.

How you can vote:
- Online here.
- Texting 101506 to PEPSI (73774)
- Through Facebook (allow the application on your wall)

Voting can happen all three ways every day. The top 10 projects will receive $50,000 from the Pepsi Refresh Challenge. Help make it Becky’s Fund!

To find out more information about Becky’s Fund, please visit www.beckysfund.org.

Photos courtesy of Becky Lee.

These Foldable Ballet Flats in Black by Relax Missy are adorable, and if you disagree with me, I don’t know who you are.

Flats are an absolute staple to any wardrobe, especially if your heels have been giving you a lot of trouble. With the perk of being foldable, you can stick them in your gym bag or glove compartment for a quick change from whatever shoes you’re wearing into these glam slippers. It even comes with an extra expandable tote bag for your stilettos.

I love the detail in these shoes: the black velvet exterior with the scrunched heel to create a frill within the shoe. The gold metal detailing contrast nicely with the pink in the inside of the shoes and the black exterior. This color combination easily allows you to wear them for both casual and more formal occasions.

If your feet are aching and want some TLC, treat yourself to a pair of these!

Summer is coming to an end soon, which makes me sad, because that means I have to ship out back East where it’s cold, the people are unfriendly and not as down as CaliKids chyeaa … However, it’s not over yet, and I plan to make the most of it. And you should too.

In these platform wedge sandals by Plattoes. The tanned wedge curves smoothly up so that you won’t nearly fall on your face when you slip these on. Your feet will be greeted by a soft, almost velvet brown sole and will be safely but elegantly secure by a black-and-white-striped candy ribbon that’ll tie around your ankles.

These Plattoes wedges in a size 7, up for grabs!

That’s not all. What if I told you you could be saving money with this TGIFREE giveaway? Get this: Founder and CEO Rishi Bhati intended these shoes to last while being versatile. You have one sandal base, but you can interchange the ribbons that loop through the double rings, which help keep the ribbons in place. That combined with the many different tying methods, and bam! The possibilities are endless. Customizing your style down to your feet!

A myriad of looks with one shoe base (under $100!). Genius!

We have one Plattoes platform wedge sandal to give away to a lucky reader. The wedge is 3.5 inches high and a size 7.

Comment below, “Like” us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter no later than August 18, 11:59 pm. As always, you can retweet for an additional entry. (And you must have a U.S. mailing address to win!) Good luck!

Most people who are allergic to “fake” jewelry are allergic to the nickel or lead in them. This Gold Large Rectangle Ring with Black Agate Rectangle by Marcia Moran is not only nickel- and lead-free, but also hypo-allergenic. So you can be free of a worrisome rash when you wear this glitzy 18-kt. gold plated ring. Besides, chunky rings are easy to pair with, and the black stone makes it versatile too.

‘Cause if you liked it then you should have put a ring on it …

Award-winning actress and playwright Anna Khaja will be premiering “Shaheed: The Dream and Death of Benazir Bhutto” at the New York City International Fringe Theater Festival, starting tonight.

With “Shaheed” (which means “martyr” in Arabic), Khaja creates a powerful portrayal of the life and tragic death of Benazir Bhutto, the controversial former prime minister of Pakistan who was assassinated only two months after her return from an eight-year exile. Khaja depicts eight different characters — from an American college student to Condoleezza Rice to a Pakistani street merchant and, finally, to Bhutto herself — who paint the complex picture of an enigmatic international leader.

Anna Khaja portraying one of eight characters in "Shaheed."

Khaja, who was raised by her Pakistani father, said that “the lens through which I view Pakistan has, for the most part, been inevitably very American. Benazir’s assassination filled me with questions about the world, about Pakistan, about myself. ‘Shaheed’ was born out of my personal journey to answer these questions.”

Anna Khaja, right, explores the tragedy of the former Pakistani prime minister in her one-woman show "Shaheed: The Dream and Death of Benazir Bhutto." Photo courtesy of LA Stage.

Khaja’s insight into the inspiration for the play is fascinating:

“My father Waseem was one of millions who traveled across the war torn Indian border to find cultural and spiritual freedom in the new nation of Pakistan. Despite sixty years of despotic rule, this nascent country has continued the fight for democracy. At the forefront of the people’s struggle has been the enigma Benazir Bhutto.

“On the morning of her assassination, Bhutto was finishing her book dedicated to the compelling argument that Islam and democracy are inextricably linked. Hours later, before a crowd of thousands, she was dead, killed from a blast by a suicide bomber. Much of Pakistan was thrown into turmoil, its fragile dream in tatters.

“A tremendous paradox, Benazir was a practicing Muslim, a Harvard and Oxford elite, a ‘political mother’ to millions, the heir to a political dynasty, a corrupt megalomaniac, a warrior against terrorism, a dutiful wife to a back room thug, and in the end, perhaps, a true martyr. I find Bhutto to be a woman who is strong beyond our wildest imaginings and yet weak, egotistical and easily manipulated.

“As a Pakistani American, and as a woman, I struggle to reconcile my own notions of what these titles mean and how they could be embodied in single a person.”

Khaja’s “Shaheed” opened in Los Angeles earlier this spring and left audiences in awe. Critics praised this one-woman show, calling it “brilliant,” “riveting” and “insightful.” Backstage Magazine said: “In Khaja’s performance and in her insightful script, she masters the challenging solo-performance format to paint a riveting portrait of a leader who was both inspiring and flawed.”

“Shaheed” is produced in association with Off-Chance Productions and is directed by Heather De Michele and produced by Luis Reyes and Anna Khaja.

DETAILS

When:

Friday, August 13 at 11 pm

Saturday, August 21 at  6:45 pm

Thursday, August 26 at 5:30 pm

Saturday, August 28 at 9 pm

Sunday, August 29 at 2 pm

Where: Venue #1, Dixon Place, 161A Chrystie Street, New York City, NY 10002

Info: www.ShaheedThePlay.com

Photos by Maia Rosenfeld.

After making its way around the film festival circuit, Quentin Lee’s The People I’ve Slept With is finally coming to a theater near you. The film releases in New York tomorrow, Friday, August 13, at Clearview Chelsea Cinemas, and then in Los Angeles on August 27 at Laemmle Sunset Five Theaters, and finally in San Francisco at the VIZ CINEMAS on September 3.

Karin Anna Cheung and Keo Woolford in "The People I've Slept With."

The People I’ve Slept With is a sexy, romantic story about Angela (Karin Anna Cheung of Better Luck Tomorrow), a young woman with a very active and passionate sex life. After every sexual conquest she makes keepsake “baseball cards” of each of her male partners. One day, Angela finds out she is pregnant and together with her gay best friend and co-worker Gabriel (Wilson Cruz of He’s Just Not That Into You, My So-Called Life) goes on a comical and raunchy hunt through her past hook-ups and dates to find her “baby daddy.” As Angela examines her frisky past, the answers she has been looking for reveal themselves in surprising ways.

Cheung and Archie Kao.

Also co-starring with Cheung and Cruz are Archie Kao (CSI: Crime Scene Investigation), Lynn Chen (Lakeview Terrace, Saving Face) and screen legend James Shigeta (Flower Drum Song, The Crimson Kimono).

Cheung and James Shigeta.

The film has found strong support with sold out festival screenings including the Hawaii International Film Festival, San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival, and Outfest Fusion. It was also selected as the official Closing Night Presentation of the 2010 New York Asian American Film Festival this past July 21.

For more info, check out the website.