Rushes

IT WOULD have been an easy way to pick up $5,000, but whoever helped themselves last week to 10 reels of Warren Beatty's latest film, Town & Country, blew their chance. Following the disappearance of the film from a delivery van, New Line Cinema offered the cash for the return of the reels by last Saturday when the cast were scheduled to assemble for re-shoots. Come the weekend, the missing reels were still nowhere to be seen.

JANE CAMPION'S latest production, Holy Smoke, seems to be offending ethnic faiths wherever it goes. Harvey Keitel plays the guru of a cult who has an affair with an Australian acolyte, Kate Winslet.

Following rumoured tensions with Aborigines while filming in Australia, Campion has incurred the wrath of a Hindu sect. The Purohit Sangh protested in particular at filming in the Baiji temple, into which, they claim, foreigners are not allowed.

A Hindu Nationalist leader told Agence-France Presse: "Why have they given it the name `Holy Smoke'? We don't want anyone to hurt the sentiments of our religion."

The producer, Deepak Nayer, says the film has had "the highest regard for all religions and Hindu temples, customs and their values".