Pittsburgh: Home of Indian Actresses

I recently learned that Aarti Mann, the actress who portrays Priya Koothrappali on CBS’ hit show The Big Bang Theory is from Pittsburgh. Specifically, Ms. Mann moved to Pittsburgh as a toddler, grew up in Mt. Lebanon and Wexford before settling in Fox Chapel, and graduated from Shady Side Academy.



Earlier this television season, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette profiled Anisha Nagarajan who played Madhuri on the recently cancelled NBC show Outsourced. Nagarajan grew up in Squirrel Hill and Fox Chapel and graduated from Fox Chapel Area High School in 2002. See a theme here? If you’re a female actress of Indian decent, the road to stardom is through Pittsburgh. Move to Pittsburgh (or even better, be born in Pittsburgh), attend a high school in Western Pennsylvania and a sitcom is in your future!

I understand that some of you may have your doubts about this. You may believe that two Indian actresses from Pittsburgh does not make a trend. I disagree. Mindy Kaling of The Office probably visited Pittsburgh at some point. In addition, Aishwarya Rai, arguably the world’s most beautiful woman, is a Steelers fan.* Trend!



* Ms. Rai's support of the Steelers didn’t seem to come up in the 60 Minutes interview, so I cannot confirm that Ms. Rai is a Steelers fan...except that she is.

Here's footage of the Aishwarya Rai-60 Minutes video:

Katy Perry Sesame Street Controvery (Friday Links)

Katy Perry's appearance on Sesame Street will apparently not air. Lisa de Moraes has a great recap of this, but I think there's one thing that everyone is missing. This is all about ratings. Sesame Street's ratings have been down lately, so the increased attention is just what the show needs. The last time I remember hearing about Sesame Street was the contract dispute between PBS and Oscar the Grouch many years ago. The Katy Perry controversy is just what the show needs to increase attention and advertising dollars. [The Washington Post]

By the way, here's the video of Katy Perry and Elmo:



I'm not sure how to describe this, but this is a funny story about a child who needed tooth surgery but also wanted to attend a party. [Hyperbole and a Half]

A season recap of your AA Eastern League Champions, the Altoona Curve. [Pirates Prospects]

Check out Outsourced to see Anisha Nagarajan of Squirrel Hill and later Fox Chapel. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

Congratulations to Igloo Dreams for reaching the five year blog anniversary. [Igloo Dreams]

A cool story about Pittsburgh Pirate Neil Walker. [Raise the Jolly Roger]

HBO plans to air a 24/7 series about this season's Winter Classic between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals. [Empty Netters]

Have a great weekend!