Halloween Overachiever Heidi Klum Upsets Hindus Over Goddess Costume
Fashion-dreams-snuffer Heidi Klum hosted her annual Halloween bash in New York over the weekend, and once again went over the top with her costume. Almost as disturbing as last year's Snake-Infested Giant Apple (inset) was this year's decision to come as the Goddess Kali— a sacred Hindu deity that has Hindu-American leaders outraged and demanding an apology:
What may have seemed like a little fun for the German supermodel has deeply upset Hindu scholars, who feel Klum should make a public apology for posing as a sacred figure. Indo-American statesman Rajan Zed says, "Goddess Kali is highly revered in Hinduism and she is meant to be worshipped in temples and not to be used in clubs for publicity stunts or thrown around loosely for dramatic effects. "Hindus welcome Hollywood and other entertainment industries to immerse themselves in Hinduism, but they should take it seriously and respectfully, and not just use the religion for decoration or to advance their selfish agenda. Casual flirting sometimes results in pillaging serious spiritual doctrines and revered symbols and hurting the devotees."
Klum was asked by reporters how she came up with the idea. She responded:
"It was actually my assistant's idea. [Seal] and I were in India last year, so she said, ‘Why don't you do an Indian goddess? Like a scary Indian goddess?' And I said ‘OK!' So then she Googled around and she found Kali and showed me a picture, and I loved it. I loved it because she's so mean and killed all these different people and [had] fingers hanging off [her] and little shrunken heads everywhere"
If her heart was really that set on coming as a female warrior with extra appendages, we really wish she would have just taken our Defamer Costumes suggestion of 12-fingered Bond girl Gemma Arterton. Sure, it might not have had the "wow" factor of a Kali, but then again it posed far less of a risk of alienating a billion worshipers worldwide. [Photo credit: FilmMagic via Best Week Ever]