Aishwarya Rai is beautiful, says Catherine Zeta Jones

She herself features in elite global lists such as the World’s Most Beautiful People, 100 Sexiest Women in the World and 100 Hottest Hotties. But Welsh beauty and Hollywood actor Catherine Zeta Jones is all praise for the stunning looks of Bollywood actor and former Miss World, Aishwariya Rai Bachchan. Catherine saw pictures of Aishwarya with her husband, Hollywood actor Michael Douglas, when the two attended the International Peace Day at the UN Headquarters in New York together, and confessed that she couldn’t take her eyes off Ash’s pictures. “Michael recently met Aishwarya. I saw the pictures and she is just as he described her, beautiful,” the 43-year-old actor said. However, the meeting with Aishwarya is not Michael’s and Catherine’s first exposure to India. The Hollywood couple has visited India on a brief, hush-hush trip in the summer of 2008, and the duo it seems have been smitten by the natural beauty and colours of India ever since. “We visited Rajasthan and Bombay a few years ago. Both the places were so different from each other. Rajasthan is as beautiful and bright as the people there. The state is so colourful despite the fact that a large part of the state has a desert that is cold and staid. Bombay (Mumbai) of course has a charm of its own,” Catherine shared about their Indian holiday. Meanwhile, Indian fans of Catherine can catch her in Playing For Keeps, which hit Indian screens on Friday. This is Catherine’s second release this year after she came back from a three-year hiatus, and she plays the role of a sports news reader in the film. The actor is however upset about not being able to promote this film in India. “India was on our map when we were deciding the promotional tour of Playing for Keeps. But then due to some problem we had to cancel our plans,” she says. The other film of the actor that released this year was Rock of Ages with Hollywood actor Tom Cruise. Catherine, who began her career on the stage, shot to fame in Hollywood with films like The Mask of Zorro (1998) and Traffic (2000).