1. Lou Reed is a woman -- For starters "Lou" could be a woman's name. But this change probably owes more to Reed's early 70s affinity for lipstick, dyed blonde hair, and a transvestite lover. Reed has also sung from the woman's point of view in several songs, such as Lisa Says, Candy Says, Stephanie Says, etc.

2. Elvis Presley is renamed Jesse Parker -- Elvis's twin brother was named Jesse (he died at birth). Parker was the name of Presley's manager (that's Colonel Parker to you) and the man who after Elvis died said that he would go right on managing him. Long live the king.

3. Answer: Frank Zappa -- Question: Who's Uncle Meat? A pseudonym created by Zappa himself and the title of one of his Mother of Invention albums.

4. "Bridge Over Troubled Water" is a big hit for Carly Simon and Guinevere Garfunkel -- Basically fun with names here, though the gender switch may owe something to Simon and Garfunkel's soft sound. Nevertheless, Rushdie does consider Paul Simon a friend.

5. There's a character named Madonna Sangria -- This character bears a rather strong resemblance to a similarly named real life person (and I wonder whom that producer extraordinaire character named Eno Barber is based on?). The Madonna character is depicted as opportunistic, mean-spirited and shallow, which probably had something to do with Madonna allegedly shredding her gift copy of the book. Upon hearing this, Rushdie replied that having his book shredded by Madonna was still preferable to having a bounty put on his head by the Ayatollah. Rock the casbah, baby.