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With The Kite Runner's gala premiere scheduled for tomorrow night, the NY Times updates us on the whereabouts of the controversial project's child stars, who, you may remember, required the services of a studio-hired extraction team to get them out of potential harm's way for participating in the film's "culturally inflammatory rape scene." The good news: the children have been shuttled out of Kabul and are now safely in an undisclosed city in the United Arab Emirates, where they're being lodged in a luxury hotel while the details of their indefinite stay are being worked out:

"I can't really tell you what a weight came off when they landed safely," said Megan Colligan, a Paramount marketing executive involved in the effort. The group exodus from Kabul did not come in time for the boys to obtain visas and attend the "Kite Runner" premiere, which will take place on Tuesday night at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood.

But Paramount executives and others involved in the relocation effort still hope to bring the co-stars to the United States to be honored somehow and to grant their wish to visit as tourists.

"We owe these kids some carefree moments as children after everything that has gone around them," said Rich Klein, a Middle East specialist at the consulting firm Kissinger McLarty Associates, who was hired by the studio. [...]

Paramount is putting them up at a luxury hotel until more permanent housing and jobs for their guardians can be found; the boys are to attend a school with other Afghan students. The studio is also paying a per diem to relatives left behind in Kabul, and has offered to keep the entire arrangement in place long enough for the boys to graduate from high school if they choose to stay.

Studio executives asked that the specific city in the United Arab Emirates not be named, saying unwanted media attention could make it difficult for the boys to adjust to their new surroundings and could even complicate efforts to extend their temporary visas there. Other news outlets already intend to report on the boys' location, said a consultant to Paramount, who insisted on anonymity because he had not been authorized by the studio to speak on the matter: "People are being excessively aggressive. I understand the interest, but there's something bigger at stake here. The best possible outcome would be in 20 years to see a where-are-they-now piece on VH1."

Unfortunately, best-case scenarios rarely come to pass; Paramount, despite doing its best to shield the minors until they're need for that Where Are They Now? The Lost Children of The Kite Runner' 20 Years Later special mentioned above, might have to settle for a more feasible VH1 property that can simultanesouly build some buzz for the movie's eventual DVD release, such as The Surreal Life: UAE Luxury Hotel, which follows the displaced young stars, their families, and a number of studio handlers as they all try and coexist in a single high-end suite in their new homeland.