Well, that didn't take long. Less than a week after Zayn Malik Turned his back on One Direction, a demo of his first solo release has been released online – prompting an angry response from his former bandmate, Louis Tomlinson. Music producer Naughty Boy tweeted a link to a two-minute snippet of the song, I won't Mind, on Monday, with the message: "Let the music do the talking guys. Thank us later." On the soundcloud page with the clip, there was the message: "Let the music do the talking. There is nothing but love for what was left behind. That's why we don't mind. ;) #2016 #zaughty #zindabad." Tomlinson was not impressed by Naughty boy's tweet, accusing him on Twitter of "Clearly trying to wind the fans up". He wrote: "Wow @NaughtyBoyMusic you're so inconsiderate pal, seriously, how ... old are you? Grow up!" Naughty Boy also posted a quote that seemed to reference Malik's departure from 1D: "Respect yourself enough to walk away from anything that no longer serves you, grows you or makes you happy." The remaining members of One Direction play at The Dubai Sevens Stadium on Saturday night as part of their On the Road Again tour. - The National staff
Tyrese loves Fast & Furious family ties
After making so many movies together over the past 15 years, the Fast and Furious cast have developed a strong bond with each other that helped them to cope with the death of their “brother” and co-star, Paul Walker. “I’ve been in about 16 movies and I’ve noticed that a lot of times people are cracking jokes and creating this ‘family synergy’ and as soon as the movie is over, you don’t hear from nobody”, says Tyrese Gibson. “There’s no phone calls, emails, baby showers, weddings, nothing. I don’t grow from people lying and being fake. But when it comes to this Furious family – when you finally connect with somebody, and you stay in touch with them independent of a movie set, that’s family. Vin Diesel is in my backyard twice a week. He brings his kids over. My daughter and Vin’s daughter are the best of friends. All of us have kids, families, birthdays and holidays, together, we’re always at each others’ houses. All of us as a Fast family helped each other to get through the tragedy of losing Paul Walker.” – The National staff
Distribution deal for Malala film
Fox Searchlight Pictures has acquired the worldwide rights to Image Nation's latest documentary, He Named Me Malala. Directed by Davis Guggenheim, who won an Academy Award for An Inconvenient Truth, the documentary, produced by Walter Parkes and Laurie MacDonald for Image Nation Abu Dhabi and co-financed by Participant Media, is an intimate portrait of Pakistani teenager and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai. She was wounded in October 2012, at the age of 15, when Taliban gunmen shot her in the head on her school bus in Swat Valley. She was targeted because she had spoken out in favour of education for girls in the region. "Spending the last 18 months with Malala, her father Ziauddin and their family has been one of the great experiences of my life," says Guggenheim. "Now that Fox Searchlight is joining Image Nation and Participant Media, we have the opportunity to share their moving story with the world." Image Nation chairman Mohammed Al Mubarak said the distribution deal would "help ensure the film reaches as many people as possible with its inspiring message". The film is scheduled for release this year. – The National staff
Ludacris to host Billboard Awards again
Furious 7 star and rapper Ludacris will host the 2015 Billboard Music Awards for a second year in a row. His co-host will be model Chrissy Teigen, the wife of singer-songwriter John Legend. The show, on May 17 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, will be broadcast on US TV. Nominees will be announced on April 7. – AP
Dubai-set novel on comedy-prize shortlist
Irish-American author Joseph O'Neill's Dubai-set novel The Dog is in the running for a comic-writing award whose prize includes a bottle of champagne and a pig. The other finalists in the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for comic fiction include Scottish writer Irvine Welsh for A Decent Ride, Fatty O'Leary's Dinner Party by Alexander McCall Smith; British comedian Helen Lederer's Losing It; Nina Stibbe's Man at the Helm; and Caitlin Moran's How to Build a Girl. Previous winners of the prize, named after the late comic novelist PG Wodehouse, include Ian McEwan and the late Terry Pratchett. The winner will be announced in May. The victorious author will receive a jeroboam of Bollinger champagne, a set of Wodehouse novels from Everyman's Library and a Gloucestershire Old Spot pig. – AP
Robin Williams’ family agree legal process over estate
Robin Williams' widow and his three children have agreed to out-of-court negotiations in a battle over parts of the late actor's estate – including movie awards such as his 1998 Oscar for Good Will Hunting. A judge in San Francisco delayed until June a hearing on a suit filed in December by Susan Schneider, with whom the comedian and movie star had been married for five years when he committed suicide in August of last year at the age of 63. Schneider's lawyer, James Wagstaffe, said that over the next two weeks he would meet Williams' three children from two previous marriages – Zelda, Zachary and Cody Williams – to try to reach an agreement. If this fails a mediator will intervene, he said. The deadline is June, when the battle could reach court and become public. The dispute centres on objects related to the actor's career, his childhood and objects from his office, except the furniture that was in the house he shared with Schneider. The movie awards that Williams won, such as his Oscar, would be worth a lot of money to his children, the attorney said. Schneider said in her lawsuit that the executors of the fund that the actor created to manage his estate insisted, days after his death, on having access to his home to share out and take possession of some objects. The widow says all she wants is the suit Williams wore in the ceremony in which he married her and their wedding gifts. Zelda Williams rejected reports on social media Monday that she and her siblings had already removed objects from the home of their late father. – AFP