Brits honoured in Hollywood

Also, Halloween witch report from Rowling; Assaf in running for MTV EMA; Batman working to save bats; New album from Dylan next year and more.

Winners of Bafta Los Angeles Britannia Awards, from left, Robert Downey Jr, Emma Watson and Judi Dench. Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

Brits honoured in Hollywood

There was a British invasion in Hollywood at the Beverly Hilton hotel at the weekend. Bafta Los Angeles, a branch of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, hosted its annual Britannia Awards, honouring film and television talent, including the director Mike Leigh and the actors Robert Downey Jr, Judi Dench, Emma Watson and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Downey Jr received the Stanley Kubrick Award for Excellence in Film, named after the director of such films as 2001: A Space Odyssey. The Oscar-winning actress Dench was honoured with the Albert R (“Cubby”) Broccoli Award for Worldwide Contribution in Entertainment, named after one of the original producers of the James Bond films. Dench, who played 007’s boss M in recent Bond films, said: “Well, I’m rather overwhelmed by [the award], because I didn’t ever expect to have a film career at all. And I’ve had 17 years of doing Bond, which has been just wonderful.” Watson was named Britannia British Artist of the Year. – AP

Halloween witch report from Rowling

Just in time for Halloween, JK Rowling gave fans a glimpse of what makes a wicked witch tick. The Harry Potter author published a 1700-word essay on Friday revealing the real-life inspiration behind one of her most memorable villains, Hogwarts teacher Dolores Umbridge. The character first appeared in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, the fifth book in the series, and was played by Imelda Staunton in the films. In the essay, on the Pottermore website, Rowling calls Umbridge "one of the characters for whom I feel purest dislike," and says she is as reprehensible as the main villain, Lord Voldemort. She says Umbridge was inspired by a real person "whom I disliked intensely on sight". Rowling published other entries on the site on Friday, including a history of Azkaban prison and details of everyone who has held the post of Minister for Magic. – AP

Assaf in running for MTV EMA

The Arab Idol winner Mohammed Assaf is up against One Direction in the battle for the best Worldwide Act award at this year's MTV Europe Music Awards in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 9. The 10 nominees also include the Aussie pop-rockers 5 Seconds of Summer, the American girl-group Fifth Harmony and the Italian soul singer Alessandra Amoroso. Assaf's road to the EMAs had him first winning the Best Middle East Act award last week. It rounds off another busy week for the 23-year-old Palestinian. Last Wednesday he made a special appearance in Abu Dhabi's The Galleria mall as part of the relaunch of Platinum Records. The 2014 MTV EMA, hosted by Nicki Minaj, will be broadcast live on November 10 at 2am in the UAE. Visit www.mtvema.com for more details. – The National staff

Batman working to save bats

Batman has a new mission – to protect endangered bats. The actor Ben Affleck, who stars as the Dark Knight in the upcoming movie Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice has helped out a group in Detroit that is working to protect bats. He is joined by his co-star Amy Adams, who plays Lois Lane, and Zack Snyder, the film's director, in an online video posted by the Organization for Bat Conservation to coincide with National Bat Week. Part of the movie is being filmed in Detroit, and the Detroit Free Press said Snyder had heard a radio report about white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that's devastating the bat populations in the United States. Materials from the movie's sets will be recycled to build bat houses. – AP

New album from Dylan next year

Bob Dylan will release a new album next year, he has confirmed. The announcement comes ahead of the release on Tuesday of The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series, Volume 11, a six-CD set of restored recordings of Dylan's 1967 sessions with his ensemble The Band. A note in the boxed set says simply: "Bob Dylan, Shadows in the Night, New album coming in 2015." There were no further details about the album, which will be the 36th studio recording for the 73-year-old. His last studio album, Tempest, was released in 2012. – AFP

Walk of Fame star for sitcom actress Cuoco

The Big Bang Theory actress Kaley Cuoco was joined by her fellow cast members from the hit television sitcom when she received a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame at the weekend. Jim Parsons, Johnny Galecki, Simon Helberg and Kunal Nayyar, as well as the show's co-creator Chuck Lorre, watched the unveiling ceremony on Tinseltown's famous pavement. "This cast has changed my life in many ways," said the 28-year-old, who along with her co-stars earns US$1 million (Dh3.67m) per episode. The show, now in its eighth season, averages about 20 million viewers an episode, making it the most-watched comedy in America. Cuoco was accompanied by her tennis-player husband Ryan Sweeting. – AFP

The View to go under ABC News

ABC says The View is being claimed by the network's news division after 18 seasons under ABC's entertainment side. In its announcement last Thursday, ABC said the shift will allow The View to "fully draw on the vast resources of ABC News". This move is the latest in a drastic makeover for the daytime chat show, whose ratings have slipped in recent years. At this season's start, three new co-hosts – Rosie O'Donnell, Rosie Perez and Nicolle Wallace – joined the moderator Whoopi Goldberg. Barbara Walters, a founder of the programme, retired last summer from on-camera participation. The shift recalls a similar move by Good Morning America, which for 20 years was produced by ABC's entertainment division before being taken over by ABC News in the mid-1990s. – AP

Olson Welles’s final film get the green light

Orson Welles's last film may finally be nearing release after decades as one of cinema's most storied unfinished creations. According to The New York Times, a Los Angeles-based production company, Royal Road Entertainment, has agreed to buy the rights to Welles's largely unseen The Other Side of the Wind. Producers are planning to unveil the film in time for the centennial anniversary of Welles's birth on May 6. The semi-autobiographical film is about a movie director, played by John Huston, feuding with Hollywood over an ambitious film. Welles shot the film in 1971 and spent the rest of his life editing it, before dying in 1985. The director Peter Bogdanovich, who appears in the film, will help edit the footage, which includes a nearly 45-minute edited print. – AP

New Yorkers chime in on Taylor Swift’s ambassador role

Welcome to New York, Taylor Swift. The locals are complaining about you already. Swift's new gig as New York City's global welcome ambassador is getting a Bronx cheer (not that she knows what that is) from locals who questioned her street cred and mocked the videos she made for the city's tourism agency, NYC & Company. In the videos, she explains how to pronounce Houston Street (HOW-ston, not YOU-ston); defines "bodega" as a corner 24-hour store (though the bodega pictured looks spiffier than what most New Yorkers might think of as a bodega), and declares her love for the perfect latte. "A latte is not like a slice of pizza, or a bagel," declared a writer in The Village Voice. The Daily News called her appointment "absurd". A Brooklyn city councilman, Jumaane D Williams, asked in a tweet, "Of all the past/present talent and celebrities that are actually native NY'ers explain again why (hash) TaylorSwift is our ambassador?" Others wondered why Jay Z, Jerry Seinfeld or J Lo weren't tapped. The NYC & Company spokesman Chris Heywood defended Swift as the perfect choice for the city's global ambassador."She is the No 1 global pop star in the world right now," he said. "She is a new New Yorker. She came to New York last spring. This is a new approach, all about the wonderment and excitement you have when you first come to New York City. To have this enthusiasm from a global superstar, who has given us her image and influence to promote New York City, is a gift. We are so grateful." Heywood noted that a previous NYC & Company campaign, Just Ask the Locals, used New Yorkers such as Robert De Niro and Cynthia Nixon.

Swift, who was born and raised in Pennsylvania, moved to Nashville at age 14 to pursue country music. Last year she bought a US$20 million (Dh73.4m) apartment in Tribeca, a trendy downtown Manhattan neighbourhood. Her new album, 1989, is pure pop, marking a break with country. Her appointment as global tourism ambassador coincided with the release of her single, Welcome to New York, which is on track to sell 1 million copies in a week. She plans to donate proceeds from the song to city public schools and is not being paid for the ambassador stint. Not everyone is sneering at Swift’s new role. The New York Post said in an editorial: “The Swift promotions are not aimed at New Yorkers. They’re aimed at people who live elsewhere. These are people who won’t sneer when Swift explains what a `stoop’ is or the right pronunciation of Houston Street.” On The Tonight Show, Jimmy Fallon quipped: “How could we let a woman who’s not even from New York welcome people to the city?” adding in a French accent: “The Statue of Liberty said, `I know, it’s just crazy.’ ”

Swift told David Letterman she was chosen to promote the city because she couldn’t stop raving about New York as “the greatest place ever. I guess the city picked up on that, they’re like, `She’s the most enthusiastic, obnoxious person to ever love New York. She loves it with like 18 exclamation points.’ ” – AP

The tale of Usher’s two sons

One of Usher’s sons studies his dance moves meticulously, while the other has said to the Grammy-winning star: “You’re not a great singer.” Usher says his son Naviyd Ely Raymond, who turns 6 in December, isn’t impressed with the multiplatinum singer. “He doesn’t care about what I do as much. ... He’s like, ‘I’m the star. Who are you? You sing?’” said Usher. Adding: “He told me the other day, he says, `You’re not a great singer.’” The 36-year-old’s reply to his son? “What? I’m a great singer!” Usher said of his other son, Usher Raymond, who turns 7 next month, has taken to his father’s dance moves. “When seeing me perform on tour in the past ... and most of the time it’s past his bedtime, but he’s just sitting there studying every move, every second, like laser focus.And then I’ll see him off by himself doing the moves.” Usher will showcase his sharp choreography on his UR Experience World Tour, which kicked off on Saturday in Montreal. He said the tour was influenced by live shows he’s seen from U2, Bruce Springsteen and Frankie Beverly. Usher, who released two singles this year, is currently working on his eighth album. Apart from music, he says he would like to do more movies and enjoyed his stint on NBC’s The Voice because he was able to stress the seriousness of artist development. “This is something that was very, very important when I came up as an artist and is probably the reason why 20 years later, I am making music and performing and excited about doing it,” he said. – AP

Marion “Suge” Knight in jail

The rap mogul Marion “Suge” Knight had a traffic warrant reduced to a parking ticket but may remain in a Las Vegas jail at least until Monday, because of his connection in a California robbery case. Knight’s lawyer said a judge ordered the founder of Death Row Records to pay a US$190 (Dh700) fine on what had been a June 2013 suspended-license charge in Las Vegas. Knight was arrested on Wednesday in Las Vegas and remains in jail ahead of an extradition hearing on Monday. His lawyer says Knight hopes to post bail pending his appearance in court in California. That case stems from a celebrity photographer’s complaint that Knight and the comedian Katt Williams stole her camera on September 5 in Beverly Hills. Williams was arrested in the Los Angeles area. – AP

Kristin Scott Thomas to don Helen Mirren's tiara

Kristin Scott Thomas will star as Queen Elizabeth II in a new West End production of The Audience. Mirren won an Olivier Award for the original 2013 production of Peter Morgan’s play, which explores the monarch’s relationships with the dozen prime ministers who have served during her six-decade reign. The Mirren production, directed by the two-time Tony Award winner Stephen Daldry, is scheduled to open on Broadway in February. Daldry will also direct the new London production, which begins previews on April 21 at the Apollo Theatre. Scott Thomas, whose films include Four Weddings and a Funeral and Only God Forgives, is starring in Sophocles’s Electra at London’s Old Vic Theatre. – AP

John Denver sculpture disappears at Halloween party

A Denver radio station that sponsored a heavy-metal Halloween ball is pleading for the return of a bust of the American singer-songwriter John Denver that went missing during the party. During KBPI-FM’s Saints and Sinners ball on Tuesday night, the bronze statue was pried off its base at the 1stBank Center in the Denver suburb of Broomfield. The station is asking whoever took the bust to return it undamaged to its studios, no questions asked. The statue belongs to the Colorado Music Hall of Fame. It was donated by Denver’s family when he became its first inductee in 2011. The venue’s director, G Brown, said concertgoers often pose with the bust or pat it on the head as they pass by. As of Thursday, Denver police had no leads.– AP