Holly to Bolly: Will Smith parties with Bollywood star, Juan Gabriel dies at age 66, and more

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Sarah Dea / The National

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AFP

Will Smith joins Akshay Kumar at celebratory bash

In celebration of his three back-to-back hits this year, Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar hosted a massive party at his home in Mumbai and Will Smith was among the list of celebrity guests. Akshay hosted the party for his friends after his three 2016 films - Airlift, Housefull 3 and Rustom - all made huge profits. Smith partied with Kumar and his wife Twinkle Khanna as well as other stars of Indian cinema such as Sonakshi Sinha, Varun Dhawan and Arjun Kapoor. - IANS

Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz among 2017 Pirelli Calendar girls

Hollywood A-listers Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and Lupita Nyong'o are among the list of some of Tinsel Town's biggest names to pose for the 2017 Pirelli Calendar. The celebrity photos were taken by the German fashion photographer Peter Lindbergh. Uma Thurman, Kate Winslet and House of Cards actress Robin Wright are also among the 15 stars to appear in the calendar. - Reuters

Michael Buble releases women’s fragrance line

Singer Michael Buble has released a fragrance for women and says he hopes it is as romantic as his fans find his love ballads. Buble told www.people.com that the perfume, called By Invitation, offers a form of escapism from the “scary” world we live in. “My job as an entertainer is to take people away and allow them a moment of fantasy and a moment where they can escape,” he says. “I think having music or movies or even fragrance is a way to allow people to take a little break. I love that, that I get to be a small part of happy moments in a world that is becoming increasingly more complicated.” - The National Staff

Spanish singing star Juan Gabriel dies age 66

Juan Gabriel, who was rated the highest paid Spanish-language singer in the world, has died at his home in California. The Mexican superstar - an icon in the Latin American music scene - reportedly suffered a heart attack. He was 66. A flamboyant performer, Gabriel, whose real name was Alberto Aguilera Valadez, liked to wear jackets covered in sequins or dress in shiny silk outfits in hot pink, turquoise blue or canary yellow, and was known for tossing his head before dancing or jumping around the stage. “He has passed on to become part of eternity and has left us his legacy through Juan Gabriel, the character created by him for all the music that has been sung and performed all around the world,” a statement from his press office says. - Associated Press

Kamal Haasan tells Twitter fans he’s back in action

Actor/filmmaker Kamal Haasan has announced he is back at work. He took to Twitter telling his fans he is back in action after falling down some stairs, breaking his leg in two places and spending a month in hospital. "Started paperwork again on Kundu/Naidu. Walking now. Ready to run show again. Mind is flying, gaining altitude. Good enough a progression," his feed reads. Haasan is referring to the film Sabash Naidu, a trilingual comedy based on the character Sabash Naidu from another Tamil action-comedy Dasavathaaram. - IANS