The inaugural Arab-Indo Bollywood Awards will be held at Dubai World Trade Centre on April 10. The event will honour the best of last year’s Hindi films in three categories – main, technical and special. Fans will be able to vote for their favourites in the first two categories online at www.aibagulf.com or at ballot boxes in 100 branches of UAE Exchange. The preselection jury for the awards includes Bollywood filmmakers and stars including Tigmanshu Dhulia, Goldie Behl, Javed Jaffrey, Arbaaz Khan, Malaika Arora Khan, Sreedhar Raghavan, Komal Nahta and Shyam Shroff. Jury chairman Dhulia says the event will not only honour blockbusters: “We want to reward films that were great technically or in terms of content, even if they weren’t big commercial hits,” he said. “Such films are high on content and we will respect that.” Some of Bollywood’s biggest names will be in Dubai for the event and a selection of A-list names are already confirmed. – The National staff
New Romantic pioneer Steve Strange dies
Singer Steve Strange, frontman of the British band Visage and one of the founders of the 1980s' New Romantic style, has died at the age of 55. His death on Thursday at Egyptian resort Sharm el-Sheikh's hospital was caused by an apparent heart attack. Visage, which also featured Band Aid co-founder and Ultravox frontman Midge Ure, had its best-known hit in 1980 with electronic-pop song Fade to Grey. But Strange exerted his greatest influence on the music industry as co-founder of London's Blitz club, which became a haven for danceable pop and outrageous fashion. The members of Spandau Ballet, another New Romantic band, said Strange was "a huge influence on the musical and cultural landscape of the 1980s". – AP
Don McLean’s American Pie notes for sale
Singer-songwriter Don McLean is selling his manuscript and notes to his best-known song, American Pie, the wistful anthem about "the day the music died". Christie's said McLean is selling 16 pages, including the original working manuscript and typed drafts of the song. The estimate for the sale, on April 7 in New York, is between US $1 million (Dh3.6m) and $1.5m. The eight-minute-long American Pie was released in 1971 and was a No 1 US hit for four weeks in 1972. "The day the music died" refers to the deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper in a plane crash on February 3, 1959. – AP
Franco to star in Stephen King JFK mini-series
James Franco is taking the lead role in a TV mini-series based on Stephen King's time-travel novel 11/22/63, about a teacher who discovers a portal into the past and decides to use it to prevent the assassination of President John F Kennedy. A broadcast date for the nine-hour series is yet to be set. It will be produced by online video-streaming service Hulu and Warner Bros Television. – AP
Surprise album from Drake
Drake collaborated with Beyoncé on her surprise album last year, and now he's taking a page from her book by unexpectedly releasing an album of his own. The Grammy-winning rapper released If You're Reading This It's Too Late on Friday on iTunes. It includes 17 tracks and features guest appearances from Lil Wayne, Travi$ Scott and PARTYNEXTDOOR. Drake's previous release was 2013's Nothing Was the Same, his third studio album, which sold more than 650,000 units in its first week. – AP
London chef creates menu inspired by Game of Thrones
It takes a strong stomach to be a fan of Game of Thrones, a blood-soaked saga set in a brutal fantasy kingdom.
It also takes a strong imagination to design a mouth-watering menu based on the television show. Chef Jamie Hazeel has done it, and he says creating delicacies such as traitor’s tongue and smoked serpent was a challenge.
“Python is a bit of a tricky meat,” Hazeel said, deftly slicing a long piece of pinkish flesh. “So we’re using smoked eel instead.” A temporary restaurant, punningly titled All Men Must Dine, opens in London Friday to mark the DVD release of season four of the HBO series. Over three nights, fans chosen from 12,000 competition entrants will be served a 10-course meal in surroundings inspired by a council chamber at King’s Landing, capital of the programme’s Seven Kingdoms. Hazeel, co-owner of catering company The Wandering Chef, is also a fan, and has let his imagination run free for a menu that draws on medieval recipes and dishes mentioned in the TV series. – AP
Actor Gary Busey injures woman in minor accident
Authorities say actor Gary Busey has struck and slightly injured woman with his car while backing out of a shopping centre car park in Malibu. The accident happened shortly before 3pm. Friday on the Pacific Coast Highway.
A statement from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department says the 70-year-old Busey was backing out of a parking stall when he hit the woman. She was treated at the scene and released. Busey wasn’t immediately cited, and investigators say there’s no evidence that alcohol or illegal substances were involved in the mishap. – AP
Auction of football-themed works raises money for children’s charities
A London auction of football-themed works raised more than US $4 million for children’s charities on Thursday, including a portrait of Barcelona star Lionel Messi by Damien Hirst that alone fetched $556,000.
The Sotheby’s London auction featured 18 works donated from artists including Japan’s Takashi Murakami, US sculptor Richard Serra, Egyptian artist Wael Shawky and Saudi Arabia’s Manal Al Dowayan.
It raised just over $4 million for “1 in 11”, a campaign to increase education opportunities to vulnerable children in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Nepal.
Gary Owens dies at 80
The veteran voice-over star died Thursday at his Los Angeles-area home, his son, producer Scott Owens, said Friday. Gary Owens had struggled with complications from diabetes, which he had since childhood, family spokeswoman Vicki Greenleaf said Friday.
Owens hosted thousands of radio programs in his long career, appeared in more than a dozen movies and on scores of TV shows, including Lucille Ball and Bob Hope specials. He also voiced hundreds of animated characters, was part of dozens of comedy albums and wrote books.
Emile Hirsch claims not to remember attacking studio executive, as he was under influence of alcohol
The actor checked into rehab within days of the incident and remains in treatment, attorney Robert Offer wrote in a statement obtained Friday.
“Regarding the charges that have been brought against Emile Hirsch today, the facts that I can relay are that he consumed an enormous amount of alcohol on the evening in question and he doesn’t have any memory of what happened at the time of the allegations,” Offer wrote. “However, Emile takes these allegations very seriously, and is devastated that any of this has occurred.”
The Into the Wild actor was charged in Utah Thursday with felony aggravated assault over an incident in which a studio executive accused Hirsch of placing her in a headlock and dragging her across a nightclub table in late January.
“A few days after the incident, Emile sought help and checked himself into an alcohol rehabilitation facility, where he remains today, to ensure nothing like this ever happens again,” Offer wrote. “Emile is continuing to cooperate fully with authorities.” – AP