The former Beatle Paul McCartney has cancelled his Japan tour because of a debilitating virus that has laid him up in a Tokyo hotel, organisers said on Tuesday, disappointing thousands of the 71-year-old music legend’s fans. McCartney – one of two living members of The Beatles – had already cancelled performances at the National Stadium in Tokyo on Saturday and Sunday, after coming down with the unspecified illness. He “will regrettably have to cancel the remaining Japanese shows. Paul is still not feeling better and this cancellation is unavoidable”, the organiser Kyodo Tokyo said in a statement. A company spokeswoman said the musician was “staying at a hotel in Tokyo and doctors are with him”, but added that it was “unclear” if he would still perform at a South Korean concert scheduled for May 28. – AFP
Bill Clinton to receive award for jazz advocacy
The former US president Bill Clinton will get a chance to play his saxophone when the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz honours him with its Founder’s Award. The Monk Institute announced on Monday that Clinton will receive the award at a concert on November 9 at Los Angeles’s Dolby Theater featuring Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dianne Reeves, Dee Dee Bridgewater and others. The proceeds will support the institute’s free jazz education programmes worldwide. Hancock, the institute’s chairman, says Clinton honed “his creativity on the tenor saxophone” in public school music programmes and has been “a jazz advocate for decades”. The concert will include the finals of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition, which this year is devoted to trumpeters. – AP
Fans wants Beyoncé and Jay Z’s fake movie trailer made into a film
Beyoncé and Jay Z earlier this week released a trailer for a fake movie online with guns blazing and now fans want to see the film actually made. Fans launched a petition on Monday on Change.org to support a feature-length version of Run. The trailer that debuted on Sunday shows the superstar couple as gun-toting outlaws. It features cameos by Sean Penn, Don Cheadle and Blake Lively. The fake trailer concludes with the words "coming never". Beyoncé and Jay Z are sharing top billing for their On the Run concert tour that is set to begin next month in Miami. The couple made the news last week for a different video. TMZ posted footage showing a physical altercation between Jay Z and Beyoncé's sister, Solange Knowles. The trio said in a statement they had "worked through" the incident. – AP
Bang Bang wraps shoot in Abu Dhabi
Filming has wrapped up for the forthcoming Hindi film Bang Bang, starring Hrithik Roshan and Katrina Kaif. The action drama, a partnership between Fox Star Studios and twofour54, is the first Bollywood film produced in Abu Dhabi. Filming started earlier this month and took place at various locations in Abu Dhabi including the Corniche, Hyatt Capital Gate hotel, Qasr Al Sarab, Emirates Palace and Yas Island. Other major international productions to film in the emirate this year include Fast & Furious 7 and Star Wars: Episode VII. – The National staff
AMC network to premiere new show on Tumblr
The AMC television network says it is premiering its new series about the early days of personal computing on the social media site Tumblr. The series, Halt and Catch Fire, began as a sneak preview on Monday on Tumblr. It will be broadcast the first time on AMC on June 1. The series is set in the early 1980s. It follows three people who team up to try to build a computer that will change the future. In recent weeks, AMC has been holding screenings of the new show at technology companies, including Apple, Twitter, Google, DropBox and, on Monday, Tumblr. The series will run for 10 weeks on AMC, the network home of The Walking Dead. – AP
More witnesses take the stand in Salman Khan trial
Two more witnesses have come forward in the fatal 2002 hit-and-run case involving Salman Khan. A waiter in a five-star hotel on Monday identified Salman Khan in a Mumbai court, saying that the Bollywood actor and his friends visited the hotel only hours before he allegedly drove his Toyota Land Cruiser over people sleeping on a pavement, killing one of them. Another witness, a policeman on guard duty at Khan’s residence the night of the accident, revealed that Khan and his brother Sohail went out together but Sohail returned alone after midnight. The policeman said he was informed around three hours later that Khan had met with an accident, adding that he drove to the spot with the person who had relayed the news, but did not find the actor there. On May 6, one of the witnesses for the prosecution identified Khan as the person who left the car and escaped from the site. On December 5 last year, the court ordered a fresh trial on the ground that the witnesses had not been examined in the context of culpable homicide. The trial began on April 28. If convicted, Khan faces a 10-year sentence. – IANS
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