Duo Mam to play brace of shows in Dubai and Abu Dhabi

Plus: Charlize Theron criticised for ‘rape’ remark; Parineeti Chopra claims she was misquoted; Coldplay top Billboard chart.

Duo Mam will be delighting UAE audiences. Richard Walter

The French indie music team Duo Mam will be in Dubai and Abu Dhabi on June 3 and 4 respectively. The musicians Viviane Arnoux and François Michaud, who have been playing and mixing accordion, violin and vocals together since 1992, will perform a show inspired by the history of the accordion, with a range of classical and contemporary pieces. They will also host workshops for the accordion and violin for students at French schools. The Dubai concert will be held at the Sofitel Jumeirah Beach Road from 8pm. In Abu Dhabi, they will perform at Lycée Louis Massignon School at 8pm. Tickets are priced at Dh100 and are available from timeouttickets.com. – The National staff

Theron criticised for ‘rape’ remark

Charlize Theron sparked a flurry of criticism on Friday after she compared media intrusion into her life to rape. Theron made the comments at a press conference in Britain promoting her new film A Million Ways to Die in the West. Asked if she ever entered her name in a search engine, she replied: “I don’t do that, so that’s my saving grace. When you start living in that world and doing that, you start, I guess, feeling raped.” Katie Russell, a spokeswoman in England for the sexual violence charity Rape Crisis, said: “She should understand that when she speaks there will be a huge number of victims of sexual violence among her audience.”

Parineeti Chopra: I was misquoted

The actress Parineeti Chopra told reporters on Saturday that she was misquoted in an interview last week that said she refuses to co-star with Bollywood’s Khans – Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir – because women only play minor roles in their films. “That comment was blown out of proportion,” she said. “I was asked … whether I’ve been offered a film with senior actors. To that I answered: ‘Yes, I have been offered those films but [my characters] didn’t have much to do [in the story], so I didn’t do them.’ But I did not specifically mention anybody’s name.” Chopra added: “I will never talk about films that I am not a part of. It’s a very insensitive thing.”

Coldplay tops Billboard chart

Coldplay's new album Ghost Stories topped this week's Billboard 200 album chart, with the highest weekly sales by any artist so far this year. It's the British group's fourth No 1 album on the chart. The country singer Brantley Gilbert's Just As I Am debuted at No 2, while Michael Jackson's posthumous release, ­Xscape, placed third. The Australian rapper Iggy Azalea's song Fancy topped the digital songs chart. It knocked a song that also features Azalea, Ariana Grande's Problem, from the No 1 spot.