Holly to Bolly: Brad Pitt joined Jolie and kids on Cambodia trip, Syrian poet Adonis wins $50,000 lifetime achievement prize and more

AP

AP

AP

Reem Mohammed / The National

AP

AP

Superstar Brad Pitt secretly joined his former wife Angelina Jolie during a trip to Cambodia in February, according to sources. Jolie was in Cambodia for her film First They Killed My Father.

A source told eonline.com that Pitt was in Cambodia "most of the time except when it conflicted with his own shoot schedule". A second source said that the former couple's six children, Shiloh, Maddox, Knox, Vivienne, Zahara and Pax, split time between Pitt and Jolie while they go to see Cambodia's sights.

“All through production and filming, and on her most recent press trip, Brad came to Cambodia in secret to spend time with the kids,” the second source said. “They were with Angelina for probably 75 per cent of the time when Brad was in the country and they’d go back and forth between her and Brad.” The insider also said “some or all” of the children would leave Cambodia to fly to Los Angeles to spend time with their father. – IANS

Syrian poet Adonis wins $50,000 lifetime achievement prize

Syrian poet and translator Adonis has won a $50,000 [Dh184,000] prize from PEN America for lifetime achievement. The literary and human rights organization also has handed out prizes for best book of 2016 and best debut fiction.

At a Manhattan ceremony on Monday (March 27) night, with the theme Books Across Borders, PEN announced that Adonis was the recipient of the PEN/Nabokov Award for Achievement in International Literature. Hisham Matar's memoir about his native Libya, The Return, won the $75,000 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award for the year's best work. Rion Amilcar Scott's story collection Insurrections won the $25,000 PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for debut fiction. Angela Morales' The Girls in My Town, about growing up Mexican-American in Los Angeles, was given the $10,000 PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award for the Art of the Essay. – AP

Spider-Man and Blade Runner footage kicks off CinemaCon

Iron Man just put Spider-Man in time out. Sony Pictures unveiled the second trailer for Spider-Man: Homecoming at America's CinemaCon, featuring Tom Holland, the newly appointed web-slinger, being put in his place by Robert Downey Jr.'s more seasoned Tony Stark. The film, out July 7, picks up with Holland's Peter Parker returning to high school after the events of Captain America: Civil War, and wanting to immediately get back into the action as a new threat emerges from Michael Keaton's Vulture.

The annual gathering of theater owners, exhibitors and Hollywood studios kicked off on Monday March 27 evening at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas with Sony Pictures' presentation of their upcoming slate, featuring new looks at everything from Blade Runner 2049 and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle to the Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower. The studio also announced that they were bumping up the release of Edgar Wright's Baby Driver to June 28 from its planned August release. – AP

Will Smith enjoys brief reunion with Fresh Prince cast

Will Smith has reunited with his Fresh Prince of Bel Air cast mates. Alfonso Ribeiro, who played Smith's Tom Jones-loving cousin Carlton on the 1990s sitcom, posted a picture on Instagram on Monday of the cast getting together. Joined by Smith and Ribeiro were Tatyana Ali, Karyn Parsons, Daphne Reid and Joseph Marcell. James Avery, who had the role of Smith's Uncle Phil, died in 2013.

Ribeiro writes in the caption that it’s “always amazing to spend an afternoon with my Fresh Prince family.” He says he wishes that Avery were there “to make this complete.”

Fans of the show may not want to get their hopes up for a series revival. Smith told E! News last year that a reboot of the series that aired for six seasons on NBC will happen "pretty close to when hell freezes over." – AP

Learnt a lot from Naseeruddin Shah: says Faisal Rashid

TV actor Faisal Rashid, who stars in Har Mard Ka Dard says veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah had a lot to contribute in brushing up his acting skills.

“Before I took up TV I did a play with Naseeruddin sir and it was a great experience. I did learn a lot through him. He is very dedicated, does a lot of rehearsals and puts in a lot of hard work and expects others also to do the same,” Faisal said in a statement. “Even when we repeated the same play, Naseer sir always tried and improved the scene which was a great learning experience.”

Faisal, who is seen playing a lovable husband on the Life Ok show, says the veteran actor has helped him immensely. "I have started preparing for my roles better and always kept in mind the advice which he used to give," he added. – IANS

Documentarian Ken Burns making film on Muhammad Ali

The late Muhammad Ali is getting the Ken Burns treatment. The PBS documentarian has announced that he and two partners will make a two-part, four-hour film about the former heavyweight champ, who died last June. Burns, his daughter Sarah and David McMahon collaborated for a PBS documentary on Jackie Robinson that debuted last year.

The tentative plan is to air the Ali film in 2021.

Sarah Burns said the outpouring of good will at Ali’s death made it easy to forget how divisive it was when the former Cassius Clay took the Ali name when he converted to Islam and refused to join the Army during the Vietnam War. She said filmmakers want to examine what influenced Ali’s choices and how he stuck with them despite public condemnation. – AP

Sweden in suspense over Bob Dylan’s Nobel lecture

“Whoever it is that listens to my songs owes me nothing,” Bob Dylan said in a 1966 interview, half a century before winning the Nobel Literature Prize last year. These words come as an ironic reminder for the Swedish Academy, which awards the prestigious prize.

The rock enigma snubbed the Nobel ceremony in December because of “pre-existing commitments”, and has given no indication of whether he plans to deliver a traditional Nobel lecture by the June 10 deadline. The lecture is the only requirement to receive the eight million kronor (Dh32 million, $870,000) that comes with the prize.

It can take nearly any form including a short speech, a performance, a video broadcast or even a song, but must be held within six months of December 10, the date of the Nobel prize ceremony and the anniversary of the death of the prize’s founder Alfred Nobel.

Dylan is set to perform in Stockholm on April 1-2 and in the southern city of Lund on April 9.

Speculation has mounted that he may hold his lecture during his visit to the Scandinavian country, though the Academy has repeatedly said it has not heard a word from Dylan.

“What he decides to do is his own business,” said Sara Danius, the permanent secretary of the Swedish Academy. – AFP