Bob Dylan says he "absolutely" wants to attend the Nobel Prize Award Ceremony in December "if it's at all possible". The singer finally broke his silence about earning the honour at the weekend. The 75-year-old was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in literature earlier this month. In an interview with UK newspaper The Telegraph, Dylan says "isn't that something" and "it's hard to believe" he was given the accolade. The singer-songwriter was silent for weeks following the announcement, prompting a member of the Swedish Academy that awarded him the prize to label the icon's lack of acknowledgement "impolite and arrogant". The Nobel Prize Award Ceremony will take place on December 10 in Stockholm. Dylan is the first musician to win the literature prize. — AP
Pitt and Jolie sell their Louisiana home
Hollywood A-listers Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have sold their home in New Orleans’ French Quarter. Documents filed show the property sold for $4.9 million. Pitt and Jolie purchased the home in 2007 after Hurricane Katrina for $3.5 million (Dh179 million). The couple, who are in the throes of divorce, bought the property after Pitt established the Make It Right Foundation to fuel development of new housing in New Orleans’ Lower 9th Ward neighbourhood. According to the listing, the three-story, 1830s-era mansion is set on 7,645 square feet, five bedrooms, three bathrooms and two half-baths. — AP
Bataclan concert hall reopens next month
The Bataclan concert hall has unveiled its new facade almost a year after being one of the targets of the deadly attacks that killed 130 people in Paris. After months of renovation work, the name of the concert hall, in large, red letters, is back on top of the main entrance. The Bataclan will officially reopen on November 16 with a performance by British singer Pete Doherty. -AP
Munch work to highlight Sotheby’s auction of impressionist and modern art
A work by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch will highlight Sotheby's fall auction of impressionist and modern art. The auction house expects the painting, Girls on the Bridge, to sell for more than $50 million (Dh183 million) when the hammer goes down on November 14. The seminal work from 1902 depicts a cluster of girls huddled on the bridge of a country village. It sold in 1996 for $7.7 million and again in 2008 for $30.8 million, each time setting a record for the artist. In 2012, Munch's work The Scream, one of the most iconic images in art history, sold for $119.9 million at Sotheby's. It became the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction, a record that has been broken four times since. Pablo Picasso's Women of Algiers (Version O) now holds that distinction. It sold last year for $179.4 million. -AP
Jennifer Lopez will star in Bye Bye Birdie
NBC has announced that Jennifer Lopez has signed on to headline its 2017 live holiday musical Bye Bye Birdie. The actress-singer will play Rosie, the role originated on Broadway in 1960 by Chita Rivera. Tony Award-winning Harvey Fierstein will write the script. Bye Bye Birdie Live! airs a year from now as the next in NBC's annual live-musical tradition. Hairspray Live!, starring newcomer Maddie Baillio, is set to air on December 7. Birdie is an homage to circa-1950s rock 'n' roll mania and centres on the character Conrad Birdie, who is reminiscent of a young Elvis Presley. ABC aired a 1995 television movie version starring Jason Alexander and Vanessa Williams. -AP
One more album from A Tribe Called Quest
A Tribe Called Quest will release their final record on November 11, which includes material they recorded with rapper Phife Dawg who died in March. In a handwritten note posted on Facebook, veteran rapper and producer Q-Tip said the band was inspired after the hip-hop group reunited for the first time in 18 years last year to perform on The Tonight Show. He said although they lost their brother Phife Dawg, "he left us with the blueprint of what we had to do". The album will feature collaborations with Busta Rhymes and Consequence. Their last album The Love Movement came out in 1998. Last year, they re-released a 25th anniversary edition of their debut album People's Instinctive Travels and the Paths of Rhythm. — AP
Hindu groups protesting Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Hindu groups held demonstrations against Ae Dil Hai Mushkil in many cities of Madhya Pradesh over the weekend but theatres continued to show the movie. Hindu groups are opposing the film as it features a Pakistani actor Fawad Khan in one important role. Hindu right-wing groups led by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) have called for a ban on Pakistani artistes working in Bollywood following a terrorist attack on an army camp in Uri sector of Jammu and Kahsmir in September. — IANS
Sanjay Dutt’s comeback movie, Marco, will begin filming next year
Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra says he is working on the script of Marco along with writer Abhijaat Joshi. The movie, set to be Sanjay Dutt's comeback movie, is expected to start filming next year. At the closing ceremony of the 18th Jio MAMI Film Festival, Chopra said: "We are writing the script of Marco. We don't make a movie till our script is ready. We are very, very hopeful that we will start shortly. The moment the script is done, hopefully in March, April, we will start shooting." Dutt will play the role of a Goan in Marco. This will also be the directorial debut of Chopra's sister Shelly. — IANS
