Kapil Sharma set to perform in the capital
India's king of comedy, Kapil Sharma, will make his Abu Dhabi debut this weekend. The Kapil Sharma Comedy Show is at the Al Raha Beach Theatre on Friday, as part of Abu Dhabi Summer Season. The comedian has a massive following not only in India but among South Asians living abroad as well. Thousands of fans protested this year when Colors TV scrapped his TV show, Comedy Nights With Kapil, in January due to an alleged financial disagreement. It was India's highest-rated scripted TV show. He returned to the small screen soon after with The Kapil Sharma Show, which began airing on Sony TV in April. Tickets for the Abu Dhabi show cost Dh200 from tickets.virginmegastore.me. – The National
John Abraham: Stallone is my influence
Bollywood actor John Abraham says Hollywood superstar Sylvester Stallone has influenced his life in a huge way. The actor said he feels like "there is a bit of Stallone in me". The Dishoom star says it is because of the Rocky and Rambo star that he got into Hindi film industry. After watching Rocky IV, he said he was so impressed by Stallone's toughness and charisma he began training to put on weight and build his body. – IANS
Snoop Dogg teams up with Martha Stewart
TV personality Martha Stewart and rapper Snoop Dogg will star together in a new VH1 reality-TV series. Martha & Snoop's Dinner Party will feature the unlikely pair joining forces to throw a dinner party for their celebrity friends, according to E! News. VH1 said it will be "a half-baked evening of cooking, conversation and fun where nothing is off-limits". Stewart said the show puts a twist on traditional food shows in an unusual and funny way. "My homegirl Martha and I have a special bond that goes back," the rapper said. "We're gonna be cooking and having a good time with our exclusive friends. Can't wait for you to see how we roll together!" The show is due to start in the autumn. – The National
New George RR Martin TV show
Smash-hit HBO fantasy drama Game of Thrones will end in 2018, but fans of George R R Martin – author of the books on which it is based – can look forward to another TV show based on his work. Wild Cards, a shared-world series of short-story anthologies and novels that launched in 1986, which he helped to developed and edited, is being adapted for TV and could debut within two years. They are set in an alternate-history version of the United States in which an alien virus hits Manhattan in 1946 and spreads around the world. Most people are killed by it but some survivors gain superpowers (the Aces) while others suffer less desirable mutations (the Jokers). Martin wrote on his blog: "Wild Cards is a series of books, graphic novels, games... but most of all it is a universe, as large and diverse and exciting as the comic-book universes of Marvel and DC (though somewhat grittier, and considerably more realistic and more consistent), with an enormous cast of characters both major and minor." The TV series will be produced by Universal Cable Productions, which is owned by NBC Universal. Martin said that he won't be involved in the show, as he has an exclusive development deal with HBO, which airs Game of Thrones. – The National
Robert De Niro to open Sarajevo Film Festival
The Sarajevo Film Festival will honour two-time Oscar-winning US actor and producer Robert De Niro with a lifetime achievement award for his contribution to film on its opening night on Friday. De Niro will also introduce a digitally restored version of Martin Scorsese's , in which he starred, in honour of the film's 40th anniversary, said festival director Mirsad Purivatra. British film director Stephen Frears, who will be rewarded for his extraordinary contribution to the art of film, will present his latest film Florence Foster Jenkins at the festival. The Sarajevo Film Festival, originally founded as an act of defiance towards the end of the 1992-95 siege during the Bosnian war, this year will show 222 films from 61 countries to an expected audience of about 100,000. The festival's main prize is the Heart of Sarajevo. The international jury will be chaired by Palestinian filmmaker Elia Suleiman. – Reuters
Led Zeppelin loses legal-fees battle
Led Zeppelin won the copyright war over the creation of Stairway to Heaven, but they have lost the battle to recoup nearly $800,000 (Dh2.9 million) in legal fees they spent defending the case. Judge R Gary Klausner ruled that the band members, record label and associated companies were not entitled to legal fees and other costs because the lawsuit against them was not frivolous. A Los Angeles federal jury in June found that guitarist Jimmy Page and singer Robert Plant did not lift the introduction of Stairway from an instrumental track written by the late Randy Wolfe, founder of the band Spirit. The trust for Wolfe, better known as Randy California, claimed Page and Plant were familiar with his work and stole a riff from the tune Taurus for their 1971 classic rock anthem. Wolfe's trust had been seeking credit for the song and millions of dollars in damages. – AP
