Late-night television host Jimmy Kimmel will return to helm the 2018 Academy Awards, organisers of the event announced this week, after he artfully handled the biggest blunder in Oscars history this year. Kimmel hosted the Oscars for the first time this year, and had to deal with an embarrassing onstage mix-up that led to presenters Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway mistakenly being given the wrong envelope and announcing Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone's La La Land as the winner of Best Picture, the top award of the night, instead of actual winner, Moonlight. – Reuters
Will Smith brings fresh air of West Philly to Cannes jury
Whooping with excitement and high-fiving reporters, Will Smith looked like he was ready to have fun as a member of the Cannes Film Festival jury that assembled in this French Riviera resort on Wednesday. “West Philadelphia is a long way from Cannes,” said Smith, referring to the scrappy neighbourhood in the north-eastern American city where he grew up. – Reuters
Katy Perry to join American Idol reboot
Pop star Katy Perry will join a new version of reality-singing competition American Idol next year. Perry, 32, is the first major name to come aboard the ABC reboot of the show, which was cancelled by Fox Broadcasting last year after 15 seasons amid declining viewership ratings. – Reuters
Seinfeld likes more than just Porsches. He likes Lotus, too
A 2009 Lotus Exige S 260 formerly owned by the comic Jerry Seinfeld will go on sale on May 27 at an auction in Midland, Texas.
The four-cylinder, 257hp sports car is primed to stand out from the crowd: it has a carbon-fibre split bumper, a high-angled real spoiler, spindly 12-spoke alloy wheels, black gaping side air-intake ducts and a “Kawasaki Green” body. With a six-speed manual transmission and rear-wheel-drive, the Exige was made to be able to handle both street and track driving, and it weighs a little more than 900 kilograms. Lotus made only 583 of its Exige in the first year of production from 2000 to 2001, and only a fraction of those made it to the United States. Since then, the company has created a handful of variants with far fewer production numbers.
The auction house estimates that the Exige will sell for US$65,000 (Dh238,745) to $75,000. Celebrity car ownership can generally push a vehicle’s value higher. But when Seinfeld sold 18 of his Porsches last year, the total of $22.2 million was significantly less than the $28m to $32m estimate. Given that he sold this Lotus to its current owner in 2012, it remains to be seen whether his celebrity shine will mean much. – Bloomberg
