Jon Stewart has announced he will leave The Daily Show this year after 16 years as host. His departure was confirmed by Comedy Central president Michele Ganeless after Stewart broke the news to the audience during the taping of Tuesday's show in New York. During an emotional speech he said: "This show doesn't deserve an even slightly restless host," without going into any more detail about the reasons for his decision. "In my heart I know it's time for someone else to have this opportunity." He added that he doesn't have any specific plans. He will continue as host until later this year but did not specify his exit date. "Through his unique voice and vision, The Daily Show has become a cultural touchstone for millions of fans and an unparalleled platform for political comedy that will endure for years to come," Ganeless said, adding that Stewart, 52, was a "comic genius". The announcement comes after sister show The Colbert Report ended last year when Stephen Colbert quit to take over from David Letterman as host of the Late Show. Stewart took several months off in 2013 to direct Rosewater, a film about an Iranian-born journalist who was jailed for 118 days in Tehran. – AP
Selma director hurt by star’s Oscar snub
Selma director Ava DuVernay has said that she is disappointed that star David Oyelowo's performance in the film as Dr Martin Luther King, Jr wasn't recognised with an Oscar nomination. "I was hurt by the fact that David wasn't nominated because I know what it took to get that performance," she said at the film's German premiere in Berlin, adding: "I don't need anyone to tell me that it's one of the best performances of 2014 – no one needs to even say that to me because I already know." The film only received two Oscar nominations – for Best Picture, and in the Original Song category for Glory by Common and John Legend. DuVernay said she had not expected a nomination for directing the movie because "there has been no precedent for a black woman to be nominated for best director, so why was it going to change with me?" – AP
New SRK movie set for Eid release
Shah Rukh Khan's much-anticipated drama Fan, which was due to hit cinemas in August, will now be released in September to coincide with Eid. The Indian Express said the delay was due to unfinished post-production work, including visual effects. Produced by Aditya Chopra and directed by Maneesh Sharma, Fan is about a young man obsessed with a Bollywood star. – The National staff
Deepika Padukone to make on-screen singing debut
Following in the footsteps of fellow actors Priyanka Chopra, Alia Bhatt and Shraddha Kapoor, Deepika Padukone will sing a song in her new film, Tamasha. The film's music director is the Oscar-winner A R Rahman. Directed by Imitiaz Ali and starring Ranbir Kapoor, Tamasha tells the story of a couple who meet on the island of Corsica and bond over their love of Asterix comics. They then become stage stars who perform shows on their travels across Greece. – The National staff
Jolie opens UK centre devoted to women’s issues
Angelina Jolie officially opened an academic centre described as the first in Britain to focus on women, peace and security. The Hollywood actress, director and UN special envoy said she hoped the centre, at the London School of Economics, will help to boost the global campaign for women’s rights. She said that “there is no stable future for a world in which crimes committed against women go unpunished.” The university said the centre would study the participation of women in conflict and ways of ending impunity for rape and sexual violence in war. – AP
Hugh Jackman to use Aussie accent in Chappie
It's not that often that Hugh Jackman gets a role that allows him to use his native Australian accent, so while working on the upcoming sci-fi thriller Chappie he had to get reacquainted with the dialect. The 46-year old Tony Award winner said that using his own voice "was great but weird".
"I had to practice it because it was way stronger than my natural accent," Jackman said. He also admitted he had to brush up on some of the Aussie slang that the writer-director Neill Blomkamp, best known for his sci-fi thrillers District 9 and Elysium, wrote for the part.
"He used a lot of phrases and I had to end up Googling the slang," Jackman said. Chappie, which will be released next month, tells the story of a police robot that is reprogrammed to think and feel for itself. Jackman said he had fun playing the film's antagonist, an engineer strongly opposed to artificial intelligence. "We got to create this character that did stretch it a bit. We had a lot of fun with him from the look, his mannerism, the way he talked. At the same time, it was very much based in a reality that was needed for the movie in terms of the voice of caution," Jackman said. The last time Jackman appeared in a film using his native accent was in Australia in 2008, opposite Nicole Kidman, although he did lend his Aussie voice to the 2012 animated film Rise of the Guardians.
Jackman, who just finished a Broadway run in the Jez Butterworth play The River, said he will hit the stage again next month. "My one-man show I did here on Broadway a few years back, I'm going to do in Turkey. I'm very excited about that," he said. "It should be fun. We'll see how the Turks like it." – AP
American band The Dead Daisies to play in Cuba
The Dead Daisies, a rock band featuring former members of Guns N’ Roses, will tour Cuba this month in a first for an American rock band since the recent easing of decades of tensions between the countries. The hard rockers plan a week of recording sessions with local artists and other events in Havana, culminating in a performance on February 28 at the Cuba Rocks for Peace concert at open-air Salon Rosado de la Tropical. The band said that the tour would be the first by a major US act since president Barack Obama’s landmark announcement in December that Washington would seek to repair relations with Cuba and ease decades of economic pressure against the communist island.
“With the long overdue changes in diplomacy just ahead, it feels like the right time to come and hang,” said keyboardist Dizzy Reed, who was previously with Guns N’ Roses.
“It’s been a lifelong dream of mine to experience Cuba, so much history and influence in this part of the world, and now that is about to happen.”
Bassist Marco Mendoza, who grew up in Mexico and speaks Spanish, said that he looked forward to exploring the island’s heritage, especially the Afro-Cuban culture.
Despite the prolonged political animosity between their countries, musicians have long served as a bridge, and prominent Cuban artists have worked in the United States.
Audioslave, the hard rock band headed by former Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell, played before thousands of people in Cuba in 2005. Audioslave’s guitarist Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine is known for his left-wing politics, although he said that the concert was not aimed at making a direct political statement.
Superstar couple Jay-Z and Beyonce visited Cuba in 2013. Some conservatives accused them of violating a US ban on tourism to the island but the Treasury Department had approved the couple’s trip, along with Audioslave’s years earlier, as a cultural exchange. Obama has called for easing restrictions on US travel to Cuba. – AFP
Vince Vaughn wil be grand marshal at Daytona 500
Actor Vince Vaughn, star of movies such as Wedding Crashers, Old School and Swingers, will serve as grand marshal for the upcoming Daytona 500. The 44-year-old actor will give the command to start engines for NASCAR's biggest race on February 22. He is the latest celebrity grand marshal at the season opener – the list also includes actors Ben Affleck, James Franco, John Travolta, Nicolas Cage and Matthew McConaughey. The Captain America star Chris Evans was grand marshal last year. Vaughn's appearance coincides with the release of his latest movie, Unfinished Business next month. Vaughn, who was an honorary pace car driver at Texas Motor Speedway in 2007, says the Daytona 500 "is one of the biggest events in all of sports, and I feel honoured to be able to be a part of it in it in such a major way." – AP
