The four members of One Direction won Artist of the Year at the American Music Awards on Sunday – an award they also won last year as a five piece, before the departure this year of Zayn Malik. They also won Favourite Duo or Group – Pop/Rock. Accepting the award, Louis Tomlinson said: "This is a testament to how incredible our fans are." Liam Payne added: "We just want to thank everyone that's helped us in the last five years." Taylor Swift, the top contender at this year's awards, with six nominations, won Song of the Year for Blank Space; Favourite Album – Pop/Rock for 1989; and Favourite Artist – Adult Contemporary. Nicki Minaj was a double winner, taking home Favourite Artist and Favourite Album – Rap/Hip-Hop for The Pinkprint. – AP
Legal threat over Star Wars prayer ban
The Church of England is threatening legal action over the rejection of a one-minute advertisement featuring the Lord's Prayer that it wanted to screen before the opening of the new Star Wars film in the United Kingdom next month. Church officials say the decision to reject the advert – which shows the Lord's Prayer being recited by members of the public – amounts to religious discrimination. It was cleared by British film classification officials and the advertising standards authorities but was turned down by Digital Cinema Media, which handles adverts for major cinema chains in Britain. Church officials say they were told the advert could cause offence. – AP
Bajirao Mastani song called into question
Sanjay Leela Bhansali's period drama Bajirao Mastani, due out on December 18, is in trouble with history purists after a descendant of the Peshwa clan wrote a letter slamming the director for the misrepresentation of culture in the film's song Pinga. An online campaign has been launched to ban the film. In her letter, Mohini Karkarey asks Bhansali: "Did you do any research at all? Did you, for instance, understand the life and times of people in the 1700s?" Karkarey lists several facts she says the director got wrong, adding: "With this so called love story, you have made a mockery of him. You have insulted the very essence of Maharashtrian families." A Facebook page has been calling for a ban on the movie, which stars Ranveer Singh, Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone. – The National staff
Hunger Games rules the box office
The fourth and final movie in the Hunger Games franchise conquered the North American box offices at the weekend. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2, which was also released in the UAE last weekend, took in US$101 million (Dh371m) in ticket sales during its opening weekend in the United States and Canada. While an impressive total – and the fifth-highest opening of the year – it failed to match last year's Mockingjay, Part 1, which opened at $121.9m and was the lowest opening of any of the movies in the franchise. Worldwide, the film made $247m, well below the $300m analysts had predicted. The first three Hunger Games movies, based on the trilogy of best-selling young-adult fantasy novels by Suzanne Collins, had grossed $2.2 billion worldwide ahead of the final film. – AFP
Barefoot Bandit’s saga will be a movie
The Barefoot Bandit's life on the run is coming to the big screen. Hollywood studio 20th Century Fox has paid more than US$1 million (Dh3.67m) to settle the Colton Harris-Moore's court-ordered restitution in exchange for the rights to his story. The payment to the United States Marshal's office mostly paid for three small aeroplanes that he stole and crash landed and a boat he hijacked in the Bahamas while evading capture. Harris-Moore was sentenced to more than 6 years in federal prison in 2012 for the theft of the aeroplanes, a boat and guns during a crime spree that began when he escaped from a juvenile halfway house in 2008. A book and a documentary of his exploits have already been published. – AP