The first trailer for upcoming Dubai-set English-language sitcom DCity has been released. The 30-second promo on YouTube, which begins and ends with shots of iconic landmarks including the Burj Khalifa and Burj Al Arab, offers a glimpse of the show's stylish characters going about their daily lives in the city and their comic interactions. The comedy, which the makers say is the first scripted English-language series to be produced in the UAE, is written and directed by Naim Zaboura, from Jordan, and stars Mylène Gomera, Laura Quirke and Dalia Sharawi. It tells of the adventures of a group of expatriates living in the city, including an American real-estate business owner, a spoilt daddy's girl, a British flight attendant and a young Australian office manager. The show was originally planned as a web series of 10-minute episodes but was picked up by the Arab Telemedia Group in Jordan as a 30-episode TV series, which is due to begin next year. Watch the trailer below. – The National staff
Muhammad Ali award winners announced
Singer and activist Harry Belafonte and Oscar-winning actress Geena Davis will headline the list of winners of this year's Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards. The awards are named after the former heavyweight boxing champion, who has focused on humanitarian causes since retiring from the ring. He is scheduled to attend the ceremony in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, on September 19. Organisers said Belafonte will receive the lifetime achievement award for his contributions to civil rights. Davis will receive the Humanitarian of the Year Award for her efforts to promote gender equality. Olympic gold medal swimmer Janet Evans will emcee the event. – AP
Film to tell story of young Dolly Parton
NBC is making a TV movie about country-music singer Dolly Parton's childhood. Based on her early years in rural Tennessee, Alyvia Alyn Lind will star as the 9-year-old Parton in Dolly Parton's Coat of Many Colors, which will be broadcast on December 10 in the United States. Other cast members include Sugarland singer Jennifer Nettles and actor Ricky Schroder (the former child star of the film The Champ, more recently seen in TV hits NYPD Blue and 24) as Parton's parents, as well as Gerald McRaney (Deadwood, Jericho) as her grandfather. Filming begins this week in Atlanta. – AP
Lionel Richie honoured by MusicCares
Singer-songwriter Lionel Richie has been named the 2016 MusiCares person of the year.The Recording Academy said the four-time Grammy winner will be honoured at its annual MusiCares benefit gala on February 13 in Los Angeles, two days before the annual Grammy Awards. Performers announced for the gala include Pharrell Williams, Luke Bryan and Lady Antebellum, with more to come. As the lead singer of the Commodores, Richie wrote soulful songs such as Three Times a Lady, Still and Easy, before finding solo success with his diamond certified album Can't Slow Down, which spawned the hits All Night Long (All Night) and Hello. – AP
All in the Family producer dies
Bud Yorkin, a writer and producer who helped forge a new brand of satirical small-screen comedy with the 1970s TV hit All in the Family, died on Tuesday of natural causes at his home in the Bel-Air area of Los Angeles. He was 89. Yorkin, who started as a writer and director in the early days of TV, made his biggest mark after joining producer Norman Lear to form Tandem Productions. After All in the Family – which adapted from the groundbreaking British TV comedy Til Death Us Do Part – became an unexpected hit with its unvarnished take on race and other social issues, they followed it up with a string of hits including The Jeffersons, Sanford and Son and Maude. – AP
Aussie soap-opera actress in court on child sex charges
Actress Maggie Kirkpatrick, who played a violent and corrupt warden nicknamed The Freak in a cult Australian soap opera set in a women's prison, has appeared in a court charged in connection with child sex allegations dating back to the 1980s. The series, called Prisoner in Australia, and Prisoner: Cell Block H or Caged Women overseas, ran from 1979 to 1986. Kirkpatrick, whose character Joan "the Freak" Ferguson would molest inmates while conducting body searches, was charged in Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday with two counts of indecently assaulting a 13-year-old girl and one count of gross indecency with a person under 16. The hearing was continued. The 74-year-old denies the allegations. – AP
