Harry Potter is once again casting a spell over the publishing industry. Nine years after the publication of the seventh and final novel in author J K Rowling's best-selling series, pre-publication orders for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – which features the script of the new, sold-out London play that is a sequel to the original novels – is the most pre-ordered book since 2007 in the United States, according to Barnes & Noble. The book is being published at midnight on Sunday, a day after the official opening of the London stage production of the same name. The play is set 19 years after the events of the final novel, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It features a grown-up Harry, who is an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic and the father of three children, grappling with his past. Rowling agreed to publish the script after appeals from fans who couldn't get to London to see the play, which is sold out until May next year. – Reuters
Akshay Kumar is happy to be a part of Dishoom
Akshay Kumar, who has a cameo role in Rohit Dhawan's movie Dishoom, which was largely filmed in Abu Dhabi, has expressed his happiness at being involved in the project. The action-adventure film, which will be released tomorrow, stars Varun Dhawan, John Abraham, Jacqueline Fernandez, Saqib Saleem and Akshaye Khanna. Kumar, who shared a photograph of himself on Twitter performing a stunt on a jet ski, wrote: "A cameo I had a ball shooting. Wishing all the luck to my friends Sajid, John, Varun & Jacky! Pack a punch with Dishoom." Abraham and Dhawan play a pair of police officers hunting for a kidnapped cricketer in the film, while Khanna reportedly plays the main villain. – IANS
Naseeruddin Shah apologises for Rajesh Khanna remarks
Veteran Bollywood actor Naseeruddin Shah has apologised for his comments about actor Rajesh Khanna, saying that he was talking about the phenomenon of Rajesh Khanna and not the man himself. Shah called Khanna a poor actor in a recent interview, and said he was partly responsible for Bollywood’s low standards. This angered Khanna’s fans and his daughter, Twinkle, who posted a message on Twitter saying that true mediocrity lay in criticising a dead person who cannot defend himself. Filmmaker Karan Johar tweeted his support for her post. – Sonali Kokra
Salman Khan thanks fans for support
Bollywood superstar Salman Khan thanked fans for standing by him, after Rajasthan High Court acquitted him of two charges of gazelle poaching in 1998. The actor won his appeal of a 2006 lower-court verdict that had handed him one-year and five-year jail terms for two separate charges. It is the second time the 50-year-old has been acquitted in a criminal case. Last year, the Bombay High Court cleared him of a 2002 car accident case, in which one man was killed and four others injured. The actor was originally found guilty of culpable homicide and sentenced to five years in jail. – IANS
Voice double Marni Nixon dies at 86
Hollywood voice double Marni Nixon, whose singing was heard in place of the leading actresses in classic movie musicals including West Side Story, The King and I and My Fair Lady, has died at the age of 86. Michael Kirsten, senior vice president of talent agency Harden-Curtis Associates, said she died of cancer in New York. "She passed away peacefully with her family at her side," he added. Nixon, who was initially uncredited for her work, resented the dubbing work at first but later came to terms with it. "I realised now that this was something that would outlive me. Something that would last," she wrote in her 2006 memoir, I Could Have Sung All Night. In the heyday of the Hollywood musical, studios paid big money for film rights to hit Broadway shows, then cast popular actors and actresses who could not sing. Such was the case with 1956 hit The King and I, in which filmmakers dubbed Deborah Kerr's voice with Nixon's. She similarly provided the singing voice of Natalie Wood in 1961's West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in 1964's My Fair Lady, which had starred Julie Andrews on stage. Earlier, she added a few notes to Marilyn Monroe's Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend, in the classic film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. – AP
Streaming helps Drake stay on top of charts
Strong streaming helped keep Canadian R&B artist Drake at the top of the weekly US Billboard 200 album chart for an 11th non-consecutive week. Drake's Views sold 16,000 albums, 156,000 songs and was streamed 85 million times across platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify, totalling 89,000 album units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Billboard said Views has the most weeks at No1 by a male solo artist since Billy Ray Cyrus' Some Gave All in 1992. On the Digital Songs chart, which measures online song sales, Katy Perry's latest upbeat Olympics anthem Rise debuted at No 1 with 137,000 copies sold. – Reuters