Emirati director Nujoom Al Ghanem up for Muhr award

Also, Bach gets an Eastern spin; Model Janice Dickinson accuses Bill Cosby; Salman Khan’s sister weds; Chris Hemsworth is the sexiest man alive; Tracy Morgan ‘may never be the same’; Foo Fighters to perform at historic baseball stadiums; and U2 to release film version of latest album.

The Emirati filmmaker Nujoom Al Ghanem is in contention for a Muhr Feature award. Antonie Robertson/The National
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A second Emirati director is in the running for a prestigious Muhr award at this year's Dubai International Film Festival. Nujoom Al Ghanem has been nominated for her documentary Nearby Sky, which was supported by the festival's Enjaaz post-production fund and will receive its world premiere at DIFF. The film is about Fatima Ali Al Hameli, the first Emirati woman camel owner to take part in the camel beauty pageant and camel auctions in Abu Dhabi. Nearby Sky is one of seven announced in the second round of films competing for the Muhr Feature Awards, which were launched in 2006 with the aim of nurturing filmmakers from the region. The others are Khalil Al Mozian's Gaza-set Sara 2014, about the making of a film about the victim of an honour killing; Salim Abu Jabal's documentary Roshmia, about a refugee couple in their 80s; Mohammed Rashed Buali's The Sleeping Tree, the story of a Bahraini couple's marriage breakdown; Diaries of a Flying Dog, directed by Bassem Fayad, a documentary about a man and his dog who share obsessive compulsive anxiety disorder; the Syrian painter and filmmaker Hazem Alhamwi's From My Syrian Room, about the plight of the Syrian people; and Trip Along Exodus, the director Hind Shoufani's story of her father Elias Shoufani, a Palestine Liberation Organization leader, academic writer and historian. The Emirati director Waleed Al Shehhi is also in the running, from the previously announced first round of films, for Dolphins, which tells the intertwined stories of three people in a single day in Ras Al Khaimah. The winners will be announced during DIFF's 11th edition, which runs from December 10 to 17. – The National staff

Bach gets an Eastern spin

The classical music of Johann Sebastian Bach will be fused with the sounds of the East next week during a concert at Emirates Palace. Bach Reloaded, on November 27, will feature the Ukrainian pianist Alexey Botvinov and the Turkish percussionist Burhan Öcal performing Bach music, with a focus on his Goldberg Variations, an 18th-century piece that includes an aria and 30 separate variations. The duo debuted the work in Istanbul in 2010 and have performed it in Moscow, Paris, Zurich and at the acclaimed Montreux Jazz Festival. Their Abu Dhabi show marks their Middle East debut. Tickets, from Dh270, are available from www.timeouttickets.com. – The National staff

Model Janice Dickinson accuses Bill Cosby

The model and television host Janice Dickinson has added her name to a list of women who have accused the American comedian and television star Bill Cosby of sexual assault. Meanwhile, Netflix yesterday postponed the launch of the star's forthcoming standup comedy special Bill Cosby 77. Dickinson told Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday that Cosby assaulted her in 1982 in Lake Tahoe, California. She said that she wrote about the assault in her 2002 autobiography, No Lifeguard on Duty: The Accidental Life of the World's First Supermodel, but Cosby and his lawyers had pressured her and the publisher to remove the details. Dickinson said she met Cosby in Lake Tahoe after he said he would help her with her singing career. After dinner, she said, Cosby gave her some red wine and a pill, which she had asked for because she had stomach pains. "The next morning I woke up and I wasn't wearing my pyjamas and I remembered before I passed out I had been sexually assaulted by this man," she said. Cosby, 77, who has not been criminally charged in any case, settled a civil suit in 2006 with a woman over an alleged incident two years earlier. He has been under renewed scrutiny since a comedian, Hannibal Buress, called him a "rapist" during a performance. Two other women have accused him of assaults. – AP

Salman Khan’s sister weds

The Bollywood superstar Salman Khan’s sister, Arpita Khan, got married to the businessman Aayush Sharma at the Taj Falaknuma Palace hotel in Hyderabad on Tuesday. The star-studded celebrations kicked off at 4.30pm and continued until late into the night at the heritage hotel. Khan’s father Salim Khan, mother Salma, brothers Arbaaz and Sohail and other family members received the baraat (the groom’s wedding procession) and blessed the couple, who exchanged garlands. The rituals were followed by a party, at which Khan, his stepmother Helen, and his sister-in-law Malaika Arora Khan sang songs. The Bollywod stars Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif and Karan Johar were among the 250 guests. – IANS

Thor star is the sexiest man alive

People magazine has named the Thor star Chris Hemsworth this year's Sexiest Man Alive. The Aussie Avengers actor, who also starred as the Formula One racing driver James Hunt in Ron Howard's Rush, was named the winner on the American talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday night. When asked who he wanted to thank, Hemsworth said his parents, "for putting this together". He joins a list of hunks who have won the annual honour, including Bradley Cooper, Ryan Reynolds, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Patrick Swayze, Sean Connery, Ben Affleck, Channing Tatum and Adam Levine. Mel Gibson, another Australian, was the first winner, in 1985. Hemsworth, 31, and his 38-year-old wife, Elsa Pataky of Fast and Furious 6, have three children. He told People that the award had "bought me a couple of weeks of bragging rights" around the house with his wife. "I can just say to her: 'Now remember, this is what the people think, so I don't need to do the dishes anymore, I don't need to change nappies. I'm above that. I've made it now'." – AP

Tracy Morgan 'may never be the same' after head injury

Tracy Morgan is fighting to recover from a severe brain injury suffered in a car crash more than five months ago, and it is unknown whether the actor-comedian will ever be "the Tracy Morgan he once was", his lawyer says. Benedict Morelli said the former Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock star suffered a traumatic brain injury in the crash on June 7 on the New Jersey Turnpike, in addition to a broken leg, nose and ribs. "He's fighting to get better and if there's a chance for him to be back to the Tracy Morgan he once was, he's going to try to do that," Morelli said. "But we just don't know because of the severity of the injuries that he sustained and the fact that he had such a severe brain injury." Lawyers were in court in New Jersey on Tuesday as part of Morgan's lawsuit against Walmart. One of the company's lorries slammed into the back of a limo van carrying Morgan and several friends on their way back from a show in Delaware. One person in the limo was killed and three were injured, two of them seriously. Morgan spent several weeks in hospital and rehab. "When you have a traumatic brain injury it takes a very long time to find out how you're going to do and how much you're going to recover," Morelli said. Morgan sued for punitive and compensatory damages. Walmart contends that the victims' injuries were partly due to the fact that they weren't wearing seatbelts. The lorry driver Kevin Roper, who is not named in Morgan's lawsuit, has been charged with death by auto and four counts of assault by auto. – AP

Foo Fighters to perform at historic baseball stadiums

The Foo Fighters, who are on tour promoting a new album that delves into the roots of American music, will play at some of the country's most historic baseball stadiums next year. The band, led by the former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, has announced shows on July 18 and 19 at Fenway Park, the oldest ballpark in Major League Baseball and home of the Boston Red Sox. A show at another historic stadium, the Chicago Cubs' Wrigley Field, was announced earlier and quickly sold out. They will also play a gig at the more modern Citi Field, home of the New York Mets. The Foo Fighters's new album, Sonic Highways, was recorded in eight different American cities. They also made a series of one-hour documentaries exploring each community's musical heritage. The band has also scheduled a Fourth of July show at Washington's RFK Stadium that will feature some of the artists profiled in the series, including the bluesmen Buddy Guy and Gary Clark Jr, the rocker Joan Jett and the hip-hop star L L Cool J. – AP

U2 to release film version of latest album

U2, who were mocked by some for giving their latest album away for free to the half a billion users of iTunes, are back with a new experiment – a film version of the album by leading urban artists. Films of Innocence will feature films by 11 artists known for working in city spaces. The Irish band said the artists were given "complete creative freedom to showcase their personal responses" to the album Songs of Innocence. "Taking the political murals of Northern Ireland as a reference point, U2 pioneered the project to celebrate the unique democratic power of urban art," according to the official announcement. This time, the work won't be free – Films of Innocence will cost US$12.99 (Dh48) when it is released on December 9. The artists who took part in the project include Robin Rhode, a South African who uses simple but falsely three-dimensional drawings as the basis for street performances, and Oliver Jeffers from Belfast, best known for illustrating children's books. U2 announced the free release of Songs of Innocence as part of a promotional campaign for Apple's new iPhone 6. It was automatically added to iTunes accounts. Bono initially hailed the move as an innovative way to share the band's music with the widest possible audience, but he later apologised and blamed what he called his ego and generosity. While many U2 fans welcomed the freebie, Apple received so many complaints from people who didn't want it that it offered special advice on how users could delete it. Some fellow artists were highly critical, saying that the move devalued music. – AP