Guns N' Roses inducted into Hall of Fame

Plus: X Factor's One Direction break into the US; Julian Assange's TV show to be broadcast tomorrow; Bee Gee Robin Gibb in a coma; Pamela Anderson and Lionel Richie owe taxes and more in the Daily Rushes.

Robin Gibb.
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A range of musicians from the rockers Guns N' Roses to the R&B legends Smokey Robinson and the Miracles where inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Saturday in a night as notable for who was not there as who was.

Axl Rose, the frontman of Guns N' Roses, refused to be honoured by the Cleveland-based Rock Hall after years of bitter feuding with his former Appetite for Destruction band mates, and his name earned catcalls from the crowd when it was mentioned.

Boos rang out from some of the 6,000 in attendance early in the evening when Billie Joe Armstrong, the lead singer of Green Day, asked the crowd "who was missing" as members of Guns N' Roses were up on stage accepting their award.

Two other notable absences were Rod Stewart, inducted on Saturday with other band members from the Faces/Small Faces and the Beastie Boys' Adam Yauch, who was diagnosed with cancer in 2009 and couldn't accept his award with his band members Mike D (Michael Diamond) and Ad-Rock (Adam Horovitz).

* Reuters

British band One Direction make it in America

The X Factor boy-band One Direction are continuing their run of success, with sales of their debut American single, What Makes You Beautiful, passing the one million mark.

The accompanying music video has been viewed 97 million times online and the single continues to makes its way to the upper end of the Official Billboard Hot 100, currently residing at number four. The band's debut album, Up All Night, went straight to number one in the American charts, which makes One Direction the first British group ever to do so in the US.

* Emily Shardlow

Julian Assange's TV show to be broadcast

The first episode of the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's new TV interview show will be broadcast tomorrow in English, Spanish and Arabic on Russia Today and online, the whistle-blowing website said on Friday. The Sri Lankan hip-hop star MIA, whose offstage name is Maya Arulpragasam, composed original music for the show.

WikiLeaks remained tight-lipped on the identity of Assange's interviewee in the first of the 12-episode weekly series titled The World Tomorrow.

It has promised "an eclectic range of guests, who are stamping their mark on the future: politicians, revolutionaries, intellectuals, artists and visionaries".

Assange said the show would have a "frank and irreverent tone".

"My own work with WikiLeaks hasn't exactly made my life easier," the 40-year-old Australian former hacker said in a statement, "but it has given us a platform to broadcast world-shifting ideas."

* AFP

Bee Gee's singer in hospital in a coma

Robin Gibb, the singer with the British band the Bee Gees, is in a coma in hospital after contracting pneumonia in his battle against cancer, his official website confirmed on Saturday.

"Sadly, the reports are true that Robin has contracted pneumonia and is in a coma. We are all hoping and praying that he will pull through," said a brief statement on RobinGibb.com.

Gibb had bowel surgery 18 months ago for an unrelated condition but a tumour was found and he was diagnosed with cancer of the colon and the liver. Back in February, Gibb said he had made a "spectacular" recovery from his treatment, sparking hopes that his cancer was in remission, but he has since experienced a sharp deterioration. British media reported on Saturday that the 62-year-old was at a hospital in Chelsea, west London, where his wife Dwina, his three children and brother Barry - also of the group - were keeping a bedside vigil. Gibb was too ill to attend Tuesday's premiere of his first classical work, The Titanic Requiem, which he composed with his son RJ Gibb to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the luxury liner. Gibb had been due to perform in person the song Don't Cry Alone.

* AFP

Pamela Anderson and Lionel Richie owe money

California tax authorities have put Anderson on the latest list of the state's biggest income-tax delinquents. The Franchise Tax Board said the former Baywatch star owes US$524,241 (Dh2m) in state income taxes. Meanwhile, E! Online reports that Richie, a music legend, owes the federal government US$1.1m (Dh4m) in unpaid taxes and that a lien has been issued warning that the singers' assets may be seized if he doesn't pay up in a timely manner.

* AP

Love apologises to daughter over Grohl comments

Courtney Love has apologised to her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, for claiming on Twitter that David Grohl of the Foo Fighters "hit on" the rock-star offspring. "Bean, sorry I believed the gossip," Love tweeted early on Saturday. "Mommy loves you."

Neither Cobain nor Grohl have acknowledged the apology, although both immediately denied the original accusation, with Cobain insisting Twitter should "ban" her "biological mother".

Pattinson and Stewart shooting in Vancouver

The Breaking Dawn Part 2 director Bill Condon has announced that Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart are heading back to Vancouver "to pick up some additional shots - the last tiny missing pieces", reported E! Online.

"We're not shooting any new scenes or dialogue, just some technical work with some of our cast and stunt actors," Condon explained.

"I'm excited to report that before too long we'll have another trailer for you to decode," Condon wrote in a letter to the movie's loyal fan base. "And wait until you see the first posters - they're unlike any Twilight images you've seen before."

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