Japanese company launches Star Wars dedicated smartphone
Nearly three weeks ahead of the next instalment of Star Wars - Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, which will have its regional premiere at the Dubai International Film Festival on December 14, Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank has unveiled a smartphone dedicated to the science fiction saga. Available in two colours – Dark (black) and Light (white) side editions – the device lets you choose your "Force allegiance". The 7.6mm-thin Star Wars phones are made by electronic products manufacturer Sharp, The Verge reported. It runs on Android 6.0 and features "live wallpapers" that make the phone look like an X-Wing or TIE fighter cockpit, a Star Wars Movie Player app that lets users watch The Force Awakens until the year 2020, and pre-loaded Star Wars: Force Collection card game. The phone, which goes on sale in Japan from December 2, also has Star Wars-themed alarm clock app, Star Wars emoji and Star Wars ringtones. – IANS
Punk music memorabilia burned in London
Don’t get nostalgic about punk music – and if you do, don’t go collecting memorabilia from the glory days of the Sex Pistols. That seems to be the message when the son of Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren and fashion designer Vivienne Westwood set fire to an extensive collection of punk memorabilia on a boat in central London, on Saturday, November 26. Joe Corre claimed his collection of clothes, posters and other music-related items was worth $6.25 million (Dh23 million). He watched it go up in flames along with effigies of prominent British politicians loaded with fireworks. Corre told the crowd watching his self-styled protest on the River Thames that “punk was never, never meant to be nostalgic”. His famous parents helped spearhead the punk music and fashion movements in the 1970s. – AP
Feng Xiaogang wins Golden Horse in Taiwan
Veteran Chinese director Feng Xiaogang picked up the best director award at the 53rd Golden Horse Awards, considered the equivalent of the Oscars for Mandarin-language cinema at the weekend. Feng was recognised for social satire I Am Not Madame Bovary, which stars Fan Bingbing as a woman who spends a decade fighting China's bureaucracy to have her divorce nullified after being swindled by her ex-husband. Best feature at the November 26 ceremony went to Zhang Dalei's The Summer Is Gone, about a boy's summer vacation in Inner Mongolia in the early 1990s, set to the backdrop of shrinking jobs at state-owned companies during a time of economic reform. The film's 10-year-old actor Kong Weiyi took home the best new performer award. The two lead actresses in the romantic drama Soul Mate shared the best actress award. Zhou Dongyu and Ma Sichun played two best friends whose relationship is tested when they fall in love with the same man. "Together we make a fantastic duo," says Ma. "I would not be me without her, and she would not be her without me." Fan Wei won best actor for his performance in Mr No Problem as the manager of a money-losing farm in Chongqing in the 1940s. Fan says he is grateful the jury "perceived the subtleness I brought to the character". – AP
Singer Alfaaz collaborates with Priyanka Goyat on new song
Alfaaz, who has also penned songs for star Yo Yo Honey Singh, has collaborated with singer Priyanka Goyat on a mysterious new song. Secrecy surrounds the project, which is currently untitled and is to launch at the end of January. “The song is inspired by music of eastern European countries has been directed by Jaspal Monu,” says Goyat. “The music video was made in order to create interest among the Indian audience about the new composition and the blend of Indian and European music. We will soon be announcing the name of the video song too.” The video of the song was filmed and conceptualised by GSK and produced by Antriksh productions. – IANS
Ron Glass, co-star of TV’s Barney Miller dead at 71
Ron Glass, the handsome, prolific character-actor best known for his role as the gregarious, sometimes sardonic detective Ron Harris in the long-running cop comedy Barney Miller, has died at age 71. Glass died on Friday of respiratory failure, his agent, Jeffrey Leavett, told The Associated Press on Saturday (November 26). "Ron was a private, gentle and caring man," says Leavett, a longtime friend of the actor. "He was an absolute delight to watch on screen. Words cannot adequately express my sorrow." Although best known for Barney Miller, Glass appeared in dozens of other shows in a television and film career dating back to the early 1970s. He portrayed Derrial Book, the spiritual shepherd with a cloudy past in the 2002 science-fiction series Firefly and its 2005 film sequel Serenity. He was Felix Unger opposite Desmond Wilson's Oscar Madison in The New Odd Couple, a 1980s reboot of the original Broadway show, film and television series that this time cast black actors in the lead roles of Unger's prissy neat freak forced to share an apartment with slovenly friend Madison. Glass was also the voice of Randy Carmichael, the genial neighbour and father of four children in the popular Nickelodeon cartoon series Rugrats and its spinoff, All Grown Up. He also made appearances in such shows as Friends, Star Trek: Voyager, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – AP
