Miley Cyrus mocks advice from Sinead O’Connor

Plus: Drake lands third No. 1 album on Billboard; Madonna reveals rape at knifepoint when young; Letterman signs for Late Show into 2015; Norwegian comedy song storms charts; Breaking Bad fans place Walter White obituary.

Miley Cyrus snubbed Sinead O'Connor for giving her advice by posting screen shots of O'Connor's tweets from 2012, in which the Irish singer referred to her own mental health problems. Al Powers/Powers Imagery/Invision / AP Photo
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Miley Cyrus mocks advice from O’Connor

Miley Cyrus has snubbed some advice about her new bad-girl image from the Irish singer Sinead O'Connor. Cyrus rebuffed an open letter from O'Connor calling on Cyrus to tone down her sexualised persona. The 46-year-old O'Connor wrote: "I am extremely concerned for you that those around you have led you to believe, or encouraged you in your own belief, that it is in any way 'cool' to be naked and licking sledgehammers in your videos." She said her letter was written "in the spirit of motherliness and with love". Cyrus, 20, mocked O'Connor by posting on Twitter a screen shot of O'Connor's tweets from 2012 in which the Irish star, who has bipolar disorder, referred to her own mental health problems, asking for Twitter followers to recommend a psychiatrist. On Friday, O'Connor demanded an apology from Cyrus and threatened legal action. "Have you any idea how stupid and dangerous it is to mock people for suffering illness?" she wrote in a second letter. "Remove your tweets immediately or you will hear from my lawyers." – Reuters

Drake lands third No 1 album on Billboard

The Canadian rapper Drake vaulted straight to No 1 on the Billboard 200 album chart, as his latest album garnered the second-largest sales week of the year so far. Nothing Was the Same, his third studio album, sold 658,000 copies in its first week. Only Justin Timberlake's The 20/20 Experience, which opened with 968,000 copies in March, has outsold Nothing Was the Same in a one-week period. The Nashville rockers Kings of Leon entered the chart at No 2 with their latest album Mechanical Bull. Cher and Elton John landed behind the band, with the dance diva's latest album Closer to the Truth at No 3 and the British singer's Diving Board at No 4. – Reuters

Madonna reveals rape at knifepoint

Madonna was raped at knifepoint when she was a young struggling artist in New York, she revealed in an article she wrote for Harper's Bazaar that was published on Friday. The 55-year-old also recalled being held up at gunpoint and having her seedy apartment burgled three times. Describing her arrival in the Big Apple from the Midwest, she wrote: "New York wasn't everything I thought it would be. It did not welcome me with open arms … The first year, I was held up at gunpoint. Raped on the roof of a building I was dragged up to with a knife in my back." In the piece, she also talked about her time living in Britain when she was married to the director Guy Ritchie, saying there is "nothing more beautiful than the English countryside" and revealed that she is now studying the Quran. "I am building schools for girls in Islamic countries and studying the Quran. I think it is important to study all the holy books," she wrote. – AP

Letterman signs for Late Show into 2015

David Letterman, already the longest-tenured talk show host on late-night television, has agreed to extend his contract with the US network CBS to remain on the Late Show into 2015. Letterman joked on Friday that he had a lengthy discussion with Leslie Moonves, the network's president, "and we both agreed that I needed a little more time to fully run the show into the ground". Letterman, 66, has been a late night television talk show host for 31 years since he began at NBC in the time slot following Johnny Carson in 1982. His contract was set to expire next summer. – AP

Norwegian comedy song storms charts

More Billboard music charts news: The Fox, a cheesy Norwegian music video that started out as a joke, has become an internet sensation, storming into the US top 10 music charts. The zany song and video by the Norwegian comedy brothers Bard and Vegard Ylvis, released on September 3 to promote a comedy show, asks the question: "What does the fox say?" With more than 80 million views on YouTube, some have compared the viral success of the video – which features people in animal costumes dancing in a forest – to the global hit Gangnam Style. The Fox shot to eighth place in the Billboard charts this week, but the Ylvis brothers are not letting success go to their heads, with Bard calling the catchy tune a "rubbish song". – AFP

Breaking Bad fans place Walter White obit

Some fans of Breaking Bad, the AMC series which concluded last week, placed an obituary for the lead character Walter White in the Albuquerque Journal on Friday. It's headlined "White, Walter" and includes a photo of Bryan Cranston, the actor who played the chemistry teacher turned drug kingpin. The obituary says the 52-year-old "founded a meth manufacturing empire" and he died "after a long battle with lung cancer and a gunshot wound". The five-season series was set and filmed in Albuquerque. – AP

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