Reuters Entertainment News Summary
Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.
It's the one you want: Olivia Newton-John's 'Grease' costume up for auction
Olivia Newton-John is putting the black leather jacket and tight pants that she wore in the final number of "Grease" up for auction to help raise money for her cancer treatment center in Australia. Julien's Auctions said on Wednesday the iconic outfit that marked her character's transition from demure high schooler to sexy Sandy Olson in the 1978 movie musical was one of 200 items that Newton-John is selling in November.
HBO's 'Chernobyl' gets mixed reviews from disaster's survivors
Critics and viewers on both sides of the Atlantic have lined up to acclaim 'Chernobyl', a dramatization of events surrounding the world's worst nuclear accident - but the reactions of some of the survivors are less rose-tinted. Sergii Parashyn, the then chairman of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant's Communist Party Committee, said the HBO mini-series, screened this spring in the United States and Britain, depicted the initial disbelief at the scale of the disaster well.
Freddie Mercury returns in release of stripped-back version of 'Time'
A stripped-back version of Freddie Mercury performing the song "Time" is released on Thursday, the result of a long search for the 1986 recording made at London's Abbey Road Studios. Accompanied by just a piano, the late Queen frontman sings a simpler version of the track he recorded as a solo artist with British musician, songwriter and producer Dave Clark for the "Time" concept album of the London musical of the same name.
When 007 met the Prince: Bond film set gets royal visit
James Bond received a royal visit on Thursday when Britain's Prince Charles toured the set of the new 007 movie filming at Pinewood Studios outside London. Charles, 70, met actor Daniel Craig, who plays the fictional British secret agent for the fifth time in the "Bond 25" production, plus Ralph Fiennes and Naomie Harris, who portray secret service head "M" and secretary Moneypenny respectively.
Malkovich returns to London stage as disgraced producer in Mamet play
American actor John Malkovich returned to London's West End on Wednesday after nearly 30 years, taking on what he called a "very challenging" role of a disgraced Hollywood film mogul in a new play partly inspired by the scandal surrounding producer Harvey Weinstein. Written and directed by Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet, "Bitter Wheat" addresses "bad behavior" in various industries, not just entertainment, Malkovich told Reuters.
'Yesterday' comedy movie gets Beatles' seal of approval
Imagine a world where The Beatles never existed? That is what British director Danny Boyle asks audiences to believe in his new movie "Yesterday." The comedy, arriving in movie theaters next week, tells of struggling British musician Jack who wakes up after a traffic accident and finds himself in an alternate timeline where only he can remember the music of the 1960s band.
Carrie Underwood and NFL stole 'Sunday Night Football' theme: lawsuit
Country music superstar Carrie Underwood, the National Football League and NBC were sued on Wednesday for allegedly copying the "Game On" theme song used in 2018 for "Sunday Night Football" from an identically-titled song recorded two years earlier. Heidi Merrill, who said she uploaded her "Game On" to Google's YouTube in March 2017, said her copyright was infringed after Underwood's producer Mark Bright rejected her August 2017 pitch at a conference in Nashville to use the song for "Sunday Night Football."
