WE’VE had David Tennant, Benedict Cumberbatch, and most recently, Andrew Scott taking on the role of Hamlet on the London stage. And now Tom Hiddleston is stepping up to the challenge.

The “Thor” and “Night Manager” star will lead the cast for a fundraiser for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

The London production will be directed by RADA president Kenneth Branagh and will also star “Born to Kill” actress Lolita Chakrabarti as Gertrude.

Branagh directed Hiddleston in his breakthrough movie “Thor.”

Hiddleston told The Stage that the role offered “almost limitless possi-bilities for interpretation.”

“I can’t wait to explore them, with this great cast, at RADA. Ken-neth Branagh and I have long talked about working on the play together, and now felt like the right time, at the right place,” he said.

The production is a joint one between Branagh’s theater company and RADA. It will run from Sept. 1 to 23 at RADA’s Jerwood Vanbrugh theater in London.

(SD-Agencies)

16 x ENtertainmentCONTACT US AT: 8351-9409, YWENNSONG@HOTMAIL.COM

Thursday August 3, 2017

KANYE WEST’S company is suing insur-ance fi rm Lloyd’s of London for US$10m over his canceled tour.

Very Good Touring claims Lloyd’s is hinting it’ll refuse to pay out because of a medical condition, caused by marijuana use, that led to dates being called off — something West denies.

West canceled the fi nal 21 dates of his Saint Pablo Tour last November and was admitted to the hospital.

Very Good Touring is suing for more than US$9.8m in damages. It’s also demanding interest be paid over the alleged breach of contract.

Lawyer Howard King wrote in court papers: “They [have not] provided any-thing approaching a coherent explanation about why they have not paid, or any indi-cation if they will ever pay or even make a coverage decision, implying that West’s

use of marijuana may provide them with the basis to deny the claim.”

According to legal papers, the 40-year-old spent “hundreds of thousands of dollars” on insurance with Lloyd’s to cover the costs of a cancelation but hasn’t received any payment yet.

Kanye’s Saint Pablo Tour was set to run until Dec. 31 but was called off after the rapper spent eight days in a neuropsychi-atric center at UCLA in Los Angeles.

King, who represents West’s company, denies any allegations that cannabis use led to his “serious, debilitating medical condition” as an “unsupportable conten-tion.”

The court papers, fi rst seen by the Hol-lywood Reporter, say Lloyd’s brought in a lawyer to deal with the claim.

King also accuses Lloyd’s of “mali-ciously” sharing confi dential information

with news outlets about West to intimi-date him from taking legal action.

And the lawyer criticizes Lloyd’s busi-ness model, claiming it accepts “bounte-ous” premiums and then runs “unending” investigations to avoid making payout decisions.

A spokeswoman for Lloyd’s of London declined to discuss the West legal action, saying: “We’re not able to comment on matters in litigation.”

West was admitted to hospital after a series of erratic comments on stage last November, including alleging that JAY-Z was sending hitmen to kill him and rant-ing that Facebook founder Mark Zucker-berg hadn’t paid his US$53m debt.

The rapper also told an audience in California that he hadn’t voted in the U.S. election but would have backed Donald Trump. (SD-Agencies)

Kanye West sues insurer over canceled Tour dates

“HARRY POTTER” author J.K. Rowling has apologized to the family of a wheelchair-bound boy for tweets in which she accused U.S. President Donald Trump of ignoring his proffered hand at a media event.

Rowling branded Trump a “monster of narcissism” after foot-age of a July 24 news conference on healthcare showed the president seemingly ignoring the 3-year-old’s hand, but shaking other people’s as he left the event.

Footage of Trump’s entrance to the event, however, showed the president stop to greet the boy and have a brief exchange before he began speaking.

Saying she had discovered that what she had seen was not an accu-rate representation of the encoun-ter, Rowling tweeted: “I very clearly projected my own sensitivities around the issue of disabled people being overlooked or ignored onto the images I saw.”

Rowling has over 11 million Twit-ter followers. In the three days that elapsed between her original tweets July 28 and her apology, she had been the subject of online criticism, much of it from Trump supporters, for her comments on the incident.

(SD-Agencies)

Tom Hiddleston to star in ‘Hamlet’

Rowling apologizes over Trump tweets

GEORGE and Amal Clooney said Monday they would help 3,000 Syrian refugee children go to school this year in Lebanon, where the United Nations says 200,000 children are not receiv-ing an education after fl eeing the war in neighbouring Syria.

The Clooney Foundation for Justice said it has teamed up with Google and HP Inc to help the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF and the Lebanese Ministry of Education open seven so-called “second shift” schools for Syrian refugee chil-dren.

Lebanon has more than 1 million Syrian refugees, including nearly 500,000 chil-dren. It is educating Syrian children in public schools through a “second shift” system of additional afternoon classes exclusively for them.

“We don’t want to lose an entire generation because they had the bad luck of being born in the wrong place

Clooneys to help 3,000 Syrian refugees go to school in Lebanon

at the wrong time,” said Oscar-winning actor George Clooney and international human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, who gave birth to twins last month.

“Thousands of young Syrian refugees are at risk— the risk of never being a pro-ductive part of society,” the couple said in

a statement. “Formal education can help change that.”

A US$3.25 million donation from the Clooney Foundation for Justice, Google and HP will pay for transportation, school supplies, computers, content, curriculum and teacher training. (SD-Agencies)

Kanye West

George and Amal Clooney.

Tom Hiddleston