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Live Reporting

Neil Smith and Lauren Turner

All times stated are UK

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  1. Goodbye for now

    Neil Smith

    Entertainment reporter

    That's all we have time for today, so we'll leave you with more news of Johnny Depp.

    Earlier, you may recall, we reported that the Pirates of the Caribbean star was being lined up to play the Invisible Man. 

    But the chameleon-like actor has managed to fit another role into his busy schedule... real estate mogul turned Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump.

    Johnny Depp as Donald Trump

    It's all in aid of a 50-minute video on the Funny or Die website that purports to be a little-seen, long-buried TV movie based on Trump's 1987 business manual The Art of the Deal.

    Filmed in secret and released to coincide with Trump's success in the New Hampshire primary, the spoof film - which also stars Alfred Molina, Henry Winkler and Stephen Merchant - begins with a mock intro by director Ron Howard.

    See you tomorrow.

  2. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child book to be published

    The cast of the new Harry Potter play

    Great news for Harry Potter fans this afternoon. 

    It's been announced on JK Rowling's Pottermore website that a script book of new play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child will be published. 

    Print and digital editions will be launched after the play gets its world premiere in London's West End this summer. 

    This special rehearsal edition will later be replaced by a definitive collector's edition. 

    Pottermore also tells us that the new story - officially the eighth in the Harry Potter canon - picks up where the action left off at the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

    Spoiler alert for anyone who is still yet to read it, but that sees Harry waving two of his children off as they head to Hogwarts.

    Noma Dumezweni, Jamie Parker and Paul Thornley (pictured) play the adult Hermione, Harry and Ron in the eagerly anticipated production.

    And if that wasn't enough, we've also learned that there will be a new edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them published next year, with new content from Rowling included. 

    Read more on this story.

  3. Work begins on Deadpool sequel

    The Hollywood Reporter

    Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool

    It may be only going on UK release today, but a sequel to Deadpool is already in the works.

    The film's writers, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, are reportedly working on a follow-up to the anarchic superhero movie, which is based on a Marvel Comics character who's part of the same universe as the X-Men.

    Director Tim Miller is yet to sign on the dotted line, but it's hoped he'll also be involved.

    Read more on this story, then check out Ryan Reynolds talking about the character on last night's Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

    View more on youtube
  4. 'Peter Pan house' reaches funding target

    Moat Brae House

    A house in south Scotland that helped inspire Peter Pan has secured the £5.3m needed to allow its conversion to a national centre for children's literature.

    Author JM Barrie played in the gardens of Moat Brae in Dumfries as a child and credited its "enchanted land" as one of the inspirations behind his famous tale.

    Read more on this story.

  5. Goodbye Ebola, hello cinema

    A 27-year-old entrepreneur is seeking to open Liberia's first art-house cinema.

    The African country's last modern-day cinema shut down in the 1990s. Now it has been declared free of Ebola transmission, Pandora Hodge has big plans for a disused cinema in the Liberian capital Monrovia.

    Find out more in the latest video from Women of Africa, a BBC season recognising inspiring women across the continent.

    Video content

    Video caption: Women of Africa: Rebuilding Liberia's cinema after Ebola
  6. Sorkin to adapt To Kill a Mockingbird for the stage

    Aaron Sorkin

    Aaron Sorkin is to adapt Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird for the stage. 

    It's due to hit Broadway in the 2017-2018 season.

    Sorkin, whose plays include A Few Good Men and The Farnsworth Invention, won a Golden Globe last month for his Steve Jobs screenplay.

    Another adaptation of Lee's novel was seen at the Open Air theatre in London in 2013, with Robert Sean Leonard as Atticus Finch.

  7. Stallone and Weathers reunited at film festival

    Carl Weathers and Sylvester Stallone at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival

    Here's a picture of actor Sylvester Stallone being reunited with old Rocky sparring partner Carl Weathers at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

    Weathers, who played boxer Apollo Creed in the first four Rocky films, presented Stallone with the festival's Montecito Award on Tuesday in recognition of his "great contribution to film".

  8. Lana Del Rey releases video starring Father John Misty

    View more on youtube

    The music video for Lana Del Rey's Freak, taken from her 2015 album Honeymoon, has been released - and it's a bit arty, to say the least.

    It features singer Father John Misty - formerly of Fleet Foxes - as Del Rey is a big fan of his. 

    We don't actually hear his vocals on the track, but we do see a lot of his rather impressive beard. 

    The last four minutes of the video segues into Debussy's Clair de Lune, for reasons that are not immediately clear. 

    What do you think of it? Let us know in the usual way.

  9. Martin Clunes urges Scotland Yard to catch 'cat ripper'

    Martin Clunes

    Doc Martin actor Martin Clunes has written to the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, calling for the so-called "Cat Ripper of Croydon" to be caught. 

    The actor said that at least 35 cats are thought to have been "massacred" around the south London borough.

    Writing on behalf of animal rights group Peta, Clunes - who went to school in Croydon - said: "I read with horror that some of the cats had been decapitated and dismembered - this is the stuff of nightmares. 

    "The local community is understandably distraught and frightened. No one feels safe while this sick individual is on the loose."

    He's asking Sir Bernard to take "every measure necessary" to catch "this dangerous criminal". 

  10. Bottoms up for Midsummer Night's Dream tour

    Last year we brought you news the Royal Shakespeare Company was planning a national tour of A Midsummer Night's Dream that sees its professional actors joined by members of 14 local theatre groups.

    The BBCs John Maguire has been along to rehearsals - some of which have been conducted by video link.

    Video content

    Video caption: Amateur actors join RSC for special Shakespeare tour
  11. Half-term film releases: What's coming to cinemas this weekend?

    With comedy sequel Zoolander 2, superhero film Deadpool and genre mash-up Pride and Prejudice and Zombies arriving in cinemas between Wednesday and Friday, UK film-lovers will be spoiled for choice this weekend.

    And those aren’t the only new offerings either. There are also a number of child and teen-oriented releases heading our way, specifically tailored to the half-term audience.

    View more on youtube

    Oddball and the Penguins tells of a mischievous dog who is trained to protect a penguin sanctuary from fox attacks.

    Joining the Australian film’s avian and canine cast members is actress Sarah Snook, currently to be found treading the boards in London with Ralph Fiennes in Ibsen’s The Master Builder.

    View more on youtube

    Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip is the fourth big-screen outing for computer-animated critter Alvin and his mates Simon and Theodore, a trio of singing chipmunks who are forever making trouble for their guardian Dave (Jason Lee).

    This time around, the helium-voiced rodents take a road trip to Miami to stop Dave proposing. The film features cameos from cult director John Waters and Orange is the New Black actress Uzo Aduba - soon to be seen in London in The Maids.

    View more on youtube

    Jem and the Holograms is a live-action update of the 1980s cartoon series about a teenage girl who moonlights as the pink-haired leader of an all-girl music group.

    Retooled for a world of YouTube, Twitter and other social media, the film - which flopped disastrously at the US box office last year - stars Nashville’s Aubrey Peeples as Jerrica Benton, aka Jem.

  12. Boy leads chosen for Billy Elliot tour

    Lewis Smallman, Matthew Lyons, Adam Abbou and Haydn May

    Here's a picture of child actors Lewis Smallman, Matthew Lyons, Adam Abbou and Haydn May, literally jumping for joy at the news they've been chosen to share the title role in the first UK and Ireland tour of hit musical Billy Elliot.

    Abbou, a 12-year-old from Liverpool; Lyons, who's 11 and comes from Leeds; May, an 11-year-old from Bath; and Smallman, who's 12 and from West Bromwich, were cast following nationwide auditions.

    The tour starts later this month in Plymouth and will run all the way until May next year.

  13. At home with Jimi Hendrix (and Handel)

    Kathy Etchingham

    The former London homes of Jimi Hendrix and George Frideric Handel re-open today as a combined museum celebrating two very different musical legends.

    The BBC's Vincent Dowd caught up with Hendrix's former girlfriend Kathy Etchingham (pictured) and asked about her memories of living at 23 Brook Street in the summer of 1968.

    Read the feature.

  14. Frozen musical heading to Broadway

    Idina Menzel at Walt Disney World

    Fans of Frozen rejoice - the Disney film is heading to Broadway. 

    It's going to feature music and lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, who composed the film's score. 

    It will open outside New York in August 2017 and head to Broadway the following spring. 

    Idina Menzel, who voiced Elsa in the 2013 film and is pictured above with some of the Frozen characters at Walt Disney World, has said she would "absolutely" reprise the role for the musical. Casting is yet to be announced though.

    One thing's for sure: with this and a Frozen sequel in the pipeline, we're going to be hearing a lot more of Let it Go.

  15. Tweddle 'walks a few steps' after The Jump injury

    Beth Tweddle

    Beth Tweddle has managed to walk a few steps after undergoing surgery, her parents have said.

    The gymnast, who won bronze at the 2012 Olympics, had an operation on her neck after falling on the slopes during rehearsals for Channel 4 show The Jump.

    Her parents, Ann and Jerry, said the timescale for her recovery was unclear.

    Quote Message: Since her surgery, Beth has managed to walk a few steps whilst being assisted by the nursing team. She is still very tired from the operation but the medical team are pleased with the progress she is making.
    Quote Message: At the moment we aren't certain of the timescale for her recovery. We are taking each day as it comes and will update you when there is further news.

    Tweddle, 30, is one of four celebrities who have pulled out of The Jump after being injured, prompting Channel 4 to review safety procedures on the show.  

    Read more on this story.

  16. Mann: Comedies don't have 'fair chance' at winning awards

    Leslie Mann and the cast of How to be Single

    Actress Leslie Mann - pictured (far left) above with her How to be Single co-stars Dakota Johnson, Alison Brie and Rebel Wilson - has complained that comedies don't have a fair chance of winning awards. 

    Speaking at the film's London premiere on Tuesday, she said: "I love watching women in strong comedies and I think it's ridiculous that we don't have any comedy categories - and the one category we do get always goes to a drama."

    Bridesmaids star Wilson agreed, saying: "I find it interesting when I'm watching the [Golden] Globes and there's a comedy category. 

    "I think not all films nominated fit into that category. But I love working in comedy, I have so much fun working in it."

    How to be Single, which details the romantic travails of four single women living in New York, is out in the UK and Ireland on 19 February.

  17. Martin and Bartoli made Polar Prize Laureates

    Max Martin and Cecilia Bartoli

    Stars have been rushing to congratulate songwriter Max Martin after he was named as 2016 Polar Music Prize Laureate, alongside Italian mezzo-soprano Cecilia Bartoli.

    Martin has written such hits as Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl, So What by Pink and, more recently, Can't Feel My Face by The Weeknd. 

    Ellie Goulding said it was a "very well-deserved" award; Britney Spears called Martin a "genius" who had been "an honour to work with"; while Justin Timberlake told him: "No one deserves it more. You are a master."

    Martin and Bartoli will receive their prizes from King Carl XVI in Stockholm in June. 

    Martin, who hails from Stockholm, said it was a "great honour", while Bartoli said she felt "deeply honoured because this amazing prize is all about a passion for good music without boundaries."

    Well done to both of them. Read more on this story.

  18. How a Welsh mountain saved da Vinci and van Gogh

    BBC iWonder

    Art works being carried into a van

    Where would you hide the world’s greatest artistic treasures if they were under threat from bombs and a possible invasion? 

    That was the question the British establishment had to ask when World War Two broke out.

    The safest place, they decided, was in a Welsh mountain.

    Almost 2,000 works by artists including Rembrandt, da Vinci, van Gogh, Turner, Michelangelo and Caravaggio were moved in secret to this earthy makeshift home.

    Some were transported in vans disguised as soap lorries like the one above. 

    Video content

    Video caption: national_gallery_evacuation_clip2

     BBC iWonder has been digging into this story. Read more.

  19. Makers of Glee TV show lose legal appeal

    Glee cast members

    The makers of US TV show Glee have lost their appeal against a legal ruling that found in favour of the comedy club chain of the same name.

    Comic Enterprises successfully argued in the High Court that 20th Century Fox's show breached its trademark right to The Glee Club name.

    The show's broadcaster appealed against the 2014 ruling, but appeal court judges have dismissed their case.

    It is not yet clear whether the Glee show's name will have to be changed.

    Appeal court judges now have to consider whether EU trademark law affects the ruling.

    Glee, which told of a group of high school outcasts who find a refuge in performing, ran from 2009 to 2015.

    Read more on this story.

  20. Sofia Coppola to make opera directing debut

    Sofia Coppola

    Lost in Translation and The Bling Ring director Sofia Coppola is to make her opera directing debut in Rome later this year.

    The 44-year-old daughter of director Francis Ford Coppola is teaming up with fashion designer Valentino for the production of Verdi's La Traviata at the Rome Opera House. 

    Valentino asked her to work with him having watched her 2006 film Marie Antoinette. 

    Carlo Fuortes, general manager of the Rome Opera Foundation, said the production would take inspiration from the world of film. 

    Its premiere is due to take place in May.