Entertainment News Roundup: Singer King Princess releases debut album and more

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

Young maestro takes baton as Israel Philharmonic's Zubin Mehta ends 50-year tenure

Zubin Mehta was only 25 years old when he first conducted the Israel Philharmonic. Over half a century later, he's passing the baton to a fast-rising Israeli maestro some 53 years his junior. The 83-year-old Indian conductor capped off thousands of performances as music director of the renowned symphony orchestra in a series of farewell concerts in Tel Aviv this week, making way for Lahav Shani, 30, to take the reins.

Already a star, singer King Princess releases debut album

Twenty-year-old singer-songwriter King Princess releases one of pop music's most hotly anticipated debut albums on Friday, "Cheap Queen", more than a year after she shot to stardom with a single name-checked by Harry Styles and Kourtney Kardashian. The buzz around the Brooklyn-born singer, whose full name is Mikaela Straus, has built since her single "1950", inspired by "The Price of Salt", the Patricia Highsmith novel about a forbidden lesbian affair. The soulful ballad has more than 10 million YouTube views since it appeared in February last year.

Intrigue over absent masterpiece as da Vinci show opens doors

A major exhibition marking 500 years since the death of Leonardo da Vinci opened in Paris on Thursday but there was intrigue over whether the "Salvator Mundi" painting of Christ, one of the best-known works attributed to the master, would make a late appearance. The exhibition at the Louvre Museum brought together in one place works by the Renaissance master, many of them loaned from institutions in different parts of the world.

Asterix gets update with female heroine in latest outing

Asterix, the indomitable pint-sized Gaul forever outfoxing the Romans, returns this week for his 38th comic book adventure "Asterix and the Chieftain's Daughter" featuring for the first time in its 60 year history a female heroine. In a move to update the books, which have been entertaining readers since 1959 and spawned multiple movie spinoffs, the action in the new edition revolves around a character called Adrenaline, the teenage daughter of famous Gaulish king Vercingetorix.

British-born Nigerian actor hopes black skinhead film will 'heal' pain

British-born Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje was taken into foster care by a white family near London as a baby in the 1960s. As a youth, the unthinkable happened: the black boy joined a gang of violent white supremacists. Now an award-winning actor, he has brought his story to cinemas in his country of origin - Nigeria. He hopes his directorial debut will be part of a "healing" process for people who sought foster care to give their children a better life.

Fans create their own 'kind of magic' in new Queen music videos

Singing in the kitchen, dancing in a field and impersonating frontman Freddie Mercury, Queen fans are giving renditions of three of the rock band's hit songs in new user-generated music videos unveiled on Thursday. More than 10,000 people from 120 countries took part in the group's "You Are The Champions" project after the British band asked fans to submit musical and artistic versions of "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Don't Stop Me Now" and "A Kind of Magic".

'It's emotional': Ralph Lauren on HBO documentary 'Very Ralph'

American designer Ralph Lauren considers himself a private person, so giving cameras access to his life and fashion empire for the upcoming HBO documentary 'Very Ralph' was occasionally challenging. "Sometimes, if I paid attention to it, it was difficult," Lauren said in an interview with Reuters. "But I tried to ignore it."

A Minute With: actors Bannon and Aldridge on no 'capes and tights' series 'Pennyworth'

Jack Bannon and Ben Aldridge play comic book characters Alfred Pennyworth and Thomas Wayne in DC-origin series "Pennyworth", but the actors say there are no capes or tights in sight in this show set years before superhero Batman fights crime on the streets of Gotham. In his first title role, Bannon, known for "The Imitation Game" and "Fury", portrays Pennyworth, a former soldier in his 20s, who sets up his own security company in 1960s London.

Also Read: Young maestro takes baton as Israel Philharmonic's Zubin Mehta ends 50-year tenure

(With inputs from agencies.)