Entertainment News Roundup: Netflix to expand in France, HBO out of boxing and more

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

Lady Gaga says 'Star is Born' character not at all like her

Lady Gaga's performance as an aspiring singer who makes it big in "A Star is Born" might seem to be modeled on her own rise to fame, but Gaga says nothing could be further from the truth. In her first movie role, the New York-born musician behind hits like "Born This Way" and "Bad Romance" plays a struggling singer called Ally who has a chance meeting and intense romance with country star Jackson Maine, played by Bradley Cooper.

Netflix to double investments in France, produce more local shows

Streaming service Netflix Inc. plans to double its investments in France and produce 14 local shows, twice as many as previously planned, Chief Executive Reed Hastings said Friday. Hastings did not disclose how much Netflix would invest in France, though it would be "many millions of euros", he told French radio station BFM Business.

Hey Dude, don't be afraid: McCartney pens book for his grandchildren

Paul McCartney has written a children's book called "Hey Grandude!", a name the 76-year-old former member of The Beatles says came from one of his grandchildren. "I've got eight grandchildren and they're all beautiful and one day one of them said to me 'Hey Grandude!'. I said 'What?' and I thought, I kind of like that," McCartney said in a video he posted on Twitter on Thursday.

HBO getting out of the boxing business after 45 years

U.S. broadcaster HBO said on Thursday it will be dropping live boxing from its programming schedule from 2019 due to dwindling ratings, ending a 45-year association with the sport. With the top fights on Pay Per View and boxing available on other places and platforms such as the streaming service DAZN, which in May partnered with Matchroom Boxing in a $1 billion eight-year deal to broadcast 16 U.S. based fights a year, HBO has decided to put those resources into other projects.

Mortensen thought twice about bouncer role in 'Green Book'

Danish-American actor Viggo Mortensen says he was nervous at first about playing a burly Italian-American bouncer from the Bronx in comedy-drama "Green Book", unsure whether he could portray the character convincingly. The 59-year-old, best known for "The Lord of the Rings" and "Captain Fantastic", also had to gain weight for the role of Tony Lip, who is hired to drive black pianist Don Shirley, played by Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali, on a concert tour of the segregated U.S. Deep South in the early 1960s.

Hillary Clinton jokes about email in 'Murphy Brown' return to TV

Hillary Clinton made a surprise appearance on the revival of the television comedy "Murphy Brown" on Thursday, joking about her experience with emails in an episode that took jabs at President Donald Trump and the media. The show that became a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars in 1992 returned to the air for the first time in 20 years with star Candice Bergen again playing the pioneering journalist.

Hooked on body suspension: extreme art finds niche in China

Inside a dimly lit bar in Shanghai, amazed spectators held their smartphones high as artist Wei Yilaien suspended a couple in mid-air from hooks piercing their bodies. Onlookers snapped pictures and videos as the tattooed bodies dangled from a metal frame for 20 minutes before Wei and two assistants lowered the couple to the floor.

Police violence film 'Monsters and Men' shakes up actor Washington

As an African-American born and raised in the United States, actor John David Washington is no stranger to violence and racism. But Washington, the son of Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington, says he was shaken up when preparing to play a New York cop who gets caught up in the shooting of an unarmed black man in the movie "Monsters and Men."

Aging Japan: Manga comics turn gray - but spirited - along with readers

Japan's graying population is changing the character of its beloved manga comics, spawning a new genre in which the elderly aren't pitiable oldsters but protagonists making discoveries, finding friends and sometimes even having hot sex. Demand for stories focused on the elderly has grown alongside their audience: 27.7 percent of Japanese are older than 65, up from 21.5 percent just a decade ago.

From the trenches comes Peter Jackson's World War One film

Featuring voice-overs from veteran soldiers and transformed 100-year-old archive footage from the battlefield, Peter Jackson offered a first look at his upcoming World War One film "They Shall Not Grow Old". The short trailer, released on Friday, shows original black and white footage of soldiers eating, riding on horseback and firing weaponry.