Entertainment News Roundup: Dua Lipa launches new single with London fan event; Netflix unveils $70 million restoration of historic Hollywood theater and more

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

Post-strike Hollywood rushes to get film, TV sets humming

Hours before the Hollywood actors’ strike officially ended, Beth Goodnight’s phone began ringing with opportunity. The head of a Hollywood construction company and prop shop that bears her name dispatched two project managers to begin bidding for work. By the end of Wednesday, they had crunched numbers on seven projects, including a Super Bowl commercial, a television show, a large event and smaller pieces that add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Beatlemania is back as chart-topping 'Now And Then' breaks records

The Beatles returned to the top of the UK music charts on Friday, with the record-breaking track "Now And Then", making history as the act with the longest gap between its first and last No. 1 single. Billed as the last Beatles song, "Now And Then" features the voice of late member John Lennon and was developed using artificial intelligence. It also features parts recorded by surviving members Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr as well as the late George Harrison.

Dua Lipa launches new single with London fan event

Dua Lipa dropped her new single "Houdini" on Thursday, celebrating the launch with a secretive fan event in London. The track is the first single from the British-Albanian singer’s third studio album, which is set for release in 2024. It follows her hit "Barbie" soundtrack song "Dance the Night", which came out in May.

'Hunger Games' prequel cast premiere film, welcome end of strike

The stars of "The Hunger Games" prequel welcomed the end of a four-month long Hollywood actors strike on Thursday as they walked the red carpet at the film's world premiere in London. The SAG-AFTRA union reached a tentative agreement with major studios on Wednesday to resolve the second of two strikes that had rocked the entertainment industry as writers and performers demanded higher pay in the streaming TV era.

SZA tops Grammy nominations in a year made for women and 'Barbie'

Versatile recording artist SZA led this year's Grammy Award nominations with nine, coming in ahead of industry heavyweights Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and Billie Eilish, in a year made for women artists and the movie blockbuster "Barbie." The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony on Feb. 4.

Disney delays 'Deadpool' sequel, 'Blade' and other films in post-strike shuffle

Walt Disney delayed the release of Marvel movie "Blade," a new "Deadpool" installment and several other films on Thursday as Hollywood studios adjusted schedules following the end of the four-month actors' strike. The next "Deadpool," which had been scheduled to reach theaters in May, will now debut in late July, Disney said in a statement. That forced the company to move its planned July release, "Captain America: Brave New World," to February 2025.

Netflix unveils $70 million restoration of historic Hollywood theater

The Egyptian Theatre, a historic movie house that hosted Hollywood's first film premiere a century ago, will re-open to the public this week after a multi-million-dollar restoration by Netflix. The company that pioneered watching movies at home stepped in three years ago to refurbish one of the most famous theaters in Los Angeles. Built during the silent film era, the Egyptian rolled out Hollywood's first red carpet for the premiere of "Robin Hood" starring Douglas Fairbanks in 1922. Netflix said it spent $70 million to restore the theater, preserving its original Egyptian Revival design in the courtyard and inside the building while adding updated sound and projection equipment. "If you had seen the theater over the last couple of years before we were able to get in and do this work, you'd see it was showing every bit of its 100 years," Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos said in an interview. "To be able to bring it back, and it's a beautiful movie house, is just an incredible point of pride for us." Netflix will hold premieres of its films and other special events at the theater on weekdays starting with a screening of David Fincher's "The Killer" on Thursday. On weekends, the Egyptian will show classic films selected by the American Cinemateque, a nonprofit group that had purchased the theater in 1986 but struggled with upkeep of the century-old building. "Even though we had spent considerable money renovating it, it still was not what we really dreamt it could be," American Cinematheque Chairman Rick Nicita said. Now, "it's a brand new old movie palace, if that's not a contradiction in terms," Nicita added. "I can't wait now to see a movie here."

Factbox-Leading nominations for 2024 Grammy Awards

Nominations for the music industry's Grammy Awards were announced Friday. Here are a few selected categories. RECORD OF THE YEAR

Elon Musk biopic rights clinched by A24, Darren Aronofsky to direct - source

A biopic on Elon Musk is in the works at New York-based studio A24 with "Black Swan"-filmmaker Darren Aronofsky as the director, according to a source familiar with the matter. A24 secured the rights to Walter Isaacson's biography on the world's richest person, according to the source, who added the Musk biopic will be produced by Aronofsky's production company, Protozoa Pictures.

Hollywood actors secure safeguards around AI use on screen

Movie studios must obtain permission from actors to use their images in material generated by artificial intelligence (AI), and pay performers whenever their digital doubles appear on screen, under the labor agreement that ended a 118-day strike. Actors secured these new safeguards as part of a deal announced late on Wednesday, according to Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, chief negotiator for the SAG-AFTRA actors union.

(With inputs from agencies.)