Entertainment News Roundup: Crowds gather for farewell to Franco Zeffirelli; Malkovich returns to London stage and more

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

It's the one you want: Olivia Newton-John's 'Grease' costume up for auction

Olivia Newton-John is putting the black leather jacket and tight pants that she wore in the final number of "Grease" up for auction to help raise money for her cancer treatment center in Australia. Julien's Auctions said on Wednesday the iconic outfit that marked her character's transition from demure high schooler to sexy Sandy Olson in the 1978 movie musical was one of 200 items that Newton-John is selling in November.

HBO's 'Chernobyl' gets mixed reviews from disaster's survivors

Critics and viewers on both sides of the Atlantic have lined up to acclaim 'Chernobyl', a dramatization of events surrounding the world's worst nuclear accident - but the reactions of some of the survivors are less rose-tinted. Sergii Parashyn, the then chairman of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant's Communist Party Committee, said the HBO mini-series, screened this spring in the United States and Britain, depicted the initial disbelief at the scale of the disaster well.

Empowerment rules at MTV awards, with win for Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Superhero blockbuster "Avengers: Endgame" was the top winner at the MTV Movie and TV awards on Monday in a show marked by messages of empowerment and self-esteem. The Marvel movie, the second biggest box office hit of all time, took wins for best movie, villain (Josh Brolin's Thanos) and hero (Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man.)

Malkovich returns to London stage as disgraced producer in Mamet play

American actor John Malkovich returned to London's West End on Wednesday after nearly 30 years, taking on what he called a "very challenging" role of a disgraced Hollywood film mogul in a new play partly inspired by the scandal surrounding producer Harvey Weinstein. Written and directed by Pulitzer Prize winner David Mamet, "Bitter Wheat" addresses "bad behavior" in various industries, not just entertainment, Malkovich told Reuters.

'Yesterday' comedy movie gets Beatles' seal of approval

Imagine a world where The Beatles never existed? That is what British director Danny Boyle asks audiences to believe in his new movie "Yesterday." The comedy, arriving in movie theaters next week, tells of struggling British musician Jack who wakes up after a traffic accident and finds himself in an alternate timeline where only he can remember the music of the 1960s band.

Comcast partners with Charter, Cox to advance targeted advertising

U.S. cable provider Comcast Corp on Tuesday launched a program to further develop an advertising strategy that better targets audiences, as the TV industry looks to lure more advertisers away from digital players like Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google. The initiative, called "On Addressability," aims to create standards for addressable advertising, which targets ads to certain households based on their interests. It has so far been done only on a small scale in TV advertising.

Carrie Underwood and NFL stole 'Sunday Night Football' theme: lawsuit

Country music superstar Carrie Underwood, the National Football League and NBC were sued on Wednesday for allegedly copying the "Game On" theme song used in 2018 for "Sunday Night Football" from an identically-titled song recorded two years earlier. Heidi Merrill, who said she uploaded her "Game On" to Google's YouTube in March 2017, said her copyright was infringed after Underwood's producer Mark Bright rejected her August 2017 pitch at a conference in Nashville to use the song for "Sunday Night Football."

Crowds gather in Florence for farewell to Franco Zeffirelli

Hundreds of people gathered in Florence on Tuesday for the funeral of film and opera director Franco Zeffirelli, who died on Saturday at the age of 96. Zeffirelli, a native of Florence, was the last of a generation of Italian film luminaries who came of age after World War Two, including Federico Fellini, Luchino Visconti and Vittorio De Sica. Family, friends and politicians, including Culture Minister Alberto Bonisoli, filled the Santa Maria del Fiore cathedral. "Florence is giving back to the master everything he gave to the city," Mayor Dario Nardella said. Zeffirelli, who was often appreciated more by the public than by critics, directed more than two dozen films, working with stars like Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Laurence Olivier, Alec Guinness, Faye Dunaway and Jon Voight. He brought Shakespeare to the screen several times, and his "Romeo and Juliet" was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director Oscars. His 1990 "Hamlet" starred Mel Gibson.

Defense lawyer for Harvey Weinstein asks to leave New York case: report

One of the lawyers representing Harvey Weinstein in his rape trial due to begin in September has asked a judge to let him drop the former movie producer as a client, the New York Post reported, citing a letter from the attorney to the New York court. The attorney, Jose Baez, asked a Manhattan justice to let him off the case six months after Weinstein, 67, hired him because of their strained relationship, the newspaper reported on Monday.

(With inputs from agencies.)