Old Gold - Elvis Presley has overtaken Madonna to claim the most number one albums by a solo artist. The Wonder Of You features Elvis' voice above an orchestral score performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. It sold 63,500 copies after being released last week. Elvis' number one albums also span the longest period of time by the same artist. There are 60 years between his first - Elvis Presley Rock N' Roll in 1956 - and this latest release. It comes almost 40 years since he died in August 1977.
Speechless - Bob Dylan says he accepts his Nobel Prize in literature, ending a silence since being awarded the prize earlier this month. He said the honour had left him "speechless", the Nobel Foundation said in a statement. The foundation said it had not yet been decided if the singer would attend the awards ceremony in December. However, Dylan reportedly told The Telegraph he intended to pick up the award in person "if at all possible".
Dead End - New York's Metropolitan Opera halted an afternoon performance after an audience member sprinkled what is suspected to be cremated ashes on to the orchestra. The incident happened during an intermission of Guillaume Tell, prompting anti-terror units to enter the Lincoln Centre venue. Several audience members said a man told them he was there to release the ashes of a friend, police said.
Monster Mash - Mel Brooks musical Young Frankenstein will receive its UK premiere at the Newcastle Theatre Royal next year, prior to a planned West End run. The show, based on the film of the same name, is co-written with Thomas Meehan and will be directed by Susan Stroman, who helmed his musical The Producers. Young Frankenstein had a Broadway run between October 2007 and January 2009.
Conservative Approach - Former culture minister Ed Vaizey has claimed that the arts suffer from industry "groupthink" and are too resistant to alternative points of view. Giving the annual Chairman's Lecture at the Royal Society of Arts, Vaizey also spoke out against the industry's "conservative" approach to funding, and said arts leaders were too hostile to incoming culture secretaries when they were new to their posts. He also used the speech to call for an end to arts funding cuts by central government.
Vaizey, who was removed from his position as arts minister by prime minister Theresa May in July, said, "Let's not beat about the bush: the arts are relentlessly left wing...As the former [London] mayor's head of culture once said: there is no pro-fox hunting play. Indeed, there are no plays about over-powerful trade unions letting down their members. As a Remainer [myself], there is no pro-Brexit play attacking unaccountable Brussel's bureaucrats building a European superstate. There's no play exposing the corruption and abuse in a country like Venezuela - why not?"
Vaizey suggested people in the arts community "sit in a bubble", reinforce each others' thinking "and cold-shoulder people with different points of view". "You have to subscribe to the groupthink to get on, and that is not healthy," he added.
(Jim Evans)
