'Record demand for final Potter'

Nearly 1.6m copies of the final Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, have been pre-ordered online ahead of its release on 21 July.

According to online retailer Amazon, JK Rowling's seventh Potter book has become its most pre-ordered product.

Demand has surpassed a previous record of 1.5 million copies ordered ahead of the release of The Half-Blood Prince.

The latest film in the series, The Order of the Phoenix, has its European premiere in London on Tuesday.

The film opens across the globe on 11 July.

It is believed that author Rowling will join the film's stars, including Daniel Radcliffe, Imelda Staunton and Robbie Coltrane, on the red carpet in Leicester Square.

Guests including Doctor Who star David Tennant, actor Pierce Brosnan and presenter Graham Norton are also expected to attend.

Speculation

The world premiere of the film took place in Tokyo, where Harry Potter has a huge fanbase.

Another highly-anticipated sequel, Spider-Man 3, opened in the Japanese capital in April and went on to break box office records.

Rowling has said two characters die in the final book, prompting worldwide speculation.

The Potter books have sold 325 million copies worldwide, have been translated into 64 languages and spawned five films.

14.8m tune in for Diana concert

Sunday's memorial concert for Diana, Princess of Wales dominated TV viewing, with audience figures peaking at 14.8m during the six-hour show on BBC One.

An average of 8.9m people tuned in to watch the live broadcast of the event at London's Wembley Stadium.

Around 63,000 attended the Concert for Diana on what would have been her 46th birthday. The princess died in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.

Sir Elton John, Lily Allen and Duran Duran were part of the line-up.

Charitable causes

Sir Elton, 60, opened the concert with a rendition of Your Song performed in front of a giant image of Diana.

The singer closed the event, which saw performances from an array of international stars, with Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting and Tiny Dancer.

Hosts Prince William and Prince Harry, who introduced Duran Duran at the beginning of the concert, returned to the stage at the end of Sir Elton's final set, praising the artists for an "incredible evening".

Proceeds from the event, broadcast to 140 countries, willl go to charitable causes favoured by the princess.

Video tributes from ex-South African President Nelson Mandela, the former Prime Minister Tony Blair and ex-US President Bill Clinton were broadcast during the gig.

Kylie stars in festive Doctor Who

Pop star Kylie Minogue is to have "a major lead role" in this year's Christmas special of Doctor Who.

The star will join David Tennant for Voyage of the Damned, an hour-long show following on from the current series, which ended in the UK on Saturday.

"This will be the most ambitious and best Christmas episode yet," promised executive producer Russell T Davies, who has also written the script.

Filming is scheduled to begin in Cardiff later this month.

'Delighted and excited'

There had been rumours for several weeks that Minogue, who halted her Showgirl world tour for 18 months when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, would appear in the show.

And Davies said he was "delighted and excited" to confirm the 39-year-old's participation.

Minogue, whose debut single I Should Be So Lucky topped the charts in 1987, is currently working on her 10th studio album.

Last year's Christmas special of Doctor Who - The Runaway Bride - starred comedian Catherine Tate alongside Tennant.

She played a woman who was upset at being transported into space as she walked down the aisle on her wedding day.

The episode, broadcast on BBC One on Christmas Day, attracted an audience of 9.4 million.

Cartoon rat bites into US chart

An animated adventure about a rat living in a Paris restaurant beat the return of Bruce Willis in Die Hard to the top of the US box office.

Ratatouille, a Pixar film featuring the voices of Ian Holm and Peter O'Toole, took $47.2m (£23.4m) in its first week.

Willis's Live Free or Die Hard, which will be called Die Hard 4.0 on its UK release, entered at number two with takings of $33.1 (£16.4m).

Last week's number one, Evan Almighty, slipped to third place.

Family saga

Steven King adaptation 1408, starring John Cusack and Samuel L Jackson, fell from two to four.

Blockbuster movies Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Ocean's 13 and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End all managed to sustain audiences, keeping them in the top 10.

Michael Moore's documentary Sicko, which examines the US healthcare industry, reached number nine in its first week on nationwide release, taking $4.5m (£2.2m).

The teaming up of Hollywood stalwarts Glenn Close and Meryl Streep for the family saga Evening failed to attract much box office business.

The film, which also stars Toni Colette, Claire Danes and Vanessa Redgrave, took just $3.5m (£1.7m) in its opening week, placing it at number 10 in the chart.

Diana concert a 'perfect tribute'

The charity memorial concert for Diana, Princess of Wales was "the most perfect way of remembering her", Princes William and Harry have said.

Prince William told the 63,000-strong crowd at London's Wembley Stadium his mother would have enjoyed the tribute.

Sunday's gig marked the life of Diana, who died in a 1997 Paris car crash, on what would have been her 46th birthday.

Sir Elton John brought the concert to a close after sets by stars including Sir Tom Jones, Take That and Rod Stewart.

Prince William and Prince Harry opened the six-hour show and returned to the stage at the end of Sir Elton's final set, praising the artists for an "incredible evening".

"Thank you to all of you who have come here tonight to celebrate our mother's life on what would have been her 46th birthday," Prince William said.

"For us this has been the most perfect way to remember her and this is how she would want to be remembered."

The event was broadcast to 140 countries, with proceeds from ticket sales going to charitable causes favoured by the princess.

Prince William, 25, added that he hoped the concert had raised "enough money to make a difference".

Video tributes

The princes later mingled with the stars of the concert at the after-show party at Wembley Arena, next to the new stadium.

In a video tribute, ex-South African President Nelson Mandela had earlier praised Princess Diana's "energy, courage and selfless commitment" as he urged the crowd to "support the work that continues in her name".

Former Prime Minister Tony Blair and ex-US President Bill Clinton were also among those who paid tribute to Diana in video clips during the show, along with members of a host of charitable organisations.

"I think that in William and Harry, the qualities that made Diana special live on," said Mr Blair.

Earlier in the concert Prince Harry paid tribute to fellow soldiers serving in Iraq.

The 22-year-old had been due to be deployed in Basra, in Iraq, this year, but military commanders decided it was too much of a risk to send him there.

"I wish I was there with you. I'm sorry I can't be. But to you and everybody else on operations at the moment, we would both like to say 'stay safe'," he said.

Theatre performances

Sir Elton, 60, who famously performed a reworked version of Candle In The Wind at Diana's funeral, opened the concert with a rendition of Your Song, performed in front of a giant photograph of Diana by Mario Testino.

He was followed by 80s stars Duran Duran, who played a trio of songs including Wild Boys - which they dedicated to the princes - and Rio, one of their mother's favourites.

The English National Ballet - of which Princess Diana was a patron - brought a change of pace to the day and reminded everyone of the princess's love of the ballet with a performance from Swan Lake.

The theatrical theme continued later with a medley of hits from composer Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber.

Status Quo, Sir Tom Jones, Will Young and Joss Stone all took to the stage in the afternoon.

And Take That performed their number one hit Patience, although rumours that Robbie Williams might join them on stage proved unfounded.

Some of Princes William and Harry's favourites followed, including a poignant moment when P Diddy dedicated his hit track I'll Be Missing You to the princess.

"Ten years ago, Princess Diana went to a better place," he said. "Today we celebrate her life and I dedicate this song to her."

The evening wrapped up with entertainment from comedian Ricky Gervais, who was forced to improvise when technical problems caused a minor delay to Sir Elton's closing set.

Ticket-holders attending the event had been greeted with tight security following the recent attempted bombings in London and Glasgow.

On the Web, EMI to Offer More Choices

Music blogs and social networking sites like MySpace are playing an increasingly important part in record companies’ marketing plans. Now they will also be able to sell songs from a major label that will play on the iPod from Apple.

EMI Music and Snocap are to announce today that Snocap will sell the label’s music in its MyStores, online shops that can be added to various sites on the Internet. Snocap’s MyStores would be placed on the Web sites of EMI artists like Korn, Suzanne Vega and Yellowcard, as well as on artists’ MySpace pages. Fans would also be able to place MyStores “widgets” on their own sites and MySpace pages, although Snocap would still control sales.

“It’s almost like you’re giving the label a vending machine,” Snocap’s chief executive, Rusty Rueff, said. “They can fill it up and people can take it and put it as many places as they want. This allows the artists and the fans to have a chance to engage in commerce on the most popular music sites, like MySpace.”

The price will be $1.30 a song for high-quality MP3 files that will work on any digital media player, including the iPod. Until now, Snocap had been selling independent label songs as well as Warner Music Group material in a format that did not work on the iPod.

Since MyStores can be added to a variety of Web pages, they will offer fans more places to shop for music. Over the last few years, as CD sales have fallen, music chains like Tower Records have closed, which has in turn fueled further declines. Snocap also planned to sell music at a variety of different price points, a feature the major labels want, but cannot get, from Apple’s iTunes store.

“My whole mantra has been, you have to make it easy for people to buy music,” said Barney Wragg, the head of EMI’s worldwide digital division. “You don’t have to have one big store which everyone has to come to; you can take this store and put it into pages all over the place.”

Snocap’s MyStores would also make it possible for customers to buy music where and when they first hear it. Since MySpace and various artists’ Web sites have become popular places to sample music in streaming audio, labels hope that fans will make more impulse buys.

In a survey by the analyst firm Jupiter Research, 20 percent of adults who were online identified themselves as impulse music buyers.

“MySpace has a big audience, which is interested in music, and a lot of people are listening to music on the site,” said David Card, a Jupiter Research analyst. “So if MyStores can deliver a graceful experience, I think they have a decent shot of being a big deal.”