R&B singer Usher is preparing for not one, but two huge new roles in the coming weeks.
The entertainer is less than a month away from becoming a first time father (his wife Tameka Foster is reportedly due to give birth to a son in early December) and he is getting ready to fill some big dancing shoes—Gene Kelly’s.
Usher told reporters he is currently preparing to shoot the Movie Rocks show in which he will perform a remake of Gene Kelly’s “Singing in the Rain.” The singer says he was even more thrilled when producers told him the shoot would be taking place on the same sound stage where the original was done.
It won’t be the first time the R&B superstar has strut his stuff on stage. Last year Usher starred on Broadway as Billy Flynn in Chicago.
Speaking of dream jobs, it appears the acting bug has bit more than one member of the Fiennes family.
According to “Variety,” Ralph Fiennes’ nephew, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, has just landed a coveted role in the next Harry Potter film playing a younger version of his uncle’s character Lord Voldemort.
The younger Fiennes will join Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint in Harry Potter and The Half-Blood Prince, the sixth movie in the Potter series.
Nine-year-old Tiffin will be playing the part of 11-year-old Voldemort, who grows up to be Potter’s arch-nemesis.
And while the news may be good for Tiffin, thousands of female Potter fans who dreamed of being part of the new movie are livid with casting directors.
Tens of thousands of teenage girls who waited for hours (in some cases, days) to audition for the part of Lavender Brown in the next film were recently given the bad news that none of them got the role. Rather than choose one of the female hopefuls from open auditions, movie producers gave the job to a professional actress—–20-year-old Jessie Cave. Thereby successfully shattering the dreams of countless numbers of young girls who had their hearts set on becoming part of history.
Filming for the next Harry Potter movie installment has begun at Leavesden Studios in Watford, England, and is scheduled to be released next year.