Apple strikes deal with major publishers, and other top stories...

Apple's newly unveiled iPad is going to serve a variety of purposes. In addition to watching films, listening to music, etc. you will also be able to read books published by the likes of Penguin and HarperCollins. Apple has struck deals with major publishers to feature their titles in Apple's iBook store, enabling them to be read in either landscape or portrait form. Once downloaded, the ‘books' will rest on a wooden bookshelf displayed on the iPad's screen. Cute...

James Cameron's film Avatar has beaten the director's own Titanic to become the highest grossing film of all time. Shrouded in secrecy until just before its release, the eco-blockbuster is set on a distant planet populated by blue, CGI-generated aliens. Although Avatar has taken $1.85 billion at the box office (beating Titanic's $1.84 billion) it has been pointed out that the record doesn't take inflation into account. If one applies economic advancement to film stats, Gone With The Wind's $400,000 box office takings would equate to $6 billion...

After a two-and-a-half year run at London's Shaftesbury Theatre, Hairspray is to close. And this is despite its enormous success, taking £50 million in ticket sales and winning four Olivier awards. The production didn't have the most likely of origins: it is based on a 1988 film by John Waters - a man who came to notoriety for his film Pink Flamingos, in which a transvestite actress is seen eating a real dog poo...