National Entertainment

NEW YORK — Natalie Portman's latest role is on behalf of the country's libraries. The Oscar-winning actress will serve as honorary chair of National Library Week, the American Library Association announced Monday.

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Dec. 13-19: Dec. 13: Actor Dick Van Dyke is 95. Actor Christopher Plummer is 91. Country singer Buck White of The Whites is 90. Actor-singer John Davidson is 79. Actor Kathy Garver (“Family Affair”) is 75.

Against the backdrop of a pandemic’s blight and wounds from an acrimonious election, a group of acclaimed actors on Sunday staged an online reading of a religious text with remarkable relevance to the current moment: the Book of Job.

LONDON — Netflix has “no plans” to add a disclaimer to “The Crown” stating that its lavish drama about Britain's royal family is a work of fiction. In a statement Saturday, Netflix said it has always presented the drama, as just that — a drama.

LOGAN, W.Va. — “America’s Got Talent” winner Landau Eugene Murphy Jr. is performing a series of holiday concerts online. Landau’s Virtual Home for the Holidays Tour includes eight shows scheduled from Dec. 16 through 23. Tickets cost $20.

NEW YORK — Sinead O'Connor hasn't released any albums in the past few years, but she has been getting some writing done.

"Murmur," a feature film about a lonely, alcoholic woman, has won the top prize at the annual Screen Nova Scotia awards.

MILAN — Soprano Lisette Oropesa was to be the first American to sing a title role in the gala season opener at La Scala since Maria Callas in the 1950s. Then Italy’s virus cases surged.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — The coronavirus pandemic has made life difficult for a lot of people in the Czech Republic, and that includes Saint Nicholas. Every year on Dec.

LOS ANGELES — Actor David L. Lander, who played the character of Squiggy on the popular ABC comedy “Laverne & Shirley,” has died after a decades-long battle with multiple sclerosis, his wife said. He was 73.