‘Dubai Tower’ gets a new name

Dubai landmark renamed

We finally know just how tall the tallest building in the world is. We’ve also learned that it’s got a new name.

As part of festivities Monday, marking the opening of what had until now been known as the Burj Dubai -- Arabic for “Dubai Tower” -- officials announced that the skyscraper reaches a full 2,717 feet into the sky.

That’s nearly 1,000 feet taller than the second-highest man-made structure on the planet, Toronto’s CN Tower.

Dubai officials also announced that in something of a surprise they’d decided to rename the skyscraper the Burj Khalifa, in honor of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the leader of neighboring Abu Dhabi, the wealthy oil-rich capital of the United Arab Emirates. It was a curious and perhaps favor-currying choice, since Abu Dhabi has already twice helped rescue Dubai to the tune of more than $20 billion as it struggles to renegotiate the debt it piled up during an ambitious expansion over the last decade.

-- Christopher Hawthorne ‘Brooklyn’ wins novel prize

Colm Toibin’s “Brooklyn” captured the Costa Novel Award, defeating Hilary Mantel’s “Wolf Hall,” the winner of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction.

Toibin and four other authors will each receive $8,100 from Whitbread Plc’s Costa coffee-shop chain, which grants annual awards for books in five genres; novel, first novel, biography, poetry and children’s literature.

Other category winners include “The Strangest Man” by debut biographer Graham Farmelo, for his life of quantum-mechanics pioneer Paul Dirac, and poet Christopher Reid’s “A Scattering,” a tribute to his late wife. The five will now compete for the roughly $48,000 “Costa Book of the Year” to be awarded in London on Jan. 26.

Toibin’s “Brooklyn” tells of a young Irish woman who immigrates to New York in the 1950s, starting a new life with a new love when sad news draws her back to Ireland.

Previously known as the Whitbreads, the Costas aim to promote contemporary British and Irish writing since their creation in 1971.

-- bloomberg SAG Awards auctioning seats

Film and television fans can bid for red carpet seats at the Screen Actors Guild Awards through Monday.

Up for auction are 90 seats from which fans can see their favorite stars walk the red carpet, take pictures and request autographs at the 16th annual SAG Awards being held Jan. 23 at the Shrine Auditorium.

Proceeds from the auction benefit the SAG Foundation’s children literacy programs.

-- Liesl Bradner Cronkite’s intro now Freeman’s

Nearly six months after Walter Cronkite’s death, his voice is leaving the “CBS Evening News.”

His introduction of anchor Katie Couric was replaced Monday by a voice-over featuring actor Morgan Freeman.

The legendary CBS News anchor recorded the introduction, played at the beginning of most newscasts, when Couric started at CBS in 2006. Cronkite’s voice was kept on the air even after his death July 17.

“As comforting as it is to look back on the great career that Walter had, we’re looking forward now and we just felt it was the right time to make the move that at some point had to be made,” said CBS News and Sports President Sean McManus.

Having Freeman on board gives CBS the flexibility to record different intros when Couric has special reports and is on location, he said.

-- associated press Museum gets a deal on Chagall

A little-known painting by Marc Chagall has taken the international spotlight after a small museum in London revealed over the weekend that it has purchased the work at a bargain price.

Chagall’s “Apocalypse in Lilac, Capriccio” (1945) was purchased in October at a Paris auction by the London Jewish Museum of Art for approximately $43,300, according to reports. Some experts believe the work is worth more than $1 million.

The museum bought the gouache painting in what is being described by reports as a secret operation intended to keep major art institutions in the dark.

The Surrealist painting depicts the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and features a deliberately anachronistic Nazi official at the bottom of the canvas. Chagall is said to have created the painting, one in a series, as a commentary on the persecution of Jews by the Third Reich.

-- David Ng Finally

He’s hired: Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will be among stars taking on real estate mogul Donald Trump in the boardroom for NBC’s “Celebrity Apprentice” in March.