Los Angeles, Dec 5 (AP/UNB) — Kevin Hart has a new job — he will host the 2019 Academy Awards, a role the prolific actor-comedian says fulfills a longtime dream.

Hart announced his selection for the 91st Oscars in an Instagram statement Tuesday. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences followed up with a tweet that welcomed him "to the family."

The announcement came hours after trade publication The Hollywood Reporter posted a story calling the Oscars host position "the least wanted job in Hollywood."

Hart clearly doesn't feel that way, writing on Instagram that it has been on his list of dream jobs for years. The 2019 Oscars will be broadcast Feb. 24 on ABC.

"I am blown away simply because this has been a goal on my list for a long time...To be able to join the legendary list of host that have graced this stage is unbelievable," Hart wrote. "I know my mom is smiling from ear to ear right now.

"I will be sure to make sure this years Oscars are a special one," Hart wrote.

Hart takes over hosting duties from Jimmy Kimmel, who presided over the last two ceremonies, including 2016's flub that resulted in the wrong best picture winner being announced. Last year's ceremony was an all-time ratings low, and the film academy has announced a series of changes to the upcoming show .

Those include shortening the broadcast to three hours, and also presenting certain categories during commercial breaks and broadcasting excerpts of those winners' speeches later in the show.

The 39-year-old Hart has become a bankable star with films such as "Ride Along," ''Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle" and "Night School."

Celebrities including Martin Lawrence and Chris Rock, who hosted the ceremony in 2005 and 2016, posted congratulatory messages about Hart's selection Tuesday night.

"Damn I've lost another job to Kevin Hart," Rock posted on Instagram, echoing a joke he told during his 2016 opening monologue . "They got the best person for the job."

Chicago, Dec 3 (AP/UNB) — Bono will speak in Chicago about his efforts to combat AIDS and extreme poverty in Africa.

The lead singer of the rock band U2 is scheduled to appear Thursday at an Economic Club of Chicago dinner meeting. He'll participate in a discussion with Ariel Investments President Mellody Hobson, who is also the club's chairwoman.

Bono is co-founder of ONE, an advocacy organization that lobbies governments around the world to address poverty. He also co-founded RED, which partners with well-known brands to raise public awareness of AIDS. It has raised more than $500 million for AIDS prevention and treatment in Africa.

The discussion will be livestreamed on the club's YouTube channel .

New York, Dec 2 (AP/UNB) — Nick Jonas and Priyanka Chopra posted photos of their wedding celebration Saturday amid reports that the couple had wed after a four-month courtship.

While the couple didn't say they were officially married — Indian weddings are typically dayslong affairs — they both posted festive pictures of themselves on social media and talked about the work they had put into planning the wedding.

Representatives for the entertainers didn't immediately return emails seeking comment.

The couple announced their engagement in August. It is the first marriage for the 36-year-old Chopra and the 26-year-old Jonas.

The couple had been posting social-media photos of themselves among family and friends in India for more than a week.

Dhaka, Nov 30 (UNB) -The founder of the MeToo movement has said that the campaign against sexual violence she began more than a decade ago has become "unrecognisable" to her.

Speaking at TEDWomen in Palm Springs, Tarana Burke said a media backlash had framed the movement as a witch hunt.

"Suddenly, a movement to centre survivors of sexual violence is being talked about as a vindictive plot against men," she said.

"Victims are heard and then vilified."

She was keen to get back to the original intention she had for MeToo when, in 2006, she wrote the words on a piece of paper as a way of starting an action plan to do something about the sexual violence she saw in her community.

The phrase became a globally used hashtag last year in the wake of allegations made against Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein but Ms Burke says she feels the campaign is neglecting those it was set up to help.

"My vision for the Me Too movement is part of a collective vision to see a world free of sexual violence," she told delegates at the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) conference.

"This is a movement about the one in four girls and the one in six boys who are sexually abused every year, and who carry those wounds into adulthood," she says.

Ms Burke said in the wake of events like Brett Kavanaugh being elected to the Supreme Court despite facing allegations of sexual misconduct - which he denied - US politicians seemed to be "pivoting away from the issue".

"This movement has been called a watershed moment but some days I wake up feeling that all the evidence points to the contrary," she said.

She ended her talk with a plea that victims not be forced to relive their traumas by speaking about them and she called for the fight against "power and privilege" to continue.

"We have to re-educate ourselves and our children to understand that power and privilege doesn't always have to destroy and take - it can be used to serve and build," she said.

New York, Nov 29 (AP/UNB) — Rita Moreno's portrayal of Anita in the classic 1961 film "West Side Story" won her an Oscar. Now, she has a different part in a remake directed by Steven Spielberg.

The publicist for the 86-year-old Moreno confirmed Wednesday that she'll play Valentina, a reworked version of the character of Doc, the owner of a corner store where Tony works. Ansel Elgort has been cast as Tony.

The story follows two star-crossed lovers, Tony and Maria, who are each associated with rival New York street gangs. The Pulitzer-winning playwright Tony Kushner is adapting the script. Moreno will also serve as an executive producer.

Filming is set to begin next summer.