Andrea Bocelli is due to perform in front of his Hong Kong fans on Friday. The Italian tenor was born with congenital glaucoma then lost his sight entirely at the age of 12 when, defending the goal in a football match, he was hit on the head by the ball and suffered a brain haemorrhage. Doctors, fighting to save his one good eye, even resorted to leeches but their efforts were in vain. The biggestselling artist in the history of classical music has been introduced on stage with the words, “If God had a singing voice, he would sound a lot like Andrea Bocelli”, by Celine Dion …
The American actor returned to the Oscars ceremony this year following a two-decade ban for anti-China comments he made in 1993. His long career has seen him turn down lead roles in cult classics Die Hard and Wall Street, while the parts for which he is most famous – in Days of Heaven (1978), American Gigolo (1980) and An Officer and a Gentleman (1982) – were all first offered to John Travolta. Gere was on Hong Kong television screens recently – in an appearance branded “tiresome” and “tedious” by the British press – on a BBC talk show hosted by Graham Norton …