Top Hollywood news of the day: January 1, 2018

Star Wars: The Last Jedi tops $1 billion worldwide: Disney-Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi has cleared the $1 billion milestone worldwide in less than three weeks. The film pulled in $120.4 million globally on the New Year’s Eve weekend with $52.4 million at 4,232 domestic venues and $68 million internationally during the Friday-Sunday period. Star Wars: The Last Jedi has also topped Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, which grossed $504 million in North America, for the top spot among 2017 releases domestically.

Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith complete 20 years of togetherness: Will Smith has penned a heartwarming note for his wife Jada Pinkett Smith on their 20th wedding anniversary and made a promise to his Queen that he will forever be "devoted to nurturing your deepest truth". The 49-year-old actor took to Instagram where he shared a picture from their D-Day, in which the couple can be seen holding hands and walking down the aisle.

Avengers: Infinity War director Joe Russo: It’s important heroes feel pain: Avengers: Infinity War director Joe Russo says it is imperative that hero figures are vulnerable as it makes for a great and inspirational story. The 46-year-old filmmaker, who is co-helming the much-anticipated project with his brother Anthony, said it is important that more humane stories are told today, Celebretainment.com reported.

Gal Gadot and Harvey Weinstein's names come in the 'difficult to pronounce names' list: Gal Gadot was the most talked about stars with the success of Wonder Woman while Harvey Weinstein's name became synonymous with the sexual harassment scandal in Hollywood. These two were some of the most difficult to pronounce names of 2017.

Mariah Carey makes it through Times Square set unscathed: The pop singer made it through her performance on "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest" cleanly this year after bungling it last year. She sang her 1990s hits "Vision of Love" and "Hero" on Sunday night in Times Square, where revelers braved frigid temperatures to usher in 2018. Last year it really was a disaster. Mariah had technical difficulties during a live performance of her hit song "Emotions." She stopped singing, paced the stage and told the audience to finish the lyrics for her.

Songs by Jay-Z, Harry Styles among Obama's favorites of 2017: Jay-Z, Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, U2 and Chris Stapleton were just some of the artistes responsible for Barack Obama's favourite songs of the year. The former president shared an eclectic list of his favourite songs and books of 2017 Sunday on his Facebook page, including Jay-Z's "Family Feud" and Styles' "Sign of the Times." The 22-song list also singled out Lamar's "Humble," U2's "Ordinary Love (Extraordinary Mix)" and Stapleton's "Millionaire.