In the beginning of their work together on "Noah," director Darren Aronofsky made Russell Crowe a promise: "I'll never shoot you on a houseboat in a robe and sandals with two giraffes popping up behind you."

Decades after Cecil B. DeMille's "The Ten Commandments" and "Ben-Hur," Aronofsky has renewed the tradition of the studio-made, mass-audience Bible epic, albeit as a distinctly darker parable about sin, justice and mercy. While much of his "Noah" is true to Scripture, it's nothing like the picture-book version many encounter as children.

Among the aspiring Asian designers competing for the limelight at Tokyo Fashion Week, one of the most striking was an Indonesian label's bid to blend a traditional Muslim headscarf with haute couture.

The twice-yearly show, which wraps up on Saturday, saw NurZahra roll out its autumn/winter collection "Layers of Fidelity", turning the modest hijab into sophisticated fashion.

A spokesman for Mick Jagger's girlfriend L'Wren Scott on Friday hit back at suggestions the designer's fashion business was in financial trouble before her suicide this week.

Scott's label LS Fashion Ltd reported losses of $5.9 million as of December 31, 2012 according to accounts lodged with Britain's Companies House in October obtained by Agence France Presse.

Kim Kardashian is on the cover of the next issue of American Vogue, the magazine announced Friday, thrilling the reality TV starlet and unleashing a torrent of Twitter outrage among fashionistas.

Kardashian, 33, appears in a strapless gown in the arms of her fiance, hip hop maestro Kanye West, over the headline: "Kim and Kanye: Their Fashionable Life and Surreal Times" and hashtag #worldsmosttalkedaboutcouple.

Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky are celebrating the arrival of twin baby boys in Los Angeles, a spokesman for the Australian "Thor" star said Friday.

Pataky, a Spanish model and actress, gave birth to the boys on Thursday in Los Angeles's Cedars Sinai hospital.

British singer Kate Bush on Friday announced a surprise series of live shows in London later this year, 35 years after her one and only tour.

The 55-year-old, who recently launched a new album, "50 Words For Snow", will play 15 dates at the Hammersmith Apollo in August and September, she announced on her website.

The Genie in the big new Broadway musical "Aladdin" opens the show with a bang, sets up the story and then — poof — he's gone. "Try not to miss me too much!" he says, tauntingly, as he leaves.

The trouble is, it's hard not to. James Monroe Iglehart is just so magically delicious as the guy in the lamp that the show sometimes feels like its holding its breath until he reappears.

K-pop made fresh inroads Thursday when Lady Gaga revealed that South Korean girl group Crayon Pop will open her upcoming summer concerts in Canada and the United States.

"I'm excited to announce June 26 through July 22 of Lady Gaga's artRAVE: The ARTPOP Ball will be opened by CRAYON POP!," the "Mother Monster" announced on her @ladygaga Twitter feed.

Britain's Prince William and his wife Catherine have hired a Spanish nanny to look after their baby son Prince George, palace officials said Thursday.

Maria Teresa Turrion Borrallo will travel with the royals on their tour of New Zealand and Australia next month, Kensington Palace said.

A satirist renowned for attacking what he calls unprofessionalism in Egypt's media has been pilloried on Twitter for plagiarism after he admitted not crediting analysis in his weekly column.

Bassem Youssef tweeted an apology hours after his column appeared in Tuesday's independent daily Al-Shourouk.