Lady Gaga turned up in a black bra and dark panties before switching to a zebra-striped suit. Tony Bennett stuck to old-fashioned blue, while Stephen Colbert looked at home in denim and a cowboy hat.

Bennett, Colbert, Lady Gaga and Van Morrison were among the featured singers and speakers Thursday night at the 46th annual Songwriters Hall of Fame ceremony, a three hour journey through the vast and unpredictable range of American music. New inductees included country stars Toby Keith and Bobby Braddock, the late Chicago bluesman Willie Dixon, the Grateful Dead songwriting team of Robert Hunter and the late Jerry Garcia, pop and stage star Cyndi Lauper and rock composer and performer Linda Perry.

They camped out overnight, arrived in trains caught at dawn and devoured the first pages on the sidewalk.

Crazed fans mobbed a New York bookstore Thursday to snap up the latest "Fifty Shades of Grey" novel.

Chinese companies are ramping up investment in the foreign entertainment industry, as the country seeks to boost "soft power" by crafting films which appeal to global audiences, industry officials said this week on the sidelines of the Shanghai film festival.

After decades of spreading the message of the ruling Communist Party, Chinese studios have become more attuned to commerce, but still face strict government controls over content deemed politically sensitive or pornographic.

Madonna has brought out some of the biggest fellow names in pop -- and two of her children -- in a new video she debuted Wednesday on the fledgling streaming service Tidal.

Beyonce, Katy Perry, Miley Cyrus and Kanye West all make cameo appearances in the video for "Bitch, I'm Madonna," off her latest album "Rebel Heart."

Former star NBC anchor Brian Williams, who was suspended and investigated after he admitted embellishing an Iraq war story, will stay with the network despite his news scandals, CNN reported Wednesday.

After his suspension ends in August, Williams will return to NBC in a lesser capacity and the network may make an announcement about the once-vaunted anchor Thursday, CNN reported, citing anonymous sources.

Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson are gone from "True Detective," but HBO's Emmy-winning cop anthology series is back Sunday for a second season with the same dark, moody atmosphere.

The question is: can a new cast of famous faces and a shift in location -- from the swamps of Louisiana to the gritty streets of southern California -- draw the same cult following?

Academy award-winning duo Charlize Theron and Sean Penn have broken off their engagement and parted ways after a two-year relationship, U.S. media reported Wednesday.

The couple was last seen together in May in Cannes, where Theron -- who only recently referred to Penn as the love of her life -- was promoting the premiere of her film "Mad Max."

Five decades after galvanizing the Brazilian music scene with the "Tropicalia" movement, Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso are going back on tour, older and wiser but still border-blurring troubadours.

Gil, a politically engaged musical ambassador who once served as Brazil's culture minister, and Veloso, a wispy, gender-bending poet with a sublimely mellow voice, have been friends and collaborators since 1963.

The Beatles' recording sessions in London's Abbey Road Studios are being turned into a stage show at the city's Royal Albert Hall, the producers announced on Tuesday.

"The Sessions at Abbey Road" will see the legendary British band's studio work recreated live at the Victorian concert hall on April 1, 2016.

Broadcaster Chris Evans is to replace Jeremy Clarkson as lead presenter of the BBC's hit motoring show "Top Gear", the corporation announced Tuesday.

The BBC said Evans, 49, had signed a three-year deal to present the world's most popular factual TV program -- and announced that Clarkson's former co-presenters, James May and Richard Hammond, would not be returning, after months of speculation.