U.S. comic Bill Cosby has been charged with sexual assault in Pennsylvania over an incident that took place in 2004, a prosecutor said Wednesday -- the first criminal charges filed against the actor after dozens of women claimed abuse.

"Mr Cosby is charged with aggravated indecent assault. This is a felony," Kevin Steele, assistant district attorney for the state's Montgomery County, told reporters in Norristown, in the suburbs of Philadelphia.

Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke, two-time winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes, will soon begin shooting a movie touching on the migrants issue around the northern French port of Calais, local officials said Wednesday.

Haneke and his team scouted the area in recent weeks with a view to start filming "Happy End" in early 2016, said Pictanovo, a group that organizes financing for films in the region.

The costumes were stunning. The manor house was sublime. And the "Downton Abbey" cast members made the most of their characters.

But it was the smart dialogue crafted by Julian Fellowes, who wrote every episode, that put the drama in a TV class of its own. The sixth and final season begins Sunday on PBS' "Masterpiece" (9 p.m. EST).

Ian "Lemmy" Kilmister, the hell-raising frontman of iconic British heavy metal band Motorhead, has died aged 70 of a sudden, aggressive cancer, the group said Tuesday.

The gravel-voiced veteran, one of rock and roll's great survivors despite a hard-partying lifestyle, was diagnosed with cancer on Saturday -- two days after his 70th birthday -- and died on Monday.

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" continued its box office domination on North American screens, adding to earnings that already have shattered records, industry figures showed Sunday.

The latest "Star Wars" space epic surpassed the $1 billion mark in global box office sales in record time, Disney announced Sunday, as fans of the space epic packed theaters around the world.

The Beatles are reaching a new audience through streaming and listeners have an early verdict -- "Come Together" is their favorite song from the Fab Four.

The best-selling band in history on Thursday ended a long boycott and made its catalog available through streaming, the fast-growing sector of on-demand online music.

U.S. online retail giant Amazon said Sunday it plans to produce 16 feature films a year, throwing down the gauntlet to Netflix, whose African war drama "Beasts of No Nation" may be headed for Oscar glory in February.

"We want to win an Oscar," Amazon boss Jeff Bezos told Sunday's edition of the German daily Die Welt.

British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen and his wife are donating $1 million (900,000 euros) to help Syrian refugees, the charities receiving the money announced Sunday.

The "Borat" star and actress wife Isla Fisher are giving $500,000 to Save the Children to pay for measles vaccinations for children in northern Syria.

Pop superstar Janet Jackson has announced a temporary halt to her global tour to undergo surgery for an unspecified condition, raising fears for her health.

Jackson, 49, who has returned with an extensive global tour after several years of relative quiet, said late Thursday that doctors told her she needed an operation "soon."

As Europe grapples with its biggest migrant crisis in recent history, Hollywood celebrities are rallying to raise awareness about the issue and lashing out at calls to turn away refugees.

Oscar-winning actress Susan Sarandon this month became the latest star to arrive on the Greek island of Lesbos, a frontline for the crisis, where she is spending the Christmas holiday helping new arrivals and writing about her experience for the Huffington Post and RYOT.org, a virtual reality news company.