The traditionally modest and freedom-inhibiting kimono is getting a new lease on life at Japan Fashion Week, with an edge of defiance and seductiveness.

Historically a garment whose multiple layers and tight wrapping have been viewed by some as restricting a woman's mobility and keeping her subservient to men, Jotaro Saito's kimono collection betrays expectations.

Haunted highways, an oil-smeared ghoul prowling villages for virgins, vampiress spirits thirsting for blood: Malaysia has an obsession with the supernatural rooted in age-old legends.

Now that obsession is being increasingly projected upon the nation's cinema screens, as horror movies have quickly emerged as a force in a booming domestic film industry.

Jostling for space with younger rivals like Lady Gaga, Madonna brings a grown woman's voice to her new album "MDNA", out on Monday, on which the 53-year-old Queen of Pop evokes the pain of her divorce.

Since her last album, the dance-flavored "Hard Candy" in 2008, new faces have crowded into the space long ruled by the Material Girl: Rihanna for sexiness, Lana Del Rey for edgy glamour, and the ever-theatrical Lady Gaga.

Teen movie phenomenon "The Hunger Games" is vying to set a U.S. box office record this weekend, after advance sales already put it in the top three, according to a major ticket seller Thursday.

As a tsunami of fans headed to midnight screenings of the post-apocalyptic film, online retailer Fandango said it was selling 10 tickets for the movie every second, with 2,500 screenings already sold out.

Grammy-winning pop legend Whitney Houston died from accidental drowning in her hotel bathtub after taking cocaine which could have triggered a heart attack, coroners said.

Houston, who died at age 48 in the bathtub of a Beverly Hills hotel room last month, likely had some kind of heart attack which caused her to slip under the water, said the Los Angeles County Coroner's office, on Thursday.

A British chain of comedy clubs has taken Hollywood giant Twentieth Century Fox to court over the name of its hit television series "Glee".

Comic Enterprises, which runs four music and stand-up comedy venues called Glee Club, has made a claim against the U.S. film and TV company for trademark infringement.

Real Madrid football club will spread its brand to the Middle East and Asia by lending its name to a $1 billion theme park on a man-made island in the United Arab Emirates, it said on Thursday.

Executives unveiled plans for the "Real Madrid Resort Island", featuring an oceanside stadium and hi-tech club museum in the northern Emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah, on the doorstep of the lucrative football-mad Asian market.

The plush Los Angeles mansion where Michael Jackson died is on sale for $23.9 million, and a major celebrity is interested in buying it, according to realtors and the TMZ celebrity website.

The seven-bedroom, 13-bathroom property, described as the centerpiece of an "elegant and sophisticated French chateau estate," includes its own movie theater, a gym and a pool, said the realtors' website.

Norwegian chef Orjan Johannessen was crowned champion in the European leg of the Bocuse d'Or contest, known as the Olympic Games of the food world.

The award was announced late Wednesday after 20 chefs faced off in a two-day cookout in Brussels, ahead of the worldwide Bocuse d'Or competition to be held in the eastern French city of Lyon next January.

"CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker is making a movie destined for the small screen.

The creator of the hit CBS television show plans to debut the as-yet-unfinished feature, "Cybergeddon," on Yahoo in installments this fall. His latest foray into online storytelling follows his partnership on a horror series for YouTube.