Vladimir Putin cradles a fragile chick, hugs his dog and lets a tear roll down his cheek in an exhibition of kitsch paintings that opened this week after his reelection to the Kremlin.

The oil paintings aim to show a softer side of the Russian strongman, the artist said as the exhibition titled "A Man with a Heart of Gold" opened in Putin's northwestern home city of Saint Petersburg.

The Muppets were honored with their own star on the storied Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, right outside the theater where their recent movie was made and premiered.

Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and the rest of the puppet gang gathered in front of the El Capitan Theatre, opposite Graumman's Chinese Theatre at the center of Hollywood's tourist district.

The animated Beatles movie "Yellow Submarine" has been painstakingly restored frame by frame for DVD release this year, the band's holding company announced on Tuesday.

Apple Corps Ltd revealed that specialists worked for four months to individually hand clean each frame of the surreal 1968 tale. The company said it chose not to use automated software because of the delicate nature of the hand-drawn artwork.

George Michael has rescheduled a tour he had to cancel when he almost died of pneumonia and will give 1,000 tickets to the Austrian medics who helped save his life, the British singer said Tuesday.

The 48-year-old was forced to cut short his Symphonica tour last November after he was rushed to a hospital in the Austrian capital Vienna with a severe bout of the lung infection.

Lebanese director Jude Chehab’s films-Behind The Tents and I'm Here- were recently nominated for 6 awards at the THIMUN Qatar Northwestern Film Festival held annually in Doha, Qatar.

"Being nominated for 6 awards for THIMUN is overwhelming," Chehab said.

Aziz Ansari is bringing his new standup special straight to his fans. The "Parks and Recreation" star is bypassing cable networks to release his latest comedy special on his website.

Ansari's "Dangerously Delicious" standup special will be available online worldwide for $5 beginning Tuesday.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony will likely be a little more irreverent this year: Chris Rock is set to be one of the A-list presenters for the April event.

The comedian is due to induct the Red Hot Chili Peppers into the hall at the ceremony at the Rock Hall in Cleveland on April 14. He's a big fan and has been a friend of the band for a while.

Bobbi Kristina Brown has been spotted wearing a sparkly bauble on her ring finger, but she's not planning on getting married anytime soon.

A rep for Brown's mother, the late Whitney Houston, says the 19-year-old is "simply wearing her mother's ring" and that she's not engaged.

Oprah Winfrey's struggling television network, OWN, said Monday it is laying off one-fifth of its workers and restructuring its operations in New York and Los Angeles.

The decision to let 30 employees go is a "tough" one, but the economics of a start-up cable network didn't fit with OWN's cost structure, Winfrey said in a statement.

Norah Jones unveiled something new at South By Southwest — again.

Ten years after she shook Austin and the music world with "Come Away With Me," the 25 million-selling debut she released just weeks before the 2002 conference and festival, she returned to play her entire new album "Little Broken Hearts" at La Zona Rosa on Saturday night.