A small reminder of Beatlemania came to Hollywood when Paul McCartney was honored with a star on Tinseltown's storied Walk of Fame, watched by hundreds of screaming and jostling fans.

Police blocked off Vine Street near the intersection with Hollywood Boulevard, as the crowds swelled across the broad boulevard in front of the iconic cylinder-shaped Capitol Records building.

Some say these are bad times to be in a rock band. Pressure for instant success has never been greater as illegal downloads hammer industry profits and manufactured pop talent shows reign supreme.

But after a furious rise to fame that has seen packed gigs, fainting girls and a debut album stuffed with three-minute bursts of Ramones-tinged rock that last year broke into Britain's top four, The Vaccines disagree.

Scottish comedian Billy Connolly will play a pugnacious dwarf in Peter Jackson's upcoming "The Hobbit" movies, the New Zealand director said Thursday.

Jackson said the recruitment of Connolly, known as the "Big Yin", completed casting for his latest J.R.R. Tolkien epic, a two-film adaptation of "The Hobbit" currently being shot in Jackson's homeland.

American pop diva Lady Gaga Wednesday unveiled the first dates for her upcoming world tour which she has dubbed the "Born This Way Ball" and will kick off in Seoul.

She is expected to do 110 shows this year following on the success of her smash hit "Born This Way," and revealed the dates and locations of an initial 11 concerts.

The U.S. television series "House MD," about the unorthodox methods of a cantankerous doctor, will call it quits at the end of its eighth and current season, producers said.

"After much deliberation, the producers of 'House MD' have decided that this season of the show, the eighth, should be the last," the production team said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Beach Boys, icons of 1960s California pop-rock, will reunite at the Grammy Awards ceremony, organizers said Wednesday.

The surviving band members -- Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks -- are also releasing a new album and heading out on tour to mark their 50th anniversary.

The world's oldest major film studio celebrates its 100th birthday this month with Hollywood stars and European players ready to toast the mythic Studio Babelsberg outside Berlin.

It survived the Nazis and the communists and is now capitalizing on its legendary status among cinema history buffs like Quentin Tarantino to beat back tough competition from the likes of London, Prague and Budapest.

Never content to be just another Hollywood hunk, Brad Pitt these days is not just one of America's most bankable film stars but also a sought-after and influential movie producer.

Pitt and his life partner Angelina Jolie are Hollywood's gilded first couple, a fixture on the Big Screen and on the awards' show red carpet circuit.

Organizers of Kuwait's annual shopping festival, "February Nights," have cancelled all musical concerts in solidarity with the Syrian people, an organizer said on Wednesday.

"The situation is not suitable for staging concerts now since we are in a state of sorrow for what is happening in Syria," the head of the festival's celebrations committee, Abdullah al-Kaud, told Al-Anbaa newspaper.

Madonna's big year got even bigger Tuesday with the announcement of her most ambitious world tour ever, hot on the heels of her record-setting Super Bowl halftime show.

The Material Girl will hopscotch around the globe in support of her 12th studio album "MDNA" which comes out March 26, even as her second feature film, the romantic drama "W.E.", struggles to impress critics and draw audiences.