Irish singer Sinead O'Connor has admitted that her fourth marriage has ended after just 16 days, with the star blaming pressure put on her husband by those close to him.

O'Connor, 45, met therapist Barry Herridge, 38, earlier this year when he responded to an online appeal posted by the singer, and they married in a Las Vegas chapel on December 8.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Tuesday sent out Oscar ballots to its members, who will select the nominees for Hollywood's top film honors.

The academy's 5,783 voting members must cast their ballots by January 13 to determine the Oscar nominations, which will be announced on January 24.

When told that his unborn son had only half a heart and little chance to survive, the lead singer of the Christian rock band Sanctus Real began pouring his fears and doubts into music.

The songs were meant to comfort his family while they searched for answers and sought to understand God's role during the months before and after the baby's birth that were filled with surgeries and life-threatening complications.

Detroit's Queen of Soul knows how to throw a Christmas party, and she welcomed in the holiday with glitter, a jazzy musical backdrop and a finale of "Silent Night" with the Four Tops.

Aretha Franklin held her annual Christmas party on Friday at the Detroit Athletic Club, greeting guests in a teal blue gown accented with a silver sequined bodice.

Actor Matthew McConaughey took advantage of the Christmas holidays to propose to his longtime girlfriend, Brazilian model Camila Alves, the Hollywood heartthrob told his Internet followers.

"Just asked Camila to marry me. Merry Christmas," McConaughey, 42, said in a message posted on Twitter and WhoSay late Sunday. The messages were accompanied by a photograph of the couple kissing in front of a Christmas tree.

American pop diva Lady Gaga will appear via video link on a popular Japanese music competition on New Year's Eve, public broadcaster NHK says.

The eccentric star's appearance on "Kohaku Uta Gassen", an annual singing competition between male and female entertainers, will including her singing and delivering encouraging messages over Japan's devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the broadcaster said on Saturday.

Wrapped in a maroon robe, her head shaven, Ani Choying Dolma treads gingerly into a Kathmandu hotel, exuding the composure and serenity one might expect from a Buddhist nun.

But this 40-year-old is no ordinary devotee, for Dolma -- better known by her moniker "The Singing Nun" -- is the most unlikely of music stars, touring the world to change the lives of thousands of poverty-hit Nepali girls.

Tom Cruise's latest mission has won a holiday weekend that's shaping up with some silent nights at movie theaters as business continues to lag.

Studio estimates Sunday placed Cruise's "Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol" a solid No. 1 with $26.5 million domestically over its first weekend in full release. The movie raised its total to $59 million since it started a week earlier in huge-screen cinemas and expanded nationwide last Wednesday, and distributor Paramount estimated that revenues will reach $72.7 million by Monday.

Robert De Niro is a father again.

Stan Rosenfield, the 68-year-old actor's spokesman, said De Niro and his 56-year-old wife, Grace Hightower, welcomed a healthy 7-pound, 2-ounce (3.3 kilogram) baby girl named Helen Grace Hightower through a surrogate mother.

Fighting back tears, singer George Michael appeared outside his London home Friday to acknowledge that he had nearly died during his monthlong battle with pneumonia.

He said it had been "touch and go" while he was in the intensive care unit of a Vienna hospital battling an extremely dangerous form of pneumonia but that his representatives had "played it down" to avoid alarming his fans.