More than 4,600 Taiwanese schoolchildren came together for a mass violin-playing session on Sunday, breaking a world record that had stood for 86 years.

An official from Guinness World Records witnessed the event that brought together 4,645 children aged under 18 at a stadium in central Changhua county, the county government said.

Hollywood — long considered the land of excess— is becoming more cost-conscious, as movie executives rethink what they're willing to pay to make a blockbuster.

After years of beefing up budgets to meet audience expectations, movie studios are cutting back and canceling projects that are too costly. Half-baked, expensive movie ideas that would have received approval a few years ago are now under scrutiny. For movies that are made, producers have to settle for toned-down special effects, cheaper actors and fewer locations for shoots.

Rebel Vivienne Westwood told aspiring young designers Saturday not to waste their time with fashion, then wowed the London Fashion Week crowd with a unique mix of classic design and space-age, mile-high hair and rainbow makeup.

The result was a typical Westwood extravaganza: Champagne corks popping backstage as crowds thronged the orange-haired designer to congratulate her yet again.

Bollywood is lurching with arms outstretched into new territory with its first zombie comedies, hoping to replicate the success of a host of light-hearted Hollywood movies about the living dead.

"Shaadi of the Dead" (Wedding of the Dead), starring Abhay Deol and up-and-coming female lead Genelia D'Souza, is due for release next year and centers around a zombie invasion at a Punjabi marriage ceremony.

Japan's Nissin Foods opened a cup noodle museum on Saturday charting the history of the speedy snack where visitors even get the chance to create their own tasty version.

About 500 adults and children queued up before the museum opened in the port city of Yokohama near Tokyo with celebrity guests ranging from a former prime minister to a retail business tycoon.

When the young Philip Roth warned his parents to brace for a media assault with the release of "Portnoy's Complaint" in 1969, his mother broke down in tears: she thought he was suffering from delusions of grandeur.

Four decades after the novel shot him to stardom, the American literary giant talks candidly about his early years, about writing, sex and Jewishness, depression and dying, in a rare and moving documentary to be screened Monday on the French-German channel Arte.

U.S. photographer Spencer Tunick is staging one of his trademark mass studies of nude volunteers on Saturday, with a thousand Israelis posing on a private Dead Sea beach.

The shoot is part of a bid to boost Israel's campaign to have the salt-saturated feature recognized as one of the world's seven natural wonders in a global online vote in November.

What can the Rolling Stones, Eurhythmics and the blockbuster Slumdog Millionaire possibly have in common? More than you think -- at least that's the bet behind Super Heavy, a five-strong super group fronted by Mick Jagger whose new album comes out Monday.

Five stars from the worlds of rock, soul, pop, reggae and world music -- Jagger, Eurhythmics' Dave Stewart, soul woman Joss Stone, Bob Marley's youngest son Damian and AR Rahman who scored the "Slumdog" soundtrack -- have brought their eclectic styles together for the occasion.

The spotlight turned to British fashion on Friday as London Fashion Week opened its doors only a day after the curtains went down on its sibling in New York.

In a year when British designers have taken center stage with the weddings of Kate Middleton and Kate Moss, London is determined to capitalize on the mood and prove it can compete on a global platform.

Former Beatle Paul McCartney could marry New York socialite Nancy Shevell at the same location he tied the knot with his first wife Linda, according to documents disclosed on Friday.

The 69-year-old pop legend has posted notice of his forthcoming marriage at an office for civil ceremonies in Marylebone, central London, where he wed for the first time in 1969.