With big-name stars and early Oscar buzz over Steve Carell's performance as a banker conflicted about the global financial meltdown, "The Big Short" is generating both hype and mixed reviews.

The film closed this week's AFI Fest in Los Angeles, a festival that often plays a crucial role in shaping the intense competition for Oscar's coveted golden statuettes.

A television producer who was punched by former "Top Gear" presenter Jeremy Clarkson is suing him and the BBC for racial discrimination, the broadcaster reported Friday.

Clarkson and BBC representatives attended a hearing Friday at a London employment tribunal with Oisin Tymon which centers on alleged verbal abuse, it said.

When "Star Wars" audiences were blown away four decades ago by its thrilling battles in space, they were also witnessing a big bang in special effects that is still felt today, as fans await the next installment in the blockbuster saga.

The original 1977 movie -- which introduced the world to Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader and a mysterious power known as The Force -- changed the way science-fiction films were made, paving the way for innovations in the field.

In "The 33," Antonio Banderas plays the leader of a group of Chilean miners rescued alive after more than two months trapped underground, a tale of triumph over adversity watched around the world.

Five years on, as the movie based on their plight hits screens across the United States, the 55-year-old actor told Agence France Presse, in a Spanish-language interview, how the men's story affected him.

R&B legend Allen Toussaint, one of the signature forces in New Orleans music whose songs have been played by a who's who of rock greats, has died, his family said Tuesday.

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, who was 77, died suddenly in Madrid shortly after performing Monday at the Spanish capital's Teatro Lara.

Caitlyn Jenner took the stage at Glamour magazine's Women of the Year awards and told an admiring crowd that the six months since she came out as a woman have been "the most eye-opening experience of my life."

Jenner, one of a group of honorees that included actress Reese Witherspoon, ballerina Misty Copeland, designer Victoria Beckham, the victorious U.S. women's soccer team, and a group of women from Charleston, South Carolina, who suffered great loss in the June church shooting there, also said she believes she was put on Earth to tell her story and perhaps make a difference in the world.

Russia on Monday detained a political performance artist best known for nailing his scrotum to Red Square after he torched the doors to the headquarters of the FSB security service, the successor to the KGB.

Pyotr Pavlensky set fire to the wooden doors of the sprawling FSB building in downtown Moscow around 1:00am (Sunday 2200 GMT), his lawyer Olga Chavdar told AFP from the Moscow police station where he was being held.

British soul singer sensation Sam Smith desperately wants to take a year off. But he just can't stop working on his new album. 

The 23-year-old Londoner, who pocketed four Grammy Awards for his debut album "In the Lonely Hour," has had a whirlwind year filled with performances and promotional tours the world over.

Controversial French comedian Dieudonne M'Bala M'Bala will appear at the European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday to protest the fine he received in 2009 for inviting a Holocaust-denier on stage.

The judges will decide whether the 10,000-euro ($11,000) fine he was given by a French court for "racist insults" was an infringement on his freedom of speech.

The empire has not yet figured out how to strike back.

The major legacy television companies are struggling to find the formula to stem the loss of customers to Internet rivals like Netflix, Amazon and others.