Eyes glued to big screens in cafes and restaurants across Gaza and the West Bank, adoring fans cheer on Mohammed Assaf as he sings his way closer to winning this year's Arab Idol song contest.
Since March, the handsome, immaculately dressed 22-year-old Gazan's powerful voice has propelled him every weekend to the ranks of only seven remaining singers in a Beirut-based competition that started out with 27.
Full StoryNew Bollywood film "Bombay Talkies" is billed as a milestone not only for marking 100 years of Indian cinema -- it is also one of the country's few mainstream movies ever to have shown a gay kiss.
The centenary film, which had a special screening at Cannes, comprises four self-contained short stories by leading directors looking at the impact of Indian cinema on people's lives.
Full StoryAngelina Jolie's aunt has died of breast cancer, it was reported Sunday, less than two weeks after the Oscar-winning actress announced that she had undergone a preventative double mastectomy.
The Hollywood entertainment website E! News cited Jolie's uncle, Ron Martin, as saying that his wife, Debbie -- the younger sister of Jolie's late mother -- died early on Sunday at Palomar Hospital in Escondido, California.
Full StoryBehind the scenes at the Cannes Film Festival, which wraps on Sunday after a 12-day run:
ADIEU, LEGOLAS: Blood, sex, blood, drugs, booze, blood, and then more blood... Orlando Bloom, as a cursing, womanizing and gun-toting cop in the South African-set crime thriller "Zulu", seems intent on saying goodbye to Legolas the Elf and Will Turner, Pirate of the Caribbean.
Full StoryOscar-winning director Roman Polanski on Saturday blamed birth control pills for "masculinising" women, as he premiered what he called a satire on sexism.
Polanski unveiled "Venus in Fur" starring his wife Emmanuelle Seigner, which was the last movie in competition to be screened at the Cannes Film Festival.
Full StoryFor the aging, gruff patriarch of his father-son road trip "Nebraska," Alexander Payne tried to lure Gene Hackman out of retirement and considered the likes of Robert Duvall and Jack Nicholson. Bruce Dern calls them "the obvious guys."
"He said to me, 'I got an idea. Let's surprise them with you,'" Dern recalled of learning from Payne that he had the part. Payne, he says, continued: "'You haven't done this. You haven't done anything like this. Let's have fun. Let's knock their socks off.'"
Full StoryNetflix is hoping this weekend's release of the resurrected TV series "Arrested Development" will draw more subscribers to its Internet video service.
The award-winning show about the dysfunctional Bluth family returns Sunday, seven years after Fox cancelled the series. The revival coincides with Netflix's own resounding comeback from a customer backlash over price increases and shareholders' worries about rising expenses. The adversity had raised doubts about the company's management and future.
Full StoryIt's considered the Holy Grail of comic books: Action Comics No. 1 from 1938, featuring the debut of Superman. And David Gonzales found one mixed in with old newspapers insulating a house he was renovating in a small town in Minnesota.
Gonzales did some research that confirmed the comic with a cover showing the Man of Steel holding a car over his head was valuable, though it's not worth as much as it could have been.
Full StoryActress Amanda Bynes appeared disheveled in a long blond wig and sweats Friday in a criminal court where she was charged with reckless endangerment after police said she heaved a marijuana bong out the window of her 36th-floor Manhattan apartment.
The 27-year-old former child star was arrested Thursday evening, after building officials at her midtown apartment called police to complain she was rolling a joint and smoking pot in the lobby.
Full StoryAcademy award-winner Marion Cotillard gave her all and even learned another language to play a Polish woman struggling with the realities of 1920s New York in James Gray's terse offering, "The Immigrant."
The gritty drama, which premieres Friday at the Cannes Film Festival and is competing for the Palme d'Or, was filmed in part on the almost mythical Ellis Island, where millions of immigrants stepped off the boat to America in search of a better life, captured with stark beauty by cinematographer Darius Khondji.
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