Film director Martin Scorsese urged Americans on Monday to pay greater heed to "visual literacy" and to embrace their rich cinema heritage before it literally fades away.
Scorsese appealed for a greater national commitment to film restoration and preservation when he delivered the annual Jefferson humanities lecture at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

U.S. television news icon Barbara Walters, 83, laughed off reports of her imminent retirement Monday, indicating she has no immediate plans to draw a line under her long and storied career.
Chatting with Whoopi Goldberg and other fellow co-hosts of her ABC daytime talk show "The View," a vivacious Walters said "nothing is going on" regarding her future after more than a half-century on U.S. television.

American pop queen Madonna discreetly flew into Malawi on Monday with her adopted children from the southern African nation, an airport official said.
"I saw Madonna, her adopted two children David Banda and Mercy James, plus an entourage of 10, come through the VIP," Peter Botha, a spokesman for the Lilongwe airport police, told Agence France Presse.

Tom Cruise took time off from promoting his latest movie in Brazil by visiting Maracana Stadium and meeting former Brazilian football star Zico.
Cruise posed for photos at the stadium's newly installed pitch holding a Brazil jersey with his name on the back.

"Glee" star Cory Monteith is heading to rehab, according to People.
Monteith's rep told the magazine that the actor has "voluntarily admitted himself to a treatment facility for substance addiction."

A rare, signed copy of The Beatles' album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" has been sold for a record $290,500 at auction, The Hollywood Reporter said.
The entertainment magazine reported on its website that the album, signed by all four members of the famous band, was purchased Saturday through Dallas-based Heritage Auctions by an unnamed buyer from the Midwest.

King of Pop Michael Jackson's mother is seeking billions of dollars from tour promoter AEG Live over her son's 2009 death, in a trial that will finally get underway in Los Angeles in April.
Jury selection begins Tuesday for the trial, in which Katherine Jackson accuses AEG of negligently hiring doctor Conrad Murray to look after her son as he prepared for a doomed series of London shows.

Indian and Afghan producers of children's TV favorite "Sesame Street" are brainstorming in a New Delhi office, swapping tips on how to make Big Bird and his fluffy pals palatable to local viewers.
As the show makes India a satellite hub for production and training, it is a chance for the Afghan producers to tap into their Indian peers' six years of experience in balancing sensitivities in their own culturally and religiously diverse nation.

Queen singer Freddie Mercury disguised the late Princess Diana as a male model and smuggled her into a notorious gay bar, according to a memoir serialized in Britain's Sunday Times.
Comedian Cleo Rocos describes in her book "The Power of Positive Drinking" how she, Mercury and fellow comedian Kenny Everett dressed Diana in an army jacket, cap and sunglasses for a night out at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, south London, in the late 1980s.

A federal judge says actress Angelina Jolie didn't steal the story for her movie "In the Land of Blood and Honey" from a Croatian author.
City News Service reports Friday's tentative ruling in Los Angeles will quash the lawsuit accusing Jolie of copyright infringement.
