Former Miss Venezuela Eva Ekvall, whose struggle with breast cancer was closely followed by Venezuelans, has died at age 28.

Her family said Ekvall died Saturday at a hospital in Houston.

A new adventure of Sherlock Holmes and the famous detective's loyal sidekick Watson landed on top of North American box office charts over the weekend, industry estimates showed Sunday.

The British-American action mystery film directed by Guy Ritchie and starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law grossed $40 million, according to Exhibitor Relations.

Iconic 1960s Californian band The Beach Boys are reuniting to celebrate their 50th anniversary with a new album and a 50-date world tour next year, the group announced.

The original members of the band whose hits include "Good Vibrations" and "Surfin' USA" -- who fueled reunion talk when they recently re-recorded "Do it Again" -- had already been in the studio working on songs for the new album.

Honeyed vocals, a cinematic pout and a haunting, David Lynch-inspired video clip posted on YouTube was all it took to propel Lana Del Rey to global stardom, hailed as the musical revelation of 2011.

But a just-as-swift backlash has threatened to bring down the New York singer before her first album even hits the shelves next month, after bloggers attacked the 25-year-old as an industry-backed "fake", posing as self-made artist.

Wrapped in a maroon robe, her head shaven, Ani Choying Dolmatreads 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.

A bedroom mirror on which Michael Jackson scrawled a self-motivating message in the last months of his life sold for some $19,000, as the contents of his last home went under the hammer.

Fans of the King of Pop joined serious collectors at the Beverly Hills auction, which saw a shower bench on which Jackson drew a series of stick figures apparently dancing go for $4,480.

Snoop Dogg remembered watching all of the Cheech and Chong movies growing up, idolizing their ability to always escape from danger in their comedy films.

Wiz Khalifa revered Snoop Dogg for his marijuana-smoking, ultra-smooth West Coast swagger shown extensively throughout his rap career.

Fifth-grader Jolie Leach says she "was gonna explode" with excitement when Justin Bieber performed a concert at her Las Vegas school, and vowed she'd never wash her hand after he gave her a high-five.

Leach was one of hundreds who showed clear symptoms of Bieber fever after the 17-year-old teen pop sensation staged a private show Friday at low-income Whitney Elementary School. The concert was filmed for an episode of "The Ellen Degeneres Show" and came two months after Bieber promised the school's 650 students a $100,000 donation.

Oscar-winner Natalie Portman was in France this week with her baby boy and star choreographer fiancé Benjamin Millepied, who has a double-bill showing in the eastern city Lyon from Saturday.

The US actress and French dancer met on the set of the ballet-themed 2010 thriller "Black Swan," which earned the 30-year-old Portman a best actress Oscar for her role as a ballerina driven close to madness by her quest for perfection.

Grammy-winning blues and soul singer Etta James, most famous for her signature song "At Last," is terminally ill, her doctor and manager said in comments published Friday.

Experts declared two weeks ago that the leukemia from which the 73-year-old was suffering was inoperable, Dr Elaine James told The Press-Enterprise newspaper, which covers where the singer lives in Riverside, California.