Darth Vader's distinctive helmet-headed silhouette swoops in to seize control of a spaceship, but this is not the movies -- instead his movements are being brought to life by a Malaysian shadow-puppet master behind a back-lit screen.

"Tell me, where are the plans that have been intercepted?," the puppeteer intones in the Malay language, drawing cheers from hundreds of spectators as they recognize Vader's baritone.

Their head-to-toe cute factor brings to mind fellow crowd-pleasing Japanese musicians, but for the two sisters who form Charan-Po-Rantan, the inspiration comes not from pop idols but the circus.

With songs driven by an accordion, Charan-Po-Rantan has created a sound that marries J-pop with klezmer, the festive music of Ashkenazi Jews, and the theatrical atmospherics of vaudeville.

South Korean singer Psy is set to release his first album for more than three years, with the "Gangnam Style" star vowing a return "to his roots", his agency said Tuesday.

The quirky singer/rapper was catapulted to global stardom in 2012 after his "Gangnam Style" music video, with its invisible horse-riding dance, went viral.

Snoopy now has his own star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, just in time for the release of "The Peanuts Movie" -- starring him.

The world's best known beagle, known for lines such as "I'm allergic to mornings," boasts star number 2,563 on Hollywood Boulevard, right next to that of his creator, Charles Schulz.

Cult TV franchise "Star Trek" will boldly return to the small screen with a brand-new series in 2017, CBS said Monday, sparking a frenzy among its millions of fans around the world.

The series will air exclusively in the United States from January 2017 but will be available largely behind the paywall on CBS's subscription channel, the broadcaster announced.

Sam Smith was by some measures last year's biggest breakthrough musician, but on his latest song, he is sadder than ever.

Smith returns to his familiar subject matter of fleeting love on "Drowning Shadows," a previously unreleased song that will appear on a deluxe edition of his blockbuster album "In The Lonely Hour" that comes out Friday.

Adele on Monday shattered a record with her long-awaited song "Hello," which became the first track downloaded more than one million times in a week in the United States.

"Hello," a piano ballad that is the debut single from the British pop star's first album in nearly five years, opened at number one for the week through Thursday on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, which monitors sales, streaming and radio play.

After being told that he is "just passing as white", Welsh crooner Tom Jones says he is ready to take a DNA test to find out once and for all if he has black ancestry.

The star, whose hits include "It's Not Unusual", "Delilah" and "Sex Bomb", is often thought to have black heritage for his booming baritone voice, tight curly hair and olive complexion.

Jennifer Lawrence is bidding farewell to "The Hunger Games" the wildly popular fantasy franchise that made her a megastar and rare Hollywood action heroine.

Lawrence is back as bow-and-arrow badass Katniss Everdeen leading her rebels deeper into the fight against injustice in their dystopian world in "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 2", opening around the globe November 18-20.

Al Molinaro, the loveable character actor with the hangdog face who was known to millions of TV viewers for playing Murray the cop on "The Odd Couple" and malt shop owner Al Delvecchio on "Happy Days," died Friday at Verdugo Hills Hospital in Glendale, his son Michael Molinaro said.

He died of complications of gallstone problems, his son said. He was 96.