Director Peter Jackson gave fans a sneak peek of his latest Tolkien epic Tuesday, revealing he is working non-stop to get "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" ready to premiere next month.

Jackson took a break from editing to host what was billed as a "world fan event", featuring question and answer sessions with stars from the movie streamed online from cinemas in Wellington, New York, Los Angeles and London.

Paula Abdul, an award-winning singer, dancer, choreographer and TV personality, can add a new title to her resume: religious pilgrim.

The former "American Idol" and "The X-Factor" judge is on her first trip to Israel, where she is connecting to her Jewish roots and planning on holding a belated Bat Mitzvah — the Jewish coming of age ceremony girls typically have at age 12 or 13.

YouTube's first-ever music awards thrilled and spilled, with Eminem named Artist of the Year though most winners were lesser known acts who featured in an eclectic show filled with stunts.

Sunday's webcast was kicked off by indie rockers Arcade Fire performing their new song "Afterlife" in a live video performance featuring a chorus of young girl singers in Pier 36, a sprawling indoor events space in New York.

A keenly-awaited sequel to the blockbuster "Call of Duty" videogame franchise is expected to rally armies of zealous players and rack up dizzying sales when it is unleashed on Tuesday.

"Call of Duty: Ghosts" promises devotees of the decade-old franchise new thrills and takes advantage of hot trends in extending console play online and to smartphones and tablet computers.

Vinyl records are back in fashion in Britain where they have recorded their best sales for a decade as devotees and new fans relish what they say is a livelier sound than digital formats.

The Soho district of London is peppered with small shops where music fans are once again enjoying the feel of dust on their fingertips as they flick through the racks of albums.

A long-awaited film on the life of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela premiered in his native South Africa on Sunday, stirring emotional memories of the country's turbulent history.

The movie "Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom", largely based on his autobiography of the same title, traces the life of the anti-apartheid icon from his childhood in the rural Eastern Cape to his election as the country's first black president in 1994.

Written by Anthony Sargon

It's always tricky adapting a popular novel; taking any sort of creative liberty with the material can alienate the fan-base, but being too faithful to the source material can also push more casual viewers away. As a person who has never read the seminal "Ender's Game", I can say that the movie stood pretty well on its own, although there was definitely room for improvement.

This summer, out of the blue, playwright Glen Berger got a call from director Julie Taymor.

He assumed he was being butt-dialed.

Barely four years after he first appeared at the Paris fashion show, then aged just 19, Brazilian designer Pedro Lourenco has made a name for himself both at home and abroad.

Late last year, the U.S. Forbes magazine included him on its annual list of 30 under-30 young talents who made their mark in fashion, education, music, science and health, sports or technology.

Controversial Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef's television channel suspended his program on Friday, a week after he returned from a four-month break and fired barbs at the country's military.

Youssef, known as "Egypt's Jon Stewart" after modelling his Al-Bernameg (The Program) on the US comedian's popular satirical news program, had already run foul of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi, who was ousted by the military in July.