This year's Venice Film Festival will tackle topics from the financial crisis to drone warfare, and feature performances from Willem Dafoe, Al Pacino and Ethan Hawke.

Organizers on Thursday announced a 20-strong competition lineup that includes Ramin Bahrani's subprime mortgage drama "99 Homes," with Andrew Garfield and Laura Dern, and Andrew Niccol's "The Good Kill," starring Hawke as a dissatisfied drone operator.

Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio has raised more than $25 million (18 million euros) at a charity gala in France for his foundation which aims at protecting the environment and endangered species.

The fundraiser late Wednesday in the chic Riviera seaside resort of Saint-Tropez included an auction of Hollywood and rock and roll memorabilia and works by Damien Hirst and Pablo Picasso.

Like Batman responding to a beaming Bat signal in the sky, fans are streaming to San Diego for the 45th annual Comic-Con pop culture extravaganza.

The four-day festival celebrating film, TV, video games, comic books, costumes and other popular arts kicks off with a preview Wednesday night and goes full force Thursday at the San Diego Convention Center.

So let's start with the enticing premise of Luc Besson's "Lucy," starring Scarlett Johansson: Human beings only use 10 percent of their brain capacity. Imagine what it would be like if we could access all of it?

Well, wow. It would be sort of like ... nothing new. Because, it turns out, in real life, humans pretty much DO use their whole brains.

When film director Steve Faigenbaum grew up in Detroit, the city pulsated to the sound of Motown and car manufacturing.

Today, the once mighty city, which declared bankruptcy in 2013, is a nightmarish vision of urban decay that draws young people from all over the world to buy a house for $1,000.

A purportedly pristine copy of the first Superman comic book could fetch millions of dollars when it goes up, up and away in an auction at online marketplace eBay.

A copy of Action Comics #1 in which the Kryptonian superhero made his debut in 1938 will be offered in an eBay auction that opens on August 14 and run for ten days.

Only three months after calling off her engagement to rapper Big Sean in April, "Glee" star Naya Rivera married actor Ryan Dorsey this past weekend in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, People magazine reports.

The nuptials took place Saturday in front of a small group of close family.

Zoe Saldana is pregnant and expecting her first child with husband Marco Perego, a source reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly.

"Zoe is about three months pregnant," the insider tells Us of the Guardians of the Galaxy actress, 36. "But she will only announce the news when she's ready."

British singer Adele has accepted a five-figure sum in damages on behalf of her two-year-old son from a paparazzi agency that took photos of his "milestone moments", her lawyers said on Wednesday.

Adele, 26, and her partner Simon Konecki had brought legal action against Corbis Images UK, arguing that it had no right to intrude upon everyday family occasions such as their son Angelo Adkins' first trip to play group.

Peaches Geldof, daughter of Live Aid founder Bob Geldof, was a heroin addict who died from a drug overdose, a coroner ruled on Wednesday.

Her husband told a hearing that the 25-year-old TV presenter had started taking the drug again in February this year, having given it up three months earlier.