Hip hop star Kanye West and reality TV celebrity Kim Kardashian are to marry in a chateau near Paris next Saturday, Italian media reported, before heading to Florence where their party plans have raised some eyebrows.

Some 1,600 guests have been invited to the Chateau d'Usse, a Renaissance dwelling southwest of Paris, for the May 24 wedding ceremony, Florence newspaper la Nazione reported.

One-time rivals Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger grabbed the opportunity of their testosterone-fuelled promotion of "Expendables 3" in Cannes to poke fun at each other in a rollicking press conference Sunday.

Sly and former California governor Schwarzenegger, Mel Gibson, Antonio Banderas, Harrison Ford and Wesley Snipes made a spectacular entry in the French Riviera resort on board two tanks mobbed by hundreds of fans.

Iranian actress Leila Hatami on Sunday angered authorities in Tehran by kissing the Cannes film festival's president on the cheek, an act seen as affront to the "chastity" of  the Islamic republic's women.

A photograph carried by Iranian media shows Hatami kissing Gilles Jacob at the opening of this year's festival.

The King of Pop and a likely successor, Justin Timberlake, ruled the Billboard Music Awards — though Michael Jackson made a splash via hologram and Timberlake accepted his awards via video from overseas while on tour.

A hologram of Jackson made its debut Sunday, mirroring the late icon's signature dance moves as some members of the audience became emotional. Timberlake won seven prizes, including top artist and Billboard 200 album.

Yves Saint Laurent, France's shy genius of fashion, came to the big screen at Cannes on Saturday with a biopic delving into the darker side of the celebrated designer and his struggles with depression, drink and drugs.

The high priest of fashion who pioneered tuxedos for women and ready-to-wear is shown cruising for sex, taking cocaine and pills and indulging in casual cruelty to women in Bertrand Bonello's film "Saint Laurent".

Mexican film star Salma Hayek and French actress Julie Gayet branded signs saying #BringBackOurGirls on Cannes' red carpet Saturday, joining global calls to free 223 schoolgirls kidnapped by Islamist militants in Nigeria.

Hayek and Gayet posed with the signs for a long time before climbing up the steps to the festival hall in the French Riviera resort.

"Wild Tales", a pitch-black comedy from Argentina produced by art-house superstar Pedro Almodovar, delighted critics at Cannes on Saturday with an uproarious take on the thin line between civilization and savagery.

One of 18 contenders in competition at the world's biggest film festival, the movie by 38-year-old Damian Szifron plays out in six absurdly violent episodes.

In French Cognac country, locals know the fungus as "black velvet", fed by the fumes of the famed spirit they lovingly call the "angel's share". But along Kentucky's Bourbon Trail, it has sparked bitter lawsuits.

The byproduct of the distilled drinks' aging process was discovered a decade ago by Canadian mycologist James Scott, who called it Baudoinia compniacensis in honor of pharmacist Antonin Baudoin, a Frenchman who probed a similar mold in the 1870s. 

A federal judge ruled Friday that the Billboard Music Awards can use a hologram of deceased pop icon Michael Jackson at this weekend's show, rejecting efforts from tech companies seeking to block the digital performance.

Judge Kent Dawson said there wasn't enough evidence to show the planned 3-D image would violate patents held by Hologram USA Inc. and Musion Das Hologram Ltd.

Hollywood star Cate Blanchett on Friday hit out at multi-million-dollar planned cuts to Australia's television and film funding body, slamming the move as "short-sighted."

The Australian government unveiled a tough budget this week that saw huge cuts to health and education spending, as well as slashed spending for arts and cultural activities, including Screen Australia.