Teen movie phenomenon "The Hunger Games" is vying to set a U.S. box office record this weekend, after advance sales already put it in the top three, according to a major ticket seller Thursday.

As a tsunami of fans headed to midnight screenings of the post-apocalyptic film, online retailer Fandango said it was selling 10 tickets for the movie every second, with 2,500 screenings already sold out.

Grammy-winning pop legend Whitney Houston died from accidental drowning in her hotel bathtub after taking cocaine which could have triggered a heart attack, coroners said.

Houston, who died at age 48 in the bathtub of a Beverly Hills hotel room last month, likely had some kind of heart attack which caused her to slip under the water, said the Los Angeles County Coroner's office, on Thursday.

A British chain of comedy clubs has taken Hollywood giant Twentieth Century Fox to court over the name of its hit television series "Glee".

Comic Enterprises, which runs four music and stand-up comedy venues called Glee Club, has made a claim against the U.S. film and TV company for trademark infringement.

Real Madrid football club will spread its brand to the Middle East and Asia by lending its name to a $1 billion theme park on a man-made island in the United Arab Emirates, it said on Thursday.

Executives unveiled plans for the "Real Madrid Resort Island", featuring an oceanside stadium and hi-tech club museum in the northern Emirate of Ras Al-Khaimah, on the doorstep of the lucrative football-mad Asian market.

The plush Los Angeles mansion where Michael Jackson died is on sale for $23.9 million, and a major celebrity is interested in buying it, according to realtors and the TMZ celebrity website.

The seven-bedroom, 13-bathroom property, described as the centerpiece of an "elegant and sophisticated French chateau estate," includes its own movie theater, a gym and a pool, said the realtors' website.

Norwegian chef Orjan Johannessen was crowned champion in the European leg of the Bocuse d'Or contest, known as the Olympic Games of the food world.

The award was announced late Wednesday after 20 chefs faced off in a two-day cookout in Brussels, ahead of the worldwide Bocuse d'Or competition to be held in the eastern French city of Lyon next January.

"CSI" creator Anthony Zuiker is making a movie destined for the small screen.

The creator of the hit CBS television show plans to debut the as-yet-unfinished feature, "Cybergeddon," on Yahoo in installments this fall. His latest foray into online storytelling follows his partnership on a horror series for YouTube.

Vladimir Putin cradles a fragile chick, hugs his dog and lets a tear roll down his cheek in an exhibition of kitsch paintings that opened this week after his reelection to the Kremlin.

The oil paintings aim to show a softer side of the Russian strongman, the artist said as the exhibition titled "A Man with a Heart of Gold" opened in Putin's northwestern home city of Saint Petersburg.

The Muppets were honored with their own star on the storied Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday, right outside the theater where their recent movie was made and premiered.

Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear and the rest of the puppet gang gathered in front of the El Capitan Theatre, opposite Graumman's Chinese Theatre at the center of Hollywood's tourist district.

The animated Beatles movie "Yellow Submarine" has been painstakingly restored frame by frame for DVD release this year, the band's holding company announced on Tuesday.

Apple Corps Ltd revealed that specialists worked for four months to individually hand clean each frame of the surreal 1968 tale. The company said it chose not to use automated software because of the delicate nature of the hand-drawn artwork.