Chinese stars dot the front rows, a new designer from the country joins the runway calendar, and its retailers scout the city for talent: China's love affair with style is on full view at Paris Fashion Week.

Outside the French capital's Rodin Museum on Friday, paparazzi clustered around after the Dior show poring over a hand-out from the company, matching names to the faces of the Chinese celebrities they had just snapped.

Martin Sheen commanded the stage with his impassioned portrayal of an attorney arguing for gay-marriage rights; Jane Lynch inspired instant response as a vehement same-sex marriage opponent; Brad Pitt dazzled as a judge.

It was all part of the star-studded West Coast premiere of "8," a play about the 2010 federal court fight against Proposition 8, the gay-marriage ban that California voters approved in 2008.

Ralph McQuarrie, the cinematic designer known for the famous "Star Wars" characters such as Darth Vader, Chewbacca and R2-D2, has died at age 82, his website announced Sunday.

McQuarrie, who died Saturday, collaborated with George Lucas on the original "Star Wars" trilogy in the 1970s and with Steven Spielberg on films including "E.T," and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Fadel Shaker, a Lebanese pop star turned outspoken supporter of Salafism, an ultra-conservative branch of Sunni Islam, on Sunday stressed the “need” for artists to support the beleaguered Syrian people, urging them to “reject the massacres” taking place in Syria.

Speaking at an anti-Syrian regime sit-in organized in Beirut’s Martyrs Square by Salafist Sheikh Ahmed al-Assir, imam of the Sidon’s Bilal bin Rabah Mosque, Shaker said: “Haven’t they seen the massacres in Homs, Daraa, Deir al-Zour and other regions?”

The buzz at Paris' ready-to-wear shows on Friday wasn't just about the clothes.

Bill Gaytten, former designer John Galliano's temporary replacement, was again at the helm of Christian Dior's fashion collection, directing a demure, play-it-safe show that channeled the powerhouse's bread-and-butter New Look-inspired gowns with cinched 1950s waists.

Director Julie Taymor has hit back at her former creative partners in "Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark," arguing in court papers that she was the victim of a conspiracy to unfairly push her out of the production and that her one-time collaborators were secretly working on a rival script behind her back.

Taymor's legal team on Friday defended the Tony Award winner against claims in an earlier countersuit from producers, the latest installment in their bitter legal battle over financial rewards for Broadway's most expensive show.

Oprah Winfrey has landed an interview with Whitney Houston's daughter and other family members for a TV special that will air on the Oprah Winfrey Network.

"Oprah's Next Chapter" will feature an interview with 18-year-oldBobbi Kristina, Houston's only child. It will also include Patricia Houston, who's the singer's sister-in-law and manager, as well as the singer's brother Gary. It is scheduled to air March 11.

Sayed Elham sits at the piano lost in Chopin as he dreams of becoming Afghanistan's first famous concert pianist and one of the original graduates of the country's only musical academy.

Rare photographs of Bob Dylan, shot over a year-long period in the mid-1960s, go on show in Paris next week in an exhibit that captures the moment the protest folk singer morphed into cult rock star.

From 1961 to 1966, Dylan wrote seven albums that marked the history of pop, but also underwent a radical transformation between the first, "Bob Dylan," and the last, "Blonde on Blonde.”

The owner of the New Jersey funeral home that handled services for Whitney Houston says the home had nothing to do with a photograph that surfaced showing the singer's body in an open casket.

But Carolyn Whigham of Whigham Funeral Home and two pastors say they do know who took the photo that ran in the National Enquirer. They just aren't identifying the person and say that's up to the Houston family.