Twenty years ago, a retired Malian portrait photographer called Seydou Keita sat at home in Bamako, quietly tinkering with his motorbike, when a Paris art dealer came knocking on his door.

Today, a decade after his death, Keita is perhaps Africa's most revered photographer, and his stylish studio snaps are a highlight of this year's Paris Photo fair, which opened Thursday with a focus on the continent.

Oscars veteran Billy Crystal stepped in Thursday to host this year's Academy Awards show, after actor Eddie Murphy pulled out following a row over a producer's anti-gay comments.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences hailed Crystal -- who has hosted the top Hollywood awards eight times before -- as an "Oscar icon" who would be "back where he belongs" on stage at the February 26 show.

Believe it or not, the Victoria's Secret fashion show belonged to the boys on Wednesday night.

It was Kanye West, Jay-Z and Maroon 5 who got the audience clapping and cheering at the annual lingerie extravaganza at the Lexington Avenue Armory, quite a feat considering they were sharing the stage with the some of the world's top models — in barely-there get-ups, no less.

Lovers of chocolate and musicals met on Broadway at the opening of the New York Chocolate Show, which started with a parade of models -- dressed in chocolate.

Broadway is the theme of this year's event and spectators welcomed 13 new creations including a "Lion King" mask and tail in dark chocolate, Roxy from the musical "Chicago," in a chocolate-encrusted miniskirt, bowler hat and cane, and a French cancan dancer whose head wore a chocolate Eiffel Tower.

Tintin, a long awaited 3D movie in Lebanon caused a round of debate on Wednesday when one of the theaters blacked out its producer's name.

Cinema City Administration at City Mall Complex in Dora blacked out the name of Tintin's Producer, Steven Spielberg on the movie's poster, "Blogbaladi", a Lebanese blog reported.

Veteran Hollywood star Eddie Murphy quit as host of this year's Oscars, one day after the show's producer resigned for making an anti-gay comment, organizers said.

Within hours of Murray's departure the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a replacement for Brett Ratner, who stepped down Tuesday as producer of Hollywood's annual awards.

A hit musical about gangland violence in Pakistan's largest metropolis is bidding to revive Karachi's once-rich stage culture while shedding light on its grim addiction to violence.

Fierce sectarian and ethnic conflicts have been responsible for the deaths of more than 1,000 people this year alone and are an all-too-familiar tale to Karachi's 18 million residents.

From her ultra-blond hair to her super-high heels, Donatella Versace uses every inch of her being to embrace glamour, and she wasn't going to put the Versace name on anything — and certainly not a collection for global fast-fashion retailer H&M — that didn't do the same.

The clothes that debuted Tuesday night on the catwalk lived up to the hype surrounding the limited-edition collection as well as Versace's own glitzy standards: There was a metallic disco dress, a studded leather bomber jacket and an animal-print-meets-tropical-sunset tank dress for women; and a hot-pink suit, studded tuxedo-style shorts and a palm-tree, second-skirt T-shirt for men.

His wife couldn't be there herself to accept her honor. So Mark Kelly, husband of recovering congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, spoke on her behalf. But, he made clear, his wife was still running the show.

"We went over my remarks very carefully," Kelly said at Glamour's Women of the Year awards on Monday. "She's still in charge."

The second Iraq Short Film Festival, which will feature movies from 28 countries, is to be held this month in Baghdad, after a six-year hiatus due to violence, its organizer Nazar al-Rawi said.

"The festival is a message to the world that cinema and culture are still alive in Iraq," Rawi told Agence France Presse.