Folk-pop hit machine Ed Sheeran will go head-to-head with rising R'n'B star Dua Lipa at the Brit Awards in London on Wednesday, the country's showpiece pop-music ceremony.

Hollywood star George Clooney and his human rights lawyer wife Amal on Monday pledged $500,000 to help fund a student march on Washington, giving a huge boost to what is considered an unprecedented youth mobilization against gun violence.

Only a few months ago, before the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke, the acclaimed Canadian theater director Robert Lepage would never have thought twice about a nude scene with an actress.

But the sexual harassment scandals that have wracked the entertainment industry since the Hollywood mogul's fall have forced the Quebecois master theater maker to rethink how he works.

It's her third Vienna ball of the season and Renate Drabek plans to dance until the small hours. Tango, waltz, rumba, boogie: her dance partner can't say 'no' as she's hired him for the evening.

Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux are separating after two years of marriage, they said in a statement to AFP on Thursday.

Universal's "Fifty Shades Freed," the last chapter in the erotic trilogy that has enjoyed huge popularity among mostly female audiences, vaulted to the top of North American box offices with a $38.6 million opening weekend, industry data showed Monday.

With ticket sales rebounding sharply from totals depressed last week by football's Super Bowl championship game, "Freed" led three new releases to the top, with Sony's "Peter Rabbit" coming in second and "The 15:17 to Paris" from Warner Bros. placing third, industry tracker Exhibitor Relations reported.

The daughter of French rock legend Johnny Hallyday caused a sensation Monday by challenging his will after he left everything to his fourth wife Laeticia, who was 32 years his junior.

It was written in the stars that one day Spanish star Antonio Banderas, who used to walk to school every morning past Pablo Picasso's childhood home, would have to play the great painter.

When Lebanese chef Alan Geaam first arrived in Paris two decades ago he found himself sleeping on the streets, lost and penniless with hardly a word of French.

This week Geaam, who began his career as a dishwasher while he was sleeping rough in a Paris park, received his first Michelin star from the French gastronomic bible for his acclaimed new restaurant within a stone's throw of the Arc de Triomphe.

The 68th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, opens February 15 with 24 new movies from around the world screening in the main showcase.