Three week before the much-anticipated Oscars, U.S. film director and actor Ben Affleck won a new top prize for his film "Argo," a thriller about the rescue of American hostages in Iran.

"There was a point in my life where I was really down, really confused, I didn't know what was going to happen and I thought 'I should be a director!'. And so I did it, and I worked very hard," Affleck said late Saturday as he received the award for outstanding directorial achievement in feature film from the Directors Guild of America.

U.S. star Johnny Depp will play notorious Boston gangster Whitey Bulger in the film "Black Mass", to be directed by Barry Levinson, the producers announced Saturday.

The film recounts the fate of the godfather of Boston's underworld who became an FBI informant to get rid of a gangster rival but was eventually arrested in 2011.

The love-struck zombies of "Warm Bodies" swarmed the box office on Super Bowl weekend with a $20 million opening.

On a weekend that Hollywood largely yields to football, the PG-13 film from Lionsgate's Summit Entertainment easily led the box office, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Super Bowl always means a significant slide in movie-going on Sunday — studios predict a decrease of as much as 70 percent from Saturday to Sunday — but "Warm Bodies" still lured many teenage fans.

If naysayers still doubted Beyonce's singing talents — even after her national anthem performance this week at a press conference — the singer proved she is an exceptional performer at the Super Bowl halftime show.

Beyonce opened and closed her set belting songs, and in between she danced hard and heavy — and better than most contemporary pop stars.

Sylvester Stallone says that despite his "Rambo" image and new shoot-em-up film "Bullet to the Head," he's in favor of new national gun control legislation.

Stallone supported the 1994 "Brady bill" that included a now-expired ban on assault weapons, and hopes that ban can be reinstated.

David Beckham has won league championships in three countries on two continents, earns millions of dollars in endorsements and his name is practically synonymous with celebrity itself. He has his own cologne, for goodness sake. So why is he even bothering to sit on the bench for the Paris Saint-Germain football club?

His royal highness of football doesn't need the money — and he's said he'll donate his PSG salary to charity — but he does need to start thinking about life after the game. At 37, Beckham is practically a dinosaur for the sport, and he acknowledged in his welcoming press conference on Thursday that he probably won't be in the team's starting lineup.

The man who oversaw the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, ex-CIA director Leon Panetta, vouched Friday for "Zero Dark Thirty," calling it a "good movie" even though the tale of the biggest manhunt in history had to be simplified for the big screen.

"It's a movie," Panetta said, laughing. "And it's a good movie. But I lived the real story," he told Agence France Presse in an interview.

Japanese Manga legend Leiji Matsumoto celebrated 60 years in the business at France's international cartoon festival, and confessed that the experience left him feeling like a time traveler "with the strange sensation of finding myself in one of my stories".

The author of numerous cult works such as "Captain Albator" and "Galaxy Express 999", the slender, white haired 75-year-old, sporting a goatee, cap and huge glasses, was on Friday feted at the festival in southwestern Angouleme.

Sizzling British hit "Downton Abbey" has stolen the hearts of its legions of avid fans, but one viewer hopes the television show will steal its way to their stomachs as well.

Canadian culinary historian Pamela Foster has crafted a cookbook based on the early 20th century British cuisine featured in the show -- though she's given it a modern, and more healthful twist.

Award-winning U.S. comedy "30 Rock" bowed out after seven seasons Thursday, with a double helping of the cult TV show starring Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin.

The multiple Emmy-winning comedy show -- about the cast of a TV comedy sketch show -- has featured a who's who of guest celebrities over the years, including Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Aniston and Calvin Klein.