Nicki Minaj and Chris Brown on Monday led the nominations for the Black Entertainment Television awards, with each in the running in six categories.

Minaj, one of the most prominent female rappers, was nominated for best woman in hip-hop and five other awards.

The king of late-night American television, David Letterman, broadcasts his final show Wednesday, ending a 33-year run of unpredictable, caustic comedy that set him apart.

The longest-serving nighttime talk show host in US TV with more than 6,000 shows to his name, 68-year-old Letterman has been honored with tributes in US media, and by a host of celebrities.

Maverick New York director Abel Ferrara has turned to Kickstarter to help fund his new project, a nightmarish road movie starring Willem Dafoe, he told reporters at the Cannes Film Festival.

The filmmaker, known for classics such as "Bad Lieutenant" and "King of New York", gave a typically energetic press conference on the sidelines of the festival to describe his new project, dubbed "Siberia".

"Hello, Twitter! It's Barack. Really! Six years in, they're finally giving me my own account."

With that inaugural Tweet sent from a smartphone in the Oval Office before jumping on Marine One Monday, the President of the United States Barack Obama -- or @POTUS -- cast off security and bureaucratic chains in place since he was elected.

You've seen the movie "Black Swan", but what about "White Swan"? Or "Avengers Grimm"? Or "Darker Shades of Grey"? Or "Attack of the Lederhosen Zombies"?

You won't catch these features at your local movie theatre, but they and other B and C-grade flicks are doing booming business in the Cannes market running in parallel with the film festival.

Chinx, the New York rapper who won a growing following by turning his bleak experiences as a drug-dealer into verse, was shot dead Sunday. He was 31.

The rapper -- whose works included a series of mixtapes with the prophetic title "Hurry Up and Die" -- was driving a Porsche in the early morning in Queens when another motorist opened fire, police said.

Rap mogul Jay Z has quietly used his wealth to post bail for people arrested in protests across the United States against police excesses, an author close to him said Sunday.

Dream Hampton, a writer and activist who worked with Jay Z on his 2010 memoir "Decoded," made the revelations in a series of messages on Twitter that she later deleted but were reproduced by the hip-hop magazine Complex.

Pop superstar Taylor Swift offered a new personal transformation Sunday as she debuted a video of herself as a feminist action hero in collaboration with rapper Kendrick Lamar.

Appearing at the Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, where she was the night's victor, Swift premiered "Bad Blood" as the fourth single from her album "1989," by far the top-selling solo album last year.

Bill Cosby said young people should separate what he has to say about their future from sexual assault allegations lodged against him.

The actor and comedian was in Alabama to speak with high school students as part of a nonprofit foundation's campaign to improve education in the south-central part of the state. In a taped interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," Cosby was asked how he would respond if a youngster pressed him about accusations that he drugged and sexually assaulted a number of women over a period of decades.

On Sunday, many an Old Fashioned will be raised to Don Draper -- or raised in his memory.

After seven seasons, eight years and nearly 100 episodes, "Mad Men" fans will finally discover the fate of the show's dashing but conflicted anti-hero as the curtain comes down on the award-winning retro-cool series.