The Cannes film festival eschews its usual blockbuster kick-off on Wednesday, opening with a gritty French film that marks only the second time a female director has won the coveted first slot.

Normally reserved for flashy hits such as "Moulin Rouge" or "The Fifth Element", the opening selection this year is "Standing Tall", starring French icon Catherine Deneuve.

Happily-married Oscar-winning Australian actress Cate Blanchett has revealed she had "many" past relationships with women in an interview with an American magazine.

The Australian, 45, made the comment while promoting her latest film "Carol", in which she plays a bisexual woman in 1950s New York.

Daredevils have posted a heart-stopping video of them scaling one of the world's tallest buildings, currently under construction in the Chinese boom town of Shenzhen.

The duo, who identify themselves on their website as 25-year-old Vadim Makhorov and Vitaliy Raskalov, 22, climbed the Pingan International Finance Centre, which is said by designers Thornton Tomasetti to be 600 metres (1,968 feet) high.

There will be no selfies on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival this year, but, rest assured, there will be every other type of image-making at the French Riviera extravaganza.

Photographers will form flashing gauntlets through which many of the top stars and filmmakers in movies will stream on their way to premiering hotly anticipated films on screens that are less theaters than movie cathedrals.

Egyptian satirist Bassem Youssef has been chosen to host the 2015 International Emmy Awards Gala in New York in November.

Youssef became one of the Arab world's most famous TV personalities as host of the groundbreaking TV political satire show "Al-Bernameg ("The Program"). He canceled the show last year after former army chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi was elected president.

Famously curvy reality show star Kim Kardashian launched a new line of clothing in Brazil on Monday, saying she hoped to win over women in a land where voluptuousness is often celebrated. 

Kardashian said at an event in Sao Paulo that her "simple and sexy" range of clothing aimed to reflect her own tastes and comprised clothes she would wear herself.

Tania Saleh launches her new album, "Shwayit Souwar/A Few Images" in Lebanon in partnership with Baalbeck International Festival, after it was launched in Oslo, Cairo, Alexandria and Dubai, a press release said.

The album was released in November 2014 and is distributed in Europe, USA and the Middle East by the Norwegian label KKV.

Britain's Prince Harry said Monday he wants to have children and would like a partner to "share the pressure" of royal duties, but is still waiting for the right woman.

The fifth in line to the throne made the comments in New Zealand where he is relaxing after calling time on a decade-long military career, saying he felt "at a crossroads".

The "Age of Ultron" is not over. The Avengers sequel topped the domestic box office for the second weekend in a row with an estimated $77.2 million according to Rentrak estimates Sunday.

The film has earned a staggering $312.9 million in just 10 days in theaters, tying with "The Dark Knight" to become the second-fastest film to do so.

Prince, the famously withdrawn and eccentric pop superstar, refashioned himself Sunday as a community healer as he led a peace concert in Baltimore.

Two weeks after sometimes violent protests erupted over the death of African-American Freddie Gray, who sustained injuries in Baltimore police custody, Prince threw what he called a "Rally 4 Peace" at a downtown arena in which he debuted live a song dedicated to the scarred U.S. city.