Move over Helen Mirren, there's a new queen in town — Elizabeth Hurley.

The English actress is on the British throne for new E! drama series "The Royals," playing the fictional Queen Helena, a sharply dressed mother of three grooming her son to be king and dealing with public opinion.

While most people are inviting friends to complete the ice bucket challenge, Kathy Griffin has another proposal for Nicki Minaj: a booty challenge.

The 53-year-old comedian said after watching the eye-popping, rump-shaking music video for Minaj's new hit single, "Anaconda," she wants to go toe-to-toe with the rap diva.

Chinese authorities shut down an independent film festival on its opening day Saturday, a rare venue for the showing of films that may be critical of the government in a country with tight controls, organizers said.

Festival artistic director Wang Hongwei and executive director Fan Rong, both of Li Xianting Film Fund that has organized the 11th Beijing Independent Film Festival, said that the event was forced to close.

Television is increasingly opening its doors to Hollywood stars, as Monday's Emmy Awards will attest, but TV royalty still struggle to make the transition to the silver screen.

Seasoned actors Matthew McConaughey, Kevin Spacey, Jon Voight, Jeff Daniels and Woody Harrelson are all nominated this year for Emmys after having built much of their careers in film.

The Dominican Republic government commission that oversees public performances is banning a Sept. 13 concert by Miley Cyrus on morality grounds.

The commission said in a statement Thursday that it took the action because Cyrus often "undertakes acts that go against morals and customs, which are punishable by Dominican law."

One of the individuals behind the Ice Bucket Challenge to support Lou Gehrig's disease research has died in a diving accident.

Corey Griffin, 27, helped popularize the worldwide trend in which people either pledge $100 to ALS research or record themselves getting drenched by frigid water, then post the stunt online and challenge others to do the same.

The cremated remains of Hollywood actor Robin Williams, found dead on August 1 after an apparent suicide, were spread in San Francisco Bay, U.S. news media reported Thursday.

According to Williams's death certificate, published by the celebrity gossip site Radar Online, Williams was cremated on August 12, one day after his personal assistant found him dead in his home in Marin County, near San Francisco.

If it walks like a drama and talks like a drama and yet calls itself a comedy, that's just fine with the Emmy Awards.

But the audience for Monday's ceremony (8 p.m. EDT, NBC) may suffer momentary confusion when, say, the Netflix women's prison saga "Orange Is the New Black" pops up as a nominee for best comedy series.

Amy Winehouse is to be commemorated with a statue in the London neighborhood where she lived and worked.

The late singer's family says the statue will be unveiled in Camden Town on Sept. 14, her 31st birthday.

Colombian pop star Shakira's 2010 hit song "Loca" is an illegal copy of a tune written by a Dominican musician in 1998, a U.S. judge said Wednesday in a copyright trial.

In a 40-page ruling Judge Alvin Hellerstein said the song was a replication of one written by singer and composer Ramon Arias Vasquez, known as Arias.