Miss New York Kira Kazantsev won the Miss America pageant Sunday night, with the help of a red plastic cup.

For her talent performance, Kazantsev sang Pharrell Williams' "Happy" while sitting cross-legged on the stage and banging a red plastic cup on the floor. That immediately touched off a furor on social media networks, where many were critical of her performance.

Hollywood's annual awards season may be months away yet, but for many the race for Oscars gold has already started, with strong contenders emerging from key film festivals this month.

While it is too early to talk of frontrunners -- unlike last year when "12 Years a Slave" established itself early in awards season -- several movies and actors are already generating buzz in Tinseltown.

Scotland's independence debate has gripped the world of show business, pitting heavyweights such as Paul McCartney and Sean Connery on opposite sides, but many remain tight-lipped over fears of repercussions.

On August 7, 200 celebrities signed their names to an open letter pleading the Scots to remain in the union.

Carefree sensuality oozed from every pore as Brigitte Bardot, who turns 80 on Sunday, mamboed her way to fame, leaving men weak at the knees and drawing a generation of liberated young women in her wake.

Half a century on, the big wispy hair and hourglass silhouette immortalized by the 1950s sex symbol still inspire designers the world over, though the real-life Bardot has long abandoned the limelight in favor of animal rights activism.

Australian actress Nicole Kidman is in shock after the sudden death of her father in Singapore, her publicist said Saturday as her husband Keith Urban wrote of the couple's "deep state of grief".

Antony Kidman, 75, died after suffering from an apparent heart attack at an exclusive social club in Singapore, local media and emergency services said.

Rumors that George Clooney and his fiancee might be getting married on Friday in London's Chelsea Old Town Hall sparked a media frenzy but the registry office said "not today".

The 53-year-old Hollywood actor and Beirut-born British human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin, 36, are set to tie the knot within weeks, though a date and precise venue have not been publicly announced.

Elisabeth Moss will play the insecure heroine of "The Heidi Chronicles" in a Broadway revival slated for February.

Producers said Thursday that the "Mad Men" star will play the lead in the portrait of a woman who takes a 20-year journey beginning in the late 1960s and changes her attitudes about herself, men and other women.

It takes nine — yes, nine — tractor-trailers to move all the sets and props for "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," a $2 million extravaganza that arrived in New York this week. No wonder its choreographer, Christopher Wheeldon, calls the production "my big girl."

But "Alice" is a girl on the move. She premiered in London, then Toronto, and has played Japan, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C. And now, she's arrived in New York — the place many see as the dance capital of the world — a full three years after opening.

Scotland's independence battle is a tough one to call. The Yes side has James Bond, but the No campaign has Harry Potter.

Former 007 Sean Connery has long been a vocal Scottish nationalist — from his home in the Bahamas. Earlier this year he backed independence and the "core democratic value that the people of Scotland are the best guardians of their own future."

Carrie Underwood, who recently announced she is pregnant, got emotional during an acceptance speech at the annual ACM Honors event after thanking family and friends.

Underwood, 31, received the Gene Weed Special Achievement Award on Tuesday night in Nashville, Tennessee. When she accepted the award, she said that she was misty eyed at the performances that evening.