The opening this month of the first life-sized Barbie Dreamhouse in Europe may be the fantasy of many a little girl, but Berlin feminists are mobilizing against what they call a sexist icon.

With her ironed-straight blond tresses, doe-like baby blue eyes, blinding smile and super-human measurements, the mistress of the giant Barbie mansion has become a lightning rod ahead of the May 16 inauguration.

Written by Anthony Sargon

Life doesn't always go as planned. Unexpected things can and will happen, but it's how we choose to deal with those events that makes us who we are, and ultimately, decides our fate. Derek Ciafrance's "The Place Beyond The Pines" is a beautiful and heart-wrenching film that explores the importance of family, and what one is willing to do for it in a world tainted by greed and corruption.

Italian knitwear impresario Ottavio "Tai" Missoni, an innovator whose distinctive colorful zigzag dresses became a global fashion empire, died on Thursday at his home at 92, his family said.

Missoni co-founded the fashion brand in 1953 with his wife Rosita Jelmini and their designs have graced the rich and famous from Jackie Kennedy to the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton.

Colombian superstar Shakira is learning how to balance her demanding work schedule with being a new mom one day at a time.

"It's part of motherhood you know," she said of juggling personal and professional life. "You got to figure it out as you go."

Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke won one of Spain's highest honors, the Prince of Asturias prize for arts, on Thursday.

The 71-year-old's latest film "Amour", about a couple trying to come to terms with sickness and old age, won the Oscar for best foreign movie in February after winning the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival last year.

"The Great Gatsby" is an American classic. But that hasn't stopped Australian director Baz Luhrmann from bringing his trademark style to the tale, set to a provocatively modern soundtrack.

With Leonardo DiCaprio in the title role, the movie depicts the wild glamor and energy of Roaring Twenties America, while also evoking a "hollow" feeling at the heart of F. Scott Fitzgerald's era-defining 1925 novel.

Jeanne Cooper, who played a lead role on the U.S. soap opera "The Young and the Restless" for four decades, died Wednesday at the age of 84, her son, the actor Corbin Bernsen, said.

Cooper's acting career dated back to the early 1950s, but she was best known for her portrayal of wealthy matriarch Katherine "Kay" Chancellor on the popular daytime drama, a role she played from 1973 until her death.

New York's Parsons School of Design has canceled a workshop that disgraced fashion designer John Galliano was set to give in a step toward his rehabilitation after being sacked by Christian Dior for an anti-Semitic outburst.

The four-day master class at the prestigious school had come under a bombardment of complaints and an online protest.

Operas have been written about many things -- magic flutes, tragic former courtesans expiring in their lovers' arms, or final battles with the gods -- but seldom about the trials and tribulations of corporate life.

This however is the theme of "Join!", with the script by a former top corporate executive, that has its world premiere on Wednesday in Vienna, a city better known for its more traditional operatic productions.

Michael Jackson's doctor Conrad Murray was clearly a "mismatch" unsuitable to care for the star on his doomed 2009 tour, with no expertise on drug addiction or insomnia, an expert witness said Tuesday.

Promoters AEG Live failed to spot a string of "red flags" that should have made them refuse to hire Murray, convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011 over Jackson's death, said cardiologist Daniel Wohlgelernter.