British actor Richard Griffiths, best known for his roles as Harry Potter's uncle and in the cult film "Withnail & I", has died aged 65, his agent said on Friday.

The portly star of stage and screen, one of Britain's best loved character actors, died on Thursday from complications following heart surgery, Simon Beresford said.

U.S. broadcasting icon Barbara Walters, 83, is poised to announce her retirement next year in the coming weeks, U.S. news media reported Thursday.

The New York Times, quoting "an executive familiar with the newswoman's plans," said a formal announcement of Walter's retirement would likely be made on "The View," a daytime talk show on ABC that she co-hosts.

Legendary U.S. filmmaker Martin Scorsese is to make a television series of "Gangs of New York," the epic story he brought to the big screen in an Oscar-nominated 2002 movie.

Scorsese is teaming up with film and TV studio Miramax to make the small screen series, about fighting between newly-arrived Irish immigrants and local "natives" in New York at the turn of the 20th century.

French actress Julie Gayet has launched legal action over Internet rumors that she is the mistress of President Francois Hollande, her lawyer, Vincent Toledano, told Agence France Presse on Thursday.

Judicial sources said Gayet, a blonde 40-year-old who appeared in one of Hollande's 2012 election commercials, had filed a complaint relating to an alleged breach of her right to a private life with Paris prosecutors on March 18.

"The Harlem Shake" is moving on.

After five weeks in the number one slot, New York DJ Baauer's single that triggered a global YouTube sensation has slipped to number two on Billboard's latest Hot 100 chart, the music industry trade journal said Wednesday.

The director of China's biggest box-office hit says "Lost in Thailand" succeeded by showing a rarely seen subject: modern Chinese life.

The historical epic, fantasy, action and thriller genres have long filled China's domestic movie screens. But "Lost in Thailand" was a low-budget and light-hearted road-trip tale about an ambitious executive who goes to Thailand to get his boss's approval for a business deal. Along the way he's pursued by a rival co-worker and encounters a wacky tourist who helps him rethink his priorities.

Companies and celebrities from Beyonce to George Takei have joined millions of social media users in posting and tweaking a simple red logo in support of gay marriage in the United States.

A square box with thick pink horizontal lines, the mathematical symbol for equal, was offered for sharing this week by the Human Rights Campaign as the U.S. Supreme Court took up arguments in key gay rights cases.

The Rolling Stones will play Britain's Glastonbury Festival, the world's largest greenfield music and performing arts spectacle, organizers revealed on Wednesday.

The legendary group has not played the festival before, but speculation mounted that they could make an appearance after they revealed last year they were reuniting to play 50th anniversary shows.

Harrison Ford isn't ready — "yet" — to talk about his reported part in Disney's planned "Star Wars" sequel, but he praises its director, J.J. Abrams.

"I think he's fantastic," Ford said in a recent interview. "I did his first movie, 'Regarding Henry,' with Mike Nichols. A wonderful talent. Extraordinary guy."

Carla Bruni said the charges faced by her husband and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy Nicolas Sarkozy in connection with a probe into illegal party funding were "painful" for her and her family, local media reported Wednesday.

"It's painful to talk about it and equally painful to not talk about it. It's painful for the family," the singer said, wiping away a tear, in an interview with Le Parisien published Wednesday.