Many fans are eagerly anticipating a return to the fictional world of Middle-earth with next week's general release of the first movie in "The Hobbit" trilogy. Director Peter Jackson and the film's stars speak to The Associated Press about making "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey":

— Jackson on shooting at 48 frames per second instead of the standard 24: "We've seen the arrival of iPhones and iPads and now there's a generation of kids — the worry that I have is that they seem to think it's OK to wait for the film to come out on DVD or be available for download. And I don't want kids to see 'The Hobbit' on their iPads, really. Not for the first time. So as a filmmaker, I feel the responsibility to say, 'This is the technology we have now, and it's different ... How can we raise the bar? Why do we have to stick with 24 frames? ...'"

Alicia Keys raised more than $1 million for her charity and honored Oprah Winfrey for her humanitarian efforts Thursday night.

Keys' Keep a Child Alive celebrated its annual Black Ball — dubbed Black Ball Redux — at the Apollo Theater. The R&B singer performed alongside Bonnie Raitt, Jennifer Hudson, Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes and Angelique Kidjo, who was also honored.

Justin Bieber's manager has lambasted the Grammys organizers after the Canadian teen sensation failed to garner a single nomination for this year's music awards.

At the other end of the musical spectrum, late jazz icon Dave Brubeck was honored with a posthumous nod for the music industry's top prizes, in a little-noticed category at Wednesday night's nominations show.

Prince William's pregnant wife Catherine said she was feeling much better as she was discharged from a London hospital on Thursday following four days of treatment for acute morning sickness.

Holding a bouquet of yellow roses and wrapped up in a dark coat and blue scarf to protect against the cold, the former Kate Middleton smiled as she left the private King Edward VII Hospital with her husband.

"The Hobbit" may be a shortish book about diminutive heroes, but Peter Jackson on Wednesday said he was right to elongate the children's story into no less than three epic movies.

The New Zealand-born director has come under fire from some quarters for the trilogy, which opens in the U.S. this month with the nearly three-hour-long first installment "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey."

It may take a big spoonful of sugar to make this go down: Julie Andrews says that her four-octave voice is not coming back.

The Oscar and Tony Award-winning actress said in a recent interview that a botched operation to remove non-cancerous throat nodules in 1997 hasn't gotten better. It has permanently limited her range and her ability to hold notes.

It was all fun. Wednesday as the New York indie pop band with the oddly-spelled name picked up no fewer than six Grammy nominations in its breakout year.

During a gala nomination ceremony in country music's hometown of Nashville, fun. found itself in the running for best album ("Some Nights") and best record (the morose hipster drinking anthem "We Are Young").

The latest James Bond movie, "Skyfall", has become the highest-grossing film in British box office history, its producers said on Wednesday.

The 23rd episode of the spy series, starring Daniel Craig as Agent 007 for a third time, has taken a record £94.3 million ($151.7 million, 116.1 million euros) at British and Irish cinemas in its first 40 days, producers said.

French actress Sophie Marceau said Wednesday the growing appetite for content created by new media such as YouTube and cable television posed a threat to creative and original film-making.

Speaking at a French film festival news conference in Singapore, the "Braveheart" and James Bond actress said the need to feed popular new media platforms may cause filmmakers to make uninspired and uniform movies.

LAMICE embodies a new generation of "e-artists" whose creations are only available on the internet, through her page www.lamice.com, a press release said Wednesday.

Energetic believer and multi-talented, she puts her music art to light in an innovative way thanks to the technologies.