MEDIA CULTURE

"Twenty-three in Music City / With dreams and high-heeled boots / Singin' for a crowd of blue eyes / Will they want me too?"

When Yasushi Sasaki moved from Japan to Belgium at the age of 19, he spoke not a word of French and had no clue what he would do with his life.

Fashionistas desperate to get their hands on an exclusive Birkin handbag are suing Hermes in California on grounds the company won't sell them one unless they buy other luxury products first.

The feted Belgian designer Dries Van Noten will step down as creative director of his namesake fashion label this summer, he announced Tuesday.

The Picasso Museum in Malaga, the southern Spanish city where the artist was born, will open a new exhibition on Tuesday which groups his works according to theme instead of by period.

A major film that imagines a second civil war in the near-future United States has highlighted fears about the divided state of the nation ahead of November's presidential election.

Meghan Markle, the wife of Britain's Prince Harry, is launching a new lifestyle brand seemingly named after the couple's oceanside California home.

For more than 20 years, Norah Jones has been the soundtrack to millions of people's lives, including some of their most intimate moments.

Wins for "Oppenheimer," live musical performances from "Barbie" and an (almost) naked John Cena helped lift Oscars ratings for a third consecutive year, early viewing figures showed Monday, as 19.5 million tuned in to watch Hollywood's big night.

The Picasso Museum in Paris, which houses the world's biggest collection of the Spanish artist's works, is reopening on Tuesday with an overhauled display and a first-ever tribute to his ex-partner, the renowned painter Francoise Gilot.

"Oppenheimer" swept the board on Sunday at the Oscars, Hollywood's biggest night of the year, with seven awards including best picture and best director, crowning a triumphant year for filmmaker Christopher Nolan.

The share of Hollywood films with women in the lead role fell last year, new research showed Thursday, despite standout successes like "Barbie."

Media magnate Rupert Murdoch is not giving up on love -- even at age 92.

A Korean-Canadian director's debut feature film -- a quiet romance exploring time, longing and lost chances -- has arrived in South Korea for theatre release after garnering two Oscar nominations.

Singapore struck a deal ensuring Taylor Swift played the city-state but nowhere else in Southeast Asia, the country's prime minister said Tuesday while defending the secretive arrangement.

Paris Fashion Week, which runs until Tuesday, has seen no shortage of eye-catching moments this week.

Singapore said Monday its grant to Taylor Swift for her concerts in the city was nowhere near as high as speculated, following media reports that the superstar was offered millions of dollars per gig.

The auction house held a series of eight sales, both in person and online up until Wednesday for the collection of the 76-year-old's belongings, including an ivory and gold glam rock jumpsuit from the early 1970s designed by Annie Reavey, which sold for $12,600.

Pressed by parents to pose in videos with make-up and skincare products, pre-teen girls dubbed "Sephora Kids" have taken TikTok by storm in a trend that some specialists brand a danger to children's mental and physical health.

Gamers are anxiously awaiting the release on Thursday of "Final Fantasy VII Rebirth", a title based on a 1997 classic that is blurring the boundaries between remakes and reboots.

German officials will investigate how Berlin film festival winners made "one-sided" comments condemning Israel's war in Gaza at the awards gala, a government spokeswoman said on Monday.

Da'Vine Joy Randolph has won every major prize going this film award season for her supporting role in "The Holdovers" -- but she insists she is taking nothing for granted as the Oscars loom.

A second French actress accused film director Benoit Jacquot Thursday of having had a "destructive hold" over her during a relationship that started when she was 16 and he was 52, after another filed a legal case alleging he raped her as a minor.

Nearly $100,000 for Elton John's monogrammed silver boots and around $2 million for a triptych by street artist Banksy from his collection: the music icon's personal items brought in almost $8 million at auction Wednesday in New York.

The fab four are back, with each member of the iconic Beatles to be immortalized in their own big screen biopic, all directed by Sam Mendes, Sony Pictures said on Tuesday.

The fashion set moves to Italy Wednesday for Milan Fashion Week, marked by a new designer at Moschino but held amid an uncertain outlook for luxury.

Even the David gets dusty. - 'Delicate work' - With a furrow in his brow, a vein bulging on his neck, his weight squarely on his right foot and his sling held in his left hand, David remains focused on Goliath, oblivious to the primping going on around him.

This week's Berlin international film festival is wrestling on- and off-screen with the weight of the Nazi past and the menace of a resurgent far right.

"Oppenheimer", Christopher Nolan's epic movie about the creation of the atomic bomb, swept the board at Sunday's BAFTA film awards in London, delivering a serious statement ahead of next month's Oscars.