The creator of "Modern Family" has fired off a barbed tweet about gay marriage at Ann Romney, after the wife of the Republican White House hopeful said it was her favorite TV show.

Romney named the show -- which features a high-profile gay couple, Mitch and Cam -- as her top television pick in an interview on the eve of her speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.

Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood could make Mitt Romney's day Thursday if he is the surprise speaker at the Republican National Convention, as event buzz and U.S. media have led on.

Anonymous GOP sources quoted by Fox News and other U.S. media said Wednesday the Oscar-winning director/actor and all-around tough guy will be the "mystery speaker" with a prime-time slot just before Senator Marco Rubio introduces Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

As she kicked off the U.S. leg of her "MDNA Tour" in Philadelphia, Madonna said she was happy to party in the USA after touring Europe for three months.

The pop icon told the crowd Tuesday night they should "never forget how lucky you are to live where you live and to have the freedom that you have." She made the comments after talking about the arrest of three members of the punk-rock female band Pussy Riot. The women were sentenced to two years in prison after performing a "punk prayer" at Moscow's Christ the Savior cathedral in which they called on the Virgin Mary to deliver Russia from its leader, Vladimir Putin.

Britain's Prince Harry will next week make his first public appearance since nude photographs of him in a Las Vegas hotel room flooded the internet, it was announced on Tuesday.

The prince will cheer on swimmers at the Paralympic Games on Monday and will later meet with British competitors in London.

The Venice film festival kicks off on Wednesday with the arrival of stars on water taxis for an art house dominated line-up dealing with issues from religious extremism to economic crisis.

First up at the world's oldest film festival will be a showing of Mira Nair's "The Reluctant Fundamentalist" -- a political thriller about a young Pakistani man torn between Wall Street ambitions and the call of his homeland.

Prosecutors declined Tuesday to press charges against Lindsay Lohan for an alleged theft from a Hollywood Hills home, averting a new court case for the perennially-challenged actress.

Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Deborah L. Kranze said there was not enough evidence to file charges against the 26-year-old star and two other people over the alleged theft of $6,400 in cash and property.

An actor on the television show "The Walking Dead" has been charged with driving drunk in Georgia, where the show is filmed.

Peachtree City police arrested 70-year-old Scott Wilson at 2 a.m. Aug. 18 after someone called 911 to report a Chrysler PT Cruiser driving erratically.

Renowned classical pianist Van Cliburn has been diagnosed with advanced bone cancer and is resting comfortably at his Texas home, his publicist said Monday.

The 78-year-old Cliburn is under excellent care and his spirits are high, said longtime friend and publicist Mary Lou Falcone.

Argentine dancers Facundo de la Cruz and Paola Sanz have won the ballroom competition at the tenth World Tango Championship, beating out 42 pairs of finalists from around the globe.

"This is a magical moment," Sanz, 29, said late Monday.

French rocker Johnny Hallyday, a legend in his homeland, was treated in a Caribbean hospital Monday after being rushed there by helicopter but was quickly released.

Hallyday, 69 and born Jean-Philippe Smet, was released from a hospital in Pointe-a-Pitre in Guadeloupe and was to undergo further tests.