U.S. novelist Gore Vidal, the iconoclastic commentator on American life and history in works like "Lincoln" and "Myra Breckenridge," died Tuesday at age 86, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The writer's nephew Burr Steers said Vidal died at his home in the Hollywood Hills of complications from pneumonia, the Times said.

Jonah Lehrer, author of a best-selling book about the mind and creativity, resigned from The New Yorker magazine on Monday for being too creative with his non-fiction writing.

In a statement that startled New York's publishing industry, Lehrer confessed to fabricating quotes he attributed to legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan in "Imagine: How Creativity Works."

The film version of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit" will be split into three movies, rather than two as originally planned, New Zealand director Peter Jackson said Tuesday.

Jackson, who was responsible for the Oscar-winning adaption of Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, said be began considering the possibility of three films after watching an early cut of the first Hobbit movie.

The first thing you notice when you see Marilyn Monroe's full-length gloves in the storeroom of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History is how small her hands were.

"They're one of a number of pairs she had," says curator Dwight Bowers, gently lifting them out of the beige steel cabinet they share with Christopher Reeves' Superman costume and the 10-gallon hat that J.R. wore in "Dallas."

Multi-million selling Irish author Maeve Binchy, best known for writing "Circle of Friends", has died aged 72 following a short illness, Irish broadcaster RTE announced on Monday.

The former journalist sold over 40 million copies of her novels and short stories, which were known for their portrayals of Irish life and surprise endings.

A Russian company has spent $89 million building Eastern Europe's largest production facilities in a field outside Moscow and hopes to lure Hollywood majors to shoot and produce movies.

The idea is to create a modern flagship studio that will make Russia a competitively priced destination for film projects and in turn modernize the local industry.

Batman flick "The Dark Knight Rises" held on to the top spot at North American box offices this weekend despite last week's mass shooting in Colorado, according to figures released Sunday.

Twelve people were killed and 58 wounded when a gunman sprayed bullets into a midnight premiere of the final installment of the Batman trilogy in Aurora, Colorado on July 20.

Enjoyed the music-packed Olympics opening ceremony? Now you can buy the album — and thousands have.

The soundtrack album, which went on sale as a download minutes after Friday's ceremony ended, has topped the iTunes album chart in Britain, France, Belgium and Spain, and has reached No. 5 in the United States.

Metallica vocalist James Hetfield had warned things could get perilous at the start of the band's fifth tour of Mexico, saying "We're very focused on how dangerous this show is."

The audience of more than 22,000 believed it too. Many of the fans were visibly terrified Saturday night as the band re-enacted its burn-down-the-stage performance from 1998's "Cunning Stunts" video album.

Veteran actress Lupe Ontiveros, who appeared in scores of TV shows and movies including "Desperate Housewives," ''Selena" and "As Good As It Gets," has died. She was 69.

Ontiveros died Thursday at a hospital in Whittier, Calif., a suburb southeast of Los Angeles, after a brief battle with liver cancer, according to longtime friend and family spokesman Jerry Velasco.