Angelina Jolie says it was only natural that her directorial debut should tackle some of the toughest issues facing humanity and after wartime Bosnia, Afghanistan is likely to be her next subject.

At the Berlin film festival to present her unflinching drama about rape as a weapon of war, "In the Land of Blood and Honey", the Hollywood icon-cum-humanitarian told Agence France Presse her turn behind the camera was aimed at using cinema as a force for reconciliation.

A top Cuban musician from the Buena Vista Social Club has declined to go to the United States to attend the upcoming Grammy Awards ceremony, website Cubasi reported.

In an interview with the website on Friday, Eliades Ochoa said he had received a U.S. visa but would stay home instead.

Veteran Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan was "hale and hearty" after undergoing a three-hour operation on Saturday for an abdominal ailment, a hospital official said.

Bachchan, 69, has a history of abdominal problems -- the legacy of an accident suffered while filming three decades ago.

British soul singer Adele, who shot to fame with her album "21", is to make her live comeback at the Grammy Awards on Sunday after a throat problem threatened to wreck her stellar career.

Despite being out of action since October, she has continued to win plaudits and will showcase the voice that has caused so much concern at the ceremony in Los Angeles, where she is in contention for six awards.

"Please don't stop the music!" That's the plea of one Israeli fan of Madonna who has set up a Facebook group calling for Israel to delay until after the diva performs here in May what some fear will be an attack on Iran.

"Bibi! No war with Iran until after Madonna's performance on May 29," the anonymous enthusiast pleads in Hebrew in the newly created group, using a popular nickname for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

A small reminder of Beatlemania came to Hollywood when Paul McCartney was honored with a star on Tinseltown's storied Walk of Fame, watched by hundreds of screaming and jostling fans.

Police blocked off Vine Street near the intersection with Hollywood Boulevard, as the crowds swelled across the broad boulevard in front of the iconic cylinder-shaped Capitol Records building.

Some say these are bad times to be in a rock band. Pressure for instant success has never been greater as illegal downloads hammer industry profits and manufactured pop talent shows reign supreme.

But after a furious rise to fame that has seen packed gigs, fainting girls and a debut album stuffed with three-minute bursts of Ramones-tinged rock that last year broke into Britain's top four, The Vaccines disagree.

Scottish comedian Billy Connolly will play a pugnacious dwarf in Peter Jackson's upcoming "The Hobbit" movies, the New Zealand director said Thursday.

Jackson said the recruitment of Connolly, known as the "Big Yin", completed casting for his latest J.R.R. Tolkien epic, a two-film adaptation of "The Hobbit" currently being shot in Jackson's homeland.

American pop diva Lady Gaga Wednesday unveiled the first dates for her upcoming world tour which she has dubbed the "Born This Way Ball" and will kick off in Seoul.

She is expected to do 110 shows this year following on the success of her smash hit "Born This Way," and revealed the dates and locations of an initial 11 concerts.

The U.S. television series "House MD," about the unorthodox methods of a cantankerous doctor, will call it quits at the end of its eighth and current season, producers said.

"After much deliberation, the producers of 'House MD' have decided that this season of the show, the eighth, should be the last," the production team said in a statement on Wednesday.