The first 36,840 tickets for the Carnival parades in Rio's famed Sambadrome sold out in half an hour Tuesday, organizers said.

The coveted tickets, for grandstand seats and individual chairs for the parades scheduled for February 19 and 20, were sold only to Rio residents by telephone at a cost ranging from 67 to 222 dollars, the Independent League of Samba Schools (Liesa) said.

Steven Spielberg caught the filmmaking bug as a 12-year-old boy, and half a century on still goes "crazy" when he doesn't have a story to tell, he admitted to fans packing a master class in Paris Monday night.

Greeted with a standing ovation, the U.S. director -- whose works from "E.T" to "Indiana Jones" are the focus of a retrospective at Paris' Cinematheque film center -- told the room in French, hand on his heart: "Je t'aime!"

Rapper Snoop Dogg is facing a minor drug charge in Texas after border agents say they found several joints on his tour bus.

Hudspeth County sheriff's office said in a statement that Snoop Dogg, whose name is Calvin Broadus, was arrested Saturday at the Sierra Blanca highway checkpoint and cited for possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor typical in cases involving small amounts of marijuana.

All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun, the New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard once said. It's also the formula for a best-selling book of portraits of American women and the guns in their lives.

Saucily titled but seriously presented, "Chicks with Guns" is going into its third printing, after selling about 12,000 copies since its October 1 release -- and no-one is more surprised than the photographer herself.

Angelina Jolie's directorial debut about the Bosnian war and a drama made by and starring her ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton will feature at the Berlin film festival next month, organizers said Monday.

Jolie will present her harrowing drama "In the Land of Blood and Honey" out of competition after winning praise in Bosnia for its unflinching take on the brutal 1992-1995 conflict, filmed in local languages with a home-grown cast.

Veteran U.S. actress Kim Novak accused the French makers of silent film hit "The Artist" of "rape" Monday for using music from Alfred Hitchcock classic "Vertigo" in their movie vying for Oscars glory.

Novak, who starred in the 1958 Hitchcock thriller, said the makers of "The Artist" -- up for a clutch of prizes in Hollywood's current awards season -- had cheated by only giving a relatively small credit for the music.

On what would have been Elvis Presley's 77th birthday on Sunday, hundreds of fans from around the world made the annual pilgrimage to the Graceland mansion where the "King of Rock and Roll" lived.

This year, the birthday celebration also served as the kick off to what is expected to be a year of global Elvis mania marking the 35th anniversary of the beloved icon's death.

Both Ryan Seacrest and Fox executives say they want Seacrest to remain as host of "American Idol" beyond this season. But Fox entertainment chief Kevin Reilly says it's been a "tough negotiation" to make that happen.

Both sides were tight-lipped about the state of those talks at news conferences on Sunday, a few weeks before the nation's most popular television show begins its 11th season.

George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and other red-carpet veterans joined some Hollywood newcomers in the Southern California desert this weekend to kick off the two-month-long movie award season at the Palm Springs International Film Festival.

"When you're of age: drink," Clooney noted to the newcomers at Saturday night's gala awards ceremony. "That's good advice to pretty much anybody."

The Duchess of Cambridge will celebrate her 30th birthday on Monday with a "low-key and private" event, an official at St James's Palace says.

Catherine has reached the milestone after a tumultuous year that has seen her marry Prince William, embark on her first official overseas tour and take on several commitments to voluntary work.