Nicki Minaj will have another moment to savor from her super year: Billboard is honoring her as its rising star of 2011.

She is slated to get the honor at Billboard's "Women in Music" event on Dec. 2 in New York City.

George Clooney and his ex-girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis are among more than 200 witnesses accepted Wednesday by a Milan court in the trial of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi for allegedly paying for sex with an underage prostitute.

Clooney has said he was approached by Berlusconi's team to testify about "bunga bunga" parties at Berlusconi's villas, but says he only visited the premier's residence once to seek aid for Darfur and declined an invitation to stay.

Oscar-winning Hollywood mega-star Angelina Jolie says she's lucky to have survived her younger days when she dabbled in "dangerous" things, but says there's a part of her that is still a "bad girl."

"I went through heavier, darker times and I survived them. I didn't die young," the 36-year-old actress told CBS in an interview to be broadcast on Sunday.

Freddie Mercury died 20 years ago on Thursday but his star has only burned brighter in the two decades since, with Queen and their larger-than-life front man as popular as ever.

The British rockers, marking their 40th anniversary this year, are among the world's biggest-selling artists ever -- with most of their sales coming in the 20 years since Mercury died.

Only one cinema in Moscow has agreed to screen the Russian premiere next month of a documentary on the jailed Yukos boss and Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky, distributors told Agence France Presse on Tuesday.

"Just one cinema in Moscow has agreed to release 'Khodorkovsky'. All the others have refused to sign a contract with us," said a spokeswoman for the Kinoclub distributors, Nadezhda Smirnova.

Move over Mozart. Toes in Salzburg are tapping to a new beat as residents finally embrace the Hollywood musical that put them on the map nearly half a century ago.

Playing for the first time in this haughty town of opera lovers, "The Sound of Music," has been met with surprisingly positive reactions in what is commonly considered a last bulwark of resistance to the iconic show.

Keith Richards equates the rush to release the Rolling Stones' seminal album "Some Girls" as "the same as cutting off your baby's head."

"We couldn't release a double album and we were on deadline," the guitarist said of the 1978 recording. "Sometimes you're really getting into tracks you want to finish, but they don't make (it) because time was up."

U.S. superstar Sylvester Stallone has teamed up with heavyweight boxing legends Wladimir and Vitali Klitschko for what is billed as the world's first musical version of "Rocky", producers said Monday.

Stallone said he had always envisaged creating a musical version of the 1976 Oscar-winning rags-to-riches story of Rocky Balboa, a down-at-heel amateur boxer who bravely fights the world champion in a bruising and bloody bout.

Country music songstress Taylor Swift was the big winner Sunday at the American Music Awards, walking away with three prizes including Artist of the Year.

British soul diva Adele also won three gongs, while Canadian teen sensation left empty handed at the awards, voted for by fans and announced at a star-studded show in Los Angeles.

Artists used paint, ornaments and glitter to transform the human body into artwork at a festival in Venezuela, showing off designs that ranged from pure fantasy to indigenous myths.

The weekend's annual World Meeting of Body Art included body painting, tattoo art, performances and workshops. Fifty-two artists from 18 countries shared their creations at the gathering in Caracas, joining about 2,000 Venezuelans, organizers said.