Popular Syrian comedian Yassin Bakush was killed on Sunday after his car was hit by a shell in an area of war-torn southern Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Anti-regime activists blamed the Syrian army for his death, and distributed via the Internet an amateur video of the body of a man believed to be Bakush, along with images of his passport and identity card.

Multiple Oscar-winning Hollywood legends Jack Nicholson and Dustin Hoffman were added Friday to the presenting line-up at this weekend's 85th Academy Awards.

The pair will join a star-studded cast on stage Sunday including Michael Douglas, John Travolta, Ben Affleck, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon.

Emmanuelle Riva, at 85 the oldest actress to pick up a best actress Oscar nomination, on Friday won best actress at France's Cesars for her turn as a dying woman in Michael Haneke's "Love" ("Amour") for which he also won best director.

Riva stars with French acting legend Jean-Louis Trintignant in the film which won the Palme d'Or at Cannes last year and a Golden Globe for best foreign language film in January. It has been nominated in five categories including best actress in Sunday's Oscars.

"Amour" and "Argo" are taking home prestigious prizes — and Kevin Costner may be taking home a horse — after a French film award ceremony.

The Cesar awards on Friday night reflected excitement and emotion ahead of the Oscars on Sunday. But they had a decidedly French touch, replete with references to high taxes.

Michael Haneke's latest project, a staging of Mozart opera "Cosi Fan Tutte", premieres at Madrid's Teatro Real on Saturday, a day before the Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles where his most recent film "Amour" is up for five awards.

The Madrid show is his second opera project after his highly-praised operatic debut with "Don Giovanni" in Paris in 2007 -- and the 69-year-old said it would be his last.

Italian fashion icon Donatella Versace brought her own spin to punk on Friday, unveiling a collection dominated by fierce outfits in shiny black, white, or lipstick red vinyls and deadly accessories.

"I started thinking, what would we call the new punk today? This collection is my answer. It is sexy, strong, brave and full of energy," she said.

Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z are hitting the road together.

The performers announced Friday that they'll embark on a 12-city stadium tour that will kick off July 17 in Toronto. "Legends of the Summer" will wrap up Aug. 16 in Miami.

French actor Gerard Depardieu on Friday toured Moscow's Bolshoi Theater as he visited his newly-adopted homeland of Russia before heading to the provinces to take up residence at his new address on "Democracy Street".

Depardieu, who was granted a Russian passport by President Vladimir Putin after complaining at high tax rates in France, was set to spend Friday in Moscow before traveling 650 kilometers (400 miles) to the provincial city of Saransk to register as a resident of No. 1 Democracy Street (Demokraticheskaya Ulitsa).

Italian iconic fashion house Prada transformed 1950s American housewives into would-be Bond girls on Thursday, with a lethally seductive look which gave a powerful twist to the classic hourglass dress.

Checkered dresses in red and white or baby blue were the collection's mainstay, pulled in at the waist by wide or slim gold or silver belts, but slit open at the bodice's neckline, as if ripped by an amorous James Bond.

Ben Affleck's Iran hostage drama "Argo" goes into Oscars weekend a whisker ahead of Steven Spielberg's presidential "Lincoln," but the race is one of the most unpredictable in recent memory.

Veteran director Spielberg, bidding for his first best picture Oscar since "Schindler's List" in 1994, tops the nominations with 12 nods -- but "Argo" has cleaned up in Hollywood's awards season so far, despite having only seven.