FILE - This Jan. 31, 2006 file photo shows Hany Abu-Assad, director of the Oscar nominated Palestinian film "Paradise Now," posing for a photo at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Calif. Abu-Assad is also director of “Omar,” one of the more buzzed-about films at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The film is set in the West Bank, and the Palestinian conflict is a key part of the plot.

West Bank and romance prominent in 'Omar'

One of the more buzzed-about films at the Cannes Film Festival, "Omar," is set in the West Bank, and the Palestinian conflict is a key part of the plot. 1369337676 Photo Gallery Available

Director and jury member Ang Lee arrives for the screening of the film The Past at the 66th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, Friday, May 17, 2013.

Seen and heard at the Cannes Film Festival

Associated Press journalists open their notebooks at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. 1369329928 Photo Gallery Available

Georges Moustaki, who penned for Piaf, dies

Georges Moustaki, an Egyptian-born composer, singer and poet who wrote songs for Edith Piaf and other French stars, has died at age 79.

FILE - In this Monday Oct. 1, 2012 file photo, feminist punk group Pussy Riot members, from left, Maria Alekhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, Russia. Alekhina went on hunger strike Wednesday, May 22, 2013, in protest at not being allowed to attend her own parole hearing in Perm province. In letters dated Monday and posted online by the group's supporters, McCartney asks for parole to be granted to Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, currently serving two-year sentences for an impromptu protest in Moscow's main cathedral. The judge in Mordovia province to whom the Beatles frontman Paul McCartney addressed two letters in Pussy Riot support, denied Tolokonnikova parole last month.

Russian court denies Pussy Riot's Alekhina parole

A Russian court denied parole on Thursday to a member of the Pussy Riot punk group. Photo Gallery Available

Brown hounded for calling Manila `gates of hell'

Dan Brown's description of Manila as "the gates of hell" in the American novelist's latest book has not gone down well with officials in the Philippine capital.

In this Tuesday, May 21, 2013 photo, Debbie Reynolds, a cast member in the film "Behind the Candelabra," poses for a portrait with her dog, Dwight, in Beverly Hills, Calif. Reynolds plays Frances, the mother of the pianist and vocalist, Liberace. HBO debuts “Behind the Candelabra” in the US, Sunday, May 26, 2013.

Debbie Reynolds: We all knew Liberace was gay

In the new film "Behind the Candelabra," veteran entertainer Debbie Reynolds has just three major scenes to flesh out one of the most complicated figures in piano-playing showman Liberace's life: his loving but sometimes manipulative mother Frances. Photo Gallery Available

Celeb birthdays for the week of May 26-June 1

May 26: Sportscaster Brent Musburger is 74. Steel guitar player Gates Nichols of Confederate Railroad is 69. Drummer Garry Peterson of The Guess Who is 68. Singer Stevie Nicks is 65. Actor Philip Michael Thomas ("Miami Vice") is 64. Actress Pam Grier is 64. Country singer Hank Williams Jr. is 64. Actress Margaret Colin is 56. Singer Dave Robbins (BlackHawk) is 54. Actress Genie Francis ("General Hospital") is 51. Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait is 51. Singer Lenny Kravitz is 49. Actress Helena Bonham Carter is 47. Drummer Phillip Rhodes of The Gin Blossoms is 45. Actor Joseph Fiennes ("Shakespeare in Love") is 43. Singer Joey Kibble of Take 6 is 42. "South Park" co-creator Matt Stone is 42. Bassist Nathan Cochran of MercyMe is 35. Actress Elisabeth Harnois ("CSI") is 34. Actor Hrach Titizian ("Homeland") is 34.

FILE - In this March 5, 2009 file photo, Michael Jackson announces several concerts at the London O2 Arena in July, at a press conference at the London O2 Arena. Emails displayed in a Los Angeles courtroom on Wednesday, May 22, 2013, show that a lawyer for AEG Live LLC's parent company described Jackson as a "freak" in an email message on the same day the singer signed a multimillion dollar contract to perform a series of comeback concerts in 2009.

Emails show AEG lawyer called Jackson a 'freak'

A lawyer for the parent company of AEG Live LLC called Michael Jackson a freak on the day the singer signed a multimillion contract for a series of ill-fated comeback concerts, emails displayed for a jury on Wednesday showed. Photo Gallery Available

This undated photo provided by his family shows renowned American photographer Wayne F. Miller. Miller, who produced some of the most indelible combat images of World War II and created a ground-breaking series of portraits chronicling the lives of black Americans in Chicago, died Wednesday, May 22, 2013 at age 94. Miller served with an elite Navy unit in the Pacific and took some of the first pictures of Hiroshima, Japan, after it was devastated by the first atomic bomb. He returned home to his native Chicago and spent two years on the city's South Side capturing the experiences of black residents.

Photographer and forester Wayne Miller dies at 94

Photographer Wayne F. Miller, who created a ground-breaking series of portraits chronicling the lives of black Americans in Chicago after serving with an elite Navy unit that produced some of the most indelible combat images of World War II, died Wednesday. He was 94. Photo Gallery Available

Sammy Hagar faces appeal of tossed defamation case

A former Playboy bunny who claims Sammy Hagar fathered her now-deceased child is appealing a ruling that dismissed her lawsuit against the former Van Halen frontman.

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