John Barry dies at 77 The five-time Oscar winner was composer of iconic film music, including the scores for Born Free, Dances With Wolves and 11 James Bond films. The Guardian reports on a legend’s passing.Photo: Mike Marsland/WireIm...

Cairo: Looters smash cultural artifacts In a swift turn of events amid the populist unrest in Cairo, vandals have damaged several priceless cultural artifacts in the Egyptian National Museum, repository of some of the world’s most revered antiquities. Al Jazeera reports: Source: Al Jazeera...

Like Crazy tops at Sundance Drake Doremus’ drama of a modern relationship and the pressures of distance, wins the Sundance grand jury prize for top drama. How to Die in Oregon, a riveting study of assisted suicide, was the documentary winner. More in Movies   Photo: Doremus: Danny Moloshok/Associated...

TV: Egyptian antiquities protected The Egyptian army has secured the Egyptian Museum against looting in the current unrest, protecting a site with numerous ancient antiquities including the contents of the tomb of Tutankhamun, Reuters reported Friday, quoting state television. Photo: Associated...

World: 7/24/2010 That’s the day Oscar-winning director Kevin McDonald (Last King of Scotland) and Hollywood icon Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) asked the people of the world to document what they did that day and send their video chronicles to YouTube. The result? More than 80,000 submissions from 192...

Catcher on the fly He traveled widely. He reminisced. He loved to chow down at Burger King. To go by a collection of letters to a friend, the author J.D. Salinger was hardly the hermit we thought he was. More in WordPhoto: Sotheby's Handout...

Extinguishing the Torch Almost 50 years after they were introduced to the public, The Fantastic Four is about to be ... three. Marvel Comics says get ready to say goodbye to that ol' hothead, the Human Torch.    Source: The Associated Press via Yah...

Islamabad: Runway history Forget Paris. Milan? Pfftth. In a kickoff Fashion Week, designers show there’s more to life in Pakistan than drone strikes and volatile politics. The Guardian reports. More in Fashion   Photo: Rehan Khan/EPA...

Speech balloon So much for the smart money: The King’s Speech, Tom Hooper’s study of the personal agonies of King George VI, wins 12 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, eclipsing early (and all-but-anointed) favorite The Social Network, which won eight nominations. A surprise: The Coens’...

Oscars: Suddenly, it’s a race The 2011 Oscar derby may not be the Facebook cakewalk to the stage we’ve been led to believe. That’s the assessment and intelligence of Steve Pond at TheWrap, who thinks The Social Network could be a victim of some backlash, and its own phenomenal early success. Presumed...

Arts funding under fire The Republican Study Committee, a caucus of more than 100 conservatives in the U.S. House of Representatives, is at work on a plan to stop federal funding for the arts. All of it. Completely. Read more at The Huffington PostImage: logo, Corporation for Public Broadc...

The last Countdown On the eve of Comcast’s $13.8 billion takeover of NBC Universal, Countdown With Keith Olbermann was canceled by MSNBC on Friday, with host Olbermann making the announcement himself on the air. More at the Los Angeles Times Zero hour: Countdown and why it matter...

Park City: Sundance tones it down Amid the frenzy of cineastes elbow to elbow in a very small Utah town, the 2011 edition of the Sundance Film Festival kicks off tonight. Quality matters, but this year’s model is about tweaking expectations of big payouts for indie films. In a phrase: Downsize...

Social, Fighter top Globes On Sunday, the social network called the Hollywood Foreign Press Association bestowed top honors on a movie about another one. The Social Network won motion-picture awards for Best Drama, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Original Score at the 68th Golden...

All in for Lights Out Holt McCallany shines as Patrick (Lights) Leary, a former heavyweight champion grappling with his inner demons, juggling a family, a mansion he can't afford, and a gnawing sense of his own mortality. If the premiere is any indication of what’s coming when the regular season...

Michael Douglas bounces back After receiving a provisional clean bill of health from his doctors, the Oscar-winning actor did an interview with TODAY's Matt Lauer, proclaiming victory over stage-four throat cancer, with the help of rigorous chemo and radiation. But "it's not total euphoria," he said. Here's excerpts from the interview, which airs on Dateline NBC  on Jan. 23.  Visit msnbc.com...

The Cape swoops in It could be the midseason’s biggest infectious, guilty pleasure or the midseason’s most extravagant bomb. Either way, NBC is betting big on The Cape to shake us from winter doldrums. The superhero fantasy drama stars David Lyons as Vince Faraday, a cop framed and believed dead. Keith David is Max Malini, his mentor, who retrains him and arms him for battle in a crime-ridden “Palm...

January 7, so soon? Where did the time go? The year’s just started and we’re already behind. What's up? In the short term, there’s the Consumer Electronics Show, in full swing through Sunday in Las Vegas. And what goes on there won’t stay there; the word’s out that the tablet is the CES object of the...

David Gerber. Casey Johnson. Tony Clarke. Donal Donnelly. Art Clokey. Ed Thigpen. Erich Segal. Robert (Squirrel) Lester. Louis Auchincloss. J.D. Salinger. Aaron Ruben. Sir John Dankworth. Alexander McQueen. Doug Feiger. Lionel Jeffries. Steffi Sidney. Tom (T-Bone) Wolk.  Barry Hannah. Big Tiny...