CULTURE

China slammed Hollywood actor and Batman star Christian Bale Wednesday for creating news after he was roughed up by security guards as he attempted to visit a blind legal activist whose detention has sparked a domestic and international outcry.

When director David Fincher decided to make a film of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Hollywood was abuzz with who might play the starring role of abused, vengeance-seeking computer hacker Lisbeth Salander.

The three finalists of TV contest The X Factor went back to their roots on Wednesday, each performing their first audition songs as they battled for votes and a $5 million recording contract.

Greg Heffley had better take his vitamins and do some push-ups, because he's about to go up against a formidable foe indeed -- a zombie who bears an eerie likeness to him.

Lord of the Rings movie fans were given an early holiday treat this week with the release of a trailer for prequel The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, whetting their appetites a year before the film hits theaters.

The legal troubles keep mounting for the Real Housewives crew.

Coming off the success of Midnight in Paris, Sony Pictures Classics has acquired North American and UK rights to Woody Allen's next picture, Nero Fiddled, the company said Wednesday.

With Tilda Swinton having racked up Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations for her role in We Need to Talk About Kevin, distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories has pushed up the New York City release date for the psychological thriller.

Actress Heather Donahue, star of The Blair Witch Project, is coming out with a book that details how she left Hollywood to follow a very different passion: growing marijuana. Growgirl: How My Life After The Blair Witch Project Went to Pot will be released on Jan. 5 by Penguin Group imprint Gotham Books.

Alec Baldwin, the famous 30 Rock star, has said he's lost his appetite for running in the 2013 New York City mayoral race. Baldwin revealed the news on his biweekly podcast at WNYC. The actor had previously claimed he was going to quit his role as Jack Donaghy on NBC's hit comedy show 30 Rock in order to attend Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

Cameron Douglas, son of Oscar-winning actor Michael Douglas, has been sentenced to 4 ½ more years in prison for drug crimes, according to the New York Post.

Al-Jazeera's good year just got a whole lot better.

If you've always wanted to go to the Caribbean, but thought you could never afford it- it's time to rethink with these great budget-friendly accommodations.

Will Axl Rose and Slash bury the hatchet, or kill each other?

Adam Lambert celebrated the first day of Hanukkah with the digital release of his new song, Better Than I Know Myself that was accompanied by a Happy Hanukkah video message to his fans.

Warner Bros., recently released the trailer for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises and fans are intrigued. But viewers recently got a glimpse of the lengthy prologue ahead of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol in select IMAX theaters and that is what they want to see more of.

On a night with little original programming, NBC's Saturday Night Live special SNL Presents: A Very Gilly Christmas and a repeat of CBS' NCIS: Los Angeles were the top-rated shows, while NBC took an overall ratings win for the night, according to preliminary numbers.

You better watch out -- because Santa Claus isn't always such a jolly old elf after all. In fact, sometimes he can be a real creep. At least in the movies.

Christian Louboutin is seat to open a men's store in New York's Meatpacking District next spring.

The Duchess visited a London homeless shelter on Wednesday.

Thanks to monster hits like The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn -- Part 1 and art-house breakouts such as The Artist, many of the major players in the independent film market racked up an impressive year despite the industry-wide box office decline.

TLC announced at the end of this week's Next Great Baker episode that contestant and Iraq War veteran Sgt. Wesley Durden had died -- not mentioning that it was reportedly of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Kate Middleton, like Princess Diana, is beautiful, exudes confidence, class and has an amazing taste in fashion. Therefore, a comparison between the two is inevitable.

Airline pilots will fly shorter shifts and get longer periods of rest under new rules the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) finalized Wednesday in a landmark effort to prevent potentially dangerous fatigue.

Steven Spielberg is among the most prolific film directors ever, and as if to prove it, he has two movies in theaters this holiday week during what is one of the biggest box office periods of the year.

Lovelace also stars Hank Azaria, Peter Sarsgaard and Amanda Seyfried.

Batman star Christian Bale should feel embarrassed for trying to visit a prominent Chinese human rights activist detained in his home in eastern Shandong Province while he promoted his latest film, a government spokesman said Wednesday.

R. Kelly is ready to continue his widely-known, and widely-criticized, Trapped in the Closet series. But the singer doesn't just have one new episode up his sleeve, but rather 32 new chapters ready to be filmed. Here is a round up of chapters of R. Kelly's Trapped in the Closet videos.

Commissioners in Florida’s Pasco County awarded $3,818 in tourist taxes for a promotional campaign to lure in European nudists.