So who has actually seen the top Oscar movies? Film buffs, mostly.

That's because -- let's face it -- most of the films shortlisted for Academy Awards glory are relatively small-budget independent flicks, not crowd-pleasing blockbusters.

Egyptian authorities say they are fighting a war on terror at home and abroad, but that hasn't stopped the Miss Germany beauty pageant from organizing a flashy preliminary contest near the Red Sea resort of Hurghada.

Egypt's Red Sea resorts have taken a big hit financially since the country's 2011 uprising, but they still seem a world away from the budding insurgency in the northern Sinai Peninsula, where militants have killed scores of security forces, and the lingering political tensions in Cairo and other cities, which still see occasional demonstrations and small-scale attacks.

Doctors have replaced Bobbi Kristina Brown's breathing tube with a tube usually used for patients who need to be on a ventilator for an extended period, a person close to the family said Thursday.

The 21-year-old's breathing tube was replaced with a tracheostomy tube, the person, who is not authorized to speak on Brown's condition, told The Associated Press. A tracheostomy, which involves cutting into a patient's neck, is often performed on patients who need to be on a ventilator for an extended period.

Hollywood is holding its breath ahead of the Oscars on Sunday, with dark comedy "Birdman" and coming-of-age drama "Boyhood" neck-and-neck in the awards season home stretch.

Tinseltown's finest will be on the edge of their seats at the Dolby Theatre, waiting to finally learn who will win a coveted golden statuette -- and who will walk away empty-handed.

American designer Marc Jacobs provided a dazzling finale to New York Fashion Week on Thursday with a collection of severe but eccentric elegance that followed cashmere cool from Ralph Lauren and urban eroticism from Calvin Klein.

Jacobs invited film director Sofia Coppola, Blondie frontwoman Deborah Harry and actress Christina Ricci to an intimate show staged to look like a boudoir with a painted couch as a backdrop and hanging ropes.

Britpop rockers Blur announced on Thursday they were to release their first album since 2003, inspired by the band's time in Hong Kong and singer Damon Albarn's trip to North Korea.

"The Magic Whip" will be released on April 27, and is the band's first album since "Think Tank", which preceded a lengthy break from the studio.

Global fashion empires Michael Kors and Hugo Boss dazzled the New York runway on Wednesday, the penultimate day of Fashion Week, inspired by the Duchess of Windsor and industrial beauty.

"It is a very cozy collection," billionaire designer Kors told Agence France Presse before his catwalk display of restrained opulence.

Vanilla Ice has been charged with breaking into and stealing from an abandoned home that is in foreclosure in Florida.

Police say the recording artist and home-improvement-show host had been renovating a home next to the victim's house. They said in a news release that some of the items were found at his property.

Video shows Bruce Jenner started a chain-reaction crash that resulted in a woman's death on a Malibu highway, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Jenner was hauling an off-road vehicle on a trailer behind his Cadillac Escalade on Feb. 7 when he steered to avoid cars slowing for a traffic light in front of him on Pacific Coast Highway, the official said.

The tour manager of rapper Nicki Minaj was stabbed to death and another member of her entourage was seriously injured Wednesday in a bar fight, the artist and police said.

Minaj, one of the most successful female rappers, said that the two members of her team were stabbed in Philadelphia, where they were preparing for a tour scheduled to start on March 16 in Stockholm.