Pop superstar Taylor Swift took an early lead at the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday, winning the first two of her whopping 10 nominations and burying the hatchet with rapper Nicki Minaj.

Swift won Best Pop Video and Best Female Video for her hit "Blank Space," beating Beyonce in both categories and former foe Minaj in the second.

The confession of a Pakistani murderer. Overzealous religious police. An Arab angered his pregnant wife was molested in the holiest site known to Islam.

A new film made by a gay Muslim pilgrim offers a English-speaking Western audience a warts-and-all view of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca in a documentary that has attracted death threats and an online hate campaign.

Wes Craven, the prolific writer-director who thrilled audiences with iconic and bloody suburban slashers like "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Scream" that made his name synonymous with horror, has died. He was 76.

In a statement, Craven's family said that he died in his Los Angeles home Sunday, surrounded by family, after battling brain cancer.

Iran has barred famed conductor Daniel Barenboim from entering the Islamic republic because of his Israeli citizenship, denting plans he had for a performance in Tehran, a news agency reported Sunday.

Barenboim, 72, general music director of the Berlin State Opera House, said Thursday he was in talks with Iran about a concert, in what would have been a major example of cultural diplomacy.

Celine Dion is looking for help for her next two albums, so on Friday she put out the call: send me your songs.

"It's open to everyone," the 47-year-old Canadian singer told French radio station RTL in an interview. "Any artist or composer can send me their art."

Attorneys for Robin Williams' wife and children were due back in court Friday in the ongoing fight over the late actor's estate.

The two sides were scheduled to go before a San Francisco judge, as court documents indicate they remain at odds over the division of Williams' personal items and a reserve fund to maintain Susan Williams in the home she shared with Robin Williams.

A Texas judge has told lawyers for an Australian woman and her publishing company to set aside $10 million for a former business partner who says she was defrauded out of her rightful share from the sale of the erotic best-seller "Fifty Shades of Grey" and two companion novels.

State District Judge Susan McCoy said Wednesday that she wants the money deposited in a court registry by Sept. 25 as attorneys seek to negotiate a judgment amount for Jennifer Pedroza, who lives in the Dallas suburb of Arlington.

Director Spike Lee and actress Gena Rowlands will receive honorary Oscar awards this year and film star Debbie Reynolds will be awarded a humanitarian prize, Academy Award organizers said Thursday.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences emphasized the "extraordinary contribution" that the three legends have made to show business throughout their long careers.

When Robert Redford first acquired the film rights to Bill Bryson's memoir "A Walk in the Woods," he knew exactly who he wanted to play his Appalachian Trail hiking comrade: Paul Newman.

Not only were the two men responsible for some of cinema's most iconic duos — they were lifetime friends as well.

Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Schumer aren't just riding jet skis together. They're making a movie.

A representative for Lawrence confirms Wednesday that Lawrence and Schumer are writing a screenplay.