Low-key British historical drama "The King's Speech" could win a major boost towards Oscars' glory Sunday, as Hollywood's annual awards season launches with the Golden Globes show.

Starring heartthrob Colin Firth as the stuttering King George VI, the movie is nominated in seven categories at the Globes, seen as a key pointer to who will win prizes at the Academy Awards next month.

Filming on the latest James Bond movie will start later this year for release in November 2012, its producers said Tuesday after debt-ridden studio giant MGM was saved from financial oblivion.

The project, starring Daniel Craig as 007, was put on ice last April after Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer was offered for sale to resolve its debt problems and stave off bankruptcy.

Veteran Hollywood star Michael Douglas says he has beaten his cancer tumor, and is eating "like a pig" to put back on weight he lost during a grueling battle with the disease.

In his first TV interview since he was diagnosed last August, the 66-year-old said he hopes to live many more years, citing his elderly parents including father Kirk Douglas as giving him favorable genes.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton still thinks her 64-year-old husband and former President Bill Clinton is "handsome," she said in a talk show Monday on the Arabic-language channel MBC.

When "we met at law school... I thought he was incredibly handsome and still do. I told him we should be introduced," Clinton said during the recorded episode.

Prince William's fiancee was on Sunday celebrating her last birthday before she officially becomes British royalty.

Royal officials said this week that Kate Middleton would be marking her 29th birthday privately, giving no further details.

Mark Twain was the kind of man who might tell an off-color joke, then grievously apologize, who wrote stories and essays he knew would offend and kept others private for the same reason.

A century after his death, Mark Twain remains censored, and uncensored.

At 80, the world's oldest clown has given up tightrope walking but Oleg Popov, the most famous Soviet-era jester, still tours half of the year and has no plans to hang up his trademark red nose.

"The Sun Clown", as he is also known, never fails to enthrall young and old with his oddball character based on a figure from Russian folklore -- one who appears stupid but really isn't.

Russian investigators say Boney M singer Bobby Farrell died of heart disease.

Farrell, a 61-year-old native of Aruba, was found dead Dec. 30 in his hotel room in St. Petersburg, where the group had come for a performance.

A bodyguard who prosecutors say was ordered by the doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death to conceal syringes and other items before calling 911 is expected to shed light on the chaotic efforts that failed to revive the King of Pop.

Alberto Alvarez will testify Wednesday at a preliminary hearing against Dr. Conrad Murray about the doctor's attempts to revive the singer on June 25, 2009, his attorney said.

Two Afghan policemen stand paralyzed by fear in front of a plastic cup. But this is not some farcical scene from the battle against the Taliban -- it is a sketch from a new clown show in Kabul.

The performance, put on by nine members of the Azdar troupe, seems improbable in a country locked in a nine-year battle between U.S.-led NATO troops and the Islamist militants.