PASADENA, Calif. -- As another school year draws to a close, it has to cross Taylor Swift's mind that, on the road to being one of the biggest pop stars on the planet, she sacrificed the formal education that most of her peers have experienced.

When you become a professional songwriter at 14, sign a recording contract at 15 and release your ...Read more

PASADENA, Calif. -- You'd never guess by watching actor Carl Lumbly in his myriad incarnations on screen, stage and television that he's inordinately shy.

Soft-spoken and pensive, Lumbly says, "I was raised in a wonderful home with three sisters. And my father was very dominant. So I think a lot of air was taken up, and I learned to keep my own...Read more

The royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle was grand in many ways, but perhaps the most striking aspect were the myriad collisions of American and British culture.

The wedding was an unprecedented mix of royal pomp, British tradition, black-American culture and Hollywood celebrity. Britain's longest-reigning monarch, Queen Elizabeth II...Read more

CANNES, France -- The soiree had all the trappings of an ultra-luxe affair: Guests dressed in tuxedos and evening gowns, wandered the grounds of one of the most expensive hotels in the world, the du Cap-Eden-Roc. Overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, partygoers sipped champagne until 50 Cent -- who had been flown in to perform a 20-minute set -- ...Read more

Democracy has been replaced by authoritarian rule. All books, music and art deemed "inappropriate" are banned. Citizens are controlled by computers and/or robots. Free will is a thing of the past.

The best sci-fi and dystopian fantasies articulate the fears of a grim, future America that's terrifyingly close to the one we live in now, but far ...Read more

One of science-fiction's most enduring tales is H.G. Wells "The Time Machine," in which a man uses a vehicle to move backward and forward in time.

No such vehicles were in evidence last week during the broadcast networks' upfront presentations unveiling their new shows and upcoming fall schedules to advertisers in New York. But judging from the...Read more

Playboi Carti

"Die Lit"

(AWGE/Interscope )

Atlanta's Playboi Carti would not be the first artist to be looked upon as enigmatic, especially as -- up until the present -- he's released none of his own solo material to show for his long rep as the king of the mumble rappers. Features? He's had a slew of them since 2014, with repetitive, ...Read more

CHICAGO -- Hip-hop mogul P. Diddy has been revealed as the buyer of Chicago artist Kerry James Marshall's "Past Times," the work that sold at auction this week for $21 million, a price believed to be near the maximum paid for a living artist.

Marshall's New York dealer, Jack Shainman, told the New York Times that P. Diddy, whose real name is ...Read more

LOS ANGELES -- You've heard of a runaway bride. But what about a runaway cellist?

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra learned that it will be left at the altar this weekend -- the altar being the Alex Theatre on Glendale, Calif. For the last concert of its 50th anniversary season, LACO was to perform with 19-year-old British cello virtuoso Sheku ...Read more

Almost everyone with a pulse would hit movie theaters last week to check out "Deadpool 2," the first film with a legitimate shot to dethrone "Avengers: Infinity War" from the top perch at the box office.

Those looking to escape the summer comic book and blockbuster onslaught would have to settle for "Book Club."

"Settle" may not be an ...Read more

In the opening shot of Paul Schrader's new movie, the camera creeps slowly toward First Reformed Church, a small chapel in upstate New York that has welcomed parishioners since 1767. The place has seen better days, and so has its weary reverend, Ernst Toller (a superb Ethan Hawke).

He leads a weekly congregation of about four or five in a ...Read more

There are a few different meanings for the title of the 1994 French youth drama "Cold Water," an early triumph for the writer-director Olivier Assayas that is only now receiving a proper U.S. theatrical release.

An intimate, enveloping tale of romance and rebellion set in 1972, the film opens in a suburb near Paris but soon follows its 16-year-...Read more