The Beatles' debut tune that helped launch Britain into the Swinging Sixties and ignite a worldwide obsession for the four-man band from Liverpool celebrates its 50th birthday on Friday.

Even though it only peaked at number 17 on the British charts, "Love Me Do" was not only the group's first record but also their first hit.

The boxing great was the guest of honor Thursday night at the 4th annual Norman Mailer Center benefit gala, which benefited the Norman Mailer Writers Colony, named for the late author. An old friend of Mailer, whose classic "The Fight" was an account of Ali's stunning defeat of then-heavyweight champion George Foreman in 1974, Ali was in attendance to watch the first ever presentation of the Muhammad Ali Ethics Award. The $10,000 writing prize for college students is co-sponsored by the Mailer center and the Muhammad Ali center.

In his prime, Ali would have been saved for last Thursday. But he has suffered for decades from Parkinson's disease and ceremony organizers decided to bring him on first in case he didn't have enough energy to last the night. The 70-year-old Ali was not simply introduced, but unveiled.

Mariah Carey told Barbara Walters her fellow "American Idol" judge Nicki Minaj threatened to shoot her, Walters reported on ABC's "The View" Thursday morning.

Consulting her notes, Walters recounted a phone conversation with Carey just before the ABC talk show went on the air, with new details of Tuesday's blowup between Carey and Minaj that was partly captured on video made public on the TMZ website.

Pop diva Lady Gaga has set a social media record by becoming the first person with more than 30 million followers on Twitter.

As of Thursday afternoon, she had 30,030,949 followers on the micro-blogging website, and is adding them at the rate of 30,000 a day, according to the Starcount.comwebsite that monitors celebrity use of social media.

Marc Jacobs, more than anyone, knows that it's not what you say but how you say it. The Louis Vuitton showman thus capped an incredibly strong Paris fashion week — with help from artist Daniel Buren — by building a life-size shopping mall inside the Louvre.

Understatement is not a word in Jacobs' vocabulary, so a collaboration with the minimalist artist — who made the famed striped columns in Paris' Palais Royal — might have raised eyebrows. But Buren rose to the occasion.

A series of events are to be held on Friday to mark the 50th anniversary of the James Bond films, the iconic spy saga that helped define half-a-century of cultural, political and technological upheaval.

The suave British agent, code name 007, appeared on the silver screen for the first time in the 1962 classic "Dr. No", introducing himself with the immortal line "Bond... James Bond" over a high-stakes game of baccarat.

A young woman grabs the microphone and yells: "Listen to the new generation of Afghans!" In the crowd throngs of young men leap about, shaking their fists. On this October night, Kabul awakens to rock 'n' roll.

The timing of a unique rock festival held in Kabul this week is highly symbolic for the war-torn capital -- 11 years ago this month the Taliban was routed by a U.S.-led invasion, having banned music and erased women's rights.

South Korean rapper Psy will perform his global hit "Gangnam Style" at a free concert in Seoul on Thursday that is expected to draw 50,000 fans, with millions more watching live on YouTube.

The two-hour concert, dubbed "Seoul Style", has been promoted as a personal "thank you" from the 34-year-old singer to his home fans, following his improbable rise to international stardom.

Honeycomb dresses, insect-like visors and caramel corsets cinching their waists, designer Sarah Burton sent a procession of queen bees buzzing into Paris at the Alexander McQueen spring-summer show on Tuesday.

Guests waiting for the show to begin were greeted by a giant screen with nature footage that morphed and spun kaleidoscope-like into the symmetrical patterns beloved of the designer.

After being buried alive, nearly drowned and frozen in an ice cube, U.S. magician and daredevil David Blaine is going electric -- a million volts of electricity aimed right at him for three days.

Starting Friday in New York, he'll stand on a pillar without sleep or food for 72 hours with nothing but a special metal suit protecting him from being zapped.