A silver platform shoe tossed to the audience by Lady Gaga and a felt hat custom-made for Michael Jackson are among celebrity memorabilia up for sale in Paris, an auction house said Wednesday.

The February 11 sale at the Drouot auction house also features a leather ecritoire, or writing case, used by Marilyn Monroe and a pocket knife owned by Napoleon III, France's last monarch and first president.

The ghetto called Aroma reeks of putrefying trash collected by its residents for recycling. Half-naked children with grimy faces play on muddy dirt roads lined by crumbling shanties of tarpaulin walls, cracked tin roofs and communal toilets. 

From this Manila slum of garbage collectors emerged an unlikely Cinderella: ballerina Jessa Balote who at the age of 10 was plucked out of her grubby life by a ballet school to prepare her for a life on stage. 

Ben Affleck is taking his name off the list of possible candidates for U.S. Sen. John Kerry's seat, which would be open if the Democratic senator from Massachusetts is confirmed as secretary of state.

Affleck says in a Monday posting on his Facebook page that while he loves the political process, he will not be running for public office.

U.S. singer Stevie Wonder joined Brazil's Gilberto Gil late Tuesday for a massive free Christmas concert on Rio's Copacabana beach attended by half a million people.

"Tudo bem?" (Everything allright?) Wonder shouted out to the crowd in Portugese after being led on stage by his sons.

In the bar overlooking the twisting vines in India's answer to Napa Valley, a group of friends from Mumbai enjoy a weekend getaway -- and a chance to brush up on their new wine-drinking hobby.

"I've been teetotal all my life, but quite recently I started to drink wine. It's a growing trend," said 30-year-old housewife Jol Kapadia, sipping on a glass of Chenin Blanc at Sula Vineyards.

Steve Jobs' superyacht Venus was free to leave Amsterdam port Monday after the late Apple co-founder's estate paid a deposit to resolve a dispute with designer Philippe Starck, who had had the yacht impounded.

"The Venus is no longer impounded, we have found a solution," Gerard Moussault, a Hague-based lawyer for the Jobs estate, told AFP.

A homeless man featured in a mock video produced by a friend of Justin Timberlake for the actor's wedding is now asking the actor-singer for help.

High-profile lawyer Gloria Allred is publicizing the demands of the man, who goes by "Eddie" and who has lived for six or seven years off and on Skid Row, a Los Angeles neighborhood with a big homeless population.

Jack Klugman, the television star who portrayed a slovenly sportswriter on "The Odd Couple" and a tough medical examiner on "Quincy, ME," has died. He was 90.

Klugman's attorney Larry Larson said the actor died peacefully at his home in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles with Peggy, his wife of nearly five years, at his side. He is survived by two sons, David and Adam, and two grandchildren.

German filmmaker Werner Herzog is taking a rare turn in front of the camera as a cold-blooded murderer in the new thriller "Jack Reacher", portraying a character he calls "the epicenter of evil."

"Jack Reacher," the Christopher McQuarrie film which just opened in North America, sees Tom Cruise back in action mode as a former military investigator, after his detour into musical comedy with "Rock of Ages".

Written by Anthony Sargon

“The Impossible” can be a difficult film to watch. The disaster that’s depicted on-screen killed over 230,000 people across 14 countries, and you can’t help but ask yourself if it’s fair to watch a movie about a family who survives while so many others were left irreparably broken. It’s that fact, however, that highlights how rare true stories of this caliber are, and how important hope can be in one’s darkest hour.