A collection of American vintage guitars owned by actor Richard Gere has fetched nearly $1 million at auction in New York City.

Tuesday's sale of 110 guitars and amplifiers at Christie's auction house included brands such as C.F. Martin, Gibson, Fender and Gretsch and guitars once owned by blues guitarist Albert King and reggae musician Peter Tosh.

The London Film Festival, an international cinema showcase, opens Wednesday with "360," a fittingly globe-spanning drama that moves from London to Vienna, Rio de Janeiro and Denver, Colorado.

The film by "City of God" director Fernando Meirelles stars Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law and Rachel Weisz in a daisy chain of interlinked love stories based on Arthur Schnitzler's century-old play "La Ronde."

Comic book fans might call it a great origin story: In the aftermath of 9/11, a Muslim man creates a comic book series, "The 99," inspired by the principles of his faith. It builds a global audience and investors contribute millions for it to continue and expand.

In two vastly different cultures, Naif Al-Mutawa's tale hits a few roadblocks — "villains" if you will: Censorship from Saudi Arabia, home to the main Muslim holy sites; in the United States, a struggle to build an audience where free expression has been hampered by a post-9/11 rise in suspicion and scrutiny of all things Islamic.

An international human rights watchdog lambasted an Oscar-winning actress and other Western celebrities on Wednesday for attending a concert held on the birthday of Chechnya's Kremlin-backed leader, who has been accused of grave rights abuses and spending taxpayers' money on his eccentric hobbies.

The New York-based Human Rights Watch said that American actress Hilary Swank, Belgian actor Jean Claude Van Damme and British violinist Vanessa Mae attended the concert in the Chechen capital, Grozny. The Oct. 5 show was held at a police-cordoned stage on Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's 35th birthday.

Under the joint patronage of the Ministry of Culture of Lebanon and the Embassy of Greece in Beirut, the 4th Greek Film Festival will be launched on Thursday, announced the embassy in a statement.

Organized by the League of Lebanese Graduates from Greek Universities (LLGGU), in collaboration with the Greek Film Center (GFC), it will last until October 16 at “Cinema Metropolis Empire, Sofil”.

The head of a private Tunisian TV channel apologized Tuesday for airing part of a film judged blasphemous by Muslims, after Islamists launched an attack on the network's offices in protest.

"I apologize," Nessma TV president Nebil Karoui said on Monastir radio about Friday's broadcast of "Persepolis", a globally-acclaimed film on Iran's 1979 revolution.

As make-up artists and hairdressers circle her, Huda Naccache calmly discusses the media frenzy sparked by her appearance, clad in a skimpy bikini, on the cover of an Arab-Israeli magazine.

The long-limbed 22-year-old, who comes from the mixed Israeli and Arab port city of Haifa, doesn't see the cover shoot for Lilac magazine as anything out of the ordinary.

Icelandic star Bjork says her new album fuses the natural world and iPad apps to invent a music genre she calls an "appbox."

"Biophilia" — and a host of applications representing specific tracks on the album — are out Monday, and are meant to immerse listeners in a complete audio-visual experience.

Natalie Dessay was rapturous over the Vienna State Opera's new production of "La Traviata," declaring, "it was tailor-made for me, like a dress!"

If so, the tailor missed a stitch or two.

President Michel Suleiman and First Lady Wafaa attended Nadine Labaki’s "Where Do We Go Now?" movie at the Sofil Center cinemas in Ashrafiyeh on Sunday night.

The crowds were surprised when they saw Suleiman entering the movie theater a few minutes before the start of the film.