The President of the European Commission, Jacques Santer, has awarded platinum records to million-selling music stars from Joe Cocker to Aqua at a glitzy ceremony laced with politics.
Ireland's The Corrs, Britain's M-People, the US band No Mercy, Puerto Rico's Ricky Martin, and Italy's NEK all received Platinum Europe awards for records sold in the EU. The Spice Girls, Eros Ramazzotti and the Three Tenors also received the award.
Sylvester Stallone, the actor who played Rocky and Rambo, has come to the aid of the Democratic Party by hosting a dinner for President Clinton to raise more than $800,000 for his fellow Democrats.
Stallone opened his home to 150 guests who paid $5,000 each to help the Democrats.
After giving 800 speeches and holding 2,500 audiences in the past year, Pope John Paul has settled down for 14 days of rest in the mountain village of Lorenzago Di Cadore.
A jury has awarded film director Francis Ford Coppola $60 million in punitive damages against Warner Bros for blocking his proposed live action version of Pinocchio.
Leonardo DiCaprio, star of Titanic, is to star in the film version of a cult British novel by Alex Garland, The Beach, which will be made by the Trainspotting team. The book has been a bestseller for months.