The Nielsen Co. says Sunday's Golden Globes ceremony was seen by almost 17 million TV viewers. It beat all network competition in its time period, slightly exceeding last year's audience for the film and TV awards show.According to time zone-adjusted Nielsen "fast national" figures released Monday, it was NBC's most-watched prime-time entertainment telecast in the 18-to-49 demographic since last year's Golden Globes.Carried by NBC from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern time, the program aired live in…See More

John Travolta says their 7-week-old baby boy is "a new beginning" for his family.The actor and his wife, Kelly Preston, posed with their son, Benjamin, for the cover of the new issue of People magazine. Travolta says Benjamin has "brought us a new beginning" and "given the house a renewed spirit and purpose."Travolta and Preston's oldest child, son Jett, died in 2008 at the age of 16.Benjamin was born in November in Florida. Preston, 48, and Travolta, 56, also have a 10-year-old daughter, Ella…See More

The head of the Federal Communications Commission is proposing regulatory conditions to ensure that cable TV giant Comcast Corp. cannot stifle competition in the video market once it takes control of NBC Universal.The conditions laid out Thursday by FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski are intended to guarantee that satellite providers and other rival television services can still carry marquee NBC programming and that new Internet video distributors can get the content they need to grow and…See More

A tally of serious onstage accidents on Broadway and off:• Nathan Lane fell through a trap door while starring in "The Frogs" at Lincoln Center in 2004 and missed a show with bruised and gashed legs.• Idina Menzel fractured a rib falling through a trap door in a 2005 performance of "Wicked" on Broadway.• Also in 2005, Christina Applegate broke her foot during out-of-town previews for "Sweet Charity."sample miss u letters…See More

"The King's Speech" is precisely the kind of film that has long appealed to awards voters: It's historical, focuses on royalty, depicts a character overcoming physical adversity and features a classy cast.So it should come as no surprise that it received the most Golden Globe nominations Tuesday with seven, including best picture, on a morning when there were few surprises to be found. The film's director, Tom Hooper, was also among the nominees, as were stars Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and…See More

Mayor Cory Booker's oratory was in full flight as he exhorted the police academy's graduating class earlier this year, in the kind of moment when no obstacle seems too tall."We decided to starve the budgets of other city departments to make this class possible," Booker assures the group."Are you ready to serve?" he thunders."Sir, yes sir!" the class shouts back.arrow letters font…See More

Harlem Globetrotters great Meadowlark Lemon remembers the day he first saw the team that would become his life's story as if it were yesterday.In the darkened Ritz Theater in Wilmington, N.C., he sat mesmerized as newsreel footage showed the famous tricksters of basketball going through their paces to the delight of fans."I saw them when I was 11 years-old and that became my life's work," Lemon told Reuters, following a workout on a basketball court near his adopted home in Scottsdale, Ariz. "I…See More

Time will soon indeed stand still for the drama "Time Stands Still" on Broadway.Producers say the show will end its run when stars Laura Linney, Brian d'Arcy James, Eric Bogosian and Christina Ricci leave as scheduled on Jan. 30. It will have played 16 preview performances and 126 regular performances.The play, by Pulitzer Prize-winner Donald Margulies and directed by Tony Award-winner Daniel Sullivan, has enjoyed runs at two Broadway theaters. It is produced by the Manhattan Theatre Club.In…See More

The makers of the latest blockbuster based on C.S. Lewis's "The Chronicles of Narnia" books admit they departed significantly from the source material, but believe the changes made for a better film."The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" hits movie theatres this week in the key U.S. and British markets, and much is riding on the third installment of the franchise.The action-packed, effects-laden 3-D film follows Lucy and Edmund Pevensie and their surly cousin Eustace to…See More

When US talkshow supremo Oprah Winfrey films her show Down Under this month, Karen Ferrazzo will celebrate by hosting a barbecue in her honour, complete with 'Oprah'-inspired snacks.Ferrazzo, 36, is not expecting the megastar to descend on her home in Melbourne's leafy north for the event -- but the mother of two is fully expecting to get caught up in the 'Oprah fever' hitting the nation."Because we didn't win tickets (to Oprah's two Sydney shows) we decided the next best thing was to celebrate…See More

Look for a battle of the family movies this weekend as audiences snack on box office leftovers during what is traditionally one of the lesser performing periods of the year.For the average film, the typical post-Thanksgiving weekend drop is from 50 to 60 percent. So Warner Bros.' "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1" in its third weekend and Disney's "Tangled" in its second will find themselves fighting for the top slot with grosses in the mid to high $20 million range. This will also…See More

One hundred years after reports of his death were correct, not exaggerated, Mark Twain is a hot commodity again with an autobiography on the best-seller list and a new CD celebrating his legacy.The best seller is the first of the three-volume "Autobiography of Mark Twain," the iconoclastic author's private thoughts dictated during his life with the stipulation they not be published until he was dead for 100 years. That anniversary is 2010 and the 500,000-word book is flying off shelves.The CD,…See More

Peru said on Friday that Yale University has agreed to return thousands of artifacts taken from the Machu Picchu archeological site in the Andes in the early 1900s, and the pact could end a bitter controversy.According to Peru, the elite U.S. university has some 40,000 of artifacts including pottery, jewelry and bones from the ruins of the mountaintop Incan site that is one of South America's leading tourist attractions.President Alan Garcia said on state-run television he had worked out a deal…See More

Westminster Abbey looks like the most likely venue for Britain's royal wedding, after Kate Middleton was photographed emerging from the central London landmark.The Daily Mail newspaper ran a front-page photo Thursday of Middleton leaving the abbey after an evening visit with courtiers. Kate and Prince William have met royal staff to begin planning their wedding, which will take place in London next spring or summer.Some have speculated the couple may choose St. Paul's Cathedral, where William's…See More

France's Louvre museum is making an unprecedented appeal to the general public to help it raise the cash to buy a 16th century painting deemed a national treasure by art experts.The Louvre has already scraped together 3 million euros ($4.19 million) for "The Three Graces," an oil painting of three nudes by German artist Lucas Cranach the Elder, but is a million euros short of the price tag set by the work's private owners.The Louvre has until the end of January to raise the funds, without which…See More