Korean war epic “My Way” by director Kang Je-kyu will be featured as one of Berlin International Film Festival’s Panorama sidebars this year, the film’s distributor said Wednesday. Arguably Korea’s largest-ever movie with a budget of $30 million, and featuring an Asian all-star cast including Jang Dong-gun and Odagiri Joe, it spans the battlefield action of WWII from Japan to the Battle of Normandy. “My Way” is the third Korean movie to be invited to the Berlin fest’s Panorama section ― featurin

NEW YORK (AP) ― When iPods hit the scene 10 years ago, the small, white ear buds that came with the devices became the symbol for listening to music on the go.Today, that’s changing.More and more people are expressing themselves with pricey headphones, with some fashion-forward music lovers rocking updated versions of the oversized headsets popular in earlier eras.Bose has been known for its larger headphones in recent years, and now celebrities have taken note and aided in the resurgence of the

LONDON (AP) ― Two of Britain’s art superstars are squabbling about whether it’s acceptable to use assistants to create works of art.The argument pits painter David Hockney, just awarded Britain’s prestigious Order of Merit, against conceptual artist Damien Hirst.Hockney uses the poster for his upcoming Royal Academy show to state that all the works on exhibit were “made by the artist himself.’’Radio Times magazine reported Tuesday that Hockney said in an interview that the comment was directed a

PARIS (AFP) ― The Louvre cemented its position as the world’s most-visited museum with a record 8.8 million visitors last year to the Paris home of Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and other masterpieces.The Louvre saw a five percent increase in visitors in 2011, after three years in a row in which about 8.5 million people had visited the museum, it said in a statement.The museum said it enjoyed “a strong return of American visits and a more and more marked presence of visitors from emerging countr

LONDON (AFP) ― British artist David Hockney has responded to his appointment to the Order of Merit with typical humor, saying he was glad his controversial campaign for smokers’ rights had not worked against him.Hockney, who came to prominence during the British pop art movement in the 1960s, was named as a member of the exclusive order on Sunday by Queen Elizabeth II.Accepting the royal honor is a turnaround for the 74-year-old who famously turned down a knighthood in 1990, has refused to paint

HONG KONG (AFP) ― Squatting at a makeshift shrine with joss sticks burning beside her, Granny Leung starts bashing a manlike paper cut-out with a pair of sandals.“I beat you little people, I’m sending you away!” chants the 76-year-old woman, one of the last practitioners in Hong Kong of the ancient Chinese ritual of “da siu yan,” or “beating the petty little people.”Granny Leung performs her mysterious incantations in the bustling shopping district of Causeway Bay. And business is booming.For as

NEW YORK (AP) ― Hugh Jackman has left Broadway with a lot of broken hearts ― and records.The hunky Australian actor’s one-man Broadway concert show closed last weekend at the Broadhurst Theatre after having earned $2,057,354 in its final week, the highest weekly gross recorded by the Shubert Organization, which owns the Broadhurst and 16 other Broadway theaters.Over its 10-week run, Jackman earned a whopping $14,638,428, producers said. He now owns 10 of the 11 top grossing weeks at the Broadhur

NEW DELHI (AP) ― Would the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll fueled TV show “Californication’’ be worth watching without the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll? What about serial killer series “Dexter’’ without the gore?In an effort to attract younger viewers without offending the older ones, Indian TV is now showing some of America’s edgiest shows ― but cutting out the edge.As India urbanizes and its middle class grows, a delicate dilemma has hit a media culture long dominated by local TV shows aimed at rural

Korean girl group Wonder Girls will release their first eponymous TV movie in February via U.S. cable channel Teen Nick, making them the first Asian singers to star in an American television movie, their agent said Tuesday. Originally titled “Wonder Girls at the Apollo,” the movie’s title was recently changed to “The Wonder Girls.” A brief teaser video has been released via YouTube and Facebook.Scheduled for official broadcast on Feb. 2, the series is garnering attention from fans here since Tee

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) ― Yellowed cover pages of South Africa’s iconic Drum magazine evoke a 1950s black fashion and jazz culture which perished when apartheid forces razed Sophiatown, a racially-mixed Johannesburg suburb.This year Drum turned 60 and even today South Africans link the magazine to Sophiatown, a restless and vibrant suburb which was home to blacks, coloureds, Indians and Chinese.Between 1955 and 1960, residents were forcibly removed and relocated to townships outside Johannesburg beca

VIENNA (AFP) ― His golden “The Kiss” adorns scarves and coffee mugs worldwide, while his portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer sparked a decades-long restitution battle: in 2012, Austria celebrates 150 years since Klimt’s birth.Gustav Klimt, born on July 14, 1862, is one of the best known figures of the Jugendstil art period. In honour of this milestone anniversary, Vienna’s biggest museums ― led by the Belvedere, the Albertina and the Leopold Museum ― are proposing no less than nine exhibits during the

LOS ANGELES (AFP) ― Elton John is working on a biopic about himself and would like Justin Timberlake to take on the lead role, he said in an interview published Sunday.The British veteran star also spoke about his and partner David Furnish’s love for their son Zachary ― whose first birthday was on Christmas Day ― saying the child was the “light of our lives.”An announcement about the biopic is due very soon, the 64-year-old told the Los Angeles Times newspaper.“That’s very much in the works. We’

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (AP) ― The American premiere of the Philip Glass opera “Kepler,’’ a concert by vocalist k.d. lang, and the return of Dublin’s Gate Theatre highlight the 36th season of the Spoleto Festival USA this spring.Chamber music, acrobatic performances and orchestral concerts are also on the schedule for the festival that will light up 13 venues including theaters, churches and open-air sites from May 25 through June 10.The festival, which released the lineup this weekend, featu

Irish musician Rice is Jan. 11 concert soldoutWith Guinness and Westlife among the very few Irish things that have made it to Korea, and the singer’s face rarely shown on TV, a fan of Irish singer Damien Rice may pride him/herself on being “a classy minority.” Minor fandom, however, is hardly a suitable term for a musician who sold out some 1,600 seats in just a few hours, despite modest promotion activities and relatively expensive tickets priced at 132,000 to 165,000 won (about $150).In an e-m

After long days discussing America’s obesity problem, Melinda Sothern has had enough of windowless conference rooms.“I need to exercise,” she says, pausing to review her plans in the San Diego Convention Center lobby. She plans to rent a bicycle in Coronado, California, and ride, fast and far.Sothern, 55, is a woman who practices what she preaches. And one of her messages about obesity is aimed at women like herself: mothers.Fat mothers. Thin mothers. And especially mothers-to-be.A leading fitne

NEW YORK (AP) ― You’ll find a drop-waist dress when you set off on your first shopping spree of the new year, and you probably already can find a flouncy ruffle attached to a chic, trim jacket or sheath in stores. But for all the talk about fast fashion, few looks move directly from the runway to the real world without some tweaks and adjustments.Designers, manufacturers and retailers use the months between splashy previews and on-sale dates to harness big ideas and turn them into the garments t

VIENNA (AP) ― Andy Warhol stopped by for a cup of his coffee. So did princes, paupers, playwrights, poets and untold thousands for whom a visit to Vienna was unthinkable without a cup of steaming brew served by the bow-tied little man with the perpetual dancing smile.In this city of more than 1,900 cafes, Leopold Hawelka was an icon, as much part of Cafe Hawelka as its tables ― scarred by burned-out cigarettes, their marble tops worn smooth by the elbows of four generations. He served tourists,

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) ― Woody Guthrie’s writings, recordings and artwork will land in his native state after an Oklahoma foundation bought the collection, with plans for a display that concentrates on his artistry rather than the populist politics that divided local opinion over the years.Guthrie, known for the anthem, “This Land is Your Land’’ and his songs about the poor and downtrodden, is remembered mostly as a musician, composer and singer, but was also a literary figure and an artist, said Bo

ROME (AFP) ― Ancient manuscripts are treated like hospital patients at a famous book restoration institute in Rome that has worked on everything from the Dead Sea Scrolls to one of the oldest Korans in the world.“Look at this poor man suffering!” exclaimed Marina Bicchieri, head of the chemistry department at the Institute of the Pathology of the Book, as she examined oxidation levels on the unique institution’s most recent project.Bicchieri was looking at a chart with the scientific analysis of

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Russell Brand is divorcing Katy Perry after 14 months of what appeared to be a storybook marriage.“Sadly, Katy and I are ending our marriage,’’ Brand said in a statement released to The Associated Press. “I’ll always adore her and I know we’ll remain friends.’’Brand, 36, offered no other details, but in papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, the British comedian cited irreconcilable differences.He and the 27-year-old pop singer were married in October 2010 at a resort ins