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Oscar-winning film star Angelina Jolie revealed on Tuesday that she underwent a double mastectomy after learning she had inherited a high risk of breast cancer and said she hoped her story would inspire other women fighting the life-threatening disease. Jolie, an actress who has long embodied Hollywood glamour and has in recent years drawn nearly as much attention for her globe-trotting work on behalf of refugees as for her role as a celebrity mom, disclosed her choice in an op-ed column in the New York Times. The 37-year-old performer, raising a family with fellow film star and fiance Brad Pitt, wrote that she went through with the operation in part to reassure her six children that she would not die young from cancer, as her own mother did at age 56. "We often speak of 'Mommy's mommy,' and I find myself trying to explain the illness that took her away from us. They have asked if the same could happen to me," wrote Jolie. "I have always told them not

The Cannes film festival may get some of its swagger back on Wednesday when it opens with Baz Luhrmann's lavish 3D period drama "The Great Gatsby", an opportunity to shed the caution of recent years overshadowed by broader economic gloom. Leonardo DiCaprio and his British co-star Carey Mulligan will walk the red carpet on the French Riviera to promote the $105 million adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel which has already opened in North America. Over 12 days of world premieres, champagne parties and sun- and celebrity worship, Michael Douglas, Matt Damon, Ryan Gosling, Emma Watson and Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan are among the big names in town promoting their latest pictures. Festival veterans are eager to see if Luhrmann can top his opening in 2001, viewed as the last truly extravagant launch on the palm-lined Croisette waterfront, when he filled the red carpet with can-can girls to promote his movie "Moulin Rouge". "For a few years

Actor Billy Crystal will give his autobiographical one-man play "700 Sundays" a Broadway send-off later this year with a nine-week run, promoters said on Tuesday. _0"> Previews of the two-act play, which deals with Crystal's coming of age and the death of his father, are set to begin on November 5 at New York's Imperial Theater with a formal opening night on November 13. Its final show will be on January 5, 2014. "'700 Sundays' has, without question, been the most satisfying experience of my career," Crystal said in a statement. "It is a privilege to return to Broadway to say goodbye to one of the greatest thrills of my life." The play debuted with success in 2004 on Broadway and won a Tony Award for Special Theatrical Experience. Crystal, 65, has toured "700 Sundays" throughout the United States and internationally in Canada and Australia . The play takes its name from how many Sundays Crystal was able to spend wit

Pop singer Christina Aguilera is in discussions to return as a judge on NBC television singing competition "The Voice" next season, sources with knowledge of the talks said on Tuesday. _0"> Aguilera, 32, went on hiatus from the program this season to promote her latest album, "Lotus," with a concert tour. The singer had been a judge on the first three seasons of the program, which debuted in 2011. The sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly about the talks, said the former Disney child star would earn about $12 million to serve as a judge, less than the $15 million Britney Spears reportedly earned on rival "The X Factor." Representatives for Aguilera and NBC did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. Aguilera and R&B singer Cee Lo Green both left the show last year. They were replaced by Colombian singer Shakira and R&B singer Usher, who joined returning judges country singer Blake Shelton and Adam Levine, fr

Walt Disney Co's ABC network is tapping its blockbuster "Avengers" franchise for a new TV show, looking to reverse a ratings decline that put it last of the four largest networks among audiences coveted by advertisers. The network is so confident in "Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." that it scheduled the show on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. eastern time, where it will face off against TV's top-rated scripted show, CBS' crime juggernaut "NCIS." ABC plans to air a total eight new shows this fall, according to a schedule of its Fall lineup that was released by the network. It will also retool its long-running hit "Dancing with the Stars," cutting it back from two nights to one after its ratings weakened. Its "S.H.I.E.L.D." offering is ABC's first effort to translate the big-screen success of Disney's Marvel comics movie franchise to television. Last year's Marvel movie "The Avengers" and current hit "

Diamond jewelry belonging to Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida sold for more than 4.74 million Swiss francs ($4.9 million) on Tuesday in Geneva and set a record for pearl earrings, auctioneer Sotheby's said. _0"> Lollobrigida, a leading sex symbol of the 1950s and 1960s, said she was selling the jewelry to raise money for stem cell research. A pair of diamond and natural pearl earrings sold for 2.29 million francs ($2.37 million), an auction record. The earrings beat the $1.98 million figure set in 2011 from the sale of natural pearl and diamond earrings by Bulgari, owned by late actress Elizabeth Taylor. Other prized items from Lollobrigida's collection included a Bulgari necklace and bracelet combination, and a Bulgari ring featuring a 19.03-carat cushion-shaped diamond. Each fetched 749,000 francs ($776,056). The 85-year-old actress attended the auction and said she hoped the money raised would be put towards advancing stem cell research in Italy . "Jew

A gay South Korean film director is set to symbolically marry his long-term partner, saying he aims to pry open the closet in this conservative Asian country where homosexuality is still taboo and gays have been subjected to hate crimes. Kim Jho Gwang-soo announced plans to marry his partner of nine years on Wednesday, becoming the first South Korean show business personality to do so and only the second to ever come out. The other, an actor, now says he regrets his decision. "We wanted to convey the message that all sexual minorities should be given rights equally in a beautiful way," the 49-year-old Kim told a news conference in the South Korean capital of Seoul as he sat next to his partner, Kim Seung-hwan. The two then kissed in an unprecedented display of affection for a same-sex couple in Korea, where traditional Confucian and Christian values remain strong. Kim has directed a handful of films that were well received by domestic audiences and came out in 2005 dur