ENTERTAINMENT

The Cannes Film Festival, which will kick off Tuesday, is such a colossal extravaganza that taking measure of its ups and downs is notoriously difficult. It’s a showcase of the world’s best cinema. It’s a red-carpet spectacular. It’s a French Riviera hive of dealmaking. But by at least some metrics, Cannes — following a canceled … Read more

LOS ANGELES – Kelly Clarkson has responded to a Rolling Stone report accusing her daytime talk show of being a toxic workplace. Clarkson issued a statement on her Instagram page Saturday. She addressed the allegations after 11 current and former employees complained about being overworked and underpaid on “The Kelly Clarkson Show” and also called … Read more

NEW YORK – For decades, a giant, inflatable rat with beady eyes, sharp teeth and a pustule-covered belly has loomed over union protests, drawing attention to various labor disputes. As New York City deals with an influx of actual rats, Scabby the Rat has become that rare thing, like Pizza Rat or Buddy the Rat … Read more

LIVERPOOL – What includes a Swedish diva, a Finnish rapper who loves pina coladas, a band of Croatian agit-rockers and an Austrian duo possessed by a long-dead writer? It could only be the Eurovision Song Contest. The grand final of the pan-continental pop music competition takes place Saturday in Liverpool. This year’s theme is “united … Read more

VATICAN CITY – Scaffolding in a niche of the Vatican Museums’ Round Hall conceal from view the work of restorers who are removing centuries of grime from the largest known bronze statue of the ancient world: the gilded Hercules Mastai Righetti. For more than 150 years, the four-meter-tall (13-foot-tall) figure of the half-human Roman god … Read more