Opera star Renee Fleming is used to challenging roles, and will take on three for The Metropolitan Opera's Gala season opening on Monday that will mark the 125th anniversary of the company.

New Yorkers who frequent Gotham's most lavish parties fear the good times are over. The economic downturn of the past year left many of the city's richest unscathed.

Is your sweaty old tracksuit a fashion statement or just comfy clothing? A new exhibition at London's Victoria and Albert Museum explores how high fashion and sport have paired up over the last decade to become a potent clothing and retail force just in time for the Olympic Games in Beijing.

The blond hair, pert nose and twinkling eyes of the shapely doll were unmistakably Barbie, but what was she doing attached to a prehistoric bug? Welcome to San Francisco's annual "Altered Barbie" exhibition.

Five months after bidding farewell to the Paris catwalks at a final haute couture collection in January, Italian designer Valentino is back in the French capital with a major retrospective of his five decades in fashion.

Bold, confident, sexy and never demure; the lingerie of Dutch designer Marlies Dekkers adorns the Rotterdam Kunsthal art gallery to mark 15 years of an illustrious career.

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said on Thursday it was important to "talk up" the U.S. dollar and short-term steps were needed to strengthen its value.

Milkman's son Lee McQueen, whose party trick is a reverse pterodactyl impression, has been hired as Alan Sugar's 100,000 pounds-a-year "Apprentice," beating hot favourite Claire Young in the final of the business TV show.

Handbags are the new jewellery, the New York Times recently noted, and with vintage models fetching increasingly high prices at auction, they are also becoming eminently collectable.

"Sex and the City" fashioned a surprisingly strong opening at the North American box office on Sunday, as frenzied female fans used the romantic comedy as an excuse for a big party.

"Sex and the City" fashioned a surprisingly strong opening at the North American box office on Sunday, as frenzied female fans used the romantic comedy as an excuse for a big party.

"Sex and the City" fashioned a surprisingly strong opening at the North American box office on Sunday, as frenzied female fans used the romantic comedy as an excuse for a big party.

A Singapore-based "Sex and the City" fan who bought a $19,000 (9,600 pound) travel package inspired by the movie was cheated out of the film's premiere and after-party, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.

By Tim Gaynor SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (Reuters Life!) - Arizona realtor Marie Richert raises the pink, palm-sized gadget and takes aim at the silver foil outline of a man set up in the kitchen of her friend's home.

The clothes make the superhero: Clark Kent ripping his shirt open to reveal an "S" emblazoned on his brawny chest. Bruce Wayne slipping into his Batman outfit to battle the whip-cracking Catwoman.