Kanye West has pleaded not guilty to misdemeanor battery and attempted grand theft in a case filed over a scuffle with a celebrity photographer earlier this year.

Attorney Blair Berk entered the plea on the rapper's behalf Thursday in a Los Angeles court. West was charged with two misdemeanors in September over a July altercation with paparazzo Daniel Ramos at Los Angeles International Airport.

Chris Brown has countersued a man who accused the R&B star's entourage of attacking him outside a recording studio earlier this year.

The singer filed an assault and battery lawsuit Wednesday against Sha'keir Duarte, who claimed in an earlier suit that he was injured when a fight erupted between Brown and Frank Ocean's entourages in January outside a West Hollywood studio.

A Canadian bit-part actress barraged Alec Baldwin with lovesick, demanding messages, packed her belongings into a car and showed up uninvited at his homes in Manhattan and the Hamptons, prosecutors said as her stalking trial opened Thursday.

The case is expected to put the "30 Rock" actor in an unsought role: a key witness against a woman who says she had a fling with him some years ago, which he denies. Baldwin is expected to testify next week against actress Genevieve Sabourin, whose lawyer says she was merely trying to get answers after the actor lost interest in her.

U.S. President Barack Obama will screen "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom," a film portraying the life of South Africa's iconic anti-apartheid leader, on Thursday, the White House said.

The movie recounts the political and personal life of former South African president Nelson Mandela, whom Obama has called an inspiration.

Some 40 black models, most of them women, have staged a topless protest in Rio de Janeiro against the low presence of Afro-Brazilians on fashion catwalks.

"What strikes you, your racism or me?" one of the female demonstrators wrote on her chest during the protest late Wednesday timed to coincide with Rio Fashion Week.

Lady Gaga is streaming her new album a week early after leaks, but she hinted Wednesday at an out-of-this-world publicity splash with its official launch -- a concert in space.

The multi-platinum-selling pop diva's third album, "Artpop," went up without warning on iTunes after a trickle of leaks in recent days on the Internet. The first official release was Wednesday in Japan.

U.S. star Eva Longoria has lent her voice to animated television series "Mother Up!" with a character struggling with the challenges of motherhood.

Longoria is also an executive producer of the 13-episode series, which debuted Wednesday on online video websites Hulu and Hulu Plus.

George Strait might be reconsidering his retirement plans after he picked up country music's top honor Wednesday for the third time in his long career.

Strait, 61, who's midway through his Cowboy Rides Away farewell tour, won entertainer of the year at the 47th annual Country Music Association (CMA) awards in Nashville, Tennessee, a laurel he last won in 1989 and 1990.

The website of Brazil's biggest news outlet published photos Wednesday it says show pop star Justin Bieber spray painting graffiti on a wall. And it adds that police want to question him about it.

The O Globo newspaper reported that photographers snapped photos of Bieber as he painted graffiti on a wall of the former Hotel Nacional in Rio de Janeiro Tuesday morning.

Lady Gaga and her manager Troy Carter have split just days before the pop star releases her new album, "ARTPOP."

A source familiar with the situation confirms the two have split over creative differences. The source was not authorized to speak about the break publicly and requested anonymity.