A caviar facial? An "anti-gravity" massage? Or how about a simple Total Body Hydra-Dermabrasion Resurfacing? Welcome to the weird -- and expensive -- world of pre-Oscars beauty spas.

As Tinsel Town gears up for Sunday's Academy Awards, A-listers, movie moguls and even mere mortals are willing to pay top dollar for aesthetic perfection before stepping into the red carpet spotlight.

Milan Fashion Week opened on Wednesday, with glitterati and fashion watchers flocking to the glamorous Italian city known for its opulence and obsession with high fashion.

"It's an exciting moment. We've pulled out all the stops to make Milan the leading Fashion Week for women wear on the international stage," Mario Boselli, head of the organizers, Milan's Camera Moda, told Agence France Presse.

Uzbekistan's state television Monday issued an unequivocal denunciation of rock and rap as a Western liberal excess, saying the music is epitomized by sadism, drug addiction and immorality.

In a TV documentary called "Melody and Calamity" Uzbekistan's second main channel Youht TV raised alarm over "pernicious influence of Western rock and rap music approaching as dark clouds over the heads of Uzbek youth".

You could be forgiven for thinking Vivienne Westwood had the royal wedding in mind when she designed her latest collection, themed on Lewis Carroll's mad queens and accessorized with crowns as hats.

But the Grande dame of British fashion said her Red Label's autumn-winter 2011 designs had nothing to do with the forthcoming nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton -- and revealed she would not be dressing the bride.

An opera on the tragic life of former Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith premiered at London's prestigious Royal Opera House and was applauded by critics early Friday.

"Anna Nicole" charts the tumultuous life and death of the former glamor model who first hit the world's headlines in 1994 when she married 89-year-old oil tycoon J Howard Marshall.

Fur is back in the fashion industry, but designer Gilles Mendel, latest in a French fur dynasty, never went away -- and now he's more in demand than ever.

At New York Fashion Week's Autumn-Winter 2011 show, Mendel is a star, the go-to man in a period when fur is back in demand, helped along by an especially cold winter.

Malaysia has cancelled a concert by a singer dubbed Iran's Bob Dylan after an Islamic party argued Mohsen Namjoo's work was incompatible with Islam, media reports and his website said Wednesday.

The 34-year-old, whose music fuses traditional Iranian music with pop and jazz, was due to perform in Kuala Lumpur on Friday.

A see-through dress that helped Kate Middleton catch the eye of husband-to-be Prince William is going under the hammer, auctioneers said Monday.

The transparent black number, worn during a charity fashion show at Saint Andrews University in Scotland, is expected to fetch up to £10,000 ($16,000, 12,000 Euros) when it goes on sale next month.

The Grammy music awards show paid tribute Sunday to recovering soul legend Aretha Franklin, in a star-studded evening including performances by veterans Mick Jagger, Bob Dylan and Barbra Streisand.

Lady Gaga was among early acts at the three-and-a-half-hour show, appearing in inimitable style from an egg to sing "Born this Way," while other acts on the bill included Katy Perry, rapper Eminem and teen sensation Justin Bieber.

The Orient has long held a fascination for westerners, conjuring up exotic images from historic lands where few travelers ventured before the advent of trains and steamboats.

As a child in the 1950s French couturier Christian Lacroix recalls the inscription on a monument in the port of Marseilles, "Gateway to the East" was enough to fire his imagination and later inspire his designs.