By Patricia Reaney

(Reuters) – Candice Glover, a soul singer from rural South Carolina, was named “American Idol” on Thursday and become the first female singer to win the television singing competition since 2007.

Glover, 23, defeated country singer Kree Harrison in the popular vote with her powerful voice in what judges deemed a close contest to take the title on season 12 of the popular Fox network show.

By Patricia Reaney

(Reuters) – Candice Glover, a soul singer from rural South Carolina, was named “American Idol” on Thursday and become the first female singer to win the television singing competition since 2007.

Glover, 23, defeated country singer Kree Harrison in the popular vote with her powerful voice in what judges deemed a close contest to take the title on season 12 of the popular Fox network show.

May 15 (Reuters) – Soul singer Candice Glover vied with
country crooner Kree Harrison on Wednesday in an all-female
finale of “American Idol” to become the first woman to win the
TV singing competition since 2007.

In a finale that judge Randy Jackson described as “so
close,” Glover, the 23-year-old former travel agent from St.
Helena, South Carolina, brought the judges and the audience to
their feet after belting out Tom Jones’ “I Who Have Nothing.”

NEW YORK (Reuters) – 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.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Christie’s auction house raised $38.8 million (25.4 million pounds) through a charity art auction and donations, Christie’s said on Tuesday, with proceeds to benefit environmental and conservation causes.

The 33 works in The 11th Hour Auction organised by the star of the new film “The Great Gatsby” sold for $31.74 million on Monday evening and set 13 records for artists including Carol Bove, Joe Bradley, Mark Grotjahn, Raymond Pettibon and Mark Ryden among others.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Christie’s auction house raised nearly $32 million for environmental causes on Monday at a charity art auction.

DiCaprio, the star of the new film “The Great Gatsby,” organized the so-called The 11th Hour Auction along with his foundation and Christie’s to protect the last wild places on Earth and their endangered species.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Actor Leonardo DiCaprio, the star of the new film “The Great Gatsby,” and his foundation have teamed up with Christie’s for a charity auction next week to benefit environmental causes.

Thirty-three works, many created for and donated to the auction by some of the world’s top artists, will go under the hammer on Monday in New York at The 11th Hour Auction, which aims to raise as much as $18 million to protect the last wild places on Earth and their endangered species.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – With their black leather, studded jackets, ripped jeans, bondage trousers and messages of rebellion and anarchy, punks from the 1970s probably never envisioned that a major museum would be celebrating their influence on fashion 40 years later.

But the Costume Institute of The Metropolitan Museum of Art is doing just that with a new exhibition, “Punk: Chaos to Couture,” that opens on May 9 and runs through August 14.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Superhero sequel “Iron Man 3″ rocketed to the top of U.S. and Canadian box office charts, kicking off Hollywood’s summer movie season with $175.3 million (112.5 million pounds) in weekend ticket sales for the second-biggest film opening of all time.

Combined with international sales, the movie from Walt Disney Co’s Marvel studio brought its global haul to an estimated $680.1 million, Disney said on Sunday.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Superhero sequel “Iron Man 3″ rocketed to the top of U.S. and Canadian box office charts, kicking off Hollywood’s summer movie season with $175.3 million in weekend ticket sales for the second-biggest film opening of all time.

Combined with international sales, the movie from Walt Disney Co’s Marvel studio brought its global haul to an estimated $680.1 million, Disney said on Sunday.