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BRESCIA, Italy (Reuters) - John Elkann, the media-shy chairman of one of the world's biggest car companies, got behind the wheel and demonstrated his driving skills on Thursday in Italy's legendary four-day Mille Miglia rally race. The 36-year-old head of Fiat, which now control Chrysler and was founded by his great-great grandfather Giovanni Agnelli in 1899, will take turns driving a custom-made 1952 eight-cylinder Fiat 8V with his wife, Lavinia Borromeo, who also has a passion for iconic cars. ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Britney Spears hasn't even taken her seat as the new judge of "The X Factor," but the pop icon is already getting a lesson in the media glare of live, talent show television. Spears had barely wrapped up an appearance in New York confirming she is joining the singing contest before the celebrity knives were out, raising the question of how well the singer, who went through a public meltdown in 2007, can handle all the newfound attention. ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The second masseur who accused John Travolta of sexual battery dropped his lawsuit against the Hollywood star on Thursday and hired celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, who said she may file a new complaint in a different court. Allred now represents the Atlanta-based man, known as John Doe No. 2, as well as the original Travolta sexual battery accuser, a Texas masseur known as John Doe No. 1. "We believe that the lawsuit should be filed in another court and, therefore, the lawsuit was dismissed without prejudice," Allred said in a statement. ...

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexicans bid farewell to renowned author Carlos Fuentes on Wednesday in an emotional tribute attended by the president and the country's most prominent intellectuals before a planned burial in France. Fuentes, who died suddenly on Tuesday at 83 after an internal hemorrhage, was one of Latin America's best-known novelists and was still active until the very end of his life working on books and participating in events. ...

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Kazuo Okada, the Japanese billionaire engaged in a fierce legal battle with Las Vegas casino tycoon Steve Wynn, is diversifying his pachinko company with a string of his own restaurants and is negotiating to build a casino resort in South Korea. On Tuesday, Okada opened a 25,000-square-foot fine dining complex in Hong Kong, the first step in an expansion plan that includes an Okada restaurant in Shanghai scheduled to open in September, and a dining complex in Tokyo due to open in December. ...

SOCOPO, Venezuela (Reuters) - Deep in the rural home state of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that has for years been off limits for opposition politicians, rival candidate Henrique Capriles struggled to push through a throng of screaming supporters. Small-time ranchers and farmers swarmed the muddy streets of Socopo, where the Venezuelan plains meet the Andes mountains, jostling to catch a glimpse of the candidate in a chaotic tumult reminiscent of the cattle herding typical of the region. ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Vidal Sassoon, hair stylist and fashion world pioneer who created a natural look in the 1960s and built a multimillion-dollar business on his name, died on Wednesday after a long battle with leukemia. He was 84. Sassoon died at his home in Los Angeles surrounded by loved ones and his wife of 20 years, Ronnie, his family said in a statement. "He will be greatly missed," they said. ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The masseur whose $2 million sexual battery lawsuit against Hollywood actor John Travolta was dismissed earlier this week hired celebrity attorney Gloria Allred on Wednesday and could file a new claim. Allred, who numerous high-profile cases over the years have included representing women involved in the Tiger Woods sex scandal, said on Wednesday that she is now the attorney for "John Doe No. 1" and will be consulting with the masseur on his next steps in the case that has made headlines worldwide. "Mr. ...

(Reuters) - A London lawyer has credited actor Dustin Hoffman for saving his life when he suffered a heart attack while jogging in the city's Hyde Park, becoming the latest celebrity in recent weeks to help rescue a person in crisis. Sam Dempster, 27, told Britain's Sun newspaper on Tuesday that Hoffman came to his aid when he collapsed in the park 10 days ago, and called emergency services. "I have no memory of what happened. The paramedics told me I had been saved by Dustin Hoffman. It's unbelievable," Dempster was quoted as saying. ...

(Reuters) - An 83-year-old artist known for his block letter "LOVE" design that became a symbol of the anti-war movement in the 1960s is being sued by a Monaco-based art dealer for renouncing the authenticity of sculptures once valued as high as $1 million. Beginning in 2008, art buyer Joao Tovar paid $481,625 for 10 sculptures of the word PREM, a Sanskrit term meaning "love," from a one-time business partner of renowned pop artist Robert Indiana, Tovar said in the lawsuit filed in superior court in Rockland, Maine. ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - One of the two male masseurs who accused actor John Travolta of sexual assault dropped his $2 million lawsuit on Tuesday, but the lawyer for the second masseur said he was going ahead with that case and was confident of success. The unidentified man, referred to as John Doe No. 1, who claimed that the Hollywood star groped him during a massage session in Beverly Hills in January, filed a notice dismissing his lawsuit with federal court in Los Angeles. ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A second unidentified masseur has joined a $2 million lawsuit against John Travolta claiming the actor sexually assaulted the men in two separate incidents during private massages, according to amended court documents filed on Tuesday. The second unnamed man, a resident of Georgia referred to as John Doe No. 2 in court papers obtained by Reuters, claimed that Travolta rubbed his legs, touched his genitals and tried to initiate sex at a private appointment at the actor's room inside an Atlanta hotel on January 28. The allegations echo those of John Doe No. ...

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez strode, sang and gave a rousing speech on Friday in a careful show of vigor after his latest cancer treatment in Cuba fanned rumors he was dying five months before an election. The socialist Chavez, who had only been seen live in public once in the previous month, addressed the nation after flying back from Havana where he has completed six rounds of radiation therapy. ...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Canadian supermodel Linda Evangelista and French billionaire Francois-Henri Pinault reached a child-support settlement on Monday following two days of tense, often personal court testimony last week in Manhattan. Lawyers for both parties declined to disclose the settlement. A lawyer for Evangelista called media reports that she sought $46,000 a month as a misunderstanding, but acknowledged she was seeking a "substantial" sum to raise their 5-year-old son. Both parties agreed to return to court on Tuesday to finalize the agreement. ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Vidal Sassoon, hair stylist and fashion world icon who created a natural look in the 1960s and built a multi-million dollar business on his name, has died of apparent natural causes at his home in Los Angeles. He was 84. The British stylist's scissors spelled the end of the 1950s-era beehive and the bouffant - untouchable hairstyles that owed their existence to lacquer and hair pins - and brought him international fame and fortune. ...

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Demi Moore is finally ready to move on from her failed marriage to Ashton Kutcher. At least in the Twitterverse. The "G.I. Jane" actress ended months of speculation Thursday, finally answering the question: "When is she going to change her Twitter handle?" Moore had been going by @MrsKutcher, a handle that grew more awkward with each passing day since November, when she announced plans to divorce "Two and a Half Men" star Kutcher. Moore now goes by @JustDemi. According to her account, the actress chose the new moniker because it's "playful. ...

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Angelina Jolie's engagement ring reportedly set Brad Pitt back a cool $500,000, and it could end up costing Perez Hilton the same. Gossip blogger Hilton (real name: Mario Armando Lavandeira) has been slapped with a lawsuit after reporting that the man who designed Jolie's ring had previously been found guilty of fraud. Hilton's report, published April 17 on his Coco Perez offshoot site, claimed that jeweler Robert Procop, who designed the ring with Pitt, had previously been successfully sued for fraud by a customer named Roy Allenstein. ...

ATHENS (Reuters) - Manolis Glezos takes to the podium with the spry step of a young man, lifts his arms in the air and tells thousands of flag-waving supporters the time has come for the Greek Left to unite and rule. At 89, the former wartime fighter against Nazi occupation, who is running for the Left Coalition party, hopes Sunday's election will fulfill his lifetime dream. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's tetchy and uncompromising appearance at a British inquiry into phone hacking could come back to haunt him this week when politicians give their verdict on the scandal at his defunct News of the World newspaper. Three days of grilling at the Leveson judicial press inquiry last week extracted few new facts from Rupert and his son James as the 81-year-old casually threw out insults at politicians and described himself as a victim of a corporate cover-up. ...

LONDON (Reuters) - A chat with Ian Anderson - flautist, multi-instrumentalist, founder and wild face of British rock group Jethro Tull - does not go quite as expected. Yes, there is discussion of his music, the 40th anniversary world tour of the progressive rock classic "Thick As A Brick", and of its 2012 follow up. But there is also a lot more about flutes in space, an unlikely link with the George W. Bush White House - and the importance of prostate examinations. Anderson, now 64 and dapper rather than the frenzied druid-cum-warlock of yore, is quite clear and animated about the latter. ...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The California mother of octuplets, dubbed "Octomom," filed for bankruptcy on Monday, after previously admitting she was on public assistance to support herself and her 14 children. Nadya Suleman, 36, gave birth to eight babies as a single mother in 2009. But goodwill turned to anger in the media after it was revealed Suleman had undergone fertility treatments when she already had six children, and questions were raised about her ability to provide for her family. Her children became only the second set of octuplets known to have survived birth in the United States. ...

April 29 (TheWrap.com) - Lindsay Lohan may have gotten more attention than any other guest before Saturday night's White House Correspondents Dinner, but Kim Kardashian was the celebrity who took the most hits from the dais during the annual event. Host Jimmy Kimmel, for instance, remembered last year's dinner, which took place after President Obama had dispatched a team that would track down and kill Osama bin Laden. "If you're looking for the greatest threat to America right now, she's right there," he said, pointing into the audience. "She's Kim Kardashian. ...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Robert Caro has spent almost 40 years writing his monumental prize-winning biography of President Lyndon Johnson, but says it is not the 1960s leader that held his fascination for so long, but how political power works in America. With the long-awaited fourth volume of his Johnson biography "The Passage of Power" due out on Tuesday, Caro said he never wanted to write just about the life of the president who rammed through civil rights and welfare laws that transformed the nation but then was destroyed by the Vietnam War. ...