Every year, the University of Louisville gives out five $100,000 Grawemeyer Awards. Most of the recipients aren't celebrities — mainly academics outstanding in their fields of expertise. Mikhail Gorbachev, who won one in 1994, was a rare awardee who was also a global star. This time around, however, a faculty member nominated a famous name and, after the candidacy was very well received in the selection process, the university announced on April 14 that Greg Mortenson, author ...

Even though artwork by the British graffiti artist Banksy is popular with celebrities such as Angelina Jolie and Christina Aguilera, some regard the artist's street works to be vandalism, pure and simple. On Oct. 23, the Council of Westminster in London ordered the removal of a 23 ft Banksy mural — reportedly his largest work in central London — claiming that it encourages graffiti. In an exclusive statement to TIME, the mysterious guerrilla prankster has responded ...

It's a good thing he didn't go with "@andrew." Drew Olanoff, cancer-fighter and blogger, is auctioning off his enviable Twitter username "@drew" to benefit the LiveStrong foundation. Since Tuesday, its value has already been raised to $1 million, thanks to that other Drew -- last name Carey. "I thought we would find a Drew who would bid $10,000 on the last day and that was it," Olanoff said. "I certainly didn't think Drew Carey would get wind of it." Get ...

A hoax video purporting to show Michael Jackson hopping out of a coroner's van alive was produced by a German television station as an experiment, the broadcaster told CNN Monday. It was made to show how easy it is to spread rumors online, said Heike Schultz, a spokeswoman for RTL, the leading private broadcaster in Germany. "We sent out a press release before we did the video to alert everyone that it was fake, but once posted it spread really ...

Dr. Conrad Murray was suffering financially with nearly $435,000 in judgments and liens against him over the past two years, according to court documents. Then he decided to leave his practice and work for Michael Jackson, getting paid $150,000 a month. Before working with the King of Pop, Murray spent most of his time operating clinics in both Nevada and Texas after graduating from Meharry Medical College, a historically black school in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1989. He spent his internship ...

Blaine County, Idaho, doesn't care for gossip. Celebrities from Ernest Hemingway to Demi Moore have resided in the county that boasts the exclusive Sun Valley ski resort and shows big respect for people's privacy, its sheriff told CNN on Tuesday. When Blaine County residents learned about Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl's capture several days ago, they kept a lid on it. And it looks like reporters won't get much information anytime soon about the 23-year-old soldier whose fate now lies with ...

Michael Jackson's financial woes were well documented: Numerous lawsuits, loss of control of his beloved Neverland and reports that he was hundreds of millions of dollars in debt all point to a complex money mess that trailed the King of Pop as vigilantly as his most ardent fans. But might he find the financial success in death that eluded him in the last years of his life "A few years ago, a gentleman came along with the public company called ...

How many people does it take to break the Internet? On June 25, we found out it's just one -- if that one is Michael Jackson. The biggest showbiz story of the year saw the troubled star take a good slice of the Internet with him, as the ripples caused by the news of his death swept around the globe. "Between approximately 2:40 p.m. PDT and 3:15 p.m. PDT today, some Google News users experienced difficulty accessing search results for ...

A Nigerian militant group said it plans to release a British oil worker Monday as a birthday "gift" to Matthew John Maguire, who was abducted last year. Talking exclusively to CNN on his return to Hong Kong, where he had been forging a career in the movies, Chen reveals his side of the scandal that broke in early 2008. It centers on sexually explicit photos of him with other celebrities that appeared on the Internet, leaked by a former ...

He has been at the center of Asia's biggest sex scandal, but now actor Edison Chen has broken his silence on the public episode that has ended careers and caused him to suffer death threats. Talking exclusively to CNN on his return to Hong Kong, where he had been forging a career in the movies, Chen reveals his side of the scandal that broke in early 2008. It centers on sexually explicit photos of him with other celebrities ...