National Lifestyle

Celebrity birthdays for the week of May 5-11: May 5: Actor Michael Murphy is 86. Actor Lance Henriksen (“Millennium,” ″Aliens”) is 84. Comedian-actor Michael Palin (Monty Python) is 81.

Crows have long been associated with death, but Eileen Garvin’s novel “Crow Talk” offers a fresh perspective; creepy, dark and morbid becomes beautiful, wondrous and transformative.

LONDON (AP) — British author C.J. Sansom, best known for his historical crime novels featuring the Tudor lawyer and investigator Matthew Shardlake, has died, his publisher said Monday. He was 71.

TOKYO (AP) — Naked and frail, a shaggy-haired man films himself as he endures solitude in a tiny room for months, and months more.

SAO PAULO (AP) — It took almost a half century for Brazilian singer Cátia de França to find her audience, but she finally has — with the help of a near-obsolete audio technology.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Morgan Freeman spoke the words, but pretty much everyone who took the stage at the presentation of the AFI Life Achievement Award agreed: “ Nicole Kidman . She makes movies better.

MONTREAL — Quebec is "going on the offensive" to protect and promote French, Minister Jean-François Roberge said Sunday as he presented a $603-million plan to counter what he described as the language's decline.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Gerald Herbert insists on making sure he provides the best coverage possible when photographing New Orleans’ NBA team. That means laboriously hanging remote cameras in the Pelicans’ arena hours before every home game.

The sexy tennis drama “ Challengers ” won the box office this weekend with $15 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The summer movie season may kick off next weekend, but the release calendar is still a work in progress . The latest movie to shift spots is Sony’s comic book film “Kraven the Hunter,” which will now open in December instead of on Labor Day weekend.