Art buyers largely played it safe during London's summer art auctions, with collectors gravitating to classic artists like Bacon and Monet over newer artists whose prices could suffer more in an art-market slowdown. Still, overall sales set a record.

Next week's auctions of old master paintings and drawings in London will feature some unusual sales, proving that this collecting sector still holds a few surprises.

When Claudio Capone died, actors John Travolta, Don Johnson and Ronn Moss all lost their voice -- in Italian. Mr. Capone was a towering figure -- a leading doppiatore, or dubber, in a land that has for decades shunned movies with subtitles.

To honor the significant contributions of Tatsuya Nakadai to world cinema, New York's Film Forum has been presenting a major retrospective of his work: 27 films in seven weeks.

The results of "Ballet Across America" wandered over the map of taste and theatrical effectiveness.

In "Hancock," the ever-likable Will Smith plays a gangsta superhero -- a tricky notion done badly. And a surprising plot twist turns a sloppy action-comedy into a totally different movie, and an even worse one. Film Review

The 58-year-old can't sing much, his stage mannerisms were closer to bizarre than idiosyncratic, and his banter with an adoring audience grew tiresome. But he did demonstrate why he is a songwriter with few peers in pop music.

An exhibition presents paintings from the collection of Jacques Goudstikker that, after being looted by the Nazis, were finally restored to his daughter-in-law.

Corporate deals used to be anathema to indie musicians who feared such tie-ins would diminish their street credibility. But these days, launching an independent artist requires more marketing effort.

"There are two distinct roads in photography -- the utilitarian and the aesthetic: the goal of the one being a record of facts, and of the other an expression of beauty," wrote Charles Caffin. The injustice of cleaving to such ready distinctions can be seen with a pair of exhibitions at the International Center of Photography.

As traditional CD sales continue to decline, collaboration between the game and music industries that has created an important new source of income and cachet for artists.