Michael Jackson was gifted with a talent for dance amply illustrated by his famous moonwalk dance routine inspired both by urban life and late French master of mime Marcel Marceau. "There was a mutual admiration between Michael Jackson and Marcel Marceau," Elena Serra, who worked with the king of mime for 20 years, told AFP. "Marceau said of Michael Jackson that he was a born mime artist, which was also what he'd said of Charlie Chaplin, because of his easy physical movement, his ability to decompose movements, his understanding ...

Arjun Basu writes short stories. Very short stories. "I'm doing 140-character stories on Twitter," said Basu, one of scores of authors, poets and other creative types who are downsizing their literary talents to the limited format of the hot micro-blogging service. "I call them Twisters because everything on Twitter has a stupid name," the 42-year-old Basu told AFP at the 140 Characters Conference, a two-day talkfest devoted to all things Twitter held in New York this week. "Each story has a beginning, a middle and an end," said Basu ...

A court-ordered auction for the belongings of legendary French mime artist Marcel Marceau has fetched 490,000 euros (680,000 dollars) as bidders bought the suit and top hat of his iconic silent clown Bip. The suit was sold for 5,717 euros while the hat adorned with a red flower fetched 3,201 euros during the two-day auction that ended on Wednesday at the Hotel Drouot in Paris. Marceau left behind several debts when he died at the age of 84 in September 2007, leading to a court decision ...

PARIS (Reuters) - French authorities bought drawings, notes and various art works owned by Marcel Marceau after the late mime artist's collection was auctioned on the order of a court, the culture ministry said on Thursday. The court sparked uproar among Marceau enthusiasts by ordering the sale to pay off debts left by the world's most famous mime artist, who went bankrupt before he died in 2007, aged 84. Marceau was best known for his wide-eyed character Bip, a clown whose white face, striped jersey and crushed top hat ...