Two period dramas set 200 years apart in American history - "Mad Men" and "John Adams" - claimed a place in the Emmy record books on Sunday as U.S. television's highest honours were presented in a ceremony rife with political undertones.

She's been named as the highest-paid TV celebrity and one of the world's most powerful women, but American talk-show host Oprah Winfrey is also a big giver, topping a list of the 30 most generous celebrities for the second year running.

Actor Anthony Edwards, one of the original stars of the U.S. NBC hospital drama "ER," will return to the landmark TV show in November in flashback scenes playing his now-deceased character of Dr. Mark Greene.

"X-Files" star David Duchovny, who currently plays a womanizing writer on the cable television series "Californication," said on Thursday he has entered a facility for treatment of sex addiction.

"Celebrity Big Brother" star Jade Goody has been diagnosed with cervical cancer, her spokesman said on Tuesday.

Stage and screen star Laurence Fishburne's last turn as a series regular on network television was the role of Cowboy Curtis on the 1980s kids show "Pee-wee's Playhouse."

Television star Kelsey Grammer, who suffered a recent heart attack, will remain in a New York hospital overnight after checking in earlier on Monday when he was feeling faint, his representative said.

Presenter Carol Vorderman has decided to step down from Channel 4's popular daytime game show "Countdown" after nearly 26 years, her agent said on Friday.

Emmy-winning actress Estelle Getty, best known as a wise-cracking octogenarian on the popular 1980s and '90s sitcom "The Golden Girls," died on Tuesday. She was 84.

Hit BBC television show "Little Britain" is taking its outrageous satirical humour to U.S. premium cable channel HBO in September, drawing on stars such as David Schwimmer and Rosie O'Donnell to lure U.S. audiences.

The smaller of Hollywood's two performers unions ratified a new prime-time TV contract on Tuesday, undermining a last-ditch bid by the larger, more militant Screen Actors Guild to secure a richer deal.

Rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his raucous family - former stars of MTV - are headed back to U.S. television as hosts of a prime-time variety hour in the works for the Fox network.

Oscar winning actor Ben Affleck has taken on a new job, if only for one assignment, traveling to the war-torn eastern Congo to do a report for Thursday's U.S. edition of ABC television news program "Nightline."

Former TV presenter John Leslie said on Tuesday that a rape allegation against him was "completely untrue."

Psychiatrist and broadcaster Dr Raj Persaud was suspended for three months after being found unfit to practice for plagiarising other people's work, the medical watchdog said on Friday.

Britney Spears' 17-year-old sister Jamie Lynn, star of Nickelodeon's popular TV show "Zoey 101," has given birth to a baby girl, People magazine reported on Thursday.

Tim Russert, who became a household name in American political discourse as host of NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday talk show, died on the job of a heart attack on Friday, the television network said. He was 58.

Former Bond girl Denise Richards, currently starring in a reality television series about her chaotic life, has one key thing to say to ex-husband Charlie Sheen now that he has remarried: stop picking on me.

Milkman's son Lee McQueen, whose party trick is a reverse pterodactyl impression, has been hired as Alan Sugar's 100,000 pounds-a-year "Apprentice," beating hot favourite Claire Young in the final of the business TV show.