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ADELE: Adele and Ed Sheeran were crowned Best British Female and Male Artist at the Brit Awards ceremony in London Tuesday.

"It's been an amazing year. Thank you," the BBC quoted Adele as saying.

She also took home the Best Album trophy for her "21" set. She recently won six Grammy Awards in Los Angeles.

The singer's second Brit Awards acceptance speech was cut short so Blur could give the final performance of the evening, prompting Adele to briefly flip her middle finger in protest. She apologized quickly after the ceremony.

"I flung the middle finger. That was for the suits at the Brit Awards, not my fans. I'm sorry if I offended anyone, but the suits offended me," the BBC reported she said. The show's producers issued their own mea culpa to Adele as well, apologizing for cutting her off.

British rapper M.I.A. drew criticism this month when she made the same obscene gesture during the Super Bowl Halftime Show she was performing with Madonna in Indianapolis.

Sheeran also earned the Brit Award for British Breakthrough Artist, while boy band One Direction picked up the prize for Best British Single for its song "What Makes You Beautiful" and Coldplay was named Best British Group for a third time.

Bruno Mars and Rihanna won the awards for Best International Male and Female Artist, and Foo Fighters won for Best International Group.

Actor James Corden served as host of the ceremony, which aired on ITV1.

MINNIE DRIVER: British actress Minnie Driver revealed for the first time the father of her 3-year-old son was a screenwriter on her TV series "The Riches."

The "Circle of Friends" and "Good Will Hunting" actress did not say what the man's name was, but said he had been part of the writing team of her former show, UsMagazine.com said.

"I don't need to protect him anymore," Driver told the British newspaper The Observer. "He can fend for himself. He's a grown-up. We weren't together and he wasn't directly in the business so I chose to protect him and not have a rain of publicity. ... He's not famous. ... There's no big story."

As for what kind of father the mystery man is, Driver said: "Is he a good dad? Sort of. He's figuring it out. ... I mean, he hasn't been that involved -- his choice. But he is now."

"The Riches," co-starring Eddie Izzard, ran for two seasons in 2007-08 on U.S. cable network FX.

WILL FERRELL: Will Ferrell dressed as King Bacchus, Roman God of Wine, as he rode on a float in one of New Orleans' Mardi Gras parades.

Ferrell, who has been in the Louisiana city since November working on the political comedy "The Campaign," was chosen as the star of Monday's parade, E! News said.

His co-star in the movie, Zach Galifianakis, wore a mask and rode behind Ferrell's float. Ferrell, meanwhile, was wearing a flowing robe and crown, E! said.

"I don't know what to expect. I do have to say, everybody is coming up to me and ... they have the same speech pattern. They go, 'Have you been here before for Mardi Gras?' And I say, 'No.' Then they pause. 'Oh. You're going to have a good time,'" Ferrell told The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune before taking part in the parade. "It's slightly ominous, almost like it's going to be fraternity hazing or something. But I don't know what to expect. I'm not going to try to predict [what happens], and I think it's going to be crazy and fun."

TRAIN: Grammy Award-winning pop rock band Train said Tuesday it is planning a string of six hometown club shows in San Francisco.

The tour is in anticipation of the "Hey, Soul Sister" singers' upcoming album "California 37," due out April 17.

The first of the San Francisco dates will be April 10 at Cafe Du Nord. The mini-tour is to finish up April 15 at the Fillmore.

A portion of the ticket sales proceeds will go to the San Francisco charity Family House, which provides temporary housing to families of seriously ill children, the group said in a news release.

The band's lead singer, Pat Monahan, is to perform the national anthem at NASCAR's Daytona 500 race Sunday.