MTV’s VMAs Bring the Booty, but Not So Much the Bounty, With Most A-Listers MIA: TV Review

Andrea Meza rose to prominence after being crowned Miss Universe 2020, becoming the third Mexican woman to be crowned Miss Universe. Although the beauty pageant titleholder holds the record of the shortest completed reign in Miss Universe history to date, it doesn’t mean it was the end of a successful career in the entertainment and fashion industry.After passing down the crown, Meza began her journey as a tv host in the Spanish-language tv show “En Casa con Telemundo,” and after her ongoing work, Meza was able to debut at the New York Fashion Week and model for the legendary brand and fashion designer, Custo Barcelona.During an interview with HOLA! USA, Meza spoke about her magical experience returning to the runway, what’s next in her career and if she would ever become a fashion designer like many other celebrities. Find below everything she shared.It was a lovely experience.

Cardi B is helping her community with a very generous donation. The successful rapper visited her former middle school in the Bronx, New York, and got emotional, surprising the students at the auditorium.“I hope today is not a tearjerker day for me,” Cardi said in a video on Instagram.

Cardi B made a surprise appearance at her old school in the Bronx, New York on Tuesday, donating $100,000 to help and further the students education. The rapper returned to IS 232 in the Morris Heights neighborhood as part of the Community Capacity Development programme. She spoke to students and took questions before surprising the kids and teachers with the donation.

Cardi B is giving back to her community! On Tuesday, the 29-year-old rapper first teased her charitable day on her Instagram Stories, saying in a video, «I hope today's not a tearjerker day for me.»NBC New York reporter Kay Angrum later shared a video of Cardi surprising the students and staff at I.S. 232, her former middle school in the Bronx, New York, by donating $100,000. She made the appearance wearing an all-red dress and waving to the crowd in the auditorium as everyone cheered.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Freddie Freeman was hitting homers down in San Diego, so it was up to visiting superstar Lady Gaga to keep the on-base percentage exceptionally high Saturday night at Dodger Stadium, site of one of the last stops on her “Chromatica Ball” outing. Surprises were few, this many weeks into a mega-tour whose production values were already known among the legions of Little Monsters who’d long since put curious paws to Googling Gaga’s setlists and setpieces. Anyway, knowing what’s coming doesn’t quash the overpowering effects of a savvy performer who’s determined to look as cold as inhumanly possible while also, conversely, sounding like the warmest superstar you’ve ever encountered. Does that count, in ballplaying terms, as a slider?

yes, she’s an EGOT) Jennifer Hudson heads to daytime television on Monday, with the launch of “The Jennifer Hudson” show. And according to Andy Lassner, one of the show’s executive producers, what the “American Idol” alum brings to her take on talk TV is a universal relatability.“I think what’s important with her is that she appeals to everybody, because she has a story of perseverance,” Lassner, who spoke to TheWrap on behalf of the EP team that also includes Mary Connelly and Corey Palent for our Fall TV Preview, said.

Daniel D'Addario Chief TV Critic The prospect of Susan Sarandon leading an “Empire”-style music drama set in the world of country music is an instantly alluring one. Not merely is Sarandon a compelling screen presence (one who FX’s “Feud” proved works well on TV), but the particular contours of her public image as a stalwart leftist activist would seem to rub up intriguingly against her character, a survivor in the culturally conservative world of Nashville. Bad luck for viewers, then, that Sarandon, largely at a remove from the story for plot reasons, is such a minimally used part of Fox’s new drama “Monarch,” and that the elements that supersede her hold such little interest. Dottie Cantrell Roman and Albie Roman, played by Sarandon and Trace Adkins, are the parents to three children, two of them rival vocalists (Anna Friel and Beth Ditto); Dottie and Albie’s son (Joshua Sasse) must try to hold the clan together despite his sisters’ egos and need for validation.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic When it comes to coffee-table books that survey the great album covers of the classic rock era, there are generally two kinds: those that include a lot of the work of the 1970s design team called Hipgnosis, and those that consist entirely of Hipgnosis’ work. Virtually any rock superstar who had the cachet to ask his record company to blow hundreds of thousands of dollars on a Hipgnosis cover went for the splurge of commissioning an original piece of art that might join classic LP jackets from Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin in a renaissance of 12’x12′ photographic surrealism. Only Hipgnosis could shoot a photo of a cow against a blue sky, put it on a Floyd cover (“Atom Heart Mother”), and make it look like an act of mysterious profundity on a level with the greatest works of Magritte.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic It’s fair to say that Abbey Road Studios is the most documented recording facility in the world, but only if you count the crosswalk outside. Otherwise, the nine-bedroom mansion turned studio hasn’t really had its day in the cinematic sun, the way that more modest studios like L.A.’s Sound City and Alabama’s Muscle Shoals have. Making up for that with an A-lister-filled movie treatment is “If These Walls Could Sing,” the first feature-length documentary from Mary McCartney, who has a hell of a shared Rolodex to draw upon in gathering the firsthand rock ‘n’ roll anecdotes you expect and want in a film like this. She’s also savvy enough to know that the guy working in the back gluing irreplaceable mid-century microphones back together deserves a few seconds of screen time, too.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Nick Lowe and Shakespeare were wrong, about having to be cruel to be kind. A tour stop Tuesday in Anaheim that had Lowe supporting headliner Elvis Costello as an opening act before eventually joining him for three climactic duets was kindly and 100% cruelty-free, reuniting the two former studio workmates in a fashion that made it seem as if no 40-year intervals had passed at all, except for the incidental actually-getting-better factors. (You’re not getting older, you’re getting Basher, etc.) Not that the show at the City National Grove of Anaheim — one of several SoCal appearances this week by Costello, with and without Lowe in tow — needed its crowning dream-teaminess to come up aces. Costello’s current sets with the Imposters represent the best example rock ‘n’ roll has at the moment of a vast catalog of classic material played with improvisational vigor by one of the great bands the medium has known, augmented by fresh material that can stand proudly alongside the vintage. “Indoor Fireworks” was one of the quieter songs performed Tuesday, but it’s an apt description of what’s occurring on this can’t-miss outing (with apologies to the shed stops where the group pyro happens outdoors).

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Ingrid Andress is, by most measures, one of the most successful upstarts in mainstream country music over the past few years. After her debut album, “Lady Like,” came out in 2020, the Michigan native was nominated for best new artist at the Grammys as well as by the CMAs and ACMs. She’s a thoughtful live-wire and a media darling — those media including the press, late-night shows and, yes, country radio. Her first single, “More Hearts Than Mine,” was a double-platinum breakout hit that went top 5 at country radio, and a recent duet with Sam Hunt, “Wishful Drinking,” went top 10. She lands coveted tour spots, like her current one opening arena shows for Keith Urban all the way into November.

Bad Bunny took home one of the biggest awards of the night!

leading the pack with seven nominations a piece. Other A-listers hoping to take home statues include Doja Cat, Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, Drake, Dua Lipa, Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, Olivia Rodrigo and Drake.Much-anticipated highlights include a “first of its kind” joint performance by Eminem and Snoop Dogg to showcase their gamer-friendly collaboration “From the D 2 The LBC,” plus a mid-concert beam-in by Bad Bunny from Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, the latest stop on his “World’s Hottest Tour.” Other performers include Lizzo, J Balvin, BLACKPINK, Panic! At The Disco, Anitta, Kane Brown, Måneskin and Marshmello x Khalid.The event is hosted by former Grammy emcee LL Cool J, “What’s Poppin” Jack Harlow and red-carpet-ready Nicki Minaj, who will also receive this year’s Video Vanguard Award.

MTV Video Music Awards are back Sunday with some of the biggest names in music vying for the network’s fabled Moon Person statue.Lil Nas X, Jack Harlow and Kendrick Lamar are tied for leading nominees with seven apiece. Harlow and Lil Nas X’s collaboration “Industry Baby” propelled their nominations, landing them in competition for artist of the year along with Drake, Bad Bunny, Ed Sheeran, Harry Styles and Lizzo.Closely behind are Harry Styles and Doja Cat, who received six nominations apiece, while Sheeran, Billie Eilish, Drake, Dua Lipa, Tayler Swift and The Weeknd each have five.Harlow is pulling double duty, joining LL Cool J and Nicki Minaj as the show’s emcees.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic The Nashville Film Festival announced the full lineup Friday for a fall gathering of filmgoers in Music City that will begin with the Brandi Carlile-produced documentary “The Return of Tanya Tucker” as the gala opening on Sept. 29 and end with director Sacha Jenkins’ “Louis Armstrong’s Black & Blues” for closing night on Oct. 5. The 53rd annual edition of the festival will take place both in-person and virtually, with a selection of more than 150 films that includes 38 full-length features, about 30 of which will be world, North American or U.S. premieres. Although the virtual component continues to be strong for the festival, its leaders note that of the 150 or so films in the festival, more than 50 will screen for audiences in Nashville venues, starting with the Tanya Tucker doc, which will be seen in the historic main auditorium of the city’s beloved Belcourt Theater, one of the original homes of the Grand Ole Opry. Other locations include the Franklin Theater in the nearby city of that name, and the TPAC Andrew Johnson Theater in downtown Nashville.

Chris Willman Senior Music Writer and Chief Music Critic Stepping into Muse frontman Matt Bellamy’s Los Angeles studio is immediately surreal, on a couple of different fronts. For one thing, there’s the fact that it’s in an unmarked former storefront on a heavily trafficked urban street, so on the other side of the one-way glass, pedestrians are constantly passing by, unaware that they’re about two yards away from a rock star coming up with new songs to potentially join “Madness” or ”Uprising” guy as new KROQ-driven earworms in their heads. But apart from the street scene outside practically brushing up against his console, there’s something else about the place… “I don’t know if you remember the TV show ‘Twin Peaks,’” Bellamy inquires. As a matter of fact, yes. “Do you remember the Red Room? We’re sitting in it, basically,” he says, and sure enough, here in the front room of his studio, there is the black-and-white zig-zag flooring, the wrap-around red drapes, the minimalist lamp, the vaguely retro sitting chair…. Bellamy is a student of fantastical pop culture, so it makes sense that he’s surrounded by a Lynchian throwback space — even if the rock arias he creates here passionately reach for the sky, rather than feeling like they’re stuck in an interdimensional waiting room.

Heather Rae El Moussa is sticking up for herself and husband Tarek El Moussa.

Ewan McGregor (Obi Wan Kenobi) has been cast as the lead in Paramount+’s upcoming UK drama series A Gentleman in Moscow, replacing Kenneth Branagh, news that came as Paramount Premium Group CEO David Nevins laid out his vision for Paramount+’s international expansion and talked creativity at the Edinburgh TV Festival.