Guilty Pleasures
By NewsPress Now
Jelly Roll, Kelsea Ballerini, Lainey Wilson lead CMT Music Awards noms
LOS ANGELES | Jelly Roll, Kelsea Ballerini, Lainey Wilson, Megan Moroney, and Cody Johnson are the leading nominees for the 2024 CMT Music Awards, celebrating the best in country music videos.
On Wednesday, CMT announced the nominees for their fan-voted awards show, where the five artists are tied with three nominations apiece.
Ballerini will also host the show, live from Austin, Texas’ Moody Center on Sunday, April 7 beginning at 8 p.m. EDT/PDT.
All — save for Moroney — are up for the night’s biggest honor, video of the year, which has 16 contenders, not including featured artists.
Also nominated in the category: Ashley McBryde, Brandy Clark featuring Brandi Carlile (for “Dear Insecurity,” which won Clark her first Grammy last month ), Mickey Guyton featuring Kane Brown, Brothers Osbourne, Darius Rucker, HARDY, Jordan Davis, Kacey Musgraves, Parmalee, Tyler Childers, Zach Bryan and Jason Aldean (for “Let Your Boys Be Country,” not “Try That in a Small Town,” which CMT pulled last year in response to an outcry over its setting and lyrics.)
For Jelly Roll, it is his first nomination in the category. Last year, he was the CMT Music Awards’ most awarded artist, taking home three trophies.
There are also 14 first-time nominees this year, a list that includes some acts that go beyond country music — a direct reflection of CMT’s spotlight on genre-blending collaborations.
Those new names include Amber Riley, Ashley Cooke, Anne Wilson, Ella Langley, The Castellows, Tigirlily Gold, Bret Michaels, Chayce Beckham, Hozier, Koe Wetzel, Stephen Wilson Jr., Tyler Childers, Warren Zeiders, and Zach Bryan.
In the female video of the year category, Ashley McBryde, Gabby Barrett, Kacey Musgraves, Kelsea Ballerini, Lainey Wilson, Megan Moroney and Reba McEntire square off.
In the breakthrough female video of the year, its Anne Wilson, Ashley Cooke, Brittney Spencer and Tigirlily Gold. Morgan Wallen, one of the genre’s top stars, received only one nomination: for male video of the year for “Last Night (One Record at a Time Sessions).” He’s up against Bailey Zimmerman’s “Religiously,” Cody Johnson’s “The Painter,” HARDY’s “Truck Bed,” Jelly Roll’s “Need A Favor,” Jordan Davis’ “Next Thing You Know” and Luke Combs’ “Fast Car (Official Live Video).”
Wallen’s 2023 album, “One Thing at a Time,” spent 19 weeks at No. 1 on the all-genre Billboard 200 chart, making it the most popular album of any style last year. Its run broke a record previously held by Garth Brooks’s 1991 LP “Ropin’ the Wind” by becoming the longest reigning No. 1 country album, ever.
In the breakthrough male video of the year category, Chayce Beckham, Tyler Childers, Warren Zeiders and Zach Bryan go head-to-head.
The show will air on CBS and stream live to Paramount+ who also have have a Showtime subscription. Otherwise, it will be available to stream on Paramount+ the following day.
Fans can vote for their favorite music videos at vote.cmt.com. Voting for the coveted “video of the year” award will remain open into the live show.
Olivia Munn reveals she was diagnosed with breast cancer
Olivia Munn has revealed that she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent a double mastectomy, thanking her doctors and urging fans to calculate their own risk assessment.
“I’m lucky. We caught it with enough time that I had options. I want the same for any woman who might have to face this one day,” the 43-year-old actor posted on Instagram on Wednesday with photos and a video of her being treated at a hospital.
Munn said she took a genetic test in February 2023 that checks for 90 different cancer genes and was negative for all. Even so, her doctor decided to calculate her Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Score and that “saved my life,” Munn wrote.
Recording a high score, Munn had imaging tests and then got a biopsy, which found she had an aggressive form of cancer in both breasts. She had a double mastectomy 30 days after the biopsy and has had four surgeries in the past 10 months. She said she kept it private because “I needed to catch my breath and get through some of the hardest parts before sharing.”
Munn thanked family and friends, especially her partner, comedian John Mulaney, “for being there before I went into each surgery and being there when I woke up, always placing framed photos of our little boy Malcolm so it would be the first thing I saw when I opened my eyes.”
Munn was a correspondent on “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and her movie credits include “Magic Mike,” “The Predator,” “Office Christmas Party” and “X-Men: Apocalypse.”
Kelly Clarkson and Peyton Manning join NBC’s Olympics team
LOS ANGELES | Singer Kelly Clarkson and NFL legend Peyton Manning will bring a new flavor to NBC Universal’s upcoming Paris Olympics coverage this summer.
Clarkson and Manning are expected to join Mike Tirico to host the opening ceremony, the network announced Tuesday night. The ceremony’s live coverage will air July 26 on NBC and Peacock at noon ET.
“I’m extremely honored to have a front row seat,” said Manning, a Pro Football Hall of Famer who won two Super Bowls during his 18 seasons in the NFL. He is now the co-host of “Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli” with his brother and former NFL quarterback Eli Manning.
Clarkson is a three-time Grammy and multi-Emmy winner through her NBC talk show “The Kelly Clarkson Show.” She also hosted the NFL Honors last year.
“Kelly and I are both fans of the athletes and the opening ceremony of years past,” Manning told The Associated Press in an interview Tuesday. “I think there’ll be a lot of emotions for these athletes. I look forward to finding out those stories between now and July and maybe sharing that with the audience.”
Manning said he’ll be stepping out his comfort zone of usually talking football, but Tirico believes he and Clarkson will do just fine. The trio will be positioned at the Trocadero near the ceremony’s finish with views of the Seine River and Eiffel Tower.
“Our goal and desire is for Peyton and Kelly to be Peyton and Kelly. Just be who they are,” said Tirico, who will host his fourth opening ceremony. “So many people have come to know, love and trust these two. Having them there as part of this really speaks to what this event is. It’s under the umbrella of sports. The gathering is because of sports. But it’s really a cultural celebration.”
Organizers said the opening ceremony of the Olympics along the Seine will be held during sunset. It’s the first time an Olympic opening ceremony will be held outside a stadium setting, in line with the Paris organizers’ motto: “Games Wide Open.”
About 10,500 athletes will parade through the heart of the French capital on boats on the Seine along a 6-kilometer (3.7-mile) route.
“Today” show hosts Savannah Guthrie and Hoda Kotb will be stationed together on a bridge along the route. They’re expected to report on the pageantry of the ceremony as the athletes sail by.
Molly Solomon, executive producer and president of NBC Olympics Production, said each host will bring the best out of each other. She called them a “compelling combination.”
“I’m excited about this whole team,” said Solomon, who noted that Guthrie and Kotb will have the best seats during the opening ceremony for their telecast.
“They’re going to be taking in the athlete boat parade from one of the bridges, where all the fans will be watching,” she said. “They’re really going to contribute from a very unique perspective. They’ll be watching the ceremony as the fans do. It’ll be a great experience.”
Judge schedules sentencing for movie armorer in shooting
SANTA FE, N.M. | A judge has scheduled sentencing next month for a movie set armorer convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer by Alec Baldwin on the set of the Western film “Rust,” court records indicated Wednesday.
Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted by a jury last week in the shooting on the outskirts of Santa Fe, New Mexico, during a rehearsal in October 2021. Baldwin was indicted by a grand jury in January and has pleaded not guilty to an involuntary manslaughter charge, with trial set for July.
Santa Fe-based Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer set aside two hours for Gutierrez-Reed’s sentencing hearing on the morning of April 15. Marlowe Sommer also is assigned to oversee Baldwin’s trial.
Involuntary manslaughter carries a felony sentence of up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. Gutierrez-Reed is being held pending sentencing at the Santa Fe County Adult Detention Facility.
Defense attorney Jason Bowles indicated last week that Gutierrez-Reed plans to appeal the conviction.
Baldwin was pointing a gun at cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when the revolver went off, killing Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. Baldwin has maintained that he pulled back the gun’s hammer, but not the trigger.
Prosecutors blamed Gutierrez-Reed at a two-week trial for unwittingly bringing live ammunition onto the set of “Rust” where it was expressly prohibited. They also said she failed to follow basic gun-safety protocols.
“Rust” assistant director and safety coordinator Dave Halls last year pleaded no contest to negligent handling of a firearm and completed a sentence of six months unsupervised probation.
—From AP reports
