‘Avengers: Endgame’, ‘GoT’ dominate
SC Justice Ginsburg unexpected pop culture icon
LOS ANGELES, June 18, (Agencies): Superhero blockbuster “Avengers: Endgame” was the top winner at the MTV Movie and TV awards on Monday in a show marked by messages of empowerment and self-esteem.
The Marvel movie, the second biggest box office hit of all time, took wins for best movie, villain (Josh Brolin’s Thanos) and hero (Robert Downey Jr’s Iron Man.)
But US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the diminutive, 86-year-old liberal judge, was voted best real-life hero, cementing her status as an unexpected pop culture icon, especially among women. She did not attend the MTV ceremony in the California beach city of Santa Monica.
The MTV Movie and TV awards usually focus on crowd-pleasers and is an irreverent antidote to the more serious winter Hollywood awards season. Winners get popcorn shaped trophies and are chosen by fans voting online.
But while medieval fantasy “Game of Thrones” was named best TV show on Monday, other awards went to darker fare.
“Surviving R. Kelly”, in which seven women spoke on camera about what they said was years of sexual and emotional abuse by the “I Believe I Can Fly” singer, won best documentary.
The Lifetime network documentary led to Kelly being dropped by his record company and to criminal charges in Chicago of aggravated sexual assault involving four women, three of them minors. Kelly has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
“Survivors walked through the fire and then stood again to tell this story,” Brie Miranda Bryant, an executive with Lifetime, said in an acceptance speech. Elisabeth Moss, star of “The Handmaid’s Tale”, took the award for best performance in a TV show, a category that was entirely made up of women. The bleak drama series portrays a near future in which women are stripped of all their rights, including working and reading.
Brie Larson’s “Captain Marvel” triumphed in the best fight category, while MTV’s popular best kiss award went to newcomers Noah Centineo and Lana Condor from the Asianled teen movie “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”.
“Love who you want to love, and
GLAAD?” The video closes with the message: “Let’s show our pride by demanding that, on a national level, our laws truly treat all of our citizens equally. Please sign my petition for Senate support of the Equality Act on change.org.” don’t let anyone tell you otherwise,” Condor, 22, told the audience.
Actor, producer and wrestler Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was given the Generation award for a career that encompasses more than 30 film and TV shows, including the “Fast and Furious” movie franchise.
Johnson told the audience that when he first came to Hollywood some 15 years ago, the entertainment industry didn’t know how to handle a 6-foot-4inch, muscled, half black, half Samoan man, “so I decided I wasn’t going to conform to Hollywood, Hollywood was going to conform to me”.
Breakout singer Lizzo gave her first awards show performance with her hit single “Juice”, an anthem to selfesteem.
Conforming
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson didn’t make a household name for himself by conforming to someone else’s idea of who he should be, an approach he encouraged others to take while accepting a top honor at the MTV Movie & TV Awards.
The actor, producer and former professional wrestler said embracing himself allowed him to carve his own space in the entertainment industry and become one of its biggest stars. He accepted MTV’s generation award with fanfare – running down the stage amidst a blend of hip-hop and Samoan dancers with screens reading “The Rock” in flaming letters behind him – during the show, which was taped Saturday in Santa Monica, California, and aired Monday night.
“The most powerful thing we can be is ourselves,” said Johnson, who is half-black and half-Samoan. He also reminded the audience of its responsibility to reach back for others in the midst of success. Johnson, 47, wasn’t the only one to use his platform during the show for empowerment.
Brie Larson, who won the best fight award for her battle against Minn-Erva (Gemma Chan) in “Captain Marvel”, brought her stunt doubles, Joanna Bennett and Renae Moneymaker, on stage to recognize them for their work.
Inclusivity and celebration seemed to be the themes of the night. The show included with a comedic take on a scene from Jordan Peele’s “Us,” featuring host Zachary Levi. Levi reminded everyone to nurture the kid in themselves
The pro-LGBT video for “YNTCD” features cameos by Ellen Degeneres, Ryan Reynolds, Dexter Mayfield, Laverne Cox, Karamo Brown, Rupaul, Antoni Porowski, Jonathan Van Ness, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Justin Mikita, Bobby Berk, Tan France, and keep following their dreams into adulthood. Lizzo and Bazzi kept the crowd on its feet during their lively musical performances of “Juice” and “Paradise”, respectively.
The upbeat nature of the night didn’t stop some winners from getting serious. Lana Condor managed to bring thoughtfulness to one of the night’s more amusing awards.
“Kiss who you want to kiss. Love who you want to love, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise,” she said, accepting the best kiss honor with “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” co-star Noah Centineo, who also won for breakthrough performance. Daniel Levy shared a similar sentiment after winning the best comedic performance award for “Schitt’s Creek”.
“If I’ve taken anything away from making ‘Schitt’s Creek’, it’s that kindness always wins, and love is best served unconditionally,” he said, wishing everyone a happy pride month. Full list of winners: Avengers: Endgame Game of Thrones
Best movie: Best show: Best performance in a movie:
Lady Gaga (Ally) – ‘A Star is Born’
Best performance in a show:
Elisabeth Moss (June Osborne/Offred) – ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’
Robert Downey Jr (Tony Stark/Iron Man) – ‘Avengers: Endgame’
Best hero:
Josh Brolin (Thanos) – ‘Avengers: Endgame’
Love & Hip
Best villain:
Reality royalty:
Hop: Atlanta
Best comedic performance:
Dan Levy (David Rose) – ‘Schitt’s Creek’
Breakthough
Noah Centineo (Peter Kavinsky) – ‘To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before’
‘Captain Marvel’ – Captain Marvel vs Minn-Erva
Ruth Bader
Best fight:
Best documentary:
Ginsburg – ‘RBG’
Most frightened performance:
Sandra Bullock (Malorie) – ‘Bird Box’
‘Surviving
Best documentary:
R. Kelly’
Best host:
‘n Out’
Nick Cannon – ‘Wild
Most meme-able moment:
‘The Bachelor’ – Colton Underwood jumps the fence
Best musical moment:
Born – ‘Shallow’
A Star is
Billy Porter, Adam Lambert, Todrick Hall, Hayley Kiyoko, Chester Lockhart and Adam Rippon. (RTRS)
LOS ANGELES:
performance:
A jury on Monday ordered VidAngel to pay $62.4 million to Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros for streaming hundreds of movies on its service without permission.
The verdict is potentially a death blow to the Utah-based company, which sought to allow family audiences to watch Hollywood fare while skipping past violence, sex, and other objectionable content.
US District Judge Andre Birotte had already ruled that VidAngel’s service was illegal, leaving the jurors to decide only the amount of damages. VidAngel ripped movies from DVD copies, and then streamed them to users with offensive content filtered out. The company argued this was allowed under the federal Family Movie Act, but Birotte did not agree and ordered the service to shut down in December 2016. The company later relaunched a filtering service for Netflix and Amazon, which continues to operate.
The case has been working its way through court since then. At trial, the studios asked the eight-member jury to impose the maximum penalty of $125 million for illegally streaming 819 movies, arguing that the company had willfully violated copyright law. (RTRS)