The MTV Movie Awards handed top prizes to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on Sunday night, naming the dystopian thriller best movie and handing honors for best male and female performances to Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence. But as is often the case at the annual ceremony, coming movies carried the most interest, as a number of big releases received key promotional pushes. X-Men: Days of Future Past and The Amazing Spider-Man2, two of the most anticipated titles in the coming wave of superhero movies, unveiled new commercials, as did Transformers: Age of Extinction. That film’s star, Mark Wahlberg, received MTV’s Generation Award and worked in a reference to the movie in his speech. The MTV Movie Awards, hosted by talk-show host Conan O’Brien at the Nokia Theatre, is as much a gauge of the popularity of new movies as it is a celebration of past work. Amid the pitches for new movies, the awards, most of which were voted on by fans, appeared to be an afterthought at times. Four of the five nominees for best male performance were not present. The winner - Hutcherson - was the only one who attended the ceremony.
Entertainer Flavor Flav pleaded guilty Monday to reduced charges and was sentenced to probation and more counseling in a Las Vegas domestic-violence case involving the teenage son of his longtime girlfriend. The 55-year-old rapper and reality TV personality, whose legal name is William Jonathan Drayton Jr., acknowledged in court that he wielded a kitchen knife during an Oct. 17, 2012, argument in Las Vegas. The teen testified during a preliminary hearing a year ago that Drayton threatened to kill him, chased him to a bedroom and stabbed the knife through the door during the argument. The family has since reconciled and has been undergoing counseling, defense attorney Kristina Wildeveld told Senior Clark County District Judge Kathy Hardcastle on Monday. The teen, now 18, and his mother were not in court when Drayton entered his plea to misdemeanor charges of attempted battery that could have caused substantial injury and battery constituting domestic violence. Drayton had been facing charges of felony assault and child endangerment with a weapon, which could have resulted in up to 12 years in prison.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 04/15/2014