Entertainment News Roundup: Disney, Charter reach distribution deal ahead of 'Monday Night Football'; Taylor Swift wins top honor at MTV's Video Music Awards and more

Starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo, the British-made film wowed festival-goers with its zany story of a woman reanimated after suicide by a mad doctor who replaces her brain with that of her unborn baby. Taylor Swift wins top honor at MTV's Video Music Awards Pop superstar Taylor Swift took home the top prize at MTV's Video Music Awards on Tuesday, winning video of the year and other honors for her hit "Anti-Hero".

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

Disney, Charter reach distribution deal ahead of 'Monday Night Football'

Walt Disney and Charter Communications said on Monday they have reached a deal that will see the media giant's networks, including ESPN, return to the Spectrum cable service just hours before the start of NFL "Monday Night Football." News of the potential deal eased some fears that the traditional cable TV bundle, long a profit-engine for media

From 'Hair Love' to 'Young Love': A Black family's animated TV tale

When director and writer Matthew A. Cherry started a crowdsourced fund in 2017 for his animated short film "Hair Love," he could not have imagined it would go on to win an Oscar in 2020 and eventually grow into the 2023 Max series "Young Love." As the series creator, he was keen to continue the story of the family in "Young Love," which premieres on Sept. 21 and runs for 12 episodes.

Wild comedy 'Poor Things' wins top prize at Venice Festival

"Poor Things", a gothic, sex-charged comedy directed by Greece's Yorgos Lanthimos, won the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival on Saturday. Starring Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe and Mark Ruffalo, the British-made film wowed festival-goers with its zany story of a woman reanimated after suicide by a mad doctor who replaces her brain with that of her unborn baby.

Taylor Swift wins top honor at MTV's Video Music Awards

Pop superstar Taylor Swift took home the top prize at MTV's Video Music Awards on Tuesday, winning video of the year and other honors for her hit "Anti-Hero". The first single from Swift's "Midnights" album, "Anti-Hero" is a tale of insecurities with a chorus declaring: "It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me".

Belgium premiers opera casting Cassandra as climate change scientist

Belgium's national opera house has premiered "Cassandra", an original score recasting the mythical figure of a doomed prophetess as a climate change scientist whose warnings about global warming go unheeded. The play develops in parallel worlds, one inhabited by Cassandra, cursed by ancient Greek gods to be disbelieved by contemporaries as she foresees the fall of their city of Troy, which inevitably materialises in a bloody carnage.

Polish filmmaker brings struggle of Ukrainian evacuations to TIFF

Days after Russia launched its war on Ukraine, Polish filmmaker Maciek Hamela left his home in Warsaw, bought a van, and began transporting evacuees to safety. Hamela's documentary, "In the Rearview," chronicles six months of journeys and hours of footage, giving a raw and intimate picture of the war in real time.

Ethan Hawke taps Flannery O'Connor's fiction to tell her story in 'Wildcat'

Director Ethan Hawke took a deep dive into the fiction of the late American author Flannery O'Connor for his new film "Wildcat," hoping to tell her story in a way that helps the viewer make sense of her world view developed as a white Roman Catholic child of the segregated American South. Born in 1925, O'Connor was a highly regarded fiction writer in the Southern Gothic style. Yet in the nearly 60 years since her untimely death from lupus, her personal letters and opinions on race have been criticized for evidence of racial prejudice.

Elliot Page hopes new film 'Close to You' cracks open hearts and minds

Canadian actor Elliot Page hopes that his role in the new film "Close to You" moves people and cracks open the hearts and minds of viewers as it did for him. The film, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival on Sunday, explores the story of Page's character Sam, who returns home after gender transition for a family reunion, dreading the awkward questions and comments that he is likely to encounter.

Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard bring Hollywood to TIFF amid strikes

Actors Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard brought Hollywood glamour to the Toronto International Film Festival for their family drama "Memory" amid strikes that have kept most celebrities off the carpets. The film received an interim agreement from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), allowing the stars to promote their work at a festival that's been mostly star-less due to the ongoing writers' and actors' strikes.