Entertainment News Roundup: South African musician Johnny Clegg dead at 66; HBO sets Emmy nominations record, tops Netflix

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

Netflix deletes suicide scene from popular youth show, '13 Reasons Why'

Netflix Inc. is removing a controversial graphic scene depicting a youth suicide from its popular young adult drama "13 Reasons Why", following advice from medical experts, the company said on its Twitter account early on Tuesday. The show, based on a book of the same name, depicts the suicide of the protagonist in the last episode of season 1, with a scene of the youth Hannah slitting her wrists in a bathtub.

'Game of Thrones' dominates and 'kick-ass' women break through at Emmys

Medieval fantasy "Game of Thrones" scored a record 32 Emmy nominations on Tuesday, but the contenders for the highest honors in television were dominated by newcomers, many of them women, and shows about political and social justice. The 2019 lineup for the Emmys represented the widest array of first-time nominees in eight years, the Television Academy said, with nine new shows contending for the top prizes of the best drama and best comedy series.

South African musician Johnny Clegg dead at 66

South African singer and songwriter Johnny Clegg, one of the few white artists to openly confront the apartheid government in the late 1970s and 1980s, died on Tuesday aged 66, his agent said. He had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2015.

Box Office: 'Spider-Man: Far From Home' crushes 'crawl,' 'stuber'

Sony's "Spider-Man: Far From Home" claimed victory again during its second weekend in theaters, dominating over new releases, Paramount's gator thriller "Crawl" and Disney's R-rated comedy "Stuber." The superhero tentpole collected another $45 million, boosting domestic grosses to $274 million. This weekend's haul represents a 50% decline in ticket sales from its inaugural outing, a stronger hold compared to its predecessor, 2017's "Spider-Man: Homecoming."

R. Kelly pleads not guilty, denied bail on U.S. charges of sex crimes

R&B singer R. Kelly pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to a raft of federal charges accusing him of running a scheme to force women and girls to provide sex for himself and others, and a judge ordered that he remain in jail without bail. A federal judge said the main reason he was denying bail was obstruction of justice charges, part of a multi-count indictment unveiled on Friday in Chicago and New York.

Troubled Woodstock 50 festival bids for 'great American comeback'

The organizers of the troubled Woodstock 50 festival are making a last-ditch attempt to save the event next month, pledging jobs and donations to community projects in a bid to win support from residents in a small town in upstate New York. The organizers said they would hold an open house on Monday night and on Tuesday to present their proposals to residents in Vernon ahead of making a third bid for permits to stage a three-day event marking the 50th anniversary of the famed 1969 "peace and music" festival.

Disney goes high-tech to draw fans to a new 'Lion King'

Walt Disney Co has taken a high-tech route to remake animated classic "The Lion King" with the look of a nature documentary, an update it hopes will lure audiences to a new version of a film considered a masterpiece the first time. The re-telling of the 1994 tale about the lion cub Simba, which opens in theaters around the world this week, was created with computer animation, gaming technology, and virtual reality, plus live-action filmmaking techniques, director Jon Favreau said.

Rapper Meek Mill seeks new trial to end decade-long probation

Lawyers for Meek Mill on Tuesday asked a Pennsylvania appeals court to overturn 2008 drugs and gun conviction that has kept the rapper on probation for a decade and made him a celebrity advocate for U.S. criminal justice reform. Defense lawyers said the Philadelphia judge who has long overseen Meek Mill's case is no longer impartial and has become overly involved in his life, once visiting a homeless shelter to check he was doing mandated community service.

HBO sets Emmy nominations record, tops Netflix

AT&T Inc's premium cable network HBO scored a record 137 Emmy nominations on Tuesday, topping streaming service Netflix Inc in what has become an annual battle for bragging rights in the contest for television's biggest awards. A large chunk of HBO's tally came from medieval fantasy "Game of Thrones," which received 32 nominations, the highest total for a drama series in a single year. Limited series "Chernobyl" about the 1986 nuclear disaster hauled in 19.