Entertainment News Roundup: Swift, Grande lead VMA nominations but K-pop fans unhappy; 'Endgame' becomes box-office champ

Following is a summary of current entertainment news briefs.

Lebanese church demands cancellation of Mashrou' Leila show

Lebanese church leaders have demanded the cancellation of a concert by Lebanese band Mashrou' Leila on the grounds its songs are blasphemous, leading the group to say it is the target of a campaign based on fabrications to crush freedom of expression. Though Mashrou' Leila has played all over Lebanon, plans for its Aug. 9 performance at this year's Byblos International Festival have been met by a hostile social media campaign.

Swift, Grande lead VMA nominations but K-pop fans unhappy

Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande dominated nominations on Tuesday for the MTV Video Music Awards (VMA) with 10 apiece, but some K-pop fans cried foul when best-selling Korean bands were placed in a separate category. Grande's breakup anthem "thank u, next" and Swift's "You Need to Calm Down," in which she criticizes social media trolls and those who attack LGBTQ people, will contend for the top prizes of song of the year, best pop and video of the year.

Will life imitate art? Steppe queen movie makes Kazakhs wonder

An aging central Asian leader grooms his daughter to succeed him, and she then overcomes suspicion from her patriarchal society to unite her people. It could describe the future trajectory of Dariga Nazarbayeva, the 56-year-old daughter of Kazakhstan's former leader Nursultan Nazarbayev, who many people believe will eventually become president of the oil-producing nation.

'Avatar' and 'Avengers' trade compliments as 'Endgame' becomes box-office champ

Director James Cameron on Monday handed over the baton for the biggest box-office movie of all time to the makers of "Avengers: Endgame" after it ended the 10-year record of "Avatar." The Marvel Studios superhero movie "Avengers: Endgame" at the weekend overtook the $2.789 billion record set by Cameron's 2009 sci-fi film "Avatar" to bring its global total to $2.790 billion, according to box-office data.

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