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Busta Rhymes and Ricky Martin Will Make History at 2025 MTV VMAs

Ricky Martin. (AFP)
Ricky Martin. (AFP)
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Busta Rhymes and Ricky Martin Will Make History at 2025 MTV VMAs

Ricky Martin. (AFP)
Ricky Martin. (AFP)

This year's MTV Video Music Awards is shaking things up, handing out two new awards to decorated artists in the rap and Latin music genres.

Rapper Busta Rhymes will receive the first ever MTV VMA Rock the Bells Visionary Award and Ricky Martin will be honored with the inaugural Latin Icon Award, the VMAs announced Monday.

The Rock the Bells Visionary Award celebrates the hip-hop star's “boundary-breaking cultural impact and an indomitable musical career,” the announcement read. Rhymes, who has taken the VMAs stage various times since his first performance in 1997, will also perform during the ceremony.

Martin, whose long VMAs history began with his first performance in 1999, will also perform, and be honored for a “four-decade career that launched Latin music and culture into the mainstream,” according to the announcement.

Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s MTV VMAs, so far.

When are the MTV Video Music Awards? The 2025 VMAs will air on Sept. 7 at 8 p.m. Eastern, live from the UBS Arena on New York’s Long Island.

Who is performing at the VMAs? Rhymes and Martin will be joined by a slew of artists confirmed to perform, including Alex Warren, J Balvin, Sabrina Carpenter and sombr.

Warren, who’s nominated for best new artist, best pop and song of the year, will take the VMA stage for the first time, performing his breakout hit, “Ordinary.” Newcomer sombr, a singer-songwriter and producer, will also be making his award show debut.

Balvin will perform “Zun Zun” with Latin singers Justin Quiles and Lenny Tavárez, and “Noventa” with producer DJ Snake.

Carpenter, who offered a debut performance at the VMAs last year, taking home song of the year, will return to perform “Manchild.”

Who will host the VMAs? LL Cool J has snagged wins, co-hosted and performed atop the MTV Video Music Awards stage. Now, the Grammy-winning rapper-actor-author is going solo to host the 2025 awards ceremony.

He's retaking the stage, this time without Nicki Minaj and Jack Harlow, with whom he co-hosted in 2022, the VMAs announced Thursday.

He's also up for the best hip-hop award for his single “Murdergram Deux” featuring Eminem. The single is part of his most recent album, “THE FORCE,” which released in September and was his first album in 11 years.

LL Cool J is a longtime champion of the VMAs, having won his first Moon Person in 1991. He became the first rapper to receive the Video Vanguard Award, in 1997. He also performed in an all-star tribute to hip-hop's 50th anniversary in 2023 and a celebration for Def Jam Records' 40th anniversary last year.

Can I stream the VMAs? Yes, the show will be broadcast by CBS for the first time, and also simulcast on MTV and available for streaming on Paramount+ in the United States.

Who's nominated for the VMAs? Lady Gaga is leading this year's awards with 12 nominations, including artist of the year. The “Mayhem” singer was nearly tied with Bruno Mars, who has 11 nods. The pair’s duet, “Die with a Smile,” is up for four awards, including song of the year.

Gaga's plethora of nominations dethrones Taylor Swift, who held the top spot for two years. This time around, Swift received one artist of the year nomination. The two are accompanied by Bad Bunny, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Morgan Wallen and The Weeknd in that category.

Gaga and Mars are followed by Lamar with 10 nominations, ROSÉ and Carpenter with eight each, Ariana Grande and The Weeknd with seven each and Billie Eilish with six.

Charli XCX also received love with five nominations for her “Brat” Summer success “Guess,” featuring Eilish.

Bad Bunny, Doechii, Ed Sheeran, Jelly Roll, Miley Cyrus and Tate McRae have four nominations each.

Who will receive the Video Vanguard Award? The recipient of the Video Vanguard Award has not been announced yet. The award was given to Katy Perry last year. Previous recipients include Shakira, Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj and Madonna.

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Entertainment

Spielberg Teases New Alien Film 'Disclosure Day' as 'More Truth Than Fiction'

FILE PHOTO: Steven Spielberg, winner of the MPA America250 Award, speaks during the Universal Pictures and Focus Features presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 15, 2026. REUTERS/Caroline Brehman/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Steven Spielberg, winner of the MPA America250 Award, speaks during the Universal Pictures and Focus Features presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 15, 2026. REUTERS/Caroline Brehman/File Photo
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Spielberg Teases New Alien Film 'Disclosure Day' as 'More Truth Than Fiction'

FILE PHOTO: Steven Spielberg, winner of the MPA America250 Award, speaks during the Universal Pictures and Focus Features presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 15, 2026. REUTERS/Caroline Brehman/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Steven Spielberg, winner of the MPA America250 Award, speaks during the Universal Pictures and Focus Features presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 15, 2026. REUTERS/Caroline Brehman/File Photo

Steven Spielberg described his 1977 UFO film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" as his own "speculation" about intelligent life on other planets.

His new alien movie, "Disclosure Day," will offer what Spielberg believes is "more truth than fiction," the veteran filmmaker told theater operators on Wednesday at the CinemaCon convention in Las Vegas.

The maker of "E.T." and 2005's "War of the Worlds" said he decided to journey back into the extraterrestrial realm after reading a 2017 ⁠New York Times ⁠report about US military pilots who reported seeing mysterious flying objects.

"I really, truly believe this movie is going to answer questions," Spielberg said of "Disclosure Day.And this movie is also going to cause you to ask a lot of questions."

"All you need to get from the beginning ⁠to the end is a seat belt," he teased, without elaborating on the plot.

Footage shown to the CinemaCon crowd gave a brief glimpse of an alien leaning over a human child. The film stars Emily Blunt, Josh O'Connor, Colman Domingo and Colin Firth.

"Disclosure Day" will be released by Universal Pictures in June, Reuters reported.

Universal also brought out another acclaimed director, Christopher Nolan, to promote his upcoming film "The Odyssey." The movie, set to debut in July, is based on Homer's epic ⁠about a Greek ⁠king trying to return home after the Trojan War.

"The Odyssey is a story that has fascinated generation after generation for 3,000 years," he said. "It is not a story. It's the story."

The "Oppenheimer" director said "The Odyssey" was "an absolute nightmare to film, but in all the right ways."

Star Matt Damon, who plays Odysseus, endured rough conditions throughout the project, Nolan said.

"He was just there, out there on the boats, up in the mountains, in the caves, in beating sunshine, in sideways rain, wind," he said.

"It's meant to be difficult. That's the nature of the story."

Entertainment

Tom Cruise Touts ‘Wild’ Dark Comedy ‘Digger’ to Theater Owners

Cast member Tom Cruise and director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu of the upcoming film "Digger" react during the Warner Bros. Pictures presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Cast member Tom Cruise and director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu of the upcoming film "Digger" react during the Warner Bros. Pictures presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 14, 2026. (Reuters)
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Tom Cruise Touts ‘Wild’ Dark Comedy ‘Digger’ to Theater Owners

Cast member Tom Cruise and director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu of the upcoming film "Digger" react during the Warner Bros. Pictures presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 14, 2026. (Reuters)
Cast member Tom Cruise and director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu of the upcoming film "Digger" react during the Warner Bros. Pictures presentation at CinemaCon, the official convention of Cinema United, in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, April 14, 2026. (Reuters)

Tom Cruise said he took four decades of acting to get to a place where he could play the eccentric oil tycoon at the center of an upcoming dark comedy, "Digger."

Cruise introduced the first images from the movie on Tuesday at the CinemaCon convention of theater owners in Las Vegas.

They showed the 63-year-old transformed into the character Digger Rockwell, an older man with thinning gray hair, a beer belly, a Southern accent and a fondness ‌for cats.

In ‌the movie, Rockwell inadvertently unleashes an ecological disaster that ‌carries ⁠the world to ⁠the brink of nuclear war, before scrambling to try and save the planet.

"It took 40 years to be able to put on the boots of Digger Rockwell and play the many, many layers of this character," Cruise said. "The movie is wild, it's funny, and I can't wait for you all to see it."

The Warner Bros movie is set ⁠to debut in theaters in October.

Cruise was joined on ‌stage by the film's director, four-time Oscar ‌winner Alejandro Inarritu.

The maker of "Birdman" and "The Revenant" said he and Cruise first discussed ‌the film seven years ago.

Cruise, who was filming "Top Gun: Maverick" ‌at the time, said he had been an admirer of Inarritu's films and rushed over to the director's house on his motorcycle when he asked to meet.

"We know that he is fearless: the stunts, the planes, the jumps," Inarritu ‌said of Cruise. "But I have to say, I think this is another kind of fearless. This ⁠role possibly could ⁠be (his) most challenging," adding, "It was a high-wire act."

Cruise kicked off a celebrity-studded presentation of upcoming films from Warner Bros, the studio coming off a year of commercial success and 11 Oscars. It is in the process of being sold to Paramount Skydance in $110-billion deal.

Zendaya, Timothee Chalamet and Jason Momoa touted "Dune: Part Three," the conclusion to the sci-fi series due for release in December. The film is set 17 years after the events of the second "Dune" movie.

"The years don't seem to have been kind to anyone on Dune," Zendaya said, explaining where the series picks up. "It's been a really difficult, challenging, ungentle and unkind few years, and I think there's so much left still to fight for."

Entertainment

Billy Crystal Will Return to Broadway in One-Man Show About the House He Lost to LA Wildfires

Billy Crystal arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 2, 2025, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP)
Billy Crystal arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 2, 2025, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP)
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Billy Crystal Will Return to Broadway in One-Man Show About the House He Lost to LA Wildfires

Billy Crystal arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 2, 2025, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP)
Billy Crystal arrives at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 2, 2025, at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP)

Billy Crystal will return to Broadway this fall in a very intimate one-man show that will take the audience into his family's longtime Los Angeles home that was leveled in wildfires.

“860,” written and performed by the Tony- and Emmy-winner, will begin previews this October at a theater to be revealed later. The title comes from the street address for the home Crystal and his family lived in for 46 years, a house lost in last year's devastating Palisades fires.

“I invite you to come inside 860 and I’ll tell you all the funny and touching things that happened there, not only in my career but to our family,” Crystal said in a statement. “It’s a joyous and heartfelt visit, about how with the love of family and friends and your inner strength, you can get through tough times.”

This is Crystal’s first return to Broadway following his “Mr. Saturday Night,” which he premiered in 2022 and earned Tony nominations for best book and lead actor in a musical. Scott Ellis will direct his new work.

Crystal has had success with one-man shows before. He turned his memoir “700 Sundays” into a stage show — in 2004 and revived in 2013 — that won him a Drama Desk Award in 2005.

The Palisades and Eaton fires erupted in Jan. 7, 2025, killing 31 people and destroying about 13,000 homes and other residential properties. The fires burned for more than three weeks and clean-up efforts took about seven months.

At the televised fundraising concert FireAid, held at the end of January 2025, Crystal appeared as the first host in the same clothes he was wearing when he fled his family home.

Crystal said he returned to the wreckage of his home and began to wail: “I had not cried like that since I was 15 and I was told that my father had just died.” His daughters soon found a rock in the wreckage with the word “Laughter” engraved in it.

Crystal made a name for himself first in comedy, from stand-up to TV’s “Soap” to the films “When Harry Met Sally” and “City Slickers.” Then in 1992, he got serious with the movie “Mr. Saturday Night,” which he directed, co-wrote and starred in.