Country star Keith Urban will debut a new song on the Country Music Association Awards on Wednesday inspired by the allegations of sexual assault and harassment hurled against Harvey Weinstein. BMI country songwriter of the year Ross Copperman said that the widening sexual harassment crisis that has developed after multiple women accused the top producer and film executive inspired him to write a song and record it with Urban. “We actually wrote a song three weeks ago called Female,” Copperman said during the red carpet Tuesday for the annual BMI …

For every era of film in the last half-century, there’s a memorable Donald Sutherland role.   Whether it’s his breakthrough performance in “The Dirty Dozen,” his portrayal of a demented arsonist in “Backdraft” or playing a ruthless president in “The Hunger Games” films, Sutherland’s career spans roughly 140 films in every genre, his performances tinged with wit, charm, and often a hint of unpredictability.   None, however, have earned Sutherland an Academy Award, let alone a nomination. That will change Saturday when Sutherland receives an honorary Oscar at the film …

A Senate committee on Wednesday narrowly backed President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as the next NASA chief.   Republicans on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee used their slender majority to overcome objections from Democrats to advance the selection of Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Oklahoma. The party-line vote was 14-13.   Bridenstine, 42, is serving his third term representing a conservative district in northeast Oklahoma. Democrats criticized past comments he made dismissive of global warming as a man-made problem. They also voiced concern about Bridenstine’s harsh criticisms of Democratic …

Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood are celebrating their 10-year anniversary — as hosts of the Country Music Association Awards. The duo has hosted the show consecutively since 2008, and they return Wednesday for the 2017 CMA Awards at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee. While Underwood and Paisley plan to tell jokes, watch performances and hand out awards, they also want to honor the 58 people who were killed at a country music festival in Las Vegas last month. “We can’t ignore that, but at the same time, I think …

Sean Combs says he was only joking when he announced over the weekend that he had changed his nickname from Diddy to Love, as in Brother Love. The rapper and producer took to Twitter and Instagram to set the record straight after he says he learned “you cannot play around with the internet.” He says Love is one of his “alter egos.” Combs’ other nicknames over the years include Puff Daddy, Puffy, P. Diddy and Diddy. He now says he’ll answer to any of those names and also Love. That’s …

Inflation in Venezuela’s crisis-hit economy was 826 percent in the 10 months to October and may end 2017 above 1,400 percent, the opposition-controlled National Assembly said Friday. The government stopped releasing price data more than a year ago but congress has published its own figures since January and they have been close to private economists’ estimates. As well as the alarming Jan-Oct cumulative rise, the legislative body, which has been sidelined by President Nicolas Maduro’s government, put monthly inflation at 45.5 percent for October, compared with 36.3 percent in September. …

Unless emissions can be drastically and quickly curbed, efforts by small island nations to adapt to climate change may be in vain, a leader of a group of small island nations said Tuesday. Hurricanes that hit the Caribbean this year were like nothing seen before, with Hurricane Irma so strong it was picked up by seismic machines that detect earthquake tremors, officials said. National plans to curb planet-warming emissions, drawn up ahead of the Paris Agreement, currently add up to a projected temperature rise of 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial …