Hollywood Headlines: A crazy week in review

Ray Bradbury, the writer whose expansive flights of fantasy and vividly rendered space-scapes have provided the world with one of the most enduring speculative blueprints for the future, died Tuesday at age 91. Though he had his share of novels adapted for the big screen (most notably “Farenheit 451” in 1966 and “Something Wicked This Way Comes” in 1983), Bradbury’s great strength was the short story, and the format best suited to showcase those works was the anthology TV series.  (Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)

“The Hunger Games”! “Twilight”! These were the movies “MTV Movie Awards” host Russell Brand kept shamelessly mentioning during Sunday evening’s telecast, along with their stars such as Kristen Stewart (pictured). But there were plenty of things you didn’t see at the ceremony at the Gibson Amphitheatre -- such as Daniel Radcliffe, Robert Pattinson and Jennifer Lawrence, all of them no-shows.  (Matt Sayles / Associated Press)

The giant video game conference known as E3 took place at the Convention Center in downtown Los Angeles, and between the cosplay and other electronic gadget nerd craziness, a lot of serious business took place. For example, Microsoft unveiled SmartGlass as a way to bring all your devices closer. Nintendo tried to persuade folks it can stage a comeback in the video game console business with its successor to the Wii. And then there were all those games to be played with.  (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

At best, it’s counterintuitive to insult your headliner right before they take the stage. Especially if it’s Nicki Minaj. The rapper was set to headline Hot 97’s Summer Jam festival in East Rutherford, N.J., on Sunday but pulled out hours before following disparaging remarks from station personality Peter Rosenberg. “I know there are some chicks in here waiting to sing along with ‘Starships’ later,” he said from the festival stage. He then dismissed the song with some unprintable language.  (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

Guitarist and singer Bob Welch, whose work in the early 1970s for Fleetwood Mac set the stage for the band’s multi-platinum success later in the decade, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest on Thursday at his home in Nashville. He might not be as synonymous with Fleetwood Mac as Stevie Nicks or Lindsey Buckingham, but Welch’s early contributions helped pave the way for the sound the band is celebrated for today.  (Olivier Ferrand / Capitol Records)

John Mayer isn’t afraid to take blame for the heartache he’s inflicted on various Hollywood and music starlets -- and in the case of Taylor Swift, he’s not afraid to dish it out either. Particularly when it comes to the 2010 Swift track “Dear John.” Mayer said he was “really humiliated” by the tune, allegedly written about their romantic entanglement and its wrenching end. “I didn’t deserve it.”   (Dan Steinberg / Associated Press)

Looks as if Miley Cyrus has finally been tamed: The singer and actress is engaged to marry her beau, Liam Hemsworth. The young couple, who have been together for around three years, shared their happy news Wednesday. “I’m so happy to be engaged and look forward to a life of happiness with Liam,” Cyrus told People, which first reported the engagement.  (Michael Buckner / Getty Images)

Sheryl Crow says she has a brain tumor -- one that was found after she became concerned about her increasingly spotty memory. Crow’s benign meningioma showed up during a screening the breast cancer survivor had done in November on a hunch. “I don’t have to worry about it,” Crow said, even though the situation gives her “a fit” -- perhaps due to the aforementioned memory loss. She admitted she’d blanked on the lyrics to her hit “Soak Up the Sun” during a recent performance in Florida.  (Kris Connor / Getty Images)