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A New Jersey middle school teacher has been accused of running a prostitution scam that involved her allegedly pinning down a naked man ... but she claims she was "strictly there to party."

An unidentified man claims he met Middle Township Middle School computer teacher Amanda Crafts, 35, and Veda Engel, 23, at Caesar’s Atlantic City on Oct. 9 ... BreakingAC reported.

The victim claims that after Engel performed a sex act on him in the women's Harrah's hotel room ... Crafts held him down and used his smartphone's Face ID to open up Apple Pay to send 4 separate payments totaling $1,250.

Liev Schreiber got into a heated exchange with a reporter on the red carpet ... a bizarre occurrence -- especially because the two are apparently playing for the same team.

The actor attended the premiere of his new Apple TV+ show "Nocturne" in New York City Tuesday night ... when a reporter asked him a question for which he apparently didn't care.

Check out the clip ... it seems Liev's not happy that the reporter seems to be chasing after social media views to cultivate engagement -- telling her she needs to treat people like she values what they do.

President Trump is snubbing the 9/11 25th anniversary ceremony at Ground Zero ... and the reason is apparently pretty simple ... the native New Yorker wants to give a speech, and that's a big no-no at the World Trade Center event.

Trump is expected to mark the occasion at the Pentagon instead ... where he'll be free to grab a mic and say whatever comes to mind.

POTUS wouldn't be able to do that at the WTC ... the National September 11 Memorial and Museum has barred politicians from speaking there since 2012 in an effort to remain nonpartisan.

Trump planned to go to Ground Zero, but he wanted to give a speech and was turned down ... so he pivoted to the Pentagon ... according to The New York Times and CNN.

Jay-Z and Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin may have 99 problems ... but a rocking week of events in New York City ain't one!

The close pals and kings of NYC are taking over the city with a series of top-tier, celeb-packed extravaganzas ... beginning with Jay-Z's Yankee Stadium concerts this weekend.

The rapper sold out three shows in the Bronx ballpark this weekend ... with celebs like Fat Joe, LeBron James, Megan Thee Stallion, Kevin Hart, Ice Spice, the Knicks' NBA Finals Hero OG Anunoby, Jadakiss and DJ Khaled pulling up for Friday night's show -- ya know, the one that iconically opened with Beyoncé cuttin' Jay-Z's hair!

Ariana Grande allegedly praised her viral look-alike Paige Niemann while seemingly dropping a subtle hint about her controversial impersonations ... with Ariana telling Paige she's beautiful as she is, without trying to make her "face look more similar to someone else's."

Paige claims the pop star sent her a DM years ago, and the note was unveiled in Paige's new "Turning The Paige" docuseries.

Ariana told Paige she's "flattered" but said she's stunning on her own, explaining, "... you're very beautiful as YOURSELF. without all the make up and trying to make your face look more similar to someone else's and whatnot."

President Donald Trump made at least $220 million in financial transactions in the first three months of the year ... including purchases in huge tech and media companies.

In the media world, Trump bought at least $1.08 million in securities in Comcast, $571K in Netflix, $364K in Disney, $45K in Fox Corp., $30K in Warner Bros. Discovery, and $15K in Paramount Skydance ... according to two new financial disclosure forms released Thursday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

He also sold securities in some of those same media groups ... including $1.3 million in Netflix, $1.1 million in Disney, and $30K in Fox Corp.

Kendrick Lamar looks like he's reigniting his beef with Drake ... a couple days before Drake drops his new album. Kendrick got his fans riled up by deleting and then reuploading his famous Drake diss.

Here's the deal ... folks started noticing Monday morning Kendrick's "Not Like Us" music video was conspicuously missing from his YouTube page ... and the internet started buzzing.

The video has since been reuploaded to YouTube ... and its view count was reset to zero ... the original post had more than 400 million views.

Kendrick appears to have done the same thing with his SZA collab ... the music video for "Luther" disappeared and then reappeared Monday on his official YT page.

The Kendrick and SZA collab was featured on his "GNX" album, which is no longer available on Apple Music. Kendrick's Drake diss "euphoria" was reportedly removed from Apple Music earlier today, but as of this posting it's back on the platform.

Unclear what Kendrick's doing here ... but some folks are speculating he's calling attention to his old Drake beef before Drizzy drops him upcoming "Iceman" album ... on May 15.

It's the end of an Apple era ... the company announced Monday that Tim Cook will be stepping down as CEO.

TC will still be involved with the tech giant ... moving into a new role as executive chairman of Apple’s board of directors.

SVP of Hardware Engineering John Ternus will be stepping into Tim's shoes as CEO starting in September.

According to Apple, Steve Jobs' successor will still help with "certain aspects" of Apple as executive chairman ... like "engaging with policymakers around the world."

"Red hearts, red hearts" are goin' out to Rosé and Bruno Mars -- their fans streamed the hot bop so much, it's been declared Apple Music's top song of 2025!

"Apple Music's Replay" revealed the music streaming platform's top 5 most-streamed songs from 2025 ... and "APT." snatched the No. 1 spot. Following Rosé and Bruno Mars' lead: Kendrick Lamar and SZA's "luther" at No. 2 ... Lady Gaga and Bruno -- yet again -- landed 3rd with their song, "Die With A Smile."

Apple competitor Spotify will also drop its "2025 Wrapped" ... and one of the teasers is believed to hint at Rosé -- or potentially Blackpink as a whole -- performing big over the past 12 months.

Is "APT." the song of the year?!

Drake is the most popular artist this year on Apple Music's massive platform, and Kendrick Lamar's Grammy-winning diss is its biggest rap song ... these guys can't escape each other!!!

On Tuesday, Apple Music rolled out the "'25 Replay," unveiling Drake as the top artist ... which was jump-started back in February following his "Some Sexy Songs 4 U" project with PartyNextDoor ... and carried into the tracks used during his "Iceman" album rollout.

The historic battle kicked off a year ago ... resulting in billions of streams and even a Super Bowl halftime show from Kendrick.

Elon Musk made a bold accusation against Apple on Monday ... suggesting his X app is being snubbed in the mobile store -- and perhaps it's political!

Responding to a post from the Tesla Owners Silicon Valley official account that boasted X was the "No. 1 news app in the USA" ... Musk asked Apple -- which he tagged -- why the company is allegedly "refusing" to list X or his A.I. program Grok in its “Must Have” store section.

Suggesting politics was at play over the snub, Musk reiterated X was the "#1 news app in the world and Grok is #5 among all apps" --- and he added, "What gives? Inquiring minds want to know."

Hollywood actresses Jennifer Garner and Judy Greer may be workin' hard, but they're playing even harder in France!

The two stars reunited in Paris for season 2 of the Apple TV+ series, "The Last Thing He Told Me" ... with Garner sharing fun behind-the-scenes shots!

Outside of the office, the two besties showed their real-life friendship, arm-in-arm, as they explored the streets of France.

Apple's iPhone voice-to-text feature is in hot water ... with users doing a double-take after noticing it sometimes swaps out the word "racist" for "Trump."

TMZ’s got the receipts -- we tested it ourselves after a TikTok called it out -- with a user saying "racist" into the voice-to-text, and boom, "Trump" flashes up for a hot second before switching to the correct word.

The issue's been replicated multiple times, though the word "Trump" didn't pop up every single time when the user repeated "racist" in the same message.

Susan Bennett -- Apple's original Siri voice -- is giving a big shoutout to Scarlett Johansson for standing up against ChatGPT's newest voice sounding way too much like hers.

Speaking to Charlie Neff and Charlie Cotton on "The TMZ Podcast" Thursday ... Susan acknowledged how Scarlett's fame is really shining a spotlight on the issue, which has been a problem for a while with loads of regular voice actors losing out on gigs every day because of this AI explosion.

Susan says even her own famous voice pops up in random places ... and she relies on her pals to keep an ear out for her likeness so her agent can track down those companies and make sure she gets paid for it.

El Tío Sam está llevando a Apple a los tribunales con el alegato de que tiene un monopolio en el negocio de los smartphones y que la naturaleza interconectada de sus productos es un poco demasiado anticompetitiva.

El jueves, el Departamento de Justicia presentó una demanda federal contra la compañía de Tim Cook con un montón de acusaciones contra el gigante de la tecnología, incluyendo que todo su modelo de negocios es inherentemente controlador y que tiene un dominio absoluto de la industria.

En los documentos obtenidos por TMZ, los federales dicen que el ecosistema de todas las cosas de Apple -incluyendo el iPhone, su reloj de Apple y otras aplicaciones y funciones conectadas a la computadora central de Apple- ha creado un "agujero" que está dejando injustamente afuera a sus empresas rivales y a sus propios clientes.

La demanda afirma: "Durante muchos años, Apple ha creado una plataforma y un ecosistema dominante para el iPhone que han impulsado la astronómica valoración de la empresa. Al mismo tiempo, ha comprendido hace tiempo que las tecnologías disruptivas y las aplicaciones, productos y servicios innovadores amenazaban ese dominio, al hacer que los usuarios dependieran menos del iPhone o les facilitaran el cambio a un smartphone que no fuera de Apple".

Los federales añaden: "En lugar de responder a las amenazas de la competencia ofreciendo menores precios de sus teléfonos inteligentes a los consumidores o una mejor monetización para los desarrolladores, Apple habría hecho frente a las amenazas de la competencia imponiendo una serie de normas y restricciones cambiantes en sus directrices de la App Store y en sus acuerdos con desarrolladores lo que le habría permitido a Apple extraer tarifas más altas, frustrar la innovación, ofrecer una experiencia de usuario menos segura o degradada y estrangular las alternativas competitivas. Ha desplegado estas jugadas a través de muchas tecnologías, productos y servicios, incluyendo super apps, mensajería de texto, smartwatches y carteras digitales, entre muchos otros".

Además de sus productos, que los federales alegan que son creados solo para que funcionen dentro del sistema de Apple, la demanda afirma que la empresa ha hecho todo lo posible por cerrar las aplicaciones y/o programas que faciliten la comunicación de la gente entre productos iPhones con productos no iPhone. Esencialmente, están alegando que Apple ha hecho imposible interactuar con otros productos y usuarios si estos no están utilizando también un producto de Apple, y dicen que eso viola la ley federal.

La demanda también dice esto: "Si no se cuestiona, Apple solo seguirá fortaleciendo su monopolio de los smartphones. Este comportamiento anticompetitivo está diseñado para mantener su poder monopólico, mientras obtienen la mayor cantidad de ingresos posible."