TMZ.com Home

Rapper Quando Rondo was arrested Friday on federal drug charges ... TMZ has confirmed.

The Savannah rapper was taken into custody Friday without incident. Cops say Quando was a passenger in a car that was pulled over. The vehicle was pulled over with the intention of arresting Quando and not because of a traffic violation. None of the other occupants in the car were taken into custody.

Quando -- real name Tyquian Terrel Bowman -- was indicted back in June along with 18 others on state gang and drug charges.  He's accused of violating the Street Gang Terrorism and Prevention Act over his involvement with the Rollin' 60s street gang.

Two takeaways from Prince William and Princess Kate's family XMAS card -- they've scaled down the whole Royal look, and them kids are all grown up!!!

The card's in black and while and jeans seemed to the standard issue for at least some of them, including Kate.

Now the kids ... who knew they grow up so fast? Prince George is 10, Prioncess Charlotte is 8 and Prince Louis is 5. They were all matchy matchy for the shoot.

The card makes the fam look serene ... but there's a lot going on behind the scenes in the wake of Omid Scobie's scorcher, which claims, among other things, Kate and King Charles were the ones who raised concerns over the skin color of the soon-to-be-born first child of Meghan and Harry.

Kate and William have been mum on Scobie's book, but there are reports they might be considering legal action.

Drake public declaration a Turks & Caicos bartender named Flacka is his new ting ... has not only made her an overnight celebrity, it also has her place of employment reaping major financial gains!

Phillip Misick, manager of the Noah's Ark beach club where Flacka works tells TMZ Hip Hop ... the viral videos of Drake and Flacka have increased food and drinks sales drastically -- so much, he hasn't had time to accurately quantify the increase.

Drake and his dogs hit T&C this week for some fun in the sun, reuniting him with Flacka and the megastar rapper gave her bartending skills his undivided attention ... that is, before wining and dining her later that evening!!!

Phillip says customers have indeed been coming in the hopes of seeing Drake, but they also want to meet and take flicks with Flacka -- and, of course, they're very curious if she and Drake are really an item.

As a result, Phillip says Flacka has now become a hot commodity -- brands have started reaching out to her for partnerships, and her social media is blowing up with new fans.

Flacka is actually an assistant manager at Noah's Ark -- so, she does more than bartending -- and Phillip fears her newfound fame might soon push her toward new opportunities.

Being Nia Long's son is NOT a get-out-of-jail-free card, especially when you're NOT really her son at all -- as a guy found out after he allegedly smacked a stranger with a tent pole.

Law enforcement tells TMZ ... Tamir Rasool Morris was arrested last weekend in Santa Monica where cops say he assaulted a random person in a park. When officers questioned him, Morris told them his name was Massai Dorsey II ... which is the name of Nia's actual 23-year-old son.

What's creepy for Nia and her fam is this guy's clearly done some research ... because he also gave officers Massai's correct birth day and month, but finally slipped up with the year. We're told he was off by 2 years.

Of course, his web of lies fell apart when he was booked and fingerprinted ... which revealed his real name.

According to our sources, cops suspect Morris pulled Massai's info from social media, but Santa Monica PD wants to make it clear ... the real Massai was not at all involved in the incident, and his name was given without his knowledge.

The Dallas Cowboys WILL re-sign Dak Prescott ... at least, that's according to Drew Pearson, who tells TMZ Sports the QB's new deal will almost certainly be the richest one in NFL history.

Pearson spelled it out loud and clear for us during an interview earlier this week ... saying there's just no way in hell Jerry Jones will let his star signal-caller get away from Dallas after this season.

"Dak ain't going anywhere, OK?" the Hall of Famer says. "Jerry Jones is not going to let Dak Prescott go away. He's everything we want in a Dallas Cowboy quarterback."

Of course, some have wondered if this could be Dak's last year in Big D -- because while he does have one year left on his current contract, his cap number is slated to be monstrous in 2024. Plus, the Cowboys traded for former top-five pick Trey Lance in August.

Prescott's stellar play this year has quieted a lot of that chatter ... although without a deep playoff run this season, it's likely the talk will loom around the team for the entire offseason.

But, Pearson made it clear, he doesn't believe Prescott will go anywhere one way or another.

"He's going to end up being the highest-paid player probably in NFL history," Pearson said. "Because Jerry Jones is not going to let Dak Prescott go. We are going to sign Dak Prescott and he'll be a Cowboy for life."

In fact, Pearson said he's so high on Prescott -- he'd actually take him over Jalen Hurts right now.

"You're talking to a receiver, OK?" he said. "I want the guy that's throwing it right here."

Kim K's getting dragged big time for not apologizing to Taylor, and the ice is thawing with Britney and her fam. So we gotta ask ...

Emma Stone's looks over the years have scored an "Easy A!"

Here is a 21-year-old version of the actress showcasing her early days as a redhead beauty at the premiere of "Easy A" back in 2010 (left). This was her breakout role that launched her into Hollywood stardom.

And, 13 years later, Emma has left no stone unturned but is still turning heads ... recently posing at the premiere of her newest movie "Poor Things" at the DGA Theater in New York City (right).

A Hollywood icon ... we know she's one to reckon with in "La La Land," but the question is ...

A rare piece of Beatles' history is hitting the auction block ... a Grammy given to John Lennon is expected to bring in a fortune -- so, something tells us if you wanna come together with this trophy, ya better be a multimillionaire.

Gotta Have Rock and Roll, the music memorabilia-based auction house, has a unique Grammy Trustee award given to John as one of its many new lots, and this golden trophy is estimated to make up to $500,000 when it closes next week.

John, Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and Paul McCartney were each given one of the pieces of golden glory in 1972 ... and the one up for auction initially went to John.

The Trustee Award is given to those who made significant contributions to the field of recording during their careers as musicians.

Obviously, The Beatles were more than deserving, but according to the auction house John didn't see it that way -- when he was awarded the Grammy over 50 years ago, John told the president of the Grammys, "I'm not a Beatle anymore, you can keep it."

Since then, the golden gramophone has been in possession of one of John's close friends, who was also a former head of Apple Records, but now a lucky, wealthy fan can secure it for their Beatles collection.

This photo may not appear "picture perfect", but your "intention" here is to polish off the ornament-shaped celeb! This holiday stud once performed a Christmas classic for Barack and Michelle Obama, but that's not the only holiday song he's covered over the years ...

He's mostly seen lookin' cool, calm and collected in baggy pants and a beanie, and even if he's in a hurry and trying to scurry around the paparazzi, you can always count on his slippers to flash you a smile!

Amanda Bynes is back in the spotlight after years of being away -- 'cause she's got a new podcast out ... and the first episode features her playing the role of host/interviewer.

The ex-child star -- who was placed in a conservatorship for years before it came to an end in 2022 -- is leading up the new media venture alongside a friend of hers named Paul Sieminski. Their pod is aptly titled ... 'Amanda Bynes & Paul Sieminski: The Podcast.'

Here's just a snippet of their first episode, which was just released Saturday. It features a sit-down with a L.A.-based tattoo artist named Dahlia Moth ... whom AB has known for years.

Now, this episode is roughly 26 minutes ... so go listen to the full thing if you want. Right from the outset though, you can hear Amanda introducing herself and her co-host ... as well as their guest, and she jumps right into the questions they wanna ask, somewhat abruptly.

As we went through the rest of it ourselves, we couldn't help but notice that Paul tends to do most of the heavy lifting in terms of questions -- with Amanda jumping in here and there.

It's interesting to digest ... frankly, this might be one of the first times folks are hearing Amanda's voice in a while, y'know ... since she's been out of the public eye for a minute. Since leaving Hollywood, she's focused her attention elsewhere ... including fashion school.

Of course, she's also had struggles -- including recent ones (post-conservatorship) that have seen her been hospitalized for a time. She's out now though, and seems to be doing better.

Elon Musk is attempting to tamp down any fears about Tesla cars that a new Netflix movie has stoked -- but he isn't really addressing the heart of the problem ... ultra smart cars.

Here's the deal ... Netflix released this new film called 'Leave the World Behind' and there's a scene in there where Model 3 Teslas drive themselves into a massive pileup on a road leading back to NYC ... this amid a mass power outage/possible cyber attack on Earth.

Like we said, it's freaky because the cars literally crash themselves into a never-ending accident with nobody in the vehicles -- which the main characters have to escape -- and the scene highlights Tesla's high-tech self-driving capability ... but in a nightmare scenario.

What makes this moment in the movie extra eerie is the fact that it's all white Model 3s that are doing this ... seemingly at the whim of hackers who are sending the cars to their doom.

Elon responded to a spliced version of this scene on Netflix's Twitter/X account, and he seemingly tried reassuring people that his Teslas would fare well in a doomsday situation like the one depicted on camera. He wrote, "Teslas can charge from solar panels even if the world goes fully Mad Max and there is no more gasoline!"

Like we said, he's *trying* to downplay the terror in the scene -- but EM either didn't watch the scene in full, or he hasn't seen the whole film yet ... 'cause the car not being able to start is NOT the problem here. Rather, it's the fact they can freaking drive on their own!

There've been reports of Teslas that have gotten into some bad wrecks (allegedly in autopilot mode) -- but it's unclear if the self-driving feature had anything to do with the cause.

Still, it looks like Netflix capitalized on those fears of "too-smart cars" and turned it into a horror movie, of sorts ... at least for this 1 scene, anyway. The flick, in general, doesn't focus entirely on this issue ... but it is certainly a highlight. Shout-out Julia Roberts' driving!

Liz Magill -- the president of the University of Pennsylvania -- is stepping down after equivocating over the "genocide of Jews" and whether calling for that violated their rules.

The announcement over Magill's resignation came down Saturday straight from Penn itself -- with a statement from a member of the Board of Trustees reading ... "I write to share that President Liz Magill has voluntarily tendered her resignation as President of the University of Pennsylvania. She will remain a tenured faculty member at Penn Carey Law."

This follows a turbulent week on Capitol Hill, where Magill and two other presidents of Ivy League universities -- namely, Harvard and MIT -- were grilled by lawmakers over the rise in antisemitism on college campuses after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks in Israel.

When asked by Rep. Elise Stefanik, a Republican, if calling for the genocide of Jews, in and of itself, violated Penn's rules or code of conduct ... Magill gave a qualifying answer instead of just saying yes or no -- essentially explaining that it depended on the context.

Magill went on to say if the speech Stefanik referred to turned into actual action, it could then potentially constitute harassment. Stefanik gave her yet another opportunity to answer more directly -- again, over whether calling for the genocide of Jews was a rule-breaker -- and Magill kept giving conditional responses ... which turned into a testy exchange.

That all went viral, and Magill later apologized in a video posted to Penn's social media pages -- where she was much more clear ... yes, calling for the genocide of Jews is obviously in violation of the university's policies -- something she should've just said up front.

Just about everyone was stunned that Magill wouldn't just acknowledge that what Stefanik was (literally) asking was terrible and not in line with the university's values -- even if there's nuanced context to what exactly university students are saying/protesting for on campus.

We got into this issue further with a MIT free speech advocate ... who gave us a puzzling response to whether the KKK calling for the genocide of African-Americans on a college campus would be met with the same kind of response as calling for the genocide of Jews.

Apparently, it'd be dealt with differently ... but the reasons for why are still unclear, it seems.

Of course, this all stems from the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas -- which has thrust innocent people into the mix ... and has spurred a lot of people across the country to hit the streets to voice support ... mostly for Palestine. A lot of that rhetoric though -- namely, criticizing Zionism -- has been viewed as outright antisemitic hate speech by some.

Jonathan Majors is gathering his thoughts after what you could argue was a rough week for him in court -- ending with some startling texts he once sent being read in front of the jury.

The embattled actor was spotted on a solo stroll through Manhattan Saturday, where he seemed to be on a coffee run -- as he ended up grabbing two and balanced them on his way back to wherever he was going.

Considering the eventful week, these pics are telling for many reasons -- for one, he's all by his lonesome ... this after his GF, Meagan Good, has come to every single court date of his -- including showing up the past several days during the trial -- and been right by his side.

No sign of her here though ... although, he could've been grabbing Joe for the two of them.

In any case, JM kept his little outing here stylish ... uniquely his style, that is. The dude was wearing a khaki peacoat -- which he eventually draped off his shoulders -- a white tee, black pants, shades and a matching golf cap. Like all his public appearances, he's dressed up.

Now, as for what might be on his mind ... well, a lot of things, we're sure -- including what's gonna happen to his career, regardless of what the jury ultimately decides in their verdict.

Fact is ... there's been some ugly revelations about him throughout the trial -- much of which came from Grace Jabbari's testimony about their relationship ... including claims he'd been verbally abusive to her in the past. Remember the whole Coretta Scott King thing?

Even more damning than just that, though, is what came to light Friday ... when text messages Majors had sent Jabbari back in September 2022 were read aloud in court.

They included exchanges between Majors and Jabbari, where the two of the appeared to refer to some sort of altercation in London ... with Majors writing at the time, "They will ask you questions, and as I don't think you actually protect us, it could lead to investigation even if you do lie, and they suspect something."

Jabbari replied, "I will tell the doctor I bumped my head if I go. I'm going to give it one more day, but I can't sleep and I need some stronger pain killers. That's all: why would I tell them what really happened when it's clear I want to be with you."

That coupled with the testimony she gave about other times he'd allegedly shown aggression around her have not landed well with the public (just check Twitter/X). Because so much of all these old alleged incidents have been allowed to be aired out in court, it feels like it almost doesn't matter if he's found guilty or not -- from our POV, anyway.

Of course, we'll see what the jury has to say about it all in the end -- and more importantly, what Disney wants to do in the aftermath. They're far and away his biggest employer right now, and there's a lot of money and work on the line depending on how things shake out.

Majors' trial continues next week, and we're expecting to hear from other key witnesses -- including the car service driver, who could presumably speak on the alleged incident in his vehicle and answer once and for all ... did the guy brutalize her back there or not???

Selena Gomez is catching heat over her relationship with Benny Blanco -- and it seems she's dealing with it by leaning on one of her best gal pals ... Taylor Swift.

The singer/actress stepped out Friday night in NYC for what turned out to be an all-female power dinner with not just Taylor -- but Cara Delevingne and Zoe Kravitz as well ... and later in the evening, Anya Taylor-Joy too. Sophie Turner was a tad bit busy, it seems.

Anyway, everybody was dressed to the nines for their pap walk ... including Selena, who was in some sort of snakeskin outfit that looked great on her. She was clearly ready for pics.

The group of ladies are said to have hit up a venue for Brooklyn for a comedy show, and then went to an Italian joint nearby shortly thereafter. As they came and went, the crew was putting on a pretty united front -- with T-Swift, of course, being the main centerpiece.

We know Selena and Taylor are tight, and they've gone out for high-profile dinners like this before ... so on its face, it's just a group of friends getting together to paint the town red.

Now, with the added context of this new "controversy," Selena finds herself in as it pertains to Benny -- whom she confirmed she was dating this week -- it lops on an extra layer of intrigue and speculation, as the timing appears to be too close to be a mere coincidence.

Fact is, fans (and haters) of hers suspect this outing might've likely been coordinated by Selena herself as a way to send a message to everyone who's up in arms about Benny.

That message being ... I'M HERE, AND I AIN'T GONNA BE SHAMED INTO GOING DARK!

Part of the reason she's catching flak over Benny -- aside from the fact people think she's "dating down" by being with him -- is because of this alleged IG comment she apparently responded to over the past 24 hours ... which points to her recent remarks on Palestine.

Someone slammed Selena for feeling the need to be very vocal over her relationship with BB, but shying away from the Palestine-Israel issue and taking a social media break over something objectively more important ... to which she replied "you're right."

If it sounds like an unfair critique ... well, you might have an argument that it totally is.

Shohei Ohtani just announced he will be a Los Angeles Dodger ... reportedly landing a massive 10-year, $700 million contract -- the richest deal in Major League Baseball and North American sports history.

The Japanese two-way superstar personally shared the news on his Instagram page just minutes ago ... apologizing for keeping the baseball world on pins and needles as he came up with his decision to leave the Los Angeles Angels.

"First of all, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone involved with the Angels organization and the fans who have supported me over the past six years, as well as to everyone involved with each team that was part of this negotiation process," Ohtani said in his post. "Especially to the Angels fans who supported me through all the ups and downs, your guys’ support and cheer meant the world to me. The six years I spent with the Angels will remain etched in my heart forever."

Ohtani also pledged to give his absolute best on the field for the Dodgers fanbase ... adding, "Until the last day of my playing career, I want to continue to strive forward not only for the Dodgers but for the baseball world."

The Dodgers are getting the most entertaining player in the sport -- as Shohei is a dominant force on both sides of the ball.

He played the first six seasons of his MLB career with the crosstown rival Angels ... racking up 681 hits, 171 homers and 437 RBI ... as well as a 38-19 record with a 3.01 ERA and 608 strikeouts on the mound.

Other organizations reportedly had a chance at landing the two-time MVP -- including the San Francisco Giants and Toronto Blue Jays -- but the free agency process was super secretive, per Ohtani's request.