TMZ.com Home

Aaron Carter's girlfriend, Melanie Martin, is under arrest after police investigated an alleged fight between the couple at the singer's home ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... the L.A. County Sheriff's Department was called to Aaron's Lancaster home around 11 PM Sunday night for a domestic violence call. We're told there was a verbal spat between Aaron and Melanie and at some point it got physical.

Cops say Aaron had visible marks on his body and sheriff's deputies determined Melanie was the aggressor and arrested her for felony domestic violence.

Aaron claims during the alleged physical altercation, Melanie scratched him -- and he claims these photos show the damage she did. Cops confirmed Aaron had visible marks when they arrived at the house.

According to records, Melanie is still in custody and being held on a $50,000 bail.

The folks at "American Idol" tried to make it work, but ultimately they had to jettison plans to produce the show in the studio, but TMZ has learned the show may still go on.

Producers sent an email to the crew, saying, "As we continue to monitor advice from federal and local agencies, it seems unlikely we are going to be able to make it back into the studio for this season of American Idol."

The email, obtained by TMZ, goes on ... "We will continue to monitor and provide updates should any changes occur."  BTW ... we're told the crew will not be paid.

Our production sources tell us the plan is still to produce the show ... but the judges will be at their respective homes and viewers will ultimately decide who wins and who ends up packing.

'Idol' joins an ever-growing list of productions that have had to pivot in the wake of the pandemic.

The email ends on a positive note ... "In the meantime, please stay safe and healthy. We are looking forward to the day we can all work together again."

The guy who hocked a loogie on an Amazon package he was delivering is like a lot of other people right now ... without a job. Only, in this case, he 100% deserves it.

TMZ has learned this flagrant spitter was fired from his delivery gig in recent days. He's not an Amazon employee, per se -- he just dropped their stuff off via a third party, who actually did the canning -- but at any rate ... the dude's out on his ass for this. Rightly so!

You'll recall, the guy was caught on a Ring camera out here in an L.A. neighborhood, where he casually walked up to the porch, set the box down and spat on it. He then proceeded to smear the spit with his hand, and eventually took a photo to complete the order and left.

A neighbor saw it and notified the owner, who then contacted Amazon. They were disgusted by the act and condemned it ... saying the spitter was not a representative of their policies. Sounds like they got to the bottom of who this individual was and dealt with him.

The coronavirus pandemic continues to force Americans indoors, but some simply can't take it and are venturing to new places for some fresh air and human interaction ... like The Hamptons.

It seems New Yorkers are beginning to flee the city and head to the beaches and bike paths of the popular summer destination ... maybe just a little earlier than usual, to escape the self-quarantine blues of NYC.

Though The Hamptons scene is nothing compared to the crowding of Florida's beaches -- or even a Farmer's Market in L.A. just Sunday -- it still looks like folks are willing to risk getting closer than the recommended 6-feet.

We're told rental properties in the seaside communities are also filling up, meaning "stay home" orders are being challenged ... with people leaving home to chill elsewhere.

It all begs the question ... how soon until beaches and gathering spots at The Hamptons are ordered closed, like the beaches of L.A. or pretty much everything in NYC?

Ellen Barkin may have been in the mood to flip off a photographer but she had ZERO right to tweet the image ... so claims the photographer now suing her.

Steven Hirsch is suing the actress claiming she posted his copyrighted photograph of her flipping the bird on her Twitter account. In docs, obtained by TMZ, Hirsch says he's a professional photog who is in the business of licensing his photographs to online and print media for a fee.

The photo in question is from January when Ellen attended the second day of Harvey Weinstein's criminal trial in NYC. She was there to support her friend and Weinstein accuser, actress Annabella Sciorra.

Hirsch says he licensed the pic to a NY outlet but never gave Ellen permission to use the photo. Ellen then tweeted the photo on January 23 -- it hasn't been taken down -- with the caption "mood" ... and it racked up more than 1,000 retweets and 15,000 likes.

The photographer is now suing her for damages. We've reached out to Ellen for comment, so far no word back.

Of all the crazy storylines on the Netflix docuseries, "Tiger King," none are more captivating than what happened to Carole Baskin's husband ... and law enforcement's asking for help in cracking the case.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister says the disappearance of Jack "Don" Lewis -- Baskin's hubby who was last seen on August 18, 1997 -- is still an active cold case ... and he's hoping "Tiger King" fans can help him solve it.

The Tampa-area sheriff says with all the attention surrounding Don's case ... "I figured it was time to use the popularity of the show to see if anyone wanted to come forward with new leads."

For those who don't know ... Lewis was declared legally dead 5 years after his disappearance, but nobody has ever been charged in his death or has any clue of his whereabouts.

People have theories, though ... especially "Tiger King" star and Baskin's #1 enemy, Joe Exotic, who believes she killed her husband and possibly fed him to her tigers. Baskin has denied having anything to do with Don's disappearance or death.

Nevertheless, Sheriff Chronister's asking "Tiger King" enthusiasts to spread the word to see if it leads to any new information that can finally crack the cold case.

Boxing rising star Billy Joe Saunders -- who's supposed to fight Canelo Alvarez in May -- has been hit with a suspension after posting a controversial video on social media where he talks about hitting women.

The 30-year-old WBO super middleweight champ claims the video was meant to be a joke and since apologized for it, but the British Boxing Board of Control quickly decided to hand down the indefinite punishment.

"I just wanted to make a little video for all you dads, husbands, if you’ve got girlfriends etcetera," Saunders said in his video.

"Obviously this COVID-19 is getting very serious and we are isolated away in tight spaces. If your old woman is giving you a little bit of mouth and you try to be patient, you try to be calm, cool, but after the 7th day or 6th day you’re just about to explode."

Yeah, the BBBOC didn't find it funny. At all.

"The British Boxing Board of Control having considered comments made by Billy Joe Saunders on social media have suspended his boxer’s license pending a hearing under the Board’s misconduct regulation, at a time and venue to be confirmed as soon as possible." the org. said in a statement.

The video got the attention of boxing superstar Claressa Shields, who clapped back with her OWN advice video -- explaining how to fight someone who comes at you like Billy Joe suggested.

"Hit them as hard as you can in the nuts," Shields said.

Drake's finally ready to show us what his kid looks like -- and if you had blonde hair and blue-ish eyes in your office Adonis pool ... you're a big winner.

The rapper posted the first-ever photos of his 2-year-old son, Adonis, early Monday morning, including some of him and his boy ... as well as one with his baby mama, Sophie Brussaux, in the mix too -- with all 3 of them posing for a sweet family photo.

As you can see ... Adonis is not short in the hair department!!! We don't know when Drake and fam took these pics, but at the time Adonis had blue-green eyes and a 'fro that might make the Jackson 5 blush.

Seemingly trying to explain the blonde hair ... Drake included a younger shot of his mother -- Adonis' grandma -- who did have a dirty blonde 'do.

Drizzy was certainly in some type of self-help mood when he posted these, writing ... "What is most important for you right now is to connect to your own inner light. This will create the biggest opening of all."

He continued, "Trust that you have all of the power within to make this happen, and in order to do that connect to the people and things that bring you a lot of joy. Drake got even more philosophical, telling folks to look within and ... yada, yada, yada ... you get it.

He finished with ... "I love and miss my beautiful family and friends and I can’t wait for the joyful day when we are all able to reunite. Until then please keep your lights on."

Elton John and friends -- including Billie Eilish, Lizzo and Alicia Keys -- successfully put on a concert from the confines of their own homes ... while raising much-needed funding for the coronavirus battle.

The show featured artists performing, pre-recorded, from their homes -- and while it was short on makeup and the usual perfect TV lighting ... the raw performances were pretty awesome.

Alicia Keys kicked it off with a scaled-down version of her new track, "Underdog." The Backstreet Boys followed by beaming in from their own homes with "I Want It That Way." It was interesting seeing all five of them singing individually, but ultimately getting edited together. Pretty seamless.

Other performers included David Grohl -- doing "My Hero," naturally -- and H.E.R.

In between the performances, iHeart weaved in segments featuring first responders -- nurses, doctors, paramedics and truck drivers -- talking about battling the pandemic, and the importance of STAYING HOME.

Other big marquee acts on the show were Mariah Carey, Sam Smith, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Tim McGraw, Camila Cabello and Shawn Mendes.

The show's intent was raising money for Feeding America as well as First Responders Children's Foundation. No word yet on how much was raised, but it was definitely the best sounding telethon in quite some time.

Shaquille O'Neal wants to make it clear -- he does NOT support Joe Exotic or the GW Zoo, despite the way it looked in the Netflix docuseries, "Tiger King."

One of the big moments in the series was when Shaq not only visited the GW Zoo back in the day -- but he then gave Joe Exotic a plug on "Inside the NBA." Shaq says he's visited the zoo several times and even appeared on Joe's reality show in 2014.

People have been critical of Shaq -- since the doc paints Joe as a scumbag who mistreated the animals at his Oklahoma facility. Also, he's accused of trying to put a hit out on a rival tiger sanctuary owner. Bad stuff.

But, Shaq addressed the situation on "The Big Podcast with Shaq" -- and claimed he had NO IDEA things were as bad as they were at the zoo.

"I was just a visitor. I met this guy. Not my friend. Don’t know him. Never had any business dealings with him, and I had no idea any of that stuff was going on," Shaq said.

The NBA legend admits he made donations to the zoo -- claiming he does stuff like that all the time -- but would never support the mistreatment of animals.

"People that know me know that I'm righteous. I don't harm tigers. I lover tigers."

"We found out that he’s involved with all the stuff, and then, actually, I stopped going.”

Shaq says he really likes the show -- he's binged watched it -- saying, "It's actually a really good documentary."

Bob Barker's life is not in upheaval under the coronavirus quarantine -- like most of us -- because he's already skilled in the art of self-isolation.

Sources connected to Bob tell us the former 'Price is Right' host is doing okay at home as he quarantines in Los Angeles. Fact is, Bob was already steering clear of others for his own health, so the new normal for most folks is just another day for Barker.

Our sources say Bob's isolation is way more strict due to the outbreak though. His family was already barring people with colds from getting close to him -- his immune system is not what it once was -- and now, no one is allowed over to the house aside from those in quarantine with him.

We're told 96-year-old Bob's family is making sure he eats and tends to all his medical needs, but so far it's pretty much business as usual.

There is one major change ... our sources say Bob would normally watch sports at home, but now he's watching a lot of old movies, especially anything related to the military. Remember, Bob was in the Navy and is really into war flicks.

You'll recall ... Bob slipped and fell at his home last year, and was transported to the hospital twice in 2018 with back issues.

But, so far, Bob's doing just fine in quarantine.