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We can definitely smell what The Rock is cooking now -- dude's whipped up a mogul souffle ... 'cause he's now on the new WWE board, and he's got exclusive rights to his stage name.

Dwayne Johnson was announced as the newest board of directors member for TKO -- which now owns WWE and UFC as a new one-stop shop entity. As one of the shot-callers of the org, DJ will not only get some executive decision-making power ... but other perks too.

For starters, he's getting some stock options -- which are valued at $30 million, and which will vest over time. More importantly, he's being granted the full trademark to 'The Rock' ... which he has pretty much gone by his entire career, dating back to when he was in the ring.

As part of this new move, Dwayne will get to capitalize on his moniker -- specifically, as it pertains to merchandising/royalties the WWE might make by using 'The Rock' in business.

THR reports that part of the deal between DJ and TKO regarding 'The Rock' rights sees that TKO gets an exclusive licensing deal for 10 years to use the brand for certain products ... and during that time, Dwayne can't go and license it to other companies competitive with them. In other words, he receives the trademark ... but WWE gets a decade to milk it.

The Rock said of the news ... "My grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, and my dad, Rocky ‘Soulman’ Johnson, would’ve never thought this day would come."

Kanye West is getting hands on with the paparazzi ... directing photographers on how to shoot him and his wife Bianca Censori's stroll through a parking lot, and the exchange is hilarious.

TMZ obtained video of Yeezy yelling at multiple paps, telling them the proper angles -- in his mind, at least -- to use while photographing the couple leaving a Melrose Place tanning salon.

You can hear Kanye directing photogs where to stand, as he attempts to turn the back alley parking lot into his own personal set. The takeaway -- don't dare to shoot Ye at a 45-degree angle!!!

The funny interaction between Kanye and the paparazzi went down at the same time a homeless man appeared, and started screaming at Ye and Bianca in a bizarre rant.

As we reported, Kanye and his wife seemed pretty alarmed when the guy got near their car and blocked their path.

Guess this ain't a closed set.

Anyway, it's interesting to see Kanye working closely with the paps here ... seeing as how he's frequently been at odds with them.

1/23 -- 7:54 AM PT -- The NYPD says the guy who got dragged away in a police car Monday has been arrested and booked on stalking and harassment charges.

The department says, "Officers were approached by multiple complainants who pointed out an emotionally disturbed male acting erratically at the location. Once officers observed the male harassing multiple complainants, they took him to custody without further incidents; no injuries were reported." The dude's name is David Crowe -- and he's apparently from Seattle.

Taylor Swift had the same dude who was busted at her place this weekend show up on her doorstep AGAIN this week -- and best believe ... cops showed up to handle it.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... the man who was cuffed and hauled away Saturday while trying to access Taylor's NYC townhouse had the gall to swing by her pad yet again on Monday, something her security team and surrounding neighbors immediately noticed.

We're told the head of Taylor's security immediately called cops when the dude arrived, and our sources say everyone reported the same thing ... namely, that he was just lurking.

Of course, considering what just happened a couple days ago with this fella ... that's a huge problem. We're told NYPD officers eventually arrived to the scene, but couldn't immediately find the man -- however, it didn't take long to track him down ... he was around the corner.

Our sources say they found less than a block away from Taylor's residence -- and that's where this interaction with the cops went down, with officers once again throwing him in handcuffs and into the back of one of their police cruisers.

No question about it ... we're told this is, in fact, the same dude from Saturday-- but we're not sure at this point what's gonna happen to him, or if charges are being pressed either.

You'll recall ... when he was originally picked up, cops say they found him fiddling with Taylor's front door, in what police perceived as an attempt to enter without authorization.

When they ran him in their system, they found there was an open warrant for his arrest -- this pertaining to a separate case from 2017 when he failed to show up to court.

It goes without saying ... him coming back to the scene so soon after all that is troubling, to say the least -- and ya gotta figure law enforcement will be a little stricter this time around.

Then again, we know celebs have had a hard time achieving successful deterrents from these sorts of people who appear to be obsessed with them ... with the criminal justice system often failing to protect them from potential danger.

As you know ... Taylor has had a long, documented history with stalkers in her own career ... including one who was previously arrested for trying to get into her Manhattan pad a few years back. Unclear if this guy is that, but already ... he's not setting a good precedent.

Our new documentary, "TMZ Investigates: Obsessed and Dangerous: Hollywood's Stalker Crisis," airs Monday at 9/8c on FOX ... and we break down Taylor's stories and more.

Michael Phelps and his wife, Nicole Johnson, are popping out babies like PEZ ... 'cause they just had number 4!

The Olympic swimming legend announced the exciting news with Johnson on Instagram Monday, while posting a photo of them cradling their little cutey swaddled in a blanket. They named their week-old son Nico Michael Phelps, who already has a full head of black hair just like his gold medalist dad!

In the caption, the happy couple wrote, "@mrs.nicolephelps and I wanna welcome Nico Michael Phelps to the world. Born on 1/16."

They continued, "We're so blessed to be given a 4th child. We're now a family of 6!"

Last October, the pair revealed their clan was going to grow by one in another Instagram post, but Nico waited until recently to make his big debut.

Phelps and Johnson have three other sons: Boomer, 7, Beckett, 5, and Maverick, 4. With Nico now in the mix, Michael certainly has his hands full teaching his boys how to become Olympic champions.

Madonna gave her daughter one of the biggest birthday presents imaginable -- getting a packed crowd at Madison Square Garden to sing along and help her ring in the big 1-8.

The pop star brought out her kid, Mercy, onstage Monday night during her show at MSG and showed off her incredible talent by having her play a little piano for the arena -- that is, before Mama Bear helped lead a full-blown sing-a-long for her to celebrate her born day.

It was a pretty sweet moment ... not only did Madge come over and belt out the tune, but a lot of her backup dancers and stage crew members also rushed the stage to join in.

Once they were finished with the song -- which almost everyone helped sing -- they brought out a little cupcake with Mercy for good measure ... complete with a candle and everything.

Madonna gave Mercy a hug afterward ... and it seems she stuck around to play more too.

Hugh Hefner's famous last name isn't doing much good these days for his widow Crystal ... and now that she's written a book about their marriage, she's done with the Hefner name.

Crystal says she doesn't want to be a Hefner anymore... and feels she needs to change her name back to what it was before she met the Playboy founder ... Crystal Harris.

Hugh's 3rd and final wife was on Rachel Uchitel's podcast Miss Understood when Rachel asked Crystal if the Hefner name helped her or hurt her.

Crystal, who was married to Hugh when he died in 2017, says Hef's secretary quickly changed her last name to his after their 2012 marriage ... telling Rachel it was all done at Hugh's behest. Crystal says she really had no involvement in the process.

It wasn't until Crystal started writing her new memoir, "Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself," that she says she started thinking about how she felt about being a Hefner.

Oliver Stone has issued an apology to Ryan Gosling for blasting the actor for playing the role of Ken in the wildly popular "Barbie" film, while calling his own comments ignorant.

The legendary director posted a statement Monday on X, praising the movie for its "originality" and "themes" after he accused Gosling of accepting the role of Barbie’s boyfriend solely for monetary reasons in a recently resurfaced 2023 interview.

In his post on X, Stone wrote that he “was able to see 'Barbie' in a theater back in July and appreciated the film for its originality and its themes.” He added, “I found the filmmakers’ approach certainly different than what I expected. I apologize for speaking ignorantly.”

Stone also gave kudos to "Barbie" director Greta Gerwig, saying her 2017 flick, "Ladybird," was one of his favorites that year. As you know, Gerwig's "Barbie" was the highest-grossing film of 2023, raking in more than $1.4 billion at the box office while costarring Margot Robbie as Barbie alongside Gosling's Ken.

Stone made his controversial statements about Gosling during a June 2023 interview with City A.M. -- just weeks before Barbie was to be released in theaters.

Stone told a reporter Gosling was "wasting his time if he's doing that s*** for money," referring to "Barbie."

Colorado Buffaloes cornerback Cormani McClain -- the highest-ranked recruit in Deion Sanders' 2023 CU class -- was issued a citation last week after he was involved in a car crash in Boulder.

TMZ Sports has learned ... the accident happened on Jan. 15 less than a mile away from CU's campus -- after cops say McClain's car "slid into another vehicle when trying to brake for a red light."

Fortunately, a spokesperson for the Boulder Police Department said there were no reported injuries ... and neither car suffered major damage.

We're told, however, McClain was issued a citation for "driving too fast for the weather conditions."

McClain came to Colorado with a ton of fanfare -- he flipped his commitment late in the '23 recruiting cycle from Miami to the Buffs ... and as the No. 1-ranked H.S. cornerback in the entire country, many expected him to thrive under Sanders.

But, his freshman year didn't go quite as planned ... he only totaled 13 tackles in 10 games -- and early in the season, Sanders actually called him out during a press conference.

Coach Prime told reporters he wanted to see McClain "study" and "prepare" more in order to get more playing time.

"Show up to the darn meetings," the coach added.

We're off to the races at TMZ to kick off the week -- and yes, that means a helluva lot of good TV content right from the jump ... and we're here to catch you up on all of it.

Richard Simmons said he didn't give Pauly Shore permission to make a movie about his life -- but now ... Pauly Shore is suggesting RS appears to have changed his tune, or so he claims anyway. We got into the apparent about-face on 'TMZ Live' ... trying to make sense of this back-and-forth, and whether Pauly actually has the fitness legend's blessing or not.

On the face of it ... it's kinda hard to tell for sure -- even after this weekend.

Over on the 'TMZ on TV' side of things ... Taylor Swift was all the rage -- but not nearly as much as rage as Travis Kelce's brother, Jason ... who was partying it up at the game Sunday. As we discussed here, the guy let it all hang out in the brisk, cold weather.

Yes, he was shirtless ... and we had some laughs about the whole thing. All in good fun!

When it comes to 'TMZ Sports,' we were still talking Chiefs-Bills ... but specifically, the snowball pelting that the Bills Mafia unleashed on Patrick Mahomes, who ducked for cover.

American actress Maria Bello was in her early 30's when she played Lil -- the rough around the edges, hot blonde bar owner who managed the 'Coyotes' -- in the boot-stomping bar film "Coyote Ugly" back in 2000.

Maria shared the big screen with Piper Perabo as the aspiring musician, Violet Sanford, John Goodman as Violet's father, Bill, Adam Garcia as Violet's love interest, Mr. O'Donald ... and of course LeAnn Rimes and Tyra Banks are other notable bar babes in the movie.

Just one year prior to "Coyote Ugly's" release, Bello starred in "Payback" with Mel Gibson, and in 2004 she co-starred with Johnny Depp in "Secret Window".

Nia Long just got what she wanted in her custody battle with Ime Udoka -- a judge made it so she'll get monthly support ... plus, a majority of the parenting time for their child.

The actress and NBA coach -- who split up in 2022 amid claims of infidelity -- came to terms in court Monday ... with a judge signing off on a custody agreement that hashes out who's paying who, and who their son will live with/spend most of his time with.

Per the docs, obtained by TMZ, it's actually Nia who'll be receiving monthly child support -- and even though the court said she might be entitled to upwards of $56k ... the 2 parents ended up landing on about half of that, with Ime agreeing to pay her $32,500/month.

The couple went through their financials -- as did the court -- and found Ime makes way more money coaching the Houston Rockets right now than Nia does ... noting he's got more than $400k in net monthly disposable income, whereas she's only got about $20k.

Now, in terms of custody ... they'll continue to share joint legal custody -- but Nia will get sole physical custody with reasonable visitation for Ime as time and scheduling permits.

They note in their docs that Ime is constantly traveling with the team, and this arrangement works better for everyone. Everything else pertaining to their kid, Kez, is pretty even-Steven.

Remember, Nia had filed for pretty much exactly this situation back in August -- and earlier this month, she and Ime had come to these exact terms in a settlement. Now, she's got it all in writing with a stamp of approval ... with the court entering the judgment, making it official.

David Gail's sudden death is under investigation ... and cops tell us they are looking into the possibility of a fatal drug overdose.

Law enforcement tells TMZ ... no foul play is suspected in David's case but police are waiting for toxicology tests to determine an official cause of death. With that said, we're told an OD is what police suspect might've gone down here. No word on what type of substances are on cops' radar just yet.

As we reported ... David's sister, Katie Colmenares, announced his death Saturday in a social media post -- leaving a sweet and touching remembrance in confirming his passing.

His sibling did not give a cause of death for her brother -- but did say she would "hold you so tight every day in my heart." She also said she'll miss David "every second of every day forever."

Remember ... David famously appeared in 7 episodes of 'BH: 90210' as Stuart Carson, the fiancé of Shannen Doherty's character. DG was also big in the soap opera world ... he's in 216 episodes of the "General Hospital" spin-off "Port Charles."

His other acting credits include ... "Matlock," "Murder, She Wrote," "The Round Table," "Doogie Howser, M.D.," "Perfect Opposites" and "Growing Pains." On the big screen, David starred alongside Bradley Cooper in the 2002 rom-com "Bending All The Rules."

Chris Brown and Quavo have been at odds for years over their mutual connection to Karrueche Tran ... which is why Chris is so pissed about an awkward moment at Paris Fashion Week.

Here's the deal ... CB and Quavo were plopped right next to one another Sunday at the Rhude Menswear Fall/Winter '24 showcase -- and yes, they were definitely uncomfortable with the situation, evidenced by their body language.

The clip of them sitting there and squirming went viral, but then Chris chimed in as everyone cracked jokes about it -- he commented, "Can't pick who u sit by. F*** all that growth s***."

He added, "N**** not finna fumble my bag for little n*****." In other words, he wasn't gonna make a big stink, or start a fight, over getting placed -- seemingly by coincidence -- next to Quavo.

As he notes, there are bigger issues to worry about -- y'know, like getting paid!

In case you're unfamiliar, Quavo dated Karrueche in 2017 -- not long after CB broke things off with her, following a tumultuous relationship -- and Chris certainly didn't like it back then.

In fact, we'd been told at the time that he was fuming over this ... and felt like the Migos rapper had outright betrayed him. They've traded jabs back and forth since then -- almost coming to blows after the 2017 BET Awards.

Anyway, Chris is making a couple things clear -- yes, he still doesn't like Quavo, but also ... he's a grown-up who's able to control his emotions.

Too Short is adding filmmaking to his resume ... and he's already scored some Hollywood heavy hitters for his movie, "Freaky Tales," which recently premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.

He spoke to us Monday on "TMZ Live," about the "anthology horror-movie-thriller-comedy" ... which depicts 4 interconnected stories during 1987 Oakland, and heavily features his music.

The film serves as a "love letter to Oakland," and also mirrors Short's experience growing up there in the eighties -- and he tells us his emotional attachment to the project is even more significant because he's an executive producer and narrator for it.

He acknowledges it also means a lot to the others involved -- most noticeably its A-list cast that includes Tom Hanks, Pedro Pascal, Normani, and the late Angus Cloud. It's also directed by "Capt. Marvel" writers/directors Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden -- which is major.

After the movie's debut, Short took advantage of his time in Park City, UT ... deciding to hit the slopes for his first time.

He tells us he didn't need much convincing to give it a whirl, because he's always been adventurous and agile, even at 57.

Rick Harrison's son tragically died from overdosing on fentanyl ... TMZ has learned.

The "Pawn Stars" star, through his rep, tells TMZ ... "Yes, I can confirm Adam died from a fentanyl overdose. The fentanyl crisis in this country must be taken more seriously.  It seems it is just flowing over the borders and nothing is being done about it. We must do better."

TMZ broke the story ... the Harrison family found out on Friday that Adam died from a fatal overdose. At the time, the circumstances surrounding the death were unclear and Las Vegas Metro PD told us they were investigating the case.

The Harrison family told us ... "Our family is extremely saddened by the death of Adam. We ask for privacy as we grieve his loss."

Rick later posted an emotional tribute to Adam on his IG, saying: "You will always be in my heart! I love you Adam. 💔"

Adam is one of Rick's three kids -- and his second son with his first wife, Kim. He'd mostly been off the radar in terms of Rick's show and store ... seemingly having chosen not to appear in any of the episodes.

Because he was never involved in the show, not too much was known about him ... but we heard he worked professionally in some type of trade.

"America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh says America's spiraling crime stats, and criminals getting smarter are just 2 reasons why his famous show is returning to FOX.

John and his son, Callahan Walsh, are hosting the 'AMW' reboot, and they joined us Monday on "TMZ Live" to discuss how crime has changed since the show's initial heyday in the '90s and early 2000s.

It was way back in 1988 when 'AMW' premiered on FOX and John tells us crime is so bad these days, honchos at the FBI told him they wanted his show to return, so he could help bust criminals ... particularly in areas the agency considers "lawless."

Another change since the OG 'AMW' ... John says advances in technology are making it easier to find criminals -- but he points out some of that technology also gives the bad guys more tools to break laws, and get away with it.

There are plenty of new criminals for John and Callahan to track down on their reboot ... but they tell us their program will also take a crack at solving some cold cases too.

No one understands the importance of staying on cases like that more than the Walsh family -- John points out he waited 27 years for the police files that eventually helped solve his 6-year-old son Adam's 1981 abduction and murder.

The new 'AMW' premieres tonight at 8 PM ET on FOX, and the Walshes tell us they plan to keep fighting crime in Adam's honor.