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Joey Jordison, one of the founding members of the heavy metal band Slipknot, has died.

Joey died in his sleep Monday, according to his family. The cause of death is unclear, but a statement from his loved ones says he passed away peacefully.

The family says Joey's death "has left us with empty hearts and feelings of indescribable sorrow" ... and they're remembering him as a prolific drummer, musician and artist with a quick wit, gentle personality and giant heart.

Joey's loved ones tell us they will hold a private funeral service for him, but it's unclear when that will happen.

As you know ... Joey's famous for starting Slipknot way back in 1995, playing drums for the super popular band. With Slipknot, JJ played drums on 5 studio albums and performed on the live album, "9.0: Live."

Joey played in other bands as well ... he left Slipknot in 2013 and formed the band Scar The Martyr, also playing drums. He played guitar for the metal band Murderdolls and most recently was rocking out with the band Sinsaenum.

Over his career, Joey played with tons of heavy metal bands, like Rob Zombie, Korn, Metallica, Otep, Satyricon and Ministry.

Joey was 46.

RIP

Paris Hilton doesn't have a bun in the oven -- despite intense media speculation over the past week -- because she's shot down the rumors herself.

The socialite issued a firm denial Tuesday in her newest episode of her "This is Paris" podcast ... saying she wasn't pregnant, and probably wouldn't be until she says her "I dos," which probably isn't too far away at this point -- as you know, she's currently engaged.

Paris had a joke-y way of coming out with the non-news ... at first saying she was expecting, and that she had triplets cooking in her gut. She pulled a big psyche right after that, though, and told the real truth -- namely, that there were no babies on the way, at least for now.

PH says she was getting blown up with questions about an alleged pregnancy -- which probably came about after one outlet straight-up said she was actually pregnant ... citing unnamed sources. Turns out, there's no truth it.

Some outlets keyed in on TMZ video shot last week, and speculated one angle made her look pregnant -- despite there being no indications she was -- but apparently, she looked different enough for people to wildly theorize she was pregnant.

Throw in the fact that she and her fiance, Carter Reum, have been undergoing in-vitro fertilization treatments as they prepare to be wed ... and you got yourself a rumor mill that's all of a sudden out of control.

A rare Wu-Tang Clan album once owned by convicted felon Martin Shkreli has been sold by the feds ... wiping his slate clean with the U.S. of A., financially speaking.

The feds said Tuesday it sold "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin" ... Wu-Tang's only known physical copy that exists. You'll recall Shkreli, the guy who jacked the price of the AIDS/cancer medicine from $13.50 to $750 a pop, dropped $2 million for it back in 2015 at auction.

The sale of the album will cover the balance remaining on the $7,360,450 in forfeiture the judge ordered Shkreli to pay at his 2018 sentencing. According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, the feds have already collected $5,121,967.70 ... leaving an outstanding balance of $2,238,482.

As for what the album sold for and to whom ... the feds aren't telling. According to prosecutors ... the sale's contract includes a confidentiality provision that protects information about the price and the buyer.

BTW ... the album includes a hand-carved, nickel-silver box as well as a leather-bound manuscript with lyrics and a certificate of authenticity.

Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are perfectly aligned and in step with one another as they continue their romantic Euro getaway to celebrate her birthday ... and we mean that literally.

TMZ's obtained footage of the couple strolling through the quaint alleyways of Capri Tuesday ... where they seem to have landed after a pit stop in Saint-Tropez over the weekend. As you can see, they were hand-in-hand ... with their team fully surrounding them.

They didn't let that kill the mood though ... Bennifer went about their business, taking in the sights and leisurely enjoying the city. Good view here too from the back ... just saying. 👀

Anyhoo ... eyewitnesses tell us it was quite the eventful day for them -- apparently, they stopped for a bite at a place called Ristorante Faraglioni ... but we're told there didn't seem to be a whole lot of eating. Our sources on the ground say it was mostly them hamming it up for paps.

We're also told they popped into a jewelry store at one point ... but it's unclear what, if anything, they bought. After that ... our sources say they hit up a vintage Chanel store. So, they're definitely in vacation mode -- shopping, chillin' and soaking in the atmosphere.

It seems their decision to go full PDA for the cams hasn't ceased either -- from land to sea, they're showing off their newfound love for everyone to witness. It'll be interesting to see if/how they act once they're state-side again ... lately, they've tried being low-key here.

Actor Rick Aiello -- son of the late legendary actor, Danny Aiello -- has died of pancreatic cancer ... his family tells TMZ.

According to Rick's mother, Sandy ... he passed away Monday night surrounded by loved ones at a hospital in Warwick, New York. We're told he'd battled the illness for about a year and a half.

Sadly, Rick's brother, Danny Aiello III, also died of pancreatic cancer in 2010. Their father died in December 2019 from an infection related to a sudden illness he was being treated for ... as we first reported.

Rick followed in his father's footsteps as a veteran actor with more than 60 credits to his name, beginning in the mid-80s. He's most known for appearing in the same movie that earned his dad critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination -- Spike Lee's 1989 film, "Do the Right Thing."

Rick played Officer Long ... just like he did in Spike's "Jungle Fever" a couple years later.

He also had notable roles in "Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me" and made guest appearances on shows like 'Law & Order' and "Sex and the City."

Ricky is survived by his wife, Arlene Anne Urichich, and their 2 kids.

He was 65.

Wentworth Miller says he learned something about himself in quarantine ... he's autistic.

The "Prison Break" star just revealed he's been diagnosed with autism, something he says came as a shock but wasn't exactly a surprise.

Wentworth says he's approaching 1 year since he received his informal autism diagnosis, which was preceded by a self-diagnosis and followed by a formal diagnosis ... saying diagnosing autism is a "long, flawed process in need of updating," particularly when experts are diagnosing adults and not children.

He says being autistic isn't something he'd change about himself, because it's central to who he is and part of everything he's achieved in his career.

With his official diagnosis, Wentworth says he's not going to suddenly dedicate his celeb platform to autism awareness, because he doesn't know enough about autism.

Hunter Biden has made a big move ... to a Southern California beach town riddled with celebs ... aka Malibu -- TMZ has learned.

Biden is renting a 3,000 square foot, 4-bedroom, 2.5-bath home about a mile away from the ocean. The house sold for $3.34 million back in 2019 and it was listed for rent at $20k a month.

Neighbors tell TMZ ... the house is crawling with Secret Service agents. One neighbor tells us, someone from the Secret Service approached him a few days back and asked if he'd be willing to rent out his house to them for a year. He politely declined.

The photo of Biden (above) was taken Monday as he was leaving lunch with several people.

We're told Joe Biden's son actually moved around 4 months ago, but it was kept on the down-low. He was previously living in Venice, CA in a house that had very little privacy, which seems to explain the move.

We're told he has pretty much kept to himself. The neighbors we spoke with say they haven't even met him and most haven't even seen him.

New England definitely ain't gonna like these apples ...

Matt Damon -- one of the biggest die-hard Boston-area sports fans EVER -- just admitted he'd root against the Patriots in a Super Bowl!!

The Academy Award-winning actor made the shocking revelation on The Dan Patrick Show on Tuesday ... saying if it came down to Tom Brady's Buccaneers vs. the Pats in this year's Big Game, he's team TB12 all day!!

"Listen," Damon said. "I love that guy."

Damon -- who is from Cambridge, Mass. -- has been a Pats fan since forever ... but it's clear his relationship with Tom outweighs all of that.

"Go Bucs," Damon said on the show.

It's gotta hurt the Patriots ... but, hey, they do get to square off against Tom in the regular season in Foxborough in October.

Neither drugs nor alcohol are believed to be factors in the sudden death of Metal Church frontman Mike Howe ... according to cops.

A spokesperson for the Humboldt County Sheriff's Dept. tells TMZ ... cops got a call Monday morning just after 10 AM in Eureka, CA reporting an unexpected death at a home. We're told when deputies arrived they found Mike dead at the scene.

Cops say drugs and alcohol are not believed to be factors in the death and no controlled substances or paraphernalia were located at the scene. At the time of this post ... the cause of death is unknown.

The band released a statement on Facebook shortly after Mike's passing and said, "It is with our deepest regrets that we must announce the passing of our brother, our friend and true legend of heavy metal music."

The statement continued, "We are devastated and at a loss for words. Please respect our privacy and the Howe family’s privacy during this most difficult time."

Metal Church, universally credited with influencing the thrash metal genre, was formed in the 1980s and released 2 albums before Mike joined the group later that decade. He'd ultimately help pump out the band's third album ... "Blessing in Disguise," which churned out one of the group's most popular tracks, "Badlands."

The group would go on to release 2 more studio albums before the band broke up in the mid-1990s. The band ultimately got back together and Mike rejoined them in 2015.

Mike was 55.

Simone Biles has withdrawn from the gymnastics team finals in Tokyo -- the Olympic superstar is dealing with a "medical issue" that has forced her to back out of the event, officials say.

There are conflicting reports on what caused Biles -- quite possibly the greatest gymnast of all time -- to leave the competition. The 24-year-old appeared to suffer an injury early in the event, but the NBC's broadcast stated a coach claimed her withdrawal was due to a "mental issue."

USA Gymnastics released a statement Tuesday morning ... saying, "Simone Biles has withdrawn from the team final competition due to a medical issue. She will be assessed daily to determine medical clearance for future competitions."

Biles seemingly injured her leg after landing her vault attempt ... speaking with a trainer and leaving the floor before returning with her right leg wrapped.

It's crushing news for Team USA -- the Red, White and Blue were favorites to take home the gold for the third-straight Games.

Biles spoke out about the pressure to succeed after prelims on Monday ... saying, "I truly do feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders at times."

"I know I brush it off and make it seem like pressure doesn’t affect me but damn sometimes it’s hard hahaha! The olympics is no joke! BUT I’m happy my family was able to be with me virtually🤍 they mean the world to me!"

There's still hope for the 4-time gold medalist -- she could possibly be recovered in time for the all-around finals on Thursday.

Ben Crump is suing Johnson & Johnson for allegedly targeting Black women with a product he says has been linked to cancer -- and it sounds like they're going class action with this.

The civil rights attorney put on his personal injury lawyer hat Tuesday with a major announcement -- saying he and fellow attorney Paul Napoli are taking the pharmaceutical and packaged goods giant to court on behalf of the National Council of Negro Women.

Ben says it's all over an alleged decades-long campaign at J&J he says was angling to get African-American women to buy its famed powder products over the years with tailored advertising and marketing ... namely, talcum powder, (found mostly in their popular baby powder) which he says has been the subject of research and studies, with ties to ovarian cancer.

Ben insists he's got inside info -- including internal memos from the company -- that prove their efforts to get Black women to buy talcum ... which he says has caused irreparable harm to so many for too long. Ben claims to have data to support the suggestion that Black women were the focus of these talcum sales efforts -- and that, by and large, they worked.

More than just that ... Ben and co. are claiming J&J knew its product was poison for the body -- saying they betrayed that trust with their consumers ... and with the African-American community at large.

Now, he's inviting anyone who might've been affected to hop on ... presumably to get in on the suit, potential damages and/or any settlement that may come of this. Ben will be holding a press conference later in the day to get into the nitty-gritty of the lawsuit.

Stay tuned ...

Dua Lipa says she's "surprised and horrified" by DaBaby's anti-gay and sexist diatribe during his set at Rolling Loud ... she says it doesn't sound like the artist she thought she knew.

Dua Lipa, who worked on a song with DaBaby last year, just responded to his homophobic rant ... saying she can't believe he's spewing all that hate.

DL says "I don't really recognize this as the person I worked with" ... alluding to their 2020 collab on the song, "Levitating."

As we reported ... DaBaby told folks in the Rolling Loud crowd to put up their cell phone lights, encouraging them to do so in a very disturbing way by telling them ... "If you didn't show up today with HIV/AIDS or other STDs that'll make you die in 2-3 weeks" and "Fellas, if you didn't suck a n**** d*** in the parking lot."

DaBaby tried clearing up the vile comments following tons of backlash, posting a video where he claims the words weren't directed at his gay fans because his gay fans aren't "nasty gay n****s" or "junkies." In other words, he only made things worse.

Dua Lupa makes a clear distinction between her values and DaBaby's rant ... saying she stands "100% with the LGBTQ community" and calling on folks to come together to fight the ignorance and stigma around HIV and AIDS.

It's finally over -- Aaron Rodgers has officially made his return to Green Bay ... ending his dramatic offseason feud with the Packers!!!

Of course, no one knew if this day would ever come -- AR12 made it explicitly clear he was unhappy with the franchise over his contract and other front office moves ... and was non-committal on ever suiting up for the Pack again.

But, Rodgers and GB were able to restructure his current deal on Monday, which opened the door to his departure in 2022.

The new conditions pleased the guy so much, he hopped on a private jet and made his way to Wisconsin on Tuesday morning ... before getting in his SUV and driving off to the team facility.

Rodgers made the most of his time away from the team -- he traveled all over the globe with his fiancee, Shailene Woodley ... and even got in some golf with his pals Tom Brady, Bryson DeChambeau and Phil Mickelson.

The Black woman selling hair care products who was approached by a white woman asking if the transactions were drug deals doesn't want folks going after this "Karen" ... but she hopes a lesson was learned.

Ronnie Marie, owner of Marie's Luxury Hair Extensions, tells TMZ ... she doesn't want "Karen" to lose her job or get canceled over the incident.

Instead, Ronnie wants folks to keep supporting her hair care biz, like they have since video of the interaction went viral ... because she says kindness is how you kill a "Karen."

As we reported ... Ronnie was approached by a white woman in Sacramento, CA while she was selling hair care products off her bicycle, with "Karen" saying the transactions looked like drug deals to some folks in the neighborhood.

Ronnie, who remained calm the entire time, tells us she delivers her products to customers at the same location every day at the same time ... and claims folks in the area know her well.

She says the positive support from customers and strangers on the Internet is the best way to discourage this kind of behavior from "Karens" ... and she's not planning to take any legal action against the woman.

Todd Chrisley's daughter had the cops called on her after allegedly throwing a drink at one of her brother's friends -- but she says the guy was getting in her and her friends' faces.

Lindsie Chrisley -- who's appeared on her parents' show, 'Chrisley Knows Best' -- is under the microscope of the Atlanta PD after a pal of her younger brother, Chase, filed a report this weekend following an altercation that went down Saturday night in the ATL.

According to the police report, obtained by TMZ, a guy named Austin Duriez claims he was at a bar in town where Lindsie also happened to be. He says, for some unexplained reason, she threw a glass with a drink at him -- which he says hit him in the head. He says he flagged down a bouncer and had her removed.

He says after she was bounced, Lindsie made a scene -- so he decided to leave. Austin called the cops the next day ... he wasn't sure if he wanted to press charges since Lindsie is his friend's sister. There's body cam footage of his interaction with cops -- and this all seems to harken back to the 2019 drama.

You'll recall ... the Chrisleys faced tax evasion charges at both the state and federal level -- mucked up further by allegations of an affair Todd claimed Lindsie had started with a tax official, which is what he believed led to the authorities getting the dirt they needed.

It was a whole ordeal, and essentially left Lindsie estranged from a good chunk of the family, including Chase.

As for what she has to say about all this ... her attorney, Musa Ghanayem, tells TMZ, yes, Lindsie may have gestured toward Austin as if to throw the drink ... and that if any liquid made contact, it was a tiny bit. The real perpetrator though, according to the lawyer, is Austin.

Ghanayem says Austin accosted Lindsie and her group at their table ... and then started to harass and intimidate them, to the point one of her friends had to push him off her. He also claims Austin was trying to snap pictures of them, and made them feel uncomfortable.

Stephen Dorff has gone from a "s***-talking" mood to mea culpa mode ... saying he feels bad for trashing Scarlett Johansson and her Marvel film.

We got the veteran actor leaving Porta Via in L.A. and wondered what he had to say weeks after the premiere of "Black Widow" and nearly a month after he teed off on ScarJo and practically everything about Hollywood.

The "Blade" star could do nothing but sing Scarlett's praises ... and he explained his interview with the U.K.'s Independent outlet was "taken a little bit out of context."

You'll recall Stephen didn't hold any punches saying, in part, "I still hunt out the good s*** because I don't want to be in 'Black Widow.' It looks like garbage to me. It looks like a bad video game. I'm embarrassed for those people. I'm embarrassed for Scarlett!"

So, what triggered Stephen? He seems to point the finger at the reporter ... who "got me in a moment where I was s*** talking a little bit."

The movie's been out for almost a month and Stephen admits he hasn't seen "Black Widow" ... which, btw, has an 81% score on Rotten Tomatoes. And, for what it's worth, he says he's already cleared the air with ScarJo.