Birthdays

Barack Obama's attitude toward his mega birthday bash -- which still looks pretty mega at this point -- seems to pretty much be ... forrrrrreeeeeget about it.

The ex-Prez was seen playing a round of golf Saturday on Martha's Vineyard with pals, not too far from where he'll be holding his big shindig later tonight -- which is still expected to host scores of people ... this in spite of him claiming to have scaled it back.

The apparent contradiction to his announced plans doesn't seem to be bothering BO one bit, though -- 'cause the dude was all smiles on the links.

Check out these pics of 44 fore-ing it up in grey, and taking some big swings on the fairway -- he looks about as polished as ever ... even when he shanks one, which he didn't appear to do a whole lot of here. Looks like he was mindful of blisters, too ... wearing bandages on his gloveless hand.

These are the same good-time vibes we saw at last night's leadup to the party -- where a crap ton of people (upwards of 300, we're told) came out for a pre-game of sorts ... laughing it up at a house Barry seems to have rented for the festivities. This, in addition to the giant tent he has on standby for the night of, we might add.

After a raucous night of fun, it would seem Barack had energy and then some for a game.

As we've reported ... people on the island are pissed over the multi-night gatherings for a number of reasons -- not the least of which include roads being blocked off for locals.

Our boots on the ground just spotted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rev. Al Sharpton who are both staying at area hotels.

Barack Obama's 60th birthday party kicked off Friday night at a resort near his home in Martha's Vineyard, and if the pre-party is any indication, the real party Saturday night will be way bigger than previously thought.

Judging from photos on a balcony, there was quite the crowd Friday ... it seems at the very least dozens of people showed up.

Residents on Martha's Vineyard tell TMZ, the Island is crawling with guests who will be attending the formal party inside a tent on the Obama's estate, and that includes a bunch of celebs including John Legend, Chrissy Teigen, Don Cheadle, Tom Hanks, Rita Wilson, Kim Fields, Dwayne Wade and Gabrielle Union. Others expected to attend are Jay-Z and Beyonce, George Clooney and Stephen Colbert.

It's unclear how many people will attend the big party tonight, but residents say it's way bigger than an intimate family and close friends soiree. Based on the number of people who have descended on the Island, residents think several hundred people may show.

Although the Obamas are loved by many on Martha's Vineyard, some residents are angry that their Island has been upended by the party. They say Secret Service has been ordering people around and blocking roads. They're also concerned about the Delta variant ... which has become an issue in Massachusetts as well as everywhere else in the country.

Tonight should be interesting.

Meghan Markle got a birthday gift from her father, a bouquet of roses, but it doesn't seem to be thawing their icy relationship.

Thomas Markle tells TMZ … he sent Meghan flowers for her 40th birthday, along with a personalized card that simply said, "Wishing you a happy birthday and brighter days."

We're told the bouquet featured a dozen red roses with 2 yellow roses in the middle, signifying Meghan and Prince Harry's 2 children.

Thomas says he specifically wanted to incorporate his grandchildren, Archie and Lilibet, in Meghan's birthday flower arrangement ... telling us he wants to be a part of their lives because it seems to him the kids don't have enough family around them in Montecito.

As you know ... Meghan and her father have a testy relationship, and Thomas doesn't get along with Harry either.

Meghan and Harry also have a huge rift with the Royal family, and as we reported, the royals tweeted her happy birthday from their official accounts in what came off like calculated moves meant to keep up appearances.

Thomas says he didn't hear a peep from Meghan after he sent the gift, but he says that's fine and he's just hoping she likes the flowers.

Barack Obama's 60th birthday may have gotten scaled back from a bash to a small shindig ... but it's still about as star-studded as it gets.

Several celebs still on the guest list have been making their way to the summer garden party at the former president's $12 million Martha's Vineyard mansion to celebrate B.O. turning the big 6-0 ... including a pair of powerhouse couples -- John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, and Dwyane Wade and Gabrielle Union ... this according to the New York Times.

Don Cheadle's also arrived, and huge names like Jay-Z and Beyonce, Eddie Vedder, George Clooney and Steven Spielberg are all still expected to attend.

So who didn't make the scaled-down guest list? Many of Obama's former administration officials including David Axelrod, and many comedians like David Letterman, Conan O'Brien and Larry David ... giving the latter a fantastic idea for a future episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm." Axelrod's the big surprise ... he engineered Obama's 2008 election victory.

As we reported ... Barack's 60th was scheduled to be a massive event, but the Obamas decided to scuttle the plan over COVID concerns with Delta surging.

Barack Obama's 60th birthday bash looks like it would have been epic, if not for the damn Delta variant ... just look at this massive tent where the party would've been held!!!

As you can see, there's a couple of temporary structures taking up tons of real estate at the Obamas' sprawling property on Martha's Vineyard ... including the tents, which is where a reported 500 or so of his closest friends would have been celebrating. Oh, and about 200 staffers were lined up to serve the guests.

Remember ... Obama nixed the party at the last minute after struggling to make it COVID safe in the face of the surging Delta variant, on top of the CDC now saying vaccinated people can spread the virus as easily as non-vaccinated folks.

The tents are so big you can see them from super far away ... and you can just imagine what the party would have been like. It was supposedly going to be a who's-who of power brokers with folks like Oprah, George Clooney and Steven Spielberg expected to rub elbows with Obama.

Like we told you ... Obama's reps say the event is now going to be a more intimate affair for close friends and family.

Barack Obama nixing his epic 60th birthday bash at the last minute is creating a potential nightmare for many out-of-town guests ... who might lose out on major dough.

We did some digging around Martha's Vineyard -- where the shindig was supposed to go down -- and as it turns out, a bunch of hotels in the area are not issuing refunds for ObamaFest guests who had rooms booked this weekend.

The reason, we've learned, is many of these hotels have strict cancelation policies -- especially at the Winnetu Oceanside Resort -- where you had to have canceled by February 1st to get any money back!!! 😩

A few of these places -- like The Charlotte Inn and the Vineyard Square Hotel have a 30-day cancelation rule ... so those guests are outta luck too.

Ditto for a hotel called Hob Knob (which can run $800/night), but they'll credit you for a future stay if you cancel within 72 hours. Now, a few ... like the Harbor View ($1,300/night) will let you off clean without fees within a 72-hour cancelation window.

The problem is some of Obama's party crew were arriving Thursday ... so the Wednesday morning change of plans -- due to the Delta variant COVID-19 surge -- left them out in the cold.

Not everyone's screwed though -- we did find a small number of lenient/reasonable hotels that allow cancelations within 48, or even 24 hours.

We know what you're thinking ... why wouldn't these places all be reasonable, considering the circumstances? It's all about timing -- our MV sources reminded us this is the busiest time of year there, so hoteliers don't tend to give up summer revenue.

Hotels aside, ObamaFest is also causing a bit of a worker shortage! The event -- originally planned for roughly 500 guests, and the talk of MV since late May -- was reportedly going to employ upwards of 200 locals.

People in the know on the island say that left other MV businesses short-handed. Also, we're told cab/rental car companies have been slammed and completely booked in anticipation of the party.

The Delta variant of COVID-19 seems to have stopped the Obamas in their tracks -- the ex-President's birthday bash has been canceled.

A rep for 44 broke the news Wednesday, saying the Obamas would not be hosting nearly 500 celebs and others with a staff of around 200. We're told the Obamas were planning the event for months, and struggled to make it COVID safe, but the Delta variant made it too dangerous ... especially because the CDC now says vaccinated people can spread the virus just as easily as non-vaccinated folks.

Now, the rep says it'll just be close friends and family in attendance -- no word on an actual headcount, but it sounds more intimate than crazy. They add on BO's behalf, "He's appreciative of others sending their birthday wishes from afar and looks forward to seeing people soon."

The party was supposedly going to be a who's-who of power brokers -- folks like Steven Spielberg, Oprah and George Clooney were expected to show (although Biden weirdly wasn't) ... and instead of gifts, Barack was asking folks to donate to programs supporting kids and people of color.

Meghan Markle is waking up to tweets from the Royal family -- and nice ones -- wishing her a happy 40th birthday ... which, unfortunately, come off like calculated moves meant to keep up appearances.

The official Twitter accounts for Queen Elizabeth, Prince William, Kate Middleton, Prince Charles and Camilla all fired off birthday wishes to the Duchess of Sussex ... accompanied by flattering photos of her and single emojis -- either the red balloon or birthday cake.

The Queen's official account fired off first with 3 pics of Meghan with the Queen in 2018, and 2 other photos of her and Prince Harry with their son, Archie, during their 2019 South Africa visit.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's account tweeted 4 minutes later with more pretty shots of Meghan from her Senior Royal days touring the world with Harry. And, because we know there are Royals fanatics counting these things -- both tweets ended with a single exclamation point.

Both tweets were straight to the point, without any flowery gushing or anything. Hey, they're British. Baby steps.

Now, Meg's father-in-law, Prince Charles and Camilla's tweet was a little different -- they went with a single close-up portrait of Meghan, and they ended with a boring-ass period. No exclamation, so they lose some style points.

Of course, the elephant in the room -- to which none of the messages referred -- is the giant rift between Meghan and Harry and the rest of the Royal family.

As we reported ... the Sussexes accused the Royals of racism earlier this year during their sit down with Oprah. -- including their claim multiple people in the fam were worried Archie's skin might be too dark.

Not that anyone's expecting them to squash all that over Twitter, but that's the painful reality for the whole Royal Family right now.

Gisele Bündchen is channeling her inner Frankie Valli for Tom Brady's 44th birthday ... penning a mushy love letter to her man -- saying, "You’re just too good to be true."

The international supermodel took to her Instagram on Tuesday to deliver the G.O.A.T. his special birthday greeting ... posting a cute pic of the couple and quoting a Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons classic hit.

"You’re just too good to be true," Gisele wrote. “Can’t take my eyes off of you. You’d be like heaven to touch. I wanna hold you so much. At long last, love has arrived. And I thank God I’m alive. You’re just too good to be true. Can’t take my eyes off of you."

Gisele finished the post with a message in both English and her native language of Portuguese ... adding, "Happy Birthday love of my life! Thank you for sharing your life with me! I love you."

Brady was clearly thrilled with the birthday post. In fact, he even replied by commenting on the pictures in Portuguese! "Te Amo Tanto meu Amo Da minha Vida." Translated to English, he said, "I love you so much, love of my life!"

Of course, Brady's been working on his Portuguese since their relationship began ... and all the lessons are clearly paying off!!

Paul Anka is celebrating a huge milestone ... which explains the incredible response and tributes from across Hollywood.

An impressive list of friends and admirers reached out Friday to wish the legendary singer and songwriter an awesome 80th birthday. Jennifer Aniston, Jimmy Kimmel, Alec Baldwin, Quincy Jones, John Travolta, Jason Bateman and Simon Cowell all recorded a tribute video. Paul even got a shoutout from the Oracle of Omaha, Warren Buffet!

The entire birthday tribute can be seen on Paul's YouTube channel. His new album -- "Making Memories" -- was also supposed to be released on his birthday, but that's now been pushed to August 13.

Paul still has plenty to celebrate ... the new album will include a cover of Frank Sinatra's "My Way" -- which was written by Paul -- featuring Michael Bublé and Andrea Bocelli.

Ya gotta say, he's having a great 2021 -- having already teamed up with Olivia Newton-John back in May for a duet of his classic "Put Your Head on My Shoulder." The re-recording came on the heels of his tune going viral on TikTok.

Paul gained a new generation of fans after Doja Cat remixed his 1959 hit, and it became the soundtrack for TikTok's #SilhouetteChallenge.

How'd the Dallas Cowboys celebrate Dak Prescott's 28th birthday on Thursday??

A GIANT CAKE TO THE FACE, BABY!!!

Dak's offensive lineman, La'el Collins, appeared to orchestrate the whole thing after 'Boys practice in Oxnard, Calif. ... and it was all funny as hell.

Check out the footage shot by the team ... Collins brought out a cake, and got everyone in attendance to start singing "Happy Birthday" to Dallas' big star.

They eventually coaxed the quarterback to take the cake out of its box ... and as he was admiring his birthday dessert -- Collins, Ezekiel Elliott and a bunch of other Dallas O-lineman shoved it right into his grill!!

The yellow frosting got everywhere ... in Dak's eyes, mouth and even ears!!

To his credit, Prescott took it all in stride ... though he did make sure his best buddy Elliott got a little cake in the face too!!

Overall, it was a pretty solid B-day for Dallas' signal-caller ... his girlfriend, Natalie Buffett, wished him "Happy Birthday" earlier Thursday with an adorable message.

Prescott also found out earlier in the day his shoulder injury isn't expected to be serious ... and he's slated to be ready to go for Cowboys regular season in September.

Soulja Boy's birthday party didn't sit well with neighbors and especially the cops that shut it down ... but he was still ridin' high in a brand new McLaren that looked like a steroided-out bumble bee!!!

Soulja arrived late for his own birthday party -- in fact, so late cops already put the kibosh on the shindig before he roared up in his new ride courtesy of pal Ray J. He didn't seem to mind at all that guests were scattering left and right ... his attention was laser-focused on his screaming yellow whip.

It seems that rapper OG 3Three hosted the party, because he's the one who was imploring partiers to beat it before cops started writing tickets.

OG 3Three said cops told him the complaints were various -- noise, too many people and way too late at night. Police actually swarmed the area, both on land and in the air.

Ray J was no anonymous gift-giver ... he was more than happy to tell us he's the one who made Soulja's night with the McLaren. Ever the pitchman, Ray made sure the car had Raycon stickers, promoting his headphones.

Chris Harrison doesn't seem to be holding a grudge after he was cut loose from "The Bachelor" -- if anything ... the dude's let it all go, and looks happier than ever.

We got the franchise's longtime host out Tuesday night leaving The Gallery restaurant in Westlake Village, with his GF, Lauren Zima, in tow. They were hand-in-hand ... and some congratulations were in order, 'cause CH had just turned 50 the previous day.

He tells us they were, indeed, out keeping the festivities going ... and when we asked how he was doing following his abrupt exit from 'Bachelor' nation, he seemed to have processed it and let it go.

Watch this clip ... Chris seems at peace with the way things turned out, and one reason lies in the fact that he can have one of his crucial weekdays back to himself for once in nearly 20 years. That's a good thing for him in 2021, 'cause the big 5-0 landed on said day.

After some pleasantries, our photog got right into the heavy ... namely, by asking if Chris felt any type of way now that Matt James ended up staying with Rachael Kirkconnell in the end anyway -- this after she was accused of racism and he lost his job for defending her.

It's the million-dollar question that everyone has for Chris ... but check out how he answered it with us. No harm, no foul, it would appear -- he wishes the couple all the best and says it's all water under a bridge.

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.

Ben Affleck's enjoying the views on his yacht ride with Jennifer Lopez -- both of the waters before him ... and of the beautiful woman right by his side, who's still got plenty of "back" ... and who may or may not be paying homage to herself and her man.

Mr. Affleck proved as much Saturday when he and his GF were laying out on their mega-yacht as they sailed the Mediterranean in St. Tropez ... continuing the voyage they set out on yesterday to kick off J Lo's 52nd birthday celebration, which got started with a bang.

You might recall ... Bennifer went public with some awesome pics Jen herself threw up, including one of her planting a fat one on her old flame for the whole world to witness. It was the equivalent of a coming out party (for couples) ... and they did it in spectacular fashion.

Now that the cat is fully out of the bag -- beyond just pap shots of them sneaking in smooches and pecks here and there -- it seems clear that Jen and Ben aren't trying to hide the PDA anymore ... which you can tell from these photos of them on the yacht's deck.

Check it out -- Ben straight-up grabbed himself some ass onboard ... or at least gave it a nice little pat. That seemed to get Jenny's attention, because she came up and rewarded him with a kiss, and then proceeded to make moves like she was getting on top of him.

BTW, if this imagery looks like something you've seen before ... it's because you have. This seems to be a recreated scene straight out of Jen's "Jenny From the Block" music video from back in the day (when she and Ben were still dating) ... which features something similar.

Definitely appeared to be intentional too, 'cause there was a photog on hand snapping pics of them doing the butt thing. Boy, talk about art imitating life ... on purpose. 😄

Anyway, they sure are enjoying each other ... and we gotta say, Bennifer hasn't looked better than what we're seeing here. Speaking of that, J Lo touched on that in a video she threw up for the gram, showing off what 52 can be, body-wise. Seems Ben was playing cameraman.

It's Jennifer Lopez's birthday -- and if you thought anything short of a nautical hot and heavy make-out sesh with her new/old flame, Ben Affleck, was on the table to celebrate ... you were wrong.

Bennifer 2.0 have fully come out as a public couple now ... and they did it on none other than her 52nd birthday -- for which they're celebrating on a yacht in what we've heard is in the South of France. Jen just threw up some steamy shots of herself in a bikini -- and if you think they're hot ... just wait 'til you get to the last slide. Big kiss for baby Ben!!!

This certainly feels like a full-blown "we're here" type of a moment. Until now, neither party had posted any BF/GF shots to their socials ... although they have certainly been photographed together of late acting like a rekindled couple.

We've seen them get affectionate with each other over these past few months -- even some kissing in public -- but nothing quite like this ... where they're fully embracing, for the whole world to see.

As far as where they're off to ... it's anyone's guess. But, word is they were docked right on the edge of the bay, facing the Mediterranean -- so it seems they're gonna be on the high seas of the French Riviera for a bit. Classic celeb getaway ... but means more in this context.

One last thing we'll note ... Jen definitely looks birthday/yacht ready fashion-wise, and Ben does too. He seems to have ditched his usual grey(ish) tee and cargo pants getup -- opting for a nice button-down. They both look great -- this may just be the photo of the year.