Celebrity Death

One of Kenny Rogers' longtime friends did NOT know when to fold 'em, because he allegedly produced an unauthorized DVD of Kenny's farewell tour ... and now his estate is suing.

The estate claims Kelly Junkermann, an employee and friend, went rogue after he recorded Kenny's last tour and tried to release a DVD called "Kenny Rogers -- The Gambler's Last Deal."

According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ, the estate claims Junkermann convinced the singer to let him shoot the farewell tour -- but Kenny made it crystal clear the footage would be for Kenny's personal use only ... and NOT for commercial release.

The estate claims Junkermann ignored that condition and went ahead and made a DVD filled with "priceless and irreplaceable audio, video, photographic and audiovisual content that were compiled over the course of Kenny Rogers' decades-long career."

What's more ... the estate claims Junkermann made repeated requests for approval to use the content, but was repeatedly denied verbally and in writing. The estate is adamant Junkermann knew he had no right to go forward, but still struck a deal with a distributor.

Earlier this year, the estate says it blocked the release of the DVD but it cost nearly $290k in legal fees to get it done. So, they're suing for damages and for an injunction blocking Junkermann's DVD from ever coming out. They say it's not up to Kenny's standards and would damage his brand.

Rapper Mo3's alleged killer was captured on surveillance footage carrying a gun as he appears to run away from the murder scene.

The Dallas Police Department released the picture late Thursday night in hopes the public can help them identify the male suspect, whom cops say was seen driving in a possible 2014 or 2015 black Chevy Camaro.

Cops are asking anyone with information to contact the Dallas Police Homicide Unit. TMZ broke the story ... Mo3 was being tailed moments before he was shot and killed in his hometown.

The rapper had left a friend's house before he noticed he was being followed from the home to a gas station.

The chase ended up on the I-35 and, in an attempt to lose the other vehicle, Mo3 tried to get around traffic but ended up crashing. We're told Mo3 got out of his car and ran for his life before he was gunned down in broad daylight.

Gordon Ramsay did more than send "MasterChef Junior" star Ben Watkins well wishes when he was battling an extremely rare cancer ... he tried to help him get the best treatment possible too.

The TV chef quietly donated $50,000 to Ben in August to help cover the medical costs associated with his battle with cancer ... according to sources close to the situation.

This was right around the time Ramsay and Ben's fellow season 6 competitors sent him a heart-warming video, letting him know they were praying for him and helping raise money with a GoFundMe.

It's no secret Ramsay and the 'MasterChef' community were very fond of the 14-year-old, and we're told the reality cooking show is currently trying to come up with a way to honor him after his passing. Also, that GoFundMe is now at over $200k, and will be used to support his family.

As we reported ... Ben died Monday from Angiomatoid Fibrous Histiocytoma. He was diagnosed when he was 13, about 2 years after he competed on the Ramsay-hosted show and quickly became a fan favorite.

Bobby Brown Jr. was not feeling well in the days leading up to his death and he was experiencing flu-like symptoms ... according to his family.

We broke the story ... Bobby Brown's son was found Wednesday in his L.A.-area home, and cops told us they believed there was no foul play involved.

A source connected to the family tells TMZ Bobby Jr. did not have COVID.

Bobby tells us, "Please keep my family in your prayers at this time. Losing my son at this point in our lives has devastated my family. There are no words to explain the pain.”

The Brown family says they will let authorities conduct an investigation into his death, and Bobby's asking for prayers. He says his son's death has devastated the family and there's no words to explain the pain.

Alex Trebek's heroism has never been more evident than it will be on tonight's episode of "Jeopardy!" -- it features a bittersweet message he made just for this day.

When the late host recorded the episode airing Thursday night he opened it by recognizing World Pancreatic Cancer Day ... but didn't make it about himself. Instead, Alex urged his audience to be wary of symptoms and get tested.

What's remarkable about his heartfelt plea isn't just the content, but it's clear from the raspiness in Alex's voice how much he was struggling at the time the episode was shot.

TMZ broke the story ... Alex died earlier this month after his long battle with stage-4 pancreatic cancer, but continued working up until about 10 days before he passed. The episodes he recorded will run through Christmas Day.

Bobby Brown has lost another child ... his son, Bobby Brown Jr., has died.

A source close to the family tells TMZ Bobby Jr. was found dead Wednesday in his home in the L.A. area. Police are still at the house, and our sources tell us, at this point, they do not believe there was foul play involved.

It's another horrific tragedy for the singer and his family to endure. Bobby Jr.'s half-sister, Bobbi Kristina, died when she was just 22 years old after she was found lifeless in the bathtub of her Georgia home.

She was on life support for several months before she passed in July 2015. The coroner determined Bobbi Kristina's cause of death was drowning in the tub while she had toxic levels of cocaine and alcohol in her system.

It was an eerily similar death to her mother, Whitney Houston, who had died 3 years earlier from an accidental overdose while in a bathtub at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Jr. is one of Bobby's seven children. He was 13 when he, along with Bobbi Kristina, appeared on the family's short-lived Bravo reality show, "Being Bobby Brown."

His mother is Kim Ward, who Bobby dated off and on for 11 years before he got engaged to Whitney.

Bobby Jr. was only 28.

RIP

Ryan Dorsey has filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Naya Rivera's son ... claiming the boat Naya was in before she drowned was unsafe.

Naya's ex-husband filed the docs Tuesday on behalf of his 5-year-old son Josey Hollis Dorsey, claiming Ventura County is responsible for her death because the boat Naya and Josey were on in Lake Piru did NOT comply with safety standards.

In the docs, filed by Ryan's attorney Amjad Khan and obtained by TMZ, Ryan claims the boat was “not equipped with a safely accessible ladder, adequate rope, an anchor, a radio or any security mechanisms to prevent swimmers from being separated from their boats, nor any flotation or lifesaving devices" in violation of California law.

Ryan's claiming the boat drifted away from Naya and Josey when they jumped into the lake for a swim ... and proper safety equipment could have prevented that. The suit claims the boat was "rocking back and forth forcefully in the current and wind."

Ryan also claims in the suit there were no signs warning of the dangerous conditions of the lake -- and the person who rented the boat to Naya didn't warn her to wear the life vest that came with the boat.

As you know ... Naya and her son were reported missing on July 8. Her body was found in the lake on July 13. Josey was able to get back in the boat, and when authorities arrived for a check, he told them he and his mom were swimming and he didn't know what happened to her. She had disappeared below the surface.

According to the suit ... at least 26 other people, from children to fit adults to elders, some wearing life jackets and others not, have drowned in Lake Piru since its recreational facilities opened.

Ben Watkins, famous for competing in "MasterChef Junior," is dead after a battle with cancer.

Ben, who was undergoing treatment for an extremely rare form of cancer at Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago, died Monday ... according to his family.

He was diagnosed with a soft tissue tumor when he was only 13 years old, and the family says doctors told them Ben was 1 of only 6 people in the entire world diagnosed with the rare illness called Angiomatoid Fibrous Histiocytoma.

An aspiring chef, Ben used to cook and man the front counter at Big Ben's Bodacious BBQ and Delicatessen in Gary, Indiana. with his late parents, who died 3 years ago in a murder-suicide. Ben's grandma and uncle remembered him as "the strongest person we've ever known."

Ben competed in season 6 of the Gordon Ramsay-hosted cooking competition show, "MasterChef Junior," when he was only 11 years old and quickly became a fan-favorite.

Gordon and Ben's former "MasterChef Junior" competitors sent him a special video earlier this year when he was battling cancer, letting him know they were praying for him and helping raise donations for a GoFundMe, which is now a memorial fund.

Ben was 14.

This wide receiver is rockin' custom cleats to honor Alex Trebek on "Monday Night Football" ...

If that were a clue on "Jeopardy!", the answer would be "Who is Adam Thielen?" ... 'cause the Minnesota Vikings star decided to pay homage to the late game show host by wearing the amazing footwear for his game against the Chicago Bears on Monday.

The cleat artist, Dan "Mache" Gamache, posted pics of Thielen's new spikes for the evening ... and they're pretty incredible.

On one of the cleats, there's an image of Trebek with a halo and the dates 1940-2020.

On the other, there's a painted-on, "Jeopardy!"-style answer that reads, "We Will Miss You, Alex" with a price of $19,000 -- a nod to Thielen's #19 jersey number.

"For #MNF pregame tonight my guy @athielen19 will be honoring the legend Alex Trebek who passed last week," Mache said of the cleats on social media.

"I feel like no matter where you were from I feel like Jeopardy was a part of all of our lives in some way."

As we previously reported, Trebek tragically died at 80 years old earlier this month after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer.

Tributes from all over the world have rolled in since his death ... with officials in his hometown of Greater Sudbury, Ontario already kicking around the idea of building him a statue.

Rapper Mo3 was desperate to get away from his killers before he was gunned down on a Dallas freeway ... a chase that allegedly started the minute he'd left a friend's house.

Sources close to the situation tell TMZ ... the Dallas-based rapper left a female companion's house Wednesday morning and noticed he was being watched. It's unclear who the person tailing him was, but we're told they followed him in their vehicle from the home to a gas station.

Our sources say that's when Mo3 knew something was up, and jumped on I-35 in an attempt to lose the other vehicle. We're told he tried to get around traffic but ended up crashing on the side of the road.

That's when Mo3 got out of his car and ran for his life, before the trigger man gave chase and shot him in the back of the head. No one's been arrested for the deadly shooting, and police haven't identified a suspect yet.

TMZ broke the story ... Mo3 was shot and killed in his hometown where an innocent bystander was also shot and treated for non-life-threatening injuries. Mo3 died at a hospital.

Boosie Badazz has a bullet hole in his leg after coming under gunfire during a trip to Dallas ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Boosie was shot at in Dallas Saturday, after rolling through town in what we're told was a sprinter van near a strip mall called Big T's Plaza. Yesterday evening, he stopped by another venue to pay his respects to recently murdered Dallas rapper Mo3 -- who was a friend and collaborator of his.

At some point, somebody opened fire on the vehicle and one of the bullets struck Boosie in the leg. We're told the shooters booked it, and Boosie and co. made their way to a hospital, where he was treated for a gunshot wound below the knee.

Our Boosie sources say he is doing okay ... his injury seems to be non-life-threatening.

Someone posted video of the Big T parking lot where the action supposedly went down, claiming Boosie was NOT shot -- but we've been told otherwise ... Boosie is, in fact, a patient being treated for his wounds. According to this purported witness though, there were multiple vehicles involved -- at least three of them.

Dallas PD tells us ... officers responded to reports of an armed encounter Saturday, where the callers stated someone had been shot but then fled in a private vehicle. We're told when the cops showed up at the scene, there was nobody around and no signs of a crime being committed.

We should note, the shooting comes just days after rapper Mo3 was shot dead in the same city on a freeway. Word is Mo3 had been feuding with a fellow rapper, but it's unclear if there's any connection between that and his slaying.

Cops haven't arrested a suspect yet in Mo's death case quite yet. It's unclear if there is any connection between his fatal shooting and Boosie's incident.

Paul Hornung -- a man Vince Lombardi once deemed maybe "the best all-around back ever to play football" -- has died, the Pro Football Hall of Fame just announced.

He was 84 years old.

Hornung had battled dementia for years, according to the Louisville Sports Commission, and passed away in Kentucky on Friday.

Paul is one of the most legendary football players EVER -- the guy is the only person on earth to win a Heisman Trophy, an NFL MVP award, be selected first overall in the NFL draft, AND be inducted into both the College Football Hall of Fame and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Hornung first made a name for himself at Notre Dame in the '50s ... where he was nicknamed "The Golden Boy" for his blonde hair and incredible game.

He was the team's star quarterback --- and ultimately won the Heisman Trophy in 1956.

Hornung went on to play for the Green Bay Packers and Lombardi ... and he was a superstar there as well -- winning the NFL's first-ever Super Bowl in 1967 and four other league championships prior to that.

Hornung was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1986 ... and later, college football named its award for the most versatile player in the game after him.

"The entire Pro Football Hall of Fame family mourns the passing of Paul Hornung," Pro Football Hall of Fame President and CEO David Baker said in a statement "He was an outstanding player and an incredible man."

Kobe Bryant is still a titan of industry -- even in death -- so says Forbes which just ranked him #6 on its "Highest-Paid Dead Celebrities of 2020" list.

The NBA legend passed away on Jan. 26 in a helicopter crash -- but in the months that followed, his estate pulled in an estimated $20 million in earnings, Forbes says.

The main source of income is from shoes and apparel -- with Nike reportedly raking in around $250 mil annually from Mamba items.

In addition to sneakers, Kobe's 2018 autobiography, "The Mamba Mentality: How I Play" sold more than 300,000 copies this year --TEN TIMES the number of copies it did in 2019, Forbes says.

There's more ... after the Lakers won the NBA championship in October, Bryant's jersey was the #2 seller for the organization, behind Finals MVP LeBron James.

As for the rest of the Forbes list ... Michael Jackson is still #1 with $48 mil in earnings in 2020. Dr. Seuss is #2 with $33 mil. Peanuts creator Charles Schulz is #3 with $32.5. Arnold Palmer is #4 with $25 million. And #5 is Elvis with $23 mil.

Elvis' estate has lost a ton of money this year because of the COVID pandemic -- tourism at his legendary home Graceland is a big moneymaker, but it's been hit hard by the shutdowns.

Quando Rondo didn't come looking for trouble when his crew got into a violent altercation with King Von that ended in a fatal shooting ... at least according to Quando's camp.

Sources close to Quando Rondo tell TMZ ... the rapper wasn't seeking out a fight with King Von the night Von was shot dead outside an Atlanta hookah lounge, and they say Von was acting as the aggressor in the brawl that preceded gunfire.

Our sources say Quando was napping in a car outside the club and when he woke up, Von's crew was there, and things suddenly got tense. We're told Von approached Quando and his crew with anger, which led to the brawl.

New footage from outside the club appears to show King Von throwing punches at Quando Rondo's crew, and our sources claim Quando's camp was just defending itself. We're told Quando didn't know what was going on and believed his life was in danger.

As we reported ... police also opened fire while confronting the gunmen, but cops say King Von was shot during the initial shootout with Quando Rondo's group.

One of Quando Rondo's crew members was arrested for felony murder, and our law enforcement sources tell us QR is NOT under investigation and cops consider the case closed.

Rapper Mo3 is dead after being gunned down on a Texas interstate ... TMZ has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Mo3 was shot just before noon Wednesday on I-35 in Dallas and was transported to a hospital, where he died from his injuries.

Our sources say the fatal shooting went down like this ... the gunman and Mo3 were both traveling northbound on I-35 when the trigger man got out of his car and approached Mo3's. The rapper got out of his car and started running, with the gunman giving chase, firing multiple rounds and hitting Mo3 in the back of the head.

We're told the gunman also shot an innocent bystander who was sitting in his vehicle, and the second gunshot victim was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

The Dallas-based rapper claimed he'd survived a shooting last year. He was also arrested back in 2017 in connection with a Dallas-Fort Worth nightclub shooting that left one person dead.

Mo3 is most famous for his 2019 collab with Boosie Badazz, "Errybody (Remix)." He released a couple new songs earlier this year and has recorded 3 albums.

He was 28 years old.

Titus Davis -- who broke Antonio Brown's WR records at Central Michigan -- has died after battling a rare form of cancer.

He was only 27.

Titus -- older brother of Tennessee Titans wideout Corey Davis -- went public with his diagnosis in July, revealing he was suffering from a rare and aggressive kidney cancer called Renal Medullary Carcinoma.

He underwent chemotherapy to battle to illness -- but ultimately passed away on Wednesday. He's survived by his 2 sons.

Titus was a monster during his 4 years at Central Michigan from 2011 to 2014 -- racking up 3,700 receiving yards and 37 TDs during his career, setting school records in both categories.

He's the only player in college football history to have 8 or more touchdowns in four different seasons.

Titus signed with the Chargers as an undrafted free agent in 2015 -- where he was a member of the practice squad. He also spent time as a practice squad player with the NY Jets, Chicago Bears and Buffalo Bills.

Titus' former college coach Dan Enos issued a statement on Davis' passing -- saying he's "heartbroken."

"On the field, he was a phenomenal athlete and competitor. He was also a great friend and teammate to many."

"From the first moments we started recruiting him, we at CMU football knew he was something incredibly special. He was a joy to coach and to be around. My deepest sympathies are extended to his family during this difficult time."