Celebrity Feuds

Olivia Rodrigo is clearing up some perceived bad blood between herself and Taylor Swift -- but only kinda putting out a fire here ... not nearly as much as one would hope.

The young singer did a wide-ranging interview with The Guardian -- where she addressed a lot of stuff, but perhaps most importantly ... the would-be beef some have speculated exists with TS. In a somewhat wishy-washy answer -- she appears to say, that's not the case.

When asked if her single, "vampire," was aimed at Taylor, she says ... "I mean, I never want to say who any of my songs are about. I’ve never done that before in my career and probably won’t. I think it’s better to not pigeonhole a song to being about this one thing."

Olivia adds, "I was very surprised when people thought that." So ... sorta a denial?

The reason some jumped to that conclusion is 'cause the track's lyrics go after somebody Olivia labels as a "blood sucker" -- but in which way, exactly, was up for interpretation.

The chorus goes ... "'Cause I've made some real big mistakes / But you make the worst one look fine / I should've known it was strange / You only come out at night / I used to think I was smart / But you made me look so naive / The way you sold me for parts / As you sunk your teeth into me, oh / Bloodsucker, famef***er/ Bleedin' me dry, like a goddamn vampire."

Many took these lines to be referencing the plagiarism scandal Olivia found herself in after her first album, 'Sour,' got released. As you know, she ended up having to pay both Taylor and Paramore royalties after they flagged similarities in a couple of her songs to her team.

As it turns out ... the amount she had to shell out for those two songs amounted to 50%, according to The Guardian. Many felt Olivia was done dirty in that whole saga, and those same people believed she was expressing her frustration to TayTay in that new single.

Like we said, it certainly seems like Olivia is distancing herself from that characterization -- but the fact she doesn't firmly stamp it out in clear terms is ... interesting, to say the least.

Olivia reflected on that chapter, saying ... "I was so green as to how the music industry worked, the litigious side … I feel like now I know so much more about the industry and I just feel … better equipped in that regard. It wasn’t something I thought about too much."

Erica Mena won't be on MTV's waves anymore, 'cause she called a Black woman a monkey on one of their biggest reality shows ... and the network's fired her over it.

The longtime 'Love & Hip Hop' fixture was cut loose from her current iteration of the popular show -- this according to the official 'Love & Hip Hop' account itself ... which just announced her departure Saturday.

The message reads, "The Love & Hip Hop franchise has never shied away from hard conversations in our community. Working hand-in-hand with our partners, viewers will see the impact of Erica Mena's remarks play out in the final three episodes of the season."

They add, "Effective immediately, she will not appear in the next season of Love & Hip Hop Atlanta." It's unclear if this means Erica won't/can't appear in other 'L&HH' series ... there are a lot of versions of it, and she's bounced around from coast to coast since way back in 2011 -- when she first started to appear in the franchise.

The news comes on the heels of a recent episode that aired, showing Erica fighting with fellow costar Spice -- with whom she gets into it over fractured family dynamics ... and whether her son loves her or not. Spice suggested he didn't ... and it sent EM into a rage.

During the brouhaha -- which saw Erica flip a table -- Erica called Spice a monkey ... and that appeared to rub people the wrong way on set. BTW, Spice is Black ... and Erica is Afro-Latina, coming from Puerto Rican/Dominican ancestry ... which complicates this a bit.

Anyway, that exchange drew a lot of backlash, with many calling for Erica's job ... and it sounds like the 'L&HH' honchos have given in to their demands. Strangely enough, now their decision is catching some flak as well ... as some argue the whole thing feels calculated.

Namely, many are accusing 'L&HH' producers of being exploitative -- having had this footage for a while, airing/marketing it for views ... and seemingly only responding to the public reaction. In any case ... Erica's out of there -- capping off a turbulent 2 weeks for her.

Remember, she was just arrested a little while ago for a brawl at an Atlanta club that allegedly resulted in her attacking police officers. Other 'L&HH' stars were busted too.

50 Cent’s microphone-hurling fiasco at his L.A. concert really has The Game PO'd … as the bloody incident happened on his home turf!!!

Game ripped 50 Thursday with a size jab -- "yo fat ass came to LA hittin women🤔" -- after getting wind of our report about Power 106 host Bryhana Monegain having her face cut and battered by the mic 50 angrily threw.

The former G-Unit rapper's been in a cold war with 50 for the better part of 15 years ... and Bryhana's injuries seem to have left things even icier!!!

Wednesday's concert was a celebration of 50's debut album, and although he brought out several guest stars -- Nas, Chris Brown, YG, Tyga, DaBaby -- the party mood has been dampened ... as 50 is now a suspect in an LAPD criminal investigation.

50 Cent's attorney, Scott Leemon, assured us his client would never intentionally use a mic as a weapon but as you can clearly see, Game ain't buying that for a second.

Coi Leray is clearly still irked over her size being used as a punchline on Latto's hit song, and she's doing some punching of her own via her new track!!

On Wednesday, Coi dropped her new 5-track "Blue Moon" EP to celebrate tonight's "supermoon" phenomenon ... and used the first single, "Isabel Marant," to light up Latto in the chorus, "Hop up on that couch and roll up Latto out the bag.”

Coi was directly responding to Latto's lyrics, "Smokin' on that gas, blunt big as Coi Leray" ... from her song, "Put It On Da Floor" earlier this year.

Latto replaced the verse on her now platinum remix with Cardi B and even showed Coi love during her Coachella set -- which Coi appeared to accept at the time.

Now that Coi's flipped the script, let's see how long Latto let's the blunt metaphor go before responding.

Coi also took a swipe at her ex Trippie Redd on the track, rapping how the industry “tried to count me out, and now I'm big as Trippie Redd!!!"

Coi and Trippie dated back in 2019, and their relationship ended with Trippie making a diss song named after her on his album.

"Kid, you have no idea how much money you're gonna make."

That's what UFC president Dana White told "Suga" Sean O'Malley as the newly crowned champion stood in the Octagon with the UFC honcho after defeating the great Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292.

28-year-old O'Malley joined Babcock on the "TMZ Sports" TV show on Friday ... and chopped it up about all things Aljo, how life's changed since becoming champ, reaching Conor McGregor levels of fame, his offer to train Henry Cejudo in wrestling, and what he wants next!

"Chito was acting like he earned a title shot. I think he even tweeted he was the most exciting bantamweight which is just bonkers. I don't know how he sees that. He needs to settle down a little bit, cause I do have options.

"Henry, I pretend like is an option, realistically it's not. He lost his last fight. Alexandre Pantoja, the 125 lb. champ, throwing my name out there a little bit. That's an option. Merab's an option. I might just wait for Cory [Sandhagen] if Chito's gonna act like he earned a title shot."

FYI, Sean and Chito have history. The men fought in 2020, and Vera won. It's O'Malley's lone career loss.

(We also talked to Chito about his win over Pedro, and a possible fight with Suga.)

Sean says there's a way for Vera to lock down the fight, but it'll involve eating a little crow first and saying something along the lines of ... "Ya know what Suga, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. I didn't deserve it. I didn't earn it, but I appreciate you.

"If he came at it like that I would think about it more. But the fact that he's tweeting, 'I earned that' and stuff, it's throwing me off a bit. I got options. I'm not too worried about it."

Of course, Sean dropped Aljamain with a perfectly placed straight right about 30 seconds into the second round, and after some effective ground and pound, the fight was stopped by ref Marc Goddard ... and just like that, O'Malley was Bantamweight champion.

As for how life has changed ... Sean says while he was a star before winning the title, he's now more than just a big deal amongst MMA fans.

"I kind of had everything-ish before 'champ status,' but definitely getting recognized way more in public by random people you wouldn't think were fight fans. The casuals that don't watch the fight, watched that fight," Suga said.

Speaking of fame and making money ... we also talked to Sean about acting (he's received movie offers) and whether he believes he will ever fight Aljo again.

The Miz has clearly had enough of LA Knight and his mouth ... the WWE Superstar sent a very ominous warning to his rival -- stop disrespecting me, or get hurt.

TMZ Sports ran into The Miz in Los Angeles on Thursday -- prior to the tragic news of Bray Wyatt's passing -- and asked him about the budding feud with Knight, who we referred to as "popular."

"Popular? So popular that you're following him into the store?" Miz sarcastically asked.

"So popular that last year at SoFi [Stadium] at WrestleMania in LA, the guy's name is LA Night. He named himself after the city and he wasn't even on the show. That's how popular he is."

The multiple-time WWE champ continued ... "He's a fad. He's like a Napster, MySpace, Vanilla Ice, LA Night, they're all synonymous."

Of course, The Miz and LA Knight have been trading barbs on Raw. Knight has accused Miz of being washed up, and the longtime WWE star responded by describing LA as a "blip on the radar."

In other words, he ain't 💩💩💩!!!

In fact, Miz says he doesn't understand why people even care about Knight (and do they ever care -- he's huge right now with the fans).

"Honestly, I can't believe people are talking about him. He's a fad ... and I'm just sick of his, I don't know. I don't wanna do it right here, right now but it's like if he keeps disrespecting me the way he's disrespected me, he's not gonna make it to WrestleMania in Philly. Let's put it that way."

Those sounded like fighting words ... so, we asked ... "Is that a threat or challenge?"

"It's a promise!"

Things went from 100 to 100 at the KSI vs. Tommy Fury press conference on Tuesday ... 'cause the entire event was absolute chaos from start to finish -- with TNT's dad flipping tables and Logan Paul throwing cake at Dillon Danis.

The wild incident just went down minutes ago at Wembley Arena in London ... with all four fighters -- as well as John Fury -- unleashing menacing insults left and right.

But, it was John who got so fed up with the personal jabs, he decided to take action -- hurling a table upside down and kicking another in a rage.

Everyone on stage stood up and got in a scuffle ... with KSI and Tommy needing to be held back. Logan loved every second of it, hopping up on his chair to get a better view.

Danis, on the other hand, picked up a chair ... but was talked out of throwing it.

John then took his shouting fit to the crowd ... thrusting as the fans in attendance erupted in cheers.

Eventually, everyone was escorted offstage ... and we're assuming cooler heads prevailed.

Earlier in the presser, Logan said he got a birthday gift for his opponent ... revealing a customized cake in the shape of a knocked-out Danis.

Dillon -- who's posted constantly about Paul's fiancée, Nina Agdal, on his social media pages over the past week -- responded by taking yet another shot at the model ... and Logan clapped back with his own jabs.

"Run your mouth all you want, but you know damn well you ain't ever been with any girl as beautiful as my girl," Paul said.

"You've resorted to attacking a woman as your fight tactic, no wonder you're friends with Conor McGregor. Where is he, by the way?"

Eventually, Logan decided to decapitate the cake version of Danis and throw its head in his opponent's direction ... and Dillon tried to charge back, but security intervened.

Eminem's dissed a ton of people throughout his career but Benzino is taking his past snipes from Slim Shady in stride ... while also coming clean he used his Source magazine publication to get a bit of revenge!!!

While speaking on Math Hoffa's "My Expert Opinion," Benzino recalled being impressed with Eminem's 2002 diss track "Nail In the Coffin" ... despite the song labeling Benzino an "83-year-old fake [Al] Pacino."

Benzino and Eminem infamously waged a rap war in the mid-00s that eventually roped in 50 Cent and G-Unit, Ja Rule, Murda Inc., and infamously, The Source mag.

As time went on, Benzino says the beef began to get disrespectful, and he put his foot down and prevented Em from getting a perfect "5-mic" rating for any of his albums.

The rating was a pretty big deal in hip hop at the time, and the snubs clearly affected Em ... hence the lyrics on his 2nd Benzino diss track titled "The Sauce," where he rapped, "'The Source' was like our only source of light, when the mics used to mean somethin', a four was like, 'You were the shit,' now it's like the least you get, 3 1/2 now just means you're a piece of shit, 4 1/2 or 5 means you're Biggie, Jigga, Nas, or Benzino -- shit, I don't even think you realize you're playin' with motherfuckers' lives ... I done watched Dre get f****d on 'The Chronic' ... Probably ‘cause I was on it/Now you f****d me out of my mics twice..."

James Harden has spent much of his career with Daryl Morey ... but swears he won't play another minute for the "liar" team president.

The former NBA MVP, who requested a trade out of Philly in June, spoke at an Adidas event in China Monday night ... and addressed the rumors about his relationship with Morey and the Sixers.

"Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of," Harden said in video taken by Shams, days after trade talks with the Los Angeles Clippers dissolved.

"Let me say that again. Daryl Morey is a liar and I will never be a part of an organization that he’s a part of.”

James and Daryl's feud stems from Morey's refusal to offer Harden a long-term max contract extension, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported over the weekend.

FYI, Harden was traded from the Nets to the Sixers late in the 2021-2022 season, playing 21 games in Philadelphia, where he averaged 21 points a game. Last season he played in 58 games, also averaging 21 for the 44-38 squad which finished 6th in the East.

Once upon a time ... Harden and Morey were partners in crime in Houston, with Harden winning the 2018 MVP award while with the Rockets.

Houston's former GM traded for Harden in 2012 before heading to the City of Brotherly Love to become team president in 2020.

Now, the relationship has clearly eroded, and it seems there's no love lost.

Training camp is approaching, beginning in October. Only time will tell if Harden shows up ... or if he means it when he says he'll never again play for Morey.

Mark Zuckerberg is tired of waiting for Elon Musk to get ready to rumble, so he's moving on -- so says the Facebook founder himself.

The techie billionaire announced Sunday he was throwing in the towel on the planning process, saying it was clear to him that EM wasn't serious about duking it out ... evidenced, at least in Mark's eyes, in all the excuses Elon has offered to postpone this thing.

MZ writes, "I think we can all agree Elon isn't serious and it's time to move on. I offered a real date. Dana White offered to make this a legit competition for charity. Elon won't confirm a date, then says he needs surgery, and now asks to do a practice round in my backyard instead."

The backyard thing is new news -- and pretty eyebrow-raising if true. Mark adds, "If Elon ever gets serious about a real date and official event, he knows how to reach me. Otherwise, time to move on. I'm going to focus on competing with people who take the sport seriously."

Mark has kinda been teasing this move for a while now ... consistently refuting Elon's characterization of things, and alleging that the Twitter honcho was stonewalling on purpose.

In fact, it wasn't too long ago that Mark said he wasn't holding his breath for Elon -- and despite EM trying to hype up the fight just this past week (by mentioning the prospect of Italy as a venue), it sounds like Mark's throwing cold water on the whole thing ... calling BS.

It was a cool would-be event while it lasted, we suppose ... and time will tell if Mark pulling the plug like this will force Elon to actually commit -- but if he doesn't, it might be over.

Billy Porter is back to slamming Harry Styles for being the first man featured in a dress on a Vogue cover -- resurfacing old gripes ... and taking down Anna Wintour while he's at it.

The actor, who's gay, dished to the Telegraph about his problem with Harry being tapped as the poster boy of genderfluid/non-binary fashion back in 2020 -- which, at the time, kicked up a lot of controversy and opinions ... including some fiery ones from Billy himself.

You might recall ... Billy said he was actually the catalyst for the men-in-dresses trend that's been percolating in Hollywood of late -- and lamented the fact that HS was picked over him.

He added, "He doesn’t care, he’s just doing it because it’s the thing to do. This is politics for me. This is my life. I had to fight my entire life to get to the palace where I could wear a dress to the Oscars and not be gunned down. All he has to do is be white and straight."

After that, Billy apologized on the 'Late Show,' telling Stephen Colbert he didn't mean to dirty up Harry's name with his opinion -- and that the conversation was bigger than just him.

Now, after more than 2 years ... BP is re-airing his grievances, and he's again insisting Harry is, in fact, straight -- despite HS having yet to publicly label himself or his sexuality.

Billy says, "It’s not Harry Styles’s fault that he happens to be white and cute and straight and fit into the infrastructure that way. That's why he's on the cover. Non-binary blah blah blah blah. No. It doesn't feel good to me. You're using my community -- or your people are using my community -- to elevate you. You haven't had to sacrifice anything."

In other words, Billy is echoing long-standing queerbaiting claims Harry has endured for years now. Many argue he plays coy about his sexuality -- especially when it comes to his fashion sensibilities -- to cater to the LGBTQ+ community. Based on his dating history, though ... it seems like the dude's strictly into the ladies. That's certainly how it appears, anyway.

Billy gets one last dig at Vogue's EIC ... alleging that in the lead-up to Harry's cover issue, she approached Billy and asked for his advice on advancing style pioneers in the LGBTQ+ community, and BP says he responded with this ... "That bitch said to me at the end, 'How can we do better?' And I was so taken off guard that I didn't say what I should have said."

Selena Gomez enjoyed a girl's night out with her kidney donor, Francia Raisa, in L.A. Friday, putting to rest any rumors of tension between them.

The two were mobbed by paparazzi wildly snapping photos and shooting video after they had dinner at Giorgio Baldi restaurant in Santa Monica.

Selena and Francia, both dressed to the nines, disappeared into the back of a waiting car, which then drove away.

Their get together comes at an interesting time. Despite their up and down relationship over the past year, Francia recently told a photojournalist there was no bad blood between her and the singer/actress. It appears she was right on the mark, given last night's outing.

As we've reported ... Selena and Francia were longtime friends who first met at an event many years ago while they were actors in separate TV shows.

In 2017, Selena revealed she needed a kidney transplant because of her battle with lupus. Francia stepped up and offered one of hers to Selena, who was happy to accept, and the kidney transplant was a success.

Then, five years later, Selena told a reporter Taylor Swift was her only real friend in Hollywood, prompting Francia to write "interesting" in the comments section of an Instagram post discussing the matter.

Selena responded, "Sorry I didn't mention every person I know." Still, it created some friction between them and rumors started circulating they were no longer buddies.

But, this past March, Selena said she "never ever, ever, be more in debt to a person than Francia." Coupled with Francia's latest statements on their relationship and now the dinner, it looks like everything is hunky dory with them.

Check out how contentious the Kevin Costner/Christine Baumgartner divorce has gotten ... here's the first line of Kevin's latest filing ... "Christine asserts she cannot admit or deny that she understood the Premarital Agreement because she (and apparently all of her attorneys) do not understand the word "understand."

It's all over whether Christine understood the terms of the prenup when she signed it. There have been signals she is going to contest the prenup, on grounds she did not get what it meant. So Kevin's lawyers have asked her lawyers if she "understood" what she was signing.

Kevin's lawyer, Disso Queen Laura Wasser, writes in the latest filing, "Christine's counsel asked for a definition of 'understood' and Kevin's counsel provided the dictionary meaning of the word 'understood,' to wit, 'comprehended or perceive the intended meaning of words.'"

Wasser is asking the judge to make Christine's lawyers answer the question ... did she understand the prenup or not?

Here's the question that fueled the latest battle ...

Wasser: "You understood the legal effect of the premarital agreement before you signed the premarital agreement."

Christine's lawyer: "Objection. This request is vague as to the scope and meaning of the terms 'understood' ... [Christine] is unable to admit or deny the request."

A lot is on the line here ... if Christine challenges the prenup at an upcoming hearing and the judge enforces it, she'll have to return the $1.5 million Kevin fronted her, and pay his attorney's fees to boot.

The judge has indicated during several hearings he is inclined to enforce the prenup.

Mark Zuckerberg is refuting Elon Musk's Friday morning claims ... saying no details of their potential fight have been finalized at all -- adding that he still wants Dana White involved in the process.

The Meta boss unloaded his side of the story on Threads on Friday afternoon -- just a couple hours after Musk told his 156 million X followers that a bunch of the particulars of the future billionaire brawl were now set in stone.

In one of his tweets ... Musk said the tilt will go down at "an epic location" in Italy. In another, he said all of the action will be live-streamed on X and Meta.

He also said White and the UFC are now out of the planning process, insisting, "The fight will be managed by my and Zuck’s foundations."

Zuckerberg, though, made it clear he hasn't agreed to any of those stipulations just yet ... writing in posts on his social media app, "please assume anything [Musk] says has not been agreed on."

"Not holding my breath for Elon, but I'll share details on my next fight when I'm ready," he added. "When I compete, I want to do it in a way that puts a spotlight on the elite athletes at the top of the game. You do that by working with professional orgs like the UFC or ONE to pull this off well and create a great card."

Zuck then said he's still training like a mad man for the potential bout -- showing off a photo of him working in his backyard Octagon.

The two businessmen initially began the process of setting up a fight way back in June ... when Musk floated the idea of a cage match following the revelation Zuck's Threads was in the works.

DJ Akademiks apparently still has lingering trauma from interviewing Erykah Badu 5 years ago ... which all spilled out, with much acidity, while discussing the Tory Lanez case on his live stream.

After a commenter called upon Badu to work "her magic" on Ak for his involvement in the Tory trial, Ak exploded with disdain for the R&B songstress, harkening back to their 2018 encounter on "Everyday Struggle" when Badu said he looked like the mouse from "Tom & Jerry."

Ak made it clear the moment still bothers him and roasted Badu for having children with 3 different rappers -- Outkast's André 3000, The D.O.C. and Jay Electronica -- and vowed he'll never let up off the throttle.

When another commenter suggested Badu was just joking, Ak claimed his disrespectful barbs were jokes as well. He says he bottled in the pain for 5 years, after having a tarnished experience of being treated like a stepstool.

Ak was initially triggered by reporter Meghann Cuniff revealing a judge declared Tory was passing him information in the case, a claim Adademiks is denying.

He also spent 10 minutes laying into SZA for her cosmetic surgeries and weight gain, but they've been beefing since 2017 ... nothing new except a fresh round of insults.

Top Dawg Entertainment rapper Reason is getting a harsh dose of criticism from the very label exec who's overseeing the album Reason's about to release. Awwwkward!!!

Reason was venting his frustrations with TDEl to Smac and T Rell on the "Back on Figg" podcast last night ... when TDE co-president Anthony “Moosa” Tiffith Jr. called into the show and cut down Reason's mutiny by, essentially, calling him a lazy artist.

Reason's last album dropped back in 2020, but the California rapper blamed Top Dawg Ent. for stalling him out on release dates, and failing to get him Latto and EST Gee features for his upcoming album.

At one point, Moosa put both Smac and T Rell on the spot and asked them to name 10 songs from Reason, which they couldn't ... effectively embarrassing him on the spot.

To add insult to injury, Moosa claimed former TDE co-president Dave Free -- who's since started his own label with Kendrick Lamar -- never wanted to sign Reason and compared his star power to a "substitute teacher!!!" There's a spitball that hurts.

Moosa said other TDE artists such as Doechii and Ray Vaughn are doing more with less than Reason and doesn't feel an EST Gee feature could elevate his career.