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Joe Budden's podcast co-host QueenzFlip is defending his friend in the wake of the rapper's lewdness charge ... and he says the incident won't harm their work.

We got QueenzFlip in New Jersey and our photog asked him about Joe's alleged naked event from last month ... the one where his neighbors claim he showed up at their door in his birthday suit.

QueenzFlip says Joe's always going to be good in his book and he's brushing off the incident ... chalking it up to JB's sleepwalking.

Singer Brenton Wood, best known for his 1967 hit "The Oogum Boogum Song," has died, TMZ has learned.

Wood's manager and assistant, Manny Gallegos, confirmed the news to TMZ, revealing he passed away today at his Moreno Valley, California home, surrounded by friends and family.

As of now, his cause of his death has not been revealed.

Seth Edeen is making a name for himself in Hollywood starring in cheesy, short-form soap operas ... and he says the pay-as-you-go model works because the stories are fun and the actors are hot!!!

We got Seth playing basketball at Venice Beach and our photog asked him about the success of his new movie "Breaking The Ice," which is one of the most popular picks on the ReelShort app.

Seth's romance flick is broken down into minute-long episodes, and viewers are able to watch 12 clips for free until ReelShort makes them pay or watch ads to finish the movie. He plays a hockey player who moves back home ... only to find out his high school sweetheart was hiding their secret love child from him.

Luigi Mangione, the charged killer in the Brian Thompson murder case, took time from a vacation in Thailand to visit a shooting range ... a decision that now sticks out to some of his travel buddies.

Two German tourists who traveled extensively with Luigi in Asia in the months before the shooting look back on their interactions with Mangione in our new TMZ Investigates documentary, "Luigi Mangione: The Mind of a Killer."

Luigi's travel companions, Paul and Max, tell us Mangione hung back from a beach day in Thailand to go to a shooting range instead ... later reporting back to them that it was expensive. But, that's not the only strange thing Luigi did around the German tourists.

Zachery Ty Bryan is starting 2025 in the worst way possible, because the guy's got another arrest on his record ... this time for alleged domestic violence.

The "Home Improvement" star rang in the new year by getting busted in South Carolina for second-degree domestic violence ... according to online records.

Law enforcement tells TMZ ... cops in Myrtle Beach responded to a residence on Jan. 1 for a domestic issue, and when police arrived they determined Zachery had gotten into a physical fight.

12:05 PM PT -- In an incident report obtained by TMZ ... the unidentified victim says he was holding a bottle of water when he was pushed from behind at the show, splashing water onto the stage, dousing BigXThaPlug. The victim says BigX looked at him "with a real mean face," prompting someone from the rapper's team to punch him.

The victim told cops other members of the crew allegedly jumped off the stage and struck the victim as many as 50 times over 5 minutes as he covered up in a fetal position on the floor, and he says he was kicked and stomped ... all requiring hospitalization for cuts and bruises. The victim claims 2 gold chains and a pair of $2,000 Cartier sunglasses were stolen during the melee.

BigXThaPlug and his crew cleaned a fan's clock during his sold-out "Take Care" tour, and TMZ Hip Hop has their showdown -- and ensuing brawl -- all on camera!!!

Multiple sources tell us one particular guy in the crowd was heckling BigX during the rapper's Seattle stop on Dec. 8 ... obnoxiously causing a scene as the "Amar" hitmaker was onstage.

A line was drawn when the heckler threw water at BigX ... and the top-heavy rapper and his crew hopped off the stage to defend themselves.

1/3 10:40 AM PT -- The divorce has been finalized.

"One Tree Hill" actress Sophia Bush has reached a settlement in her divorce from entrepreneur Grant Hughes.

Court documents ... obtained by TMZ ... show Sophia and Grant entered into a confidential settlement on December 30, 2024.

Bush filed for divorce in August 2023, and by October of that year was already dating recently divorced U.S. Women's National Team soccer star Ashlyn Harris.

Tiger Bech tragically had his life taken in the early morning hours of New Year's Day, and now the standout football player's high school coach is speaking out about the life and death of his late star.

"When we lose someone, it always hurts. To lose someone like Tiger and then to lose him in such a tragic way on a holiday when he had come into town to be with family and friends, just tragic," Marty Cannon, former assistant football coach turned principal at St. Thomas More Catholic High School in Louisiana told Babcock on the TMZ Sports TV show (airs nightly on FS1).

"Our thoughts and prayers definitely go out to the Bech family. They are also a tight-knit group of people, close, close family that we deeply love, and they love St. Thomas More. So, a lot of people are hurting today."

Justin Baldoni's accusation Ryan Reynolds berated and screamed at him in a house full of stars in an ambush meeting is way overblown ... this according to a source who was in the meeting.

Baldoni made several accusations against Blake Lively and husband RR in a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times ... claiming the "Deadpool" star was aggressive toward JB at a meeting that took place in the couple's NYC home, as celeb pals came and went.

Our source tells TMZ ... the meeting did go down last January, as "It Ends With Us" was to resume production after it was stalled by industry strikes ... and everyone in attendance knew Baldoni's alleged behavior would be addressed ... so, there was zero blindsiding.

A former military veteran is offering insight based on his personal experiences at war, using them to illustrate how Shamsud-Din Jabbar's military background likely made him more susceptible to radicalization ahead of his ISIS-inspired New Orleans attack.

Kristofer Goldsmith, a U.S. Army vet, appeared on "TMZ Live" Thursday, explaining during his time in service, he witnessed so much anger-induced violence he carried that emotion home -- and it pushed him to the edge of radicalization.

He also explains how ISIS preys on people with specific skills and character traits -- like Jabbar and former Special Forces vet Matthew Livelsberger, who carried out the Cybertruck bombing the same day.

Looks like Offset's not having any trouble in the dating department amid his well-publicized breakup with Cardi B ... he was just spotted shopping with a new lady in Dubai.

Offset was booked for big-money shows in Dubai for New Year's, performing Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday ... and our sources tell us he took Atlanta-based model Melanie Jayda along for the ride.

The couple hit up a Chanel store in the UAE city on New Year's Day, strolling along with $100K worth of merch.

Chris Pousson grew up with Shamsud-Din Jabbar -- the terrorist who killed 14 people in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year's Day -- and reconnected with him online in recent years ... but he says Jabbar never gave any indication of being a killer.

Chris joined us on "TMZ Live" Thursday and told us about his relationship with Jabbar, who he knew as Sham.

The friends went to high school together after meeting in middle school, and Chris says when they graduated he enlisted in the Air Force and Jabbar went to the Army ... so they lost touch for a while before finding each other on Facebook.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the terrorist who wreaked havoc in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year's Day, earned a ton of medals during his service in the Army ... TMZ has learned.

The armed forces veteran served in the regular Army from March 2007 until January 2015 as a Human Resource Specialist and Information Technology Specialist -- and he was a decorated service member ... an Army spokesperson tells TMZ.

We're told Jabbar earned 23 medals, ribbons and badges ... including the Army Good Conduct Medal, Army Achievement Medal and the Army Commendation Medal.

Investigators are meticulously examining the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside Trump International Hotel in a possible terrorist attack ... and they even used a drone to peer inside the vehicle's burned-out carcass.

TMZ obtained exclusive video showing the drone hovering over the Cybertruck in the valet area as inspectors in white hazmat suits looked over every inch of the Tesla near the entrance of the hotel in Las Vegas.

Law enforcement personnel commonly utilizes drones for emergency situations to provide investigators with aerial views of incident locations or to document scenes where crimes and accidents occurred, among other things.

3:11 PM PT -- Jabbar made a series of recordings just hours before the attack in which he said he was planning to kill his family. This makes the story below way more ominous. According to CNN, which got the information from an FBI source, Jabbar pivoted and decided to conduct the terrorist attack in New Orleans in the name of ISIS, because he wanted to kill.

The terrorist who killed at least 10 people in a violent attack in New Orleans early Wednesday had a divorce that was acrimonious enough that his then-wife got a restraining order against him.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, seen above in a video he had posted, was in the throes of a divorce during the pandemic, when his wife, Shaneen Chantil Jabbar, went to court to get a restraining order.

We do not have a copy of the wife's petition, but we do have the order of the judge who granted the restraining order. It says, among other things, "both parties are prohibited from "threatening the other party or a child of either party with imminent bodily injury."

A Former wife of Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the terrorist at the center of the New Year attack in New Orleans, is in disbelief ... but recounts a marriage she says was "abusive" -- and this is a different wife from the one who got a restraining order against him.

The ex-wife, Tiera, tells TMZ … she was married to Shamsud-Din for about 5 years before they divorced in 2016. She says their union was unhappy, saying Shamsud-Din abused her ... though she would not get specific.

Still, Tiera tells us she didn't think he was capable of mass murder and had no clue how such hatred washed over him.