Money

Zion Williamson's new contract is coming with some hefty demands -- the NBA star will reportedly have to maintain a certain weight and body fat percentage, or will risk losing some of his guaranteed money.

Williamson inked a 5-year extension worth up to $231 million to stay with the New Orleans Pelicans this off-season ... but there's a big catch.

Christian Clark of NOLA.com says some of that money could be yanked from his pockets if certain health stipulations aren't met.

The report states the 22-year-old will submit to weigh-ins throughout his contract to ensure the sum of his weight and body fat percentage stays below 295 ... and if he doesn't, he'll literally pay for it.

Williamson's weight has become an issue since going #1 overall to the Pels in 2019 ... and the former Duke star has only been able to play in 85 career games due to injury.

Williamson is currently training like a madman to get back to 100% in 2022-23 ... which also includes switching up his diet, according to reports.

Lamar Odom says his former management team is refusing to turn over access to his social media accounts ... and now he's calling them out.

Lamar says he changed managers recently but claims his old team has highjacked his social media pages and he's telling his old handlers to do the right thing and stop posting as him.

Sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ ... Lamar left his old management July 19 and asked them through his attorney for all the login info for his Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook pages, but still doesn't have access.

We're told Lamar's old management changed all his passwords back in the day and Lamar doesn't know any of the login information ... and his former team has not released any of his accounts back to him, continuing to post as if it is him.

Our sources say Lamar has deals with companies where he's required to post on social media, but he can't do so right now and is losing about $8,000 per post.

We're told Lamar has about 15 deals right now ... including car, weed and clothing companies, plus restaurants, hotels and beverage lines ... but he's not able to promote them on social media.

Our sources say Lamar and his new team are working with Meta Legal to gain access back to his accounts, working on reaching reps at TikTok and Twitter as well.

Jon Stewart is putting the Republican party on blast after voting "no" on a bill to expand healthcare coverage for veterans ... and he's calling one Senator out specifically, saying the guy's nothing short of spineless.

Jon joined House Speaker Pelosi and a group of veterans for a powerful press conference on the PACT Act Thursday ... and he lays it down hard on the GOP Senators who blocked the bill with a 55 to 42 vote.

The House already passed it, and if it got the necessary 60 votes in the Senate the bill would help those exposed to toxic burn pits and Vietnam-era veterans exposed to the deadly herbicide Agent Orange.

He begins to list the ways the PACT Act could help, before a veteran seated next to him mentions it'll prevent people like him from going down dark paths, including suicide. The man was holding a sign reading, "Veterans blood is on Republicans hands."

Jon then points his frustration toward PA Senator Toomey, saying he "isn’t going to hear that because he won’t sit down with this man, because he’s a f**king coward."

Toomey showed his lack of support for the bill directly on the Senate floor, claiming it would create $400 billion in unrelated spending, which he called a “budgetary gimmick.”

Jon says the GOP Senators aren't supporting the troops, but they will support the war machine ... referring to the massive Pentagon budgets they happily pass.

He also got a laugh from the crowd, talking about them working on "Senate time" -- calling them tortoises that live to be 200.

You could see this one coming ... Sesame Place Philadelphia has been hit with a $25 million class action lawsuit ... claiming the park and its employees have insulted and damaged black patrons, especially the youngsters.

The lawsuit lists a man named Quinton Burns, who says he and his family visited Sesame Place on June 18, 2022. Burns says he purchased tickets to the park for himself and his young daughter with the expectation they'd experience "Meet and Greets" with Sesame Street characters.

However, according to the docs, Burns says when he and his kid attended a "Meet and Greet" with costumed performers of Elmo, Ernie, Telly Monster and Abby Cadabby -- the characters refused to engage with them and other black guests as well.

Burns says the performers were more than happy to engage with white customers at the same event.

Of course, the lawsuit comes directly on the heels of the video that surfaced from the park showing character Rosita, not only refusing to hug, but shaking her head "no" at two young black girls who wanted to interact with her at a parade.

We've spoken with the mother of the girls and the family attorney, who says they've been in talks with Sesame Place to make their situation right, and have even floated the possibility of legal action.

It pays to be in the Jeff Bezos’ inner circle of trust — especially if you’re his parents … and pay they did for a palace of epic proportions out in the Sunshine State.

Sources tell TMZ that Jackie and Mike Bezos -- Jeff’s mother and stepfather -- recently snapped up a massive 12,000+ square foot home within a gated community in Coral Gables, FL.

The closing price tag … $34 million! Indeed, it’s an expensive buy -- but when your son’s one of the richest people in the world, you can probably afford it. The Real Deal reports they've also purchased a home next door for $40 million.

As for the actual property itself, it’s an absolute beaut -- and worth every penny of the many millions that the Bezoses dropped for this thing. The house is multi-level, with 6 bedrooms and 7 baths. The kitchen is absolutely insanely big … it has two different islands, one for cooking and one for seating.

The rest of the home is gorgeous too -- in addition to all the usual stuff, it features an outdoor kitchen/dining area, a built-in BBQ grill, a pool, a private gym, an indoor rock climbing wall, a wine cellar and a 9-car garage … just to name a few of the perks.

This probably covers Jeff for Mother’s and Father’s Day combined for a little while -- assuming he bought it for them, which is likely. Of course, they can probably afford this place on their own too … Mike worked in the oil industry for years, and both he and Jackie have been running the Bezos Family Foundation for over 2 decades now.

Plus, reports say Jeff actually got his folks here to invest about $250k in Amazon stock way back in the '90s -- which, if true, they might have some billions of their own. So, yeah ... they’re kinda rolling in it as well, it seems.

Ja'Marr Chase might be the son of the decade ... 'cause the Bengals star just revealed he got his mom a new car and paid off her house with the first million dollars of his rookie contract.

The wide receiver got into details on how he spent a milli from his $19.8 million signing bonus on GQ Sports ... saying his first purchase was a $65k black Maserati for his mom, Toeleah, to replace her Audi that was in bad shape.

"The air stopped working in it, so she's not about to try to ride around in no hot car. So, gotta get her a car ASAP," the 22-year-old said.

"She was crying like tears of joy so that was good to see. She made me start crying."

But, that's not all -- the Pro Bowler also paid off the mortgage to her house that they've been living in for years.

"That's officially her house," Chase said. "We own it. That was about 100K."

"Making sure the house is paid for and the bills are straight so we can have somewhere and have the family crib."

Mama wasn't the only family member getting some out of Chase's NFL salary ... he says his brothers and sisters also got $15k each to spend on whatever they want.

When it comes to the rest of the $1M ... Chase says he spent it on jewelry, clothes, tattoos, and a $300k Rolls Royce -- and after all that, he was still able to save $400k!!!

Chase signed a $30.8M contract shortly after the Bengals drafted the former LSU Tiger as the 5th overall pick ... and became the NFL's Offensive Rookie Of The Year after 1,455 receiving yards and 13 TDs.

Kanye West is proving he's a good friend — just ask A$AP Bari, who’s currently riding around in a new Mercedes Maybach SUV … just days after he says he crashed his old one.

The A$AP Mob co-founder was Christmas-morning-level excited when showing off his new wheels on Instagram -- revealing he recently totaled his own car.

Kanye apparently heard about the wreck and sprung into action, surprising Bari on the spot.

If there's anyone who knows how to bounce back after a car wreck, it's Ye … his infamous 2002 crash helped to spawn the “jeen-yuhs."

Bari’s new whip is decked out ... which shouldn't come as a shock, considering Ye's Mercedes connects. If you remember, he doled out over $400,000 earlier this year for his custom Mercedes minivan that’s essentially a mansion on wheels.

Bari didn’t disclose what caused the accident but judging from the rain in the video, weather might've played a factor.

Elon Musk's alleged mistress's attorney is calling bull on the affair story ... and kinda seems like he might be threatening legal action as well.

Bryan Freedman, who reps Nicole Shanahan, tells TMZ ... "Make no mistake, any suggestion that Nicole had an affair with Elon Musk is not only an outright lie but also defamatory." Freedman first spoke to DailyMail.

There's no further elaboration, but his statement says enough -- and that final line certainly suggests she might be considering her options right now ... attorneys don't use legal terms like "defamatory" unless they're mulling over a lawsuit.

As you know, Elon also denied the story outright after it was published this weekend by the Wall Street Journal -- taking to his favorite platform to bat it down in a variety of ways ... including suggesting it couldn't have been true, because he hadn't had sex "in ages."

He also said he'd just seen Nicole's husband, Sergey Brin, at a party recently ... and posted a photo of the two of them looking cool together. Until now, both Sergey and Nicole have been silent ... which wasn't helping Elon with his case.

Now, though, Nicole's officially weighing in -- and she, too, is claiming the whole thing is made up. It'll be interesting to see if anything more comes of this from either the subjects of the report or WSJ itself.

Buzz Aldrin's jacket from the historic Apollo 11 mission to the moon just sold at auction ... and it set a record for American space-flown memorabilia.

The history-making piece of flight gear, which Buzz wore on NASA's 1969 mission to the moon and back, sold to an unidentified buyer for $2,772,500.

Sotheby's, which auctioned off the jacket and a bunch of other Aldrin space memorabilia, says Buzz's Teflon-coated jacket is the most valuable American artifact flown in outer space.

Buzz didn't wear the jacket when he was walking around on the moon's surface, he was in his spacesuit for that part of the mission, but he actually spent more time in the jacket than anything else during the Apollo 11 mission.

Aldrin says he wore the jacket in the NASA spacecraft for 3 days on the way to the moon, plus another 3 days on the way back to Earth.

Jim Harbaugh -- fiercely against abortion -- says he'd be willing to raise the baby of any of his Univ. of Michigan football players, if they had an unplanned pregnancy, and the couple decided to have the baby.

"I've told [them] the same thing I tell my kids, boys, the girls, same thing I tell our players, our staff members," Harbaugh said on Saturday, "I encourage them if they have a pregnancy that wasn't planned, to go through with it, go through with it," Harbaugh told ESPN's Gene Wojchiechowski.

"Let that unborn child be born, and if at that time, you don't feel like you can care for it, you don't have the means or the wherewithal, then Sarah and I will take that baby."

The Wolverines head coach -- who signed a $36.7 million extension in February -- was the keynote speaker at a recent "Right To Life" event.

During the anti-abortion speech, 58-year-old Harbaugh spoke about having the "courage to let the unborn be born."

As for why he chose to speak out about the controversial topic, Jim says while it may be difficult, it's an incredibly important issue for America.

"I just think this issue of life, save a life, the abortion issue is one that is so big that it needs to be talked about," Harbaugh said.

"It's a life or death type of issue and I believe in and I respect people's views but let's discuss it because there's passion on both sides of this issue."

Sonja Morgan is not taking no for an answer when it comes to selling her NYC townhouse ... because TMZ has learned she's just put it back on the market!

Real estate sources tell us the 'RHONY' star is listing her Upper East Side townhouse for $8.75 million. Sonja initially listed it way back in 2013 for $9.95 million amid her divorce from J.P. Morgan heir John A. Morgan.

The 4-bedroom home has seen a lot of changes since then because we're told Sonja has given it a complete makeover over the years.

She had an offer in 2017, but turned it down because her daughter needed stability at home amid the divorce -- she would frequently bring friends home from boarding school, so they still needed the space.

As we've reported, she listed the 5-story townhouse for the 7th time in 2017 for around $10 mil ... still, to no avail.

Someone's missing out ... all the bedrooms feature wood-burning fireplaces, and there's also an elevator, sauna, gym, and terrace -- all sitting in the ritzy Madison Ave and Central Park neighborhood.

In January 2020, Sonja had an $11.75 million cash offer, but the buyer ended up dropping out in February when the pandemic began. Then, for a period of time, she couldn't show the home because of COVID.

After the lockdown lifted in the city, she rented the home to a family from Spain, before renting it out to a new tenant, for 32k a month. We're told, the tenant recently moved out.

Now, Sonja is back at it ... determined to get the pad rented again, or sold for the asking price.

Unlike Frank Sinatra, Fivio Foreign's got regrets, and it sounds like he wants to mention this particular one -- about his entry into the rap game -- to a lawyer.

The Brooklyn rapper was on the "Million Dollarz Worth of Game" podcast when he talked about signing his first contract with former Bad Boy Records star Ma$e in the late 2010s. No, Fivio never says the word "tricked" while breaking it down for Gillie Da Kid and Wallo267 -- but it's clear he's pissed about his paltry $5k signing bonus.

Rappers have grown accustomed to big budgets these days and Fivio’s early beginnings sound similar to several other young musicians' come-up stories: naive about the biz, but eager to start their careers.

Fivio claims Ma$e pretended to point out specifics in the fine print of his contract to get him to sign right away. Again, he doesn't use the phrase "snake oil salesman," but there's a strong insinuation.

He also says the manager who introduced him to Ma$e pressured him to sign on the spot without consulting a lawyer first.

The final hint of Fivio’s regret came when he revealed Ma$e had failed to get him a G Herbo collaboration after all this time, but he finally got one in the works -- off the strength of his own name.

That MDWG interview wasn’t the only shot Ma$e’s had to eat -- Diddy’s mom recently interrupted a Bad Boy roll call on her son’s live stream to give stern warnings to the Harlem World rapper.

A standard grooming appointment at a PetSmart turned into an emergency crisis -- one that resulted in the death of a pooch ... according to a new lawsuit.

AJ Ross is suing the pet store retailer over the 2020 death of her poodle, Kobe -- which happened after she dropped off her pooch for a nail clipping at a PetSmart in Pittsburgh, PA.

In the lawsuit, she lays blame directly at the feet of the store's employees -- and adds, the store's own surveillance video is the most compelling evidence supporting her case.

The footage is tough to watch. You see Ross drop the dog off with the staff, having already placed a muzzle on its mouth, and then leave. The workers then take it to the back and lift it onto a table.

That's where things get wild ... it appears the employees put 2 different harnesses around Kobe's neck -- one from the top and one from the bottom -- seemingly to keep the dog in place while they try to work on its paws.

Kobe thrashes around, and they eventually tip the poodle over on its side for easier access ... at least that's what Ross claims in her suit.

Soon enough, the dog goes limp and the workers try waking it up, to no avail. Ross says when she returned a mere 10 minutes later, she discovered her dog was dead -- and she believes the way the PetSmart employees harnessed Kobe during the nail clipping caused the dog to lose consciousness and die.

According to documents, Ashley claims PetSmart has allowed this to happen to other pets over the years -- upwards of 47 have allegedly been killed by PetSmart groomers since 2009 -- and now she wants damages.

A rep for PetSmart tells TMZ ... "All of us are heartbroken by and truly sorry for the loss of Kobe. Following this terrible accident in 2020, we immediately launched an internal investigation and cooperated with the authorities involved. In response, we terminated the associates who violated our pet safety policies and did not meet our high standards of care."

One of Ukraine's Olympic heroes is putting on his cape again by sacrificing his gymnastic silver medal in order to help his country fend off the Russian invaders.

Ruslan Mezentsev put his medal -- earned during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney -- on the auction block, and TMZ Sports has learned it's now sold for $14,438.

Bidding just ended on July 21, and as we first reported ... Ruslan had pledged to donate all the money to Ukraine, to help fund his homeland's war efforts against Russia. We're told the auction house even donated the buyer's premium.

The now 41-year-old Olympian was a member of his country's men's team when they competed in the all-around competition back in 2000. Ruslan participated in the floor exercise, pommel horse, and still rings.

Ultimately, he helped his team take home the silver medal by scoring 28.725 and bringing the team's total 230.306. The Ukrainians finished just 1.613 points behind China, which won the gold medal.

Now, that silver medal is in the hands of an anonymous bidder ... and Ruslan, who is originally from a town called Kropyvnytskyi in central Ukraine, is giving all the coins back to his country as the war continues.

The owner of Raising Cane's is buying a lottery ticket for every employee he's got -- a nice bonus to be split by everyone if one of the tickets turns out to be a winner.

Todd Graves has vowed to spend around $100K on the Mega Millions, a $2 ticket for every single one of his 50,000 employees he's got throughout the company. If you didn't know ... the Mega Millions is at an incredible $810 million, the 4th biggest prize ever.

Of course, once you factor out taxes and everything else, the 50,000 employees would likely walk away with $10K-$20K each ... not too shabby!!!

In an interview with WVUE, Graves said his crew always stands together, which is why he's looking to bring some extra fun into their job -- and hopefully some extra cash.

Charles Barkley is naming his price in order to join the Saudi-backed LIV Golf tour ... saying he'd hop on board if they offer him a whopping $60 million!!

The NBA legend addressed the org.'s reported interest in bringing him on as a commentator with the "Dan Patrick Show" on Monday ... saying he's more than happy with his current situation with TNT, but a certain number would get him to sign on the dotted line with LIV.

"Well, consider how much money I make now, it would take a really huge number for me to give up my life right now," Barkley told Patrick.

While Barkley didn't want to go into details about his current income, Patrick threw out a number -- $20 milli total between TNT and endorsements -- and Chuck admitted the guess was pretty spot-on.

Dan asked Chuck how he'd respond if LIV decided to triple his income ... and it's safe to say Barkley wouldn't be able to decline such a lucrative offer.

"If they triple it, and next time I'm on your show, the first question better be, 'Charles, where we celebrating at tonight?'" Barkley said.

"That should be your first question, that should be your first question if they triple what I'm making now. Your first question should be, 'Hey, Charles, where's the party tonight?'"

Barkley also said despite all the backlash surrounding the tour, he has no issue with guys like Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Bryson DeChambeau, and Brooks Koepka leaving the PGA tour for LIV ... 'cause at the end of the day, money talks.

"150 million dollars to play golf 15 times a year? I have no problem with those guys taking that money."