Music

A new show Chloe Bailey is in -- where she's shown having sex -- has sparked a debate about racism and colorism in Hollywood ... and now, Halle Berry's been roped in.

You might've noticed the latter is trending this weekend, and the reason is because of this discourse that's taken off since Donald Glover's latest TV series, "Swarm," debuted on Friday ... which starts out with a scene depicting Chloe doing the deed in very graphic detail.

Since then, there's been a lot of chatter about her decision to do the sex scene ... some say it's a great move/good for her, and others feel like it falls in line with other choices she's made of late -- like putting out a single with Chris Brown -- that some think are ... not so wise.

As one Twitter user put it ... "Where is a Chloe Bailey’s mentor pls??? She’s been making terrible decisions lately, she should have never done that sex scene in Swarm and I’m not even gonna go into her most recent collab." A lot of other folks reacted similarly.

On Saturday, that convo shifted when someone brought up Halle in comparison. She tweeted, "Halle Berry getting back shots role got her an Oscar right?" The point she was making ... Halle also did risqué stuff in her day -- "Monster's Ball" being the prime example, for which she won an Oscar -- but that, in and of itself, did not diminish her work/accolades.

This user was essentially saying Chloe's sex scene won't define her acting career, and that it's unfair to suggest she'll be derailed 'cause of it. Basically, stop giving her premature flak.

However, another Twitter user responded ... suggesting Halle enjoys the benefit of a lighter skin complexion and even went so far as to claim that she's "white passing." Obviously, she isn't -- Halle looks Black, not white ... which is literally what white-passing means.

Semantics aside, however, this woman's point (as she further explained on her page) is that Halle fits Hollywood's traditional white European beauty standard ... more so than Chloe, or any other dark-skinned Black woman for that matter. Therefore, she believes Halle has had an easier time in showbiz than Chloe might in this specific regard ... aka, baring it all.

In other words, this user feels like colorism is still very much alive and well in the entertainment industry ... and that darker-skinned Black performers will have a tougher go in comparison to any of their lighter-skinned counterparts -- which might be valid.

Of course, there's also the Bailey sisters factor here ... namely, the fact that Chloe's also-famous sibling, Halle Bailey, has a more buttoned-up rep than her older sis, perhaps, does.

Halle (Bailey) is literally starring in "The Little Mermaid" with Disney -- very family-friendly, etc. -- and she generally avoids controversy of her own doing. Chloe, on the other hand, is under a microscope more often ... and tends to get labeled as the wild child of the two.

Jimmy Fallon left the Big Apple for St. Patrick's Day and ventured upstate for some small town pub partying ... hitting up a local watering hole, and jamming out with the band!

The 'Tonight Show' host found his way into Iron Smoke Distillery Friday in Fairport, NY -- just outside of Rochester. He actually knows the owner of the bar across the street -- Mulconry's Irish Pub -- and apparently heard the musicians from 1916 rocking out ... feeling intrigued.

We're told Jimmy popped in toward the end of 1916's set and asked if he could play with them before they headed out. Of course, they obliged -- sticking around for a few more songs. As many people know, JF's a bit of a music man himself ... and a natural showman.

That came in handy for the three tunes they performed -- including The Doors' "Gloria," The Georgia Satellites' "Keep Your Hands to Yourself," U2's "Desire" and others. Jimmy took charge on vocals and on lead guitar ... and all the other band members backed him up.

After hitting the stage, we're told Jimmy hung around a bit and took photos with patrons ... capping off a great time had by all. Seems he wanted his holiday to be a little more low-key and homegrown ... and he certainly got that with the Iron Smoke crowd that night.

We'll see if he has more to dish about his night out come Monday ... when he'll be back on late night duty, with his own band on hand. This is just a good reminder -- dude could probably jump in himself at a moment's notice and hold his own.

Rick Ross has a home, a BIG one, where his pet buffalo roam ... yet the giant beasts still range onto his neighbor's yard, and she's worried because her young kids play outside.

The neighbor, who lives on a plot of land behind RR's Fayetteville, GA compound, tells TMZ ... the two buffaloes -- aka bison -- have wandered onto her property twice this week. Keep in mind, adult buffalo can tip the scales at around 2,000 lbs.!!!

She's worried they may pose a danger to her small children.

TMZ obtained video showing Rick's behemoth pets running through the neighbor's front yard ... and she says she came home from work to discover the wild scene.

She also snapped photos of the buffaloes grazing on the grass near a paved driveway full of parked cars.

Rick's neighbor says she went to the rapper's place to confront him about the buffaloes grazing on her property ... which turned into a verbal dispute with a member of Rick's team.

Unsatisfied with that interaction, she says her next step is filing a neighbor dispute with the city. She tried calling police, but they told her it's a civil dispute and didn't take a report.

In addition to the potential danger the roaming animals pose to the woman's kids, they also appear to be tearing up her yard. Definitely not as important, but it could still be costly.

Remember, Rick was gifted the bison last March and they are absolutely huge. He also has four horses and a bull. No deer or antelope, though.

Nick Carter is bringing backup to the sexual battery lawsuit against him ... he says he has a dozen witnesses who claim his accuser is full of BS.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, the Backstreet Boys member says he has 12 people who have testified the alleged victim's version of events can't possibly be true.

TMZ broke the story ... Nick is being sued by a woman named Shannon Ruth, who filed a lawsuit in December claiming he sexually assaulted her after a concert way back in 2001 when she was underage.

But, Nick says not so fast ... he claims he has 12 witnesses from the concert -- fans, security personnel and a talent manager -- who say the accuser's story is "factually impossible."

Remember ... Ruth, who says she is autistic and has cerebral palsy, claims she got in line to get Nick's autograph after the show, when he allegedly invited her back to his tour bus, plied her with alcohol and forced her to perform oral sex on him.

But, Nick says his dozen witnesses testified it was impossible for him to interact with the alleged victim after the concert ... they say there was no autograph line and fans had no access to the tour bus staging area.

What's more, Nick says one of Ruth's close friends at the time testified Ruth is lying about being autistic and suffering from cerebral palsy ... and she doesn't even believe Ruth was at the concert.

In the docs, Nick claims another witness testified they were on calls where Ruth's name was brought up as part of a plot to extort Nick ... an alleged money grab he's previously mentioned in his countersuit against Ruth.

Patrick Beverley's right -- at least, that's what Ja Rule is saying, telling TMZ Sports he believes Ja Morant is absolutely being poorly influenced by hip hop.

The Chicago Bulls guard made waves earlier this week by sayin' he believed rap and the culture surrounding it are contributing to Morant's recent missteps ... and when we got Ja Rule out at LAX this week, he couldn't have agreed more.

He said growing up he was influenced to smoke weed by Redman's "How To Roll A Blunt" -- and pressured to drink booze by Snoop Dogg's "Gin and Juice" ... and he made it clear, he thinks Morant is being similarly impacted by today's tunes.

But, the "Holla Holla" rapper told us he thinks Morant needs to quit all of that ASAP ... telling us, "that ain't the way."

"Go play ball, man," he said. "The streets ain't about nothing, man. Go grind on 'em. Keep balling. That's it, man."

Morant has been investigated by police at least three times in the past calendar year -- most recently when he was seen on video flashing a gun at a strip club earlier this month.

Each time, Morant has dodged charges ... though he admitted in a sit-down interview with Jalen Rose this week he needs to start making better choices.

"In the future," he told Rose, "I will show everybody who Ja really is, what I'm about and change this narrative."

You'd think Andrew Lloyd Webber would be feeling the pressure of having to craft King Charles' coronation music -- but the dude is pretty relaxed ... hilariously so, in fact.

The Broadway legend -- responsible for the numbers heard in "Cats," "The Phantom of the Opera" and others -- dished to WaPo about the Royal assignment he agreed to about a month ago ... namely, composing THE musical piece that'll be playing while KC gets crowned in May.

It's quite the task, and yet ... ALW sounds super chill about it. His interview here makes it seem like the gig is just another day in the office. He says, "I have written quite a lot of choral music. [M]y father was a very distinguished church organist and choirmaster and the choral tradition is not something that is new to me in a way, because it’s been there all my life." In other words, he's been there ... done that. Now, he's just doing it for the King.

As WaPo notes, Lloyd Webber's actually somewhat familiar with Charles -- having met and visited with him on a handful of occasions in the past. He tells this funny anecdote, kinda poking fun at the King's vanilla demeanor/interests ... and what HRH is passionate about.

ALW says, "The great thing about Charles is that he has a great love of really quite a lot of causes that are a little bit unfashionable. He cares very deeply about all sorts of quite interesting things."

The guy adds this ... "I mean, like, three or four years before lockdown, I got a call from him saying could I come around to meet him at Lancaster House quite urgently, because he’d had an idea. What it was that he was worried about was the fact that there wasn’t enough access for young people to go and learn how to play the church organ."

As for the actual music itself that he's putting together ... the deets are out. It's a three-minute tune set to the melody of Psalm 98, which will include the lyrics/refrain that reads, "O sing to the Lord a new song." Lloyd Webber's expected to put his own spin on it, though.

ALW's heading to London soon to test the audio at Westminster Abbey, where the ceremony will go down. Charles may be struggling with pop acts, but he's got the classics locked down.

Taylor Swift hit the stage Friday night for the first time in 3 years to kick off her much-anticipated 'Eras Tour' ... and she blew the house down!!!

The iconic pop star was greeted by thousands of screaming fans at her sold-out show at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

It was a HUGE moment for Taylor, whose last tour was derailed by the COVID pandemic after the release of her album, "Lover."

Taylor addressed the issue about an hour into her performance, telling the crowd, “Is it just me or do we have a lot of things to catch up on? It’s been a really long time since I’ve been on tour."

She continued, “I can’t even go into how much I’ve missed you...because there’s no way to verbalize it.”

At another point, Taylor admitted she was “really overwhelmed, and trying to keep it together all night.”

The emotional moments were just some of the many highlights during Taylor's three-hour-plus performance in which she cranked out an eye-popping 44 songs from her 10 hit albums.

She played fan faves from her earliest to her latest records, such as “You Belong With Me," “Shake It Off," “Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince,” “Cruel Summer”, Ready For It?,” “Delicate," "Willow," "Fearless," "Enchanted" and "Midnight Rain."

Of course, Taylor went through a number of wardrobe changes meant to reflect the many changes she's gone through over the years. She had a bevy of dancers shimmying around her and riding "Tron"-esque light cycles as she belted out her tune, “Blank Space.” Taylor and Co. also channeled the famous Rockettes, throwing around high kicks during "22."

The stage itself extended to the back of the stadium with an artistic set design that included a gold version of the cabin featured in her video for "cardigan." There were also film images projected on a Jumbotron behind the stage.

Joe Jonas put on two great performances Friday night in NYC -- one for his Broadway show and the other to help out a fallen fan.

The pop star and his brothers, Nick and Kevin, had just finished their sold-out concert at the Marquis Theater when the drama involving the fan took center stage outside the venue.

Check out the video, obtained by TMZ, showing Joe stopping to sign autographs among his legions of followers who were packed together like sardines.

In all the chaos, one woman tumbled to the ground and, as you can hear, her girlfriend reacted with panic and anger.

But, Joe kept his cool and helped the woman to her feet with the assistance of a Good Samaritan. He then posed for a photo with the woman before crossing the street with his wife, Sophie Turner, to grab a bite to eat at Bond 45.

The couple was joined by Kevin and Nick and their wives, Danielle Jonas and Priyanka Chopra Jonas, respectively.

Rod Stewart pulled the plug on his concert in Australia Saturday ... because of some mysterious illness.

The 78-year-old rock star took to Twitter to make the announcement hours before he was to hit the stage at his Geelong show as part of his tour through the land Down Under with Cyndi Lauper and Jon Stevens.

Stewart posted a broken heart emoji next to an official statement, which read, "Live Nation and Roundhouse Entertainment regret to announce that tonight's performance by Rod Stewart, Cyndi Lauper and Jon Stevens at Mt. Duneed Estate, Geelong will not go ahead due to illness."

The message ended with this..."We apologise for the disappointment and inconvenience for ticket holders. A further announcement regarding the concert arrangements will be made early next week."

Lauper and Stevens also announced the cancellation on their social media pages.

It was not clear which performer(s) had gotten sick or the nature of the illness or how the tour will be impacted going forward.

The musicians have performances lined up in Adelaide on Tuesday, Mt. Cotton in Queensland on March 25 and 26, and Sydney on March 29.

Ja Morant's publicity problems are now costing NLE Choppa, whose new song was all set to be featured in a Powerade commercial ... that is, until the NBA star flashed a gun on camera.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ Hip Hop ... NLE's newest track, "Mo Up Front," was set to lead Ja and Powerade's "What 50% More Means" ad campaign. The TV spot was going to highlight the NCAA's March Madness tournament.

Those plans were scrapped, of course, in wake of Ja's infamous gun-waving video and subsequent eight-game suspension from the NBA ... thereby screwing NLE out of the commercial placement for his track.

Despite missing out on the national exposure, we're told the Memphis rapper is still a fan of Ja, and maintains a relationship with his hometown Grizzlies. He walked the team out onto the court for their home opener, so he's a diehard.

NLE is scheduled to partake in the team's celebrity basketball game on March 20 to benefit St. Jude's hospital. As for the music ... we're hearing he still has mo' heat in the can.

Avril Lavigne is looking iced out these days ... and the new, flashy jewelry around her neck comes courtesy of her new bf, Tyga.

Eric Mavani, a celebrity jeweler out of New York City, tells TMZ ... Tyga gifted Avril the custom diamond chain Thursday, and the piece is worth $80K.

Avril's already posted selfies flaunting the chain and was spotted wearing it Thursday night in Los Angeles.

We're told the bling features 50 carats of white diamonds, black diamonds and pink sapphires. Diversity matters! 💎😂

As you can see, the chain features several pendants ... one with Avril's first name, two with the letter "A" imposed over a pink heart, and a pair of skulls and crossbones with pink ribbons.

We're told Tyga reached out to Eric three weeks ago, right before Paris Fashion Week, to make the piece.

The timing is worth noting ... because Tyga and Avril started hanging out a lot more when they were in Paris, kissing for the cameras and strolling through the streets hand in hand.

TMZ broke the story ... Tyga and Avril are still in the early stages of dating, and they're not putting any labels ... like girlfriend/boyfriend on anything, at least not yet.

It will be interesting to see if the expensive diamond gift changes that.

Cher is once again looking to unload her massive Malibu mansion ... putting the estate she's called home for decades back on the market, at a reduced price.

Real estate sources tell TMZ ... the pop icon's oceanfront property is now going for $75 million, which is a sizable reduction from the original $85 million price tag.

Remember, Cher listed the home back in October, but it never sold and was taken off the market ... and on Friday afternoon it was relisted.

The Italy-inspired home is a true beauty ... with just about all the bells and whistles you can imagine, including a home gym, infinity pool, home theater and tennis courts.

The home rests on 1.7 acres and overlooks the Pacific Ocean ... and the grounds are dotted with 40 palm trees, plus a fountain and a courtyard.

The main residence features 7 bedrooms, most notably the primary suite, which is decked out with two closets and a meditation room.

And, get this ... apparently, there's a climate-controlled wig room storing up to 100 hairpieces ... where else are you going to find one of those?!?

Cher originally bought the place way back in 1989, plunking down $2.95 million.

Travis Scott's skills as a fashion innovator are coming under fire by Dennis Rodman ... who's accusing the superstar rapper of copying the look of his signature sneakers.

Dennis went after Travis at Got Sole's recent sneaker convention in Chicago as the NBA champ pointed out his high-top kicks originated the reverse Nike Swoosh logo before Travis' model hit the market.

The Worm's Nike Air Darwin shoe dropped in 1994, shortly before his days of playing with Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Travis and Jordan Brand connected for his popular mocha-colored AJ1 Retro High OG sneakers in 2019.

Dennis didn't seem to be a fan of Travis' shoe, and said he just wants his credit for putting out the design first.

Ja Rule is literally laughing out loud at Melle Mel's claims he ruined his own "New York" song by copying 50 Cent ... simply because the timelines don't add up!!!

The Furious Five rap legend recently accused Ja of mimicking 50's hood nature on the 2004 track, thus losing the NYC anthem race to Jay-Z and Alicia Keys' hit collab "Empire State of Mind" ... but Ja tells us his record did exactly what it was supposed to do on the charts.

Ja explains his song, which featured Fat Joe and Jadakiss, was a street anthem while Jay and Alicia's classic was created for mainstream platforms like radio -- but he's still proud of its legacy, peaking at No. 27 on the Billboard Hot 100.

As for 50, Ja notes his career as a rapper-singer began first -- he says he laid the blueprint for 50's rap-singing success on songs like "21 Questions," but he adds ... Melle's earned the right to spew whatever opinion he wants.

He also bigged up another hip hop pioneer: KRS-One, whose 1990 "hundred guns, a hundred clips" lyrics fueled Ja's "New York" chorus.

Taylor Swift's building anticipation for her tour ... releasing new songs, and while she's known for breakup tunes, one of her new ones is a love song for her longtime boyfriend.

Taylor gave fans a "Taylor's Version" re-recording of 3 songs -- "Eyes Open," "Safe & Sound" and "If This Was a Movie" -- exactly at midnight ... it's kinda her thing now.

She also debuted "All the Girls You Loved Before," which is an old outtake she decided was ready for the spotlight.

'All the Girls' was originally considered for her 7th studio album, "Lover," but ended up on the studio floor.

Swifties got a taste of the song, because it "leaked" last month on TikTok ... now the whole track is out just in time for the start of Taylor's Eras Tour, which kicks off tonight in Glendale, AZ.

In the love song, T-Swift puts all her feels out in the open and confesses her love for her boo Joe Alwyn.

In the chorus she sings, "Every dead-end street led you straight to me. Now, you're all I need. I'm so thankful for all of the girls you've loved before and I love you more".

Taylor and Joe have been linked since 2016, and while they're not the couple that's out on the scene all the time ... they've pretty much been joined at the hip.

We're guessing he's a lock for a backstage pass in AZ tonight as the tour begins in the wake of all that Ticketmaster drama surrounding the presale -- which led to actual Congressional hearings!

Yeah ... Taylor, and her fans, are a big deal.

Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott want to make their son's name change official in the eyes of the law ... TMZ has learned.

The famous parents filed new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, asking to switch the kiddo's name from Wolf Jacques Webster to Aire Webster.

The docs say Kylie and Travis are both on board with the change ... and they both signed the petition, which is now making its way through the courts.

In the docs, Kylie and Travis say they "regret the initial name choice of Wolf Jacques Webster. Now that Petitioners have had the chance to spend time with their baby, they believe the name Aire Webster is a better fit."

Remember ... Kylie and Travis announced in March 2022 they were scrapping their boy's original name, Wolf, because they felt like it didn't suit him. He had only been born a few weeks prior to the change of heart.

In January, a few weeks before the boy was set to celebrate his first birthday, Kylie revealed his new name, Aire. The name is of Hebrew origin and it reportedly means "Lion of God."

Kylie and Travis' first child is named Stormi ... so Aire fits in with his older sister's name.