TMZ Live

Kim Kardashian's lawyer in her Paris jewelry heist trial says it was no easy decision for her to testify ... because she's coming awfully close to her alleged robbers in court.

Michael Rhodes joined us on "TMZ Live" Tuesday and told us what it was like inside and outside the French courthouse where Kim gave some powerful and emotional testimony.

Kim's lawyer says it took her some time to decide she really wanted to testify ... and he says it took a lot of guts because in France, the courtroom setup puts the witness super close to the defense ... so close, in fact, that Kim could feel the presence of the men she says robbed her and made her feel like she was going be raped and murdered.

A retired United Airlines pilot has some serious safety concerns regarding a busy airport in New Jersey ... and he's got a message for the federal government.

Tom Mannello joined us on "TMZ Live" Friday and we asked him if it's safe to fly into Newark Liberty International Airport in the wake of air traffic controllers experiencing radar outages.

The former commercial pilot says it's only moderately safe to fly into Newark these days ... explaining why staffing shortages, budgets, construction and Mother Nature are all contributing to issues for air travelers.

Donald Trump’s big idea to slap a 100% tariff on films made outside the U.S. might sound like a patriot’s dream -- but according to one Hollywood heavyweight, it’s actually a 100% career-ender for the movie biz.

TMZ caught up with "Green Book" producer Charles Wessler, and let’s just say he didn’t sugarcoat his thoughts on Trump’s proposal to force filming back onto American soil ... telling us it's the stupidest idea he's ever heard ... but said it tracks, coming from Trump.

Charles breaks down how the movie biz can't survive the move -- budgets are part of it, but it’s also about creative freedom and authenticity ... and also the practicality of certain locations that can't be recreated in the U.S.

Zach Yadegari is an 18-year-old high school senior from Long Island, NY who founded a calorie-counting app that's worth tens of millions of dollars -- but that wasn't enough to gain admission to Ivy League schools ... and now he's going all LeBron James by taking his talents to South Beach.

The entrepreneur joined us on "TMZ Live" Friday and we asked him how in the world he got rejected from top universities like Stanford, MIT, Harvard, Princeton and Yale.

Zach was still in high school when he rolled out Cal AI, an app that uses artificial intelligence to help people count calories ... all they have to do is snap a photo of their food and the app tells them how many calories are on their plate.

George Santos says there's a lot of bad hombres behind bars who want to rough him up for one reason or another ... and he's again turning up the pressure on the Federal Bureau of Prisons to keep him safe.

The former New York Congressman joined us on "TMZ Live" Thursday and we asked him about his warning to the BOP -- that there will be hell to pay if he's brutalized behind bars.

George is set to begin a 7-year sentence this summer and he tells us there's a big target on his back for a number of reasons ... namely, his sexuality and his Congressional activity.

President Trump is selling a meme coin and making a nice profit from a contest offering big buyers a chance to have dinner with him -- but that doesn't mean the White House is for sale ... at least according to Michael Knowles.

The Daily Wire host joined us on "TMZ Live" Wednesday and we asked him about Trump's unprecedented use of cryptocurrency ... and he defended POTUS.

Trump's offering 220 people a chance to have dinner with him at one of his golf clubs ... as long as they buy a bunch of his meme coins ... and while the Prez and his allies are reportedly raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars as a result, Michael doesn't see an issue.

The world's first sperm race was limited to a couple bitter college rivals, but now organizers are planning to go Hollywood ... and they're courting celebrities to join the action!!!

Eric Zhu and his Sperm Racing startup's first winner, Tristan from USC, joined us on "TMZ Live" Monday and we asked them about the debut event and what's next.

Friday's sperm race at the Hollywood Palladium drew a big crowd and featured a celeb cameo from Ty Dolla $ign ... but Eric says the next event will have bigger names, a bigger budget and a bigger venue.

The world's first-ever sperm race is on deck and it's shaping up to be a heavyweight fight ... with plenty of trash talk on the eve of the main event.

Two young sperm donors, Tristan from USC and Asher from UCLA, are preparing to do battle in Friday's live event at the Hollywood Palladium ... so they joined us on "TMZ Live" Thursday to give us some insight into what it's like being full-blown sperm athletes.

Tristan and Asher say healthy lifestyles and diets are key to getting their little swimmers ready for the big race ... and abstinence is coming in to play too ... just like before a big boxing match.

Little kids are being indoctrinated in public schools through readings from LGBTQ+ books ... and parents should have the power to prevent their kids from consuming that content ... according to a lawyer on a case being heard by the Supreme Court.

Eric Baxter is representing a group of Maryland parents who are objecting to books about gay and transgender characters being read in elementary schools, and he joined us on "TMZ Live" Wednesday to lay out their argument.

The case went before SCOTUS this week and Eric says all parents want is the right to have their kids opt out of readings from books where some controversial topics are explored ... like sexuality, same-sex marriages and gender identity.

Democrats going to war with President Trump over alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia makes perfect sense to D.L. Hughley, who says it's really a battle for what should matter most to all Americans.

Things got heated Tuesday on "TMZ Live" when Harvey suggested Abrego Garcia might not be the hill Democrats wanna die on ... considering he's been accused of beating his wife and having an affiliation with MS-13, an international criminal gang.

D.L. thinks you're missing the point if you think the case is just about one Maryland husband and dad ... he says it's about the Trump administration thinking it can "spirit away" anyone it wants without giving them their day in court.

Insider trading is rampant on Capitol Hill and there needs to be new laws on the books to level the playing field ... so says a trading app founder who would lose his business if a major change ever happened.

Chris Josephs runs Autopilot, a trading app that lets regular folks copy stock trades made by some of Congress' most prescient portfolios, and he joined us on "TMZ Live" Thursday to tell us why he's confident Congress is using insider information to make a killing on the stock market.

Nancy Pelosi and Marjorie Taylor Greene are some of the alleged insider traders, and Chris says politicians from both sides of the aisle love to profit off crises ... he says it happened when the housing bubble burst, when Covid hit ... and is ramping up again with President Trump flip-flopping on tariffs.

D.L. Hughley says he would have a lot to think about if he were a juror in Luigi Mangione's trial ... telling us he might even go so far as to find the accused United Healthcare CEO murderer innocent!!!

The comedian joined us on "TMZ Live" Tuesday and we asked him about the cult-like following Luigi has, even though the feds claim Mangione gunned down Brian Thompson in cold blood in Manhattan in December.

D.L. says he absolutely understands why Luigi has a lot of supporters out there ... he feels Americans are so fed up with the health insurance agency and are so accustomed to gun violence in their everyday lives that Mangione's alleged murder isn't a big deal to many.

Rep. Darrell Issa is defending President Trump using the Justice Department to investigate his political foes ... and he says Trump's no worse than Joe Biden.

The Congressman from California joined us on "TMZ Live" Thursday and we asked him about Trump directing the DOJ to look into a couple officials from his first term who ultimately became Trump critics.

Rep. Issa says Trump weaponizing the DOJ to go after political enemies isn't all that different from what Biden did with the DOJ in investigating Trump when Biden was in the White House.

Jeff Corwin thinks humans are looking too far back for species to save ... noting it's a substantial scientific achievement to bring dire wolves back -- but, there are a lot of endangered species who are currently in dire need of help.

The wildlife conservationist joined us on "TMZ Live" Wednesday ... and, he ran us through the particulars of bringing dire wolves back from extinction -- likening part of the process to the how scientists brought dinosaurs back in "Jurassic Park."

Corwin explains these aren't purebred dire wolves ... but, they're about as close as humans can get given they died out more than 10,000 years ago.

D.L. Hughley is ripping Bill Maher for breaking bread with President Trump at the White House ... and he says they're sounding a little too similar these days, at least to his ears.

The comedian joined us on "TMZ Live" Tuesday and we asked him about Bill's recent visit to the White House, where he sat down for dinner with Trump.

D.L. says Bill is wasting his time if he's trying to raise an issue with Trump ... because he feels POTUS is a purely transactional fella who is only concerned about getting something for himself in anything he does.

Matthew Okula says he and his wife Hailey were so excited to be parents that they'd already planned on going through another round of IVF and picked a name for their second kid before the influencer's tragic death.

We spoke with Okula -- a Los Angeles Firefighter -- in an interview Friday about his wife, known by many online as Nurse Hailey ... and, he says the couple had been blessed with another successful embryo, this one a girl, to implant at a future date.

He says he and Hailey were choosing which to have first -- a boy or a girl -- and ultimately settled on the boy because they wanted their little girl to have a protector.