TV

Too Short is leaving the player life behind ... and moving forward with fatherhood!!!

Sources close to the "I'm a Player" rapper tell TMZ ... Too Short is a proud father, welcoming his first child into the world at the tender age of 53, and he's been keeping the news under wraps until now.

Our sources say Too Short's girlfriend, Sue, gave birth to their daughter back in December ... and they named their baby girl Yani Shaw.

Too Short is wasting no time introducing his daughter to the spotlight from an early age ... we're told he's already been shooting a documentary with Ray J and his manager, David Weintraub, and the film's all about raising their little girls in Hollywood.

Joey Fatone's pulling back the curtain on how to survive "The Masked Singer" -- take a chill pill. Sounds simple, but just watch ... it's far from it!

We got Joey out at LAX and had to get his take on how to endure the elaborate costumes the 'Masked' contestants wear on the hit FOX series. As you know by now, Joey was the popular Rabbit singer during season one, and eventually finished in fourth place.

For future contestants, Joey says one thing that's inevitable is the constant sweating because they're in the costume for up to an hour at a time. So, don't sweat the sweat.

Even something as simple, normally, as taking a bathroom break becomes a great adventure. Joey says the whole experience created some very morbid thoughts in his head -- but overcoming his claustrophobia is the only thing that saved him.

Artie Lange is in serious danger of having breathing problems if he doesn't get his deformed nose fixed sooner rather than later ... but Dr. Paul Nassif first needs Artie to reach a major milestone in his sobriety.

We talked to the star M.D. from "Botched" and he tells TMZ ... Artie's saddle nose -- due to drug use and a bookie's fist -- could possibly trigger a lot of sinus infections because of the severe nasal obstruction.

The dangers are serious ... for instance, the doc says Artie could develop bronchitis from being forced to breath through his mouth, which would cause an irritation to his upper lungs. Plain and simple ... Artie's gotta get his nose in tip-top shape, but first and foremost comes his sobriety.

Dog The Bounty Hunter has been diagnosed with a life-threatening heart condition ... only 3 months after his wife Beth Chapman lost her battle with cancer.

Dog makes the stunning revelation on an upcoming episode of "The Dr. Oz Show" ... revealing he's been diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism.

In the clip, Dr. Oz tells Dog he's a "ticking time bomb" before offering this sobering message ... "You're not going to be here with the heart the way it is right now."

Dog says he learned of the scary diagnosis after he was rushed to the hospital a week and a half ago with chest pains.

"Unbelievable" star Kaitlyn Dever is using her platform as a star on a hit Netflix show to get Congress to eliminate a backlog on rape kits ... before it's too late.

We got Kaitlyn out at LAX Friday and asked her about her recent trip to Capitol Hill. She was there to push Congress to reauthorize the Debbie Smith Act, which provides federal funding to sort out hundreds of thousands of unanalyzed rape kits. The bill, first passed in 2004, is set to expire Monday.

Kaitlyn, of course, portrays an 18-year-old who survives sexual assault in Netflix's new true crime limited series. Her efforts aren't just limited to pushing lawmakers on the Hill ... she's taken her cause to social media urging fans to hound their representatives to act ... stat.

She's tagged Speaker Nancy Pelosi, among others, to get moving. She ended her caption with #EliminateTheBackLog. No doubt Kaitlyn's taken on one helluva cause.

The woman who went on a racial tirade against black people at a Los Angeles CVS is a Hollywood costume designer ... and some celebs are rightfully calling her out.

Heather Lynn Patton is the woman dropping n-bombs and screaming that she wants to kill black people in this viral video. Her racist rant, which went down Tuesday at a CVS in Eagle Rock, sparked outrage online and left some famous people she worked with stunned.

Audra McDonald reacted on Twitter, with the actress writing, "Wow. Apparently she worked on Private Practice. I don't remember her but apparently if not for the law she would've killed me and Taye? Harsh."

Patricia Arquette says the woman worked with her on the NBC series "Medium" for 2 seasons and says one of her friends from the set told her, "This is really sad. Holy s**t. Wow I'm actually shaking. This was not who she was at all ... It's like I'm watching a person that has completely come undone."

Vinny Guadagnino thinks another "Jersey Shore" star should follow in his footsteps and headline the Chippendales show ... and it's Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino.

We got Vinny in New York City and asked how Mike's doing since his release from prison. Vinny says it's great to have the whole "Jersey Shore" family back together again, and Sitch is looking shredded.

Vinny's still committed to the keto diet and tells us Mike is following suit. But, that's not all they got in common ... Vinny says Situation's background as a stripper, plus his rock-hard abs, makes him the perfect candidate for Chippendales!!!

"Kings of Pain" star Adam Thorn served up his arm as a snack for a massive python ... all in the name of measuring pain.

Adam -- a wildlife biologist and cohost of the new series on the History channel -- was extremely apprehensive about the ordeal ... as he and his cohost, professional animal handler Rob "Caveman" Alleva, traveled to a jungle and volunteered to get bitten by a 16-foot reticulated python.

How apprehensive were they? The duo brought out protective cups and face shields. Gotta protect the family jewels and faces that feed the fams. Anyway, watch the python lock on to Adam's arm. Warning: this is NOT for the squeamish. The snake's teeth got stuck in Adam's arm and the bite created an absolute bloody mess.

Obvious question ... WHY?!? The guys say they're following in the footsteps of Dr. Justin Schmidt -- an entomologist (insect scientist) who, in the '80s, put himself in harm's way to create a sting pain index. Adam and Rob wanna do the same but aim to take it beyond insects.

"Million Dollar Listing New York" star Ryan Serhant isn't just hawking a behemoth ranch in Colorado ... it's practically a chunk of the United States!!!

Serhant's truly testing his battle cry "expansion ... always, in all ways" by getting his hands on one of the most epic real estate listings you'll ever see. It's the Gateway Canyons Ranch, and it currently belongs to Discovery Channel founder John Hendricks.

It's listed at a whopping $280 million and it oozes luxury. The main house alone is 22,000 square feet. It features 8 bedrooms, 8 bathrooms, 4 floors with an elevator, infinity pool, movie theater, planetarium and, get this, its own fossil room!!!

A Ninja lost his mask on last night's episode of "The Masked Singer" ... and it was all after an Ice Cream-headed rendition of the biggest song of all-time.

Of course, the Ninja we're talking about is the ultra-famous professional gamer ... and he tried his hand last night at being the new Lil Nas X, performing "Old Town Road," and we're not professional judges, but the whole thing looked pretty awesome to us.

Good news for Ninja is that judges Jenny McCarthy, Nicole Scherzinger, Robin Thicke and Ken Jeong were rocking out to the over-the-top elaborate performance, and freaked out when he was unmasked (they're fans).

Kylie Jenner is suffering, and has been for several days, with an intense illness that required her to check into a hospital this week ... TMZ has learned.

Sources familiar with the situation tell us Kylie was admitted to an L.A.-area hospital. One source described it as severe flu-like symptoms -- which included nausea and dizziness.

We're told Kylie was supposed to present at the Emmys on Sunday night ... along with her sisters, Kim Kardashian West and Kendall Jenner, but she was way too sick to make the appearance.

There has been a very secret play by the U.S. Attorney to get more parents to plead guilty in the college admissions scandal, and what's especially interesting is that prosecutors are putting the squeeze on people who haven't even been charged with a crime.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, parents who hired ringleader Rick Singer received grand jury subpoenas recently for various documents that could lead to an indictment. Lawyers for the parents got in touch with the U.S. Attorney, who threatened to indict the parents in a similar fashion to Felicity Huffman, Lori Loughlin and dozens of others.

We're told the lawyers and prosecutors are either in the process of negotiating a guilty plea or have already negotiated it, even before any criminal charges are filed. We're told the U.S. Attorney will file criminal complaints and the parents will immediately plead guilty.

Tekashi 6ix9ine's story has captured the attention of Snapchat, which has agreed to air a docuseries about the dude ... and it's supposed to be hitting your phone any day now.

Snap's launching their first documentary-style franchise called "VS The World" and T69 will kick off the first season.

It is being produced by Complex -- following his sudden skyrocket to fame in 2017, and his eventual crumbling in 2018 ... when he got arrested, indicted on RICO charges and incarcerated as a result.

The interesting thing here ... the Tekashi saga is obviously still playing out. Remember, the guy just testified for days against his old Nine Trey Blood crew members ... spilling a lot of alleged deets about them and others too.

New York City native Cathy Silvers was only 19 years old when she landed the role of the teenage, boy-crazy best friend, Jenny Piccalo, in the last few seasons of the classic ABC sitcom, "Happy Days."

Cathy Silver was cast alongside epic actors like Erin Moran, as the best friend and kid sis, Joanie Cunningham and, of course, Ron Howard as the big bro and protagonist, Richie Cunningham.

Fun Fact: Cathy's real dad, Phil Silvers, was on one episode of "Happy Days" ... to play the father of Jenny Piccalo.

Terrence Howard says he's taking a stand for men when he battles his ex-wife, and even though he recently took an 'L' -- he still thinks he has a secret weapon on his side.

We ran into Terrence Tuesday at Crustacean in Bev Hills -- right after he got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame -- and asked him about the ruling last month ... when the judge ordered him to pay Michelle Ghent $1.3 million in their years-long spousal support feud.

We asked if Terrence intended to challenge it, and although he says he'll pay ... he clearly isn't conceding Michelle is right. In fact, he accuses her of playing dirty with "deceit and lies." Watch the clip, but know that Michelle's team says Terrence is delusional.

As a rep for his ex put it, "Apparently the courts don’t agree with his version of events and he seems to have a hard time sticking to the facts and the reality of what the rulings have been in this case."

Still, Terrence told us he'll come out on top in the end ... thanks to karma. And, then we got into some strange philosophical territory with him.

When we tried asking about "Empire" coming to an end, Terrence pivoted into something he's way more passionate about -- his belief that one times one is TWO. We know ... come again???

A prisoner doing time for another murder is now confessing to the crime "Making a Murderer" subject Steven Avery is in prison for -- but the feds have serious doubts, and probably for good reason.

Filmmaker Shawn Rech -- who's directing a new documentary about Avery called "Convicting a Murderer" -- made news Tuesday when he told an outlet he'd secured a confession to the murder of Teresa Halbach from a different Wisconsin man, not Avery.

Shawn says the convict is imprisoned for a separate murder -- but if his confession is legit it would be major news for Avery, who's always maintained his innocence.

Before Avery starts jumping for joy, though ... we spoke to Shawn ourselves, and the full context makes the alleged confession seem a little dubious, and the DOJ in Wisconsin sees it the same way.