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Taylor Swift fans are very protective of their idol, and Saturday night she returned the favor.

Taylor was in Philly for a 2-night stand with her Eras tour, when it appears -- at least to fans on social media -- a security guard may have come down a little too hard on an attendee.

It went down as she was singing "Bad Blood" ... it looks like Taylor spotted something in the crowd. You see her gesture with a tinge of anger, trying to calm things down, and then she stops singing and shouts, "She's fine. She wasn't doing anything!!!"

Taylor's concerts are choreographed with precision, so for her to break from the playbook is unusual.

It was a momentary distraction and the concert went on without another hitch.

We reached out to Taylor's rep ... so far, no word back.

Taylor Swift and Matt Healy are the real deal ... because they're on a double date with Taylor's pal and longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff and his fiancée.

Taylor and Matt joined Jack and actress Margaret Qualley for a romantic double date Thursday in New York City ... and we've learned they were all hanging out at the swanky Casa Cipriani.

Anyone who thought Taylor and Matt were just spending time together for a music collab are wrong ... the two are clearly dating.

In images circulating on social media, Taylor and Matt can be seen holding hands on a rooftop while walking around and sitting next to one another.

Taylor's back in NYC again during another break in her Eras Tour, and Matt's right by her side ... this on the heels of The 1975 frontman spending last weekend taking in all 3 of her shows.

The pair left together in the same car after Taylor's Saturday show in Nashville, and she's scheduled to perform Friday night in Philadelphia.

It will be interesting to see if Matt is at Taylor's Philly show too.

Stay tuned ...

Elon Musk is making a push to land a Don Lemon show on Twitter, just as Tucker Carlson's started his own show on the platform -- and Elon's goal seems to be balancing right and left.

Elon made his pitch to Don Wednesday morning with a tweet inviting him to do a show on the bird app. He included a dig at CNN's ratings, saying, "Maybe worth a try. Audience is much bigger."

The move comes after Tucker's Tuesday video tweet, announcing he'd be launching a "new version" of his TV show on Twitter -- a move that was quickly welcomed by the platform's owner.

Elon boasted, "On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique and refute whatever [Tucker] or anyone may say."

He also made it clear he's not involved in Tucker's show or programming -- "We have not signed a deal of any kind whatsoever. Tucker is subject to the same rules & rewards of all content creators."

Of course, Don and Tucker were fired from CNN and Fox News, respectively, on the same day last month. On the heels of Carlson's announcement, Elon said he wanted more content creators, "particularly from the left" to follow suit.

He clearly thinks Don should be one of them.

As Jonathan Majors continues to fight his DV case, it appears the internet has already settled on a possible replacement in the MCU ... another bad guy in a new superhero movie.

We're talking about Chukwudi Iwuji -- who made a splash this weekend in the third 'Guardians of the Galaxy' flick as the big bad, the High Evolutionary ... and who left audiences and comic book fans more than impressed with his epic performance.

While HE meets his grisly demise in the end (spoiler) ... a lot of folks on the bird app are nominating Iwuji as the next would-be Kang the Conqueror if things go south for JM.

There's chatter about how Iwuji's take on his supervillain is how Kang should've been portrayed in the 'Ant-Man' film that recently featured him ... namely, over the top and downright ruthless -- which is certainly how Iwuji's High Evolutionary comes across.

As the comparisons continue to fly ... a good handful of Twitter users are also straight-up saying Iwuji should be considered to step in as Kang if Disney decides to ultimately drop Majors -- which they have not done yet, and which may be premature at this point.

This "what if" speculation seems to be a mix of praise for Iwuji and jumping the gun on Majors' MCU future. Frankly, ever since he was arrested -- a lot of names have been floated as possible stand-ins ... but now, it would seem Iwuji's at the front of the line in fans' eyes.

Again ... there's been no indication from Disney that they're considering cutting Majors loose just yet -- despite the fact that he's been dropped from other projects and organizations.

As we've reported ... his team has repeatedly denied he did anything wrong from the beginning and has even suggested he was the victim here -- while also claiming to have evidence that they say will exonerate him. We've seen surveillance footage of the woman in question out partying after the alleged incident ... and she appears to be fine/uninjured.

Of course, he'll have his day in court soon enough. The guy's scheduled to appear before a judge on Tuesday -- where his team will undoubtedly push for the charges to be dropped.

Like everyone else, we're sure Disney will be monitoring ... as Majors is a key figure in their Marvel plans, with scheduled appearances in several more films and TV shows as Kang.

Kevin Costner has become the target of nasty rumors since his wife filed for divorce, including one accusing the actor of getting a woman working on the set of "Yellowstone" pregnant ... a tale we're told could not be further from the truth.

Sources close to Costner say the latest bit of gossip surrounding the star is "total BS," and has been baselessly circulating online.

It's unclear who started the rumor, or even who Costner allegedly got pregnant, but the fake story has been buzzing on social media since his wife, Christine, filed for divorce Monday.

One Twitter user wrote, "I wonder now, if the drama surrounding Kevin Costner and Yellowstone 'scheduling,' was due to the rumor of him potentially getting someone on set pregnant?" Another said, "So it wasn’t Bentley who got a girl pregnant on the Yellowstone set ... it was Costner."

TMZ broke the story, Costner was blindsided by Christine's filing ... the actor's rep made that clear in telling us, " ... circumstances beyond his control have transpired which have resulted in Mr. Costner having to participate in a dissolution of marriage action."

We're told Kevin had no prior warning Christine was filing to end their 18-year marriage, and he's still in the dark.

In her divorce docs, Christine lists the date of separation as last month -- they got hitched back in 2004. Interesting, since sources say Kevin had no inkling the marriage was ending.

Costner filed a response to the divorce petition in which the prenup is referenced requiring  Christine to vacate Kevin's 3 homes.

Jennette McCurdy owes Josh Peck and his podcast partner for scrapping their debut episode at her request -- so says Josh Peck ... who's now catching flak over this.

The ex-Nickelodeon child star is trending this weekend over an episode of his pod, 'Good Guys,' that aired earlier this month ... which the internet is just learning about right now. The reason he's getting dragged -- JP, according to some, comes across as a bit of a jerk.

Here's the context ... Josh and his right-hand man, Ben Soffer, are talking to Tana Mongeau -- who brings up Jennette's memoir from last year, in which she addresses some childhood trauma she went through at the hands of her family and Nickelodeon execs back in the day.

Tana praises Jennette for speaking her truth -- something Josh/Ben say they also tried to do by having her on as their first guest in August ... in an episode that was never released.

Josh and Ben are giving themselves pats on the back for being "good guys" and nixing the episode after Jennette apparently asked them to (unclear why). However, after some time passed, Josh says he reached out to her again in hopes of getting her back on for a redo.

He says it seemed like she'd inexplicably blocked him -- after which, he says he felt like a little quid pro quo was in order since they did her a solid. Twitter doesn't agree, though.

You can go through the "Josh Peck" trend for yourself to see how people are tearing into the guy -- but bottom line ... they feel like he sounds entitled and completely insensitive here.

Mila Kunis may just be tapped to play The Thing in the new "Fantastic 4" movie -- that is ... if you buy a rumor that's running rampant on Twitter this morning.

A movie insider named @MyTimeToShineH -- who's credited with getting scoops before trade publications, and generally being in the know on superhero news -- sent the bird app into a frenzy Friday when they claimed Mila was in talks to portray a female version of Ben Grimm.

Grimm is the name of the dude in the comics who becomes The Thing ... a giant orange rock figure who fights crime alongside Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman and the Human Torch.

MTTSH writes, "They are looking at Jewish actors, both male AND female for The Thing in Fantastic Four. Mila Kunis is one of them." They added that the director of the upcoming 2025 flick, Matt Shakman, insisted Grimm be portrayed be a real-life Jewish actor ... as the character is explicitly depicted as Jewish in the comic books, albeit in later iterations.

Now, in case it went over your head -- The Thing is a male character ... and has always been portrayed as such. Whether it was Chuck McCann in the '90s cartoon, Michael Chiklis from the 2000s flick, or Jamie Bell from the 2010s version -- The Thing's known as a guy.

Now, however, based on this report -- or gossip, more like -- it sounds like Marvel's possibly looking to switch things up with a little gender swap ... or at the very least, considering it.

As you might imagine ... Twitter users, by and large, aren't reacting well to the news. The jokes are flying -- and the consensus seems to be, if Kevin Feige and co. go down this road, much of the fanbase will turn their backs on the studio ... as they view this as a step too far.

Of course, it wouldn't be the first time a woman replaced a role usually played by a man -- it notably happened in "Ghostbusters" ... and more recently, in 'Black Panther 2' and "She-Hulk." among other examples. Point is ... it's been done before, and sometimes with success.

As for Mila potentially being eyed for the job ... she wouldn't be half bad. Big star with name recognition and a good range of films under her belt, including action movies and comedies.

Elon Musk has taken nothing but heat for a while, but he had an ally Friday night -- one Bill Maher.

Elon appeared one-on-one with the 'Real Time' host, and Bill was more than complimentary. He essentially said, like him or not, Elon Musk is changing the world in profound ways.

As Bill says, the most transformative things in society have come from technology ... the printing press, the light bulb, the phone, the internet, flying, and on and on.

BM gave Elon mad props for his work with reusable rockets, electric cars, the Neuralink, just to mention a few.

Elon was actually funny in the interview, getting laughs and applause from the audience.

As for Twitter, Musk explained he bought the platform because it was censoring too much. As he said, it's easy to allow speech you agree with -- the point of free speech is to allow people to make remarks you may find abhorrent ... presumably still within limits.

They get into cancel culture, politics, the works.

Former Kentucky star Will Levis didn't have his name called during the first night of the NFL draft ... but there's a bit of a silver lining for the quarterback -- 'cause he was in the presence of his smokin' hot girlfriend!!

The 23-year-old QB prospect -- who was expected to be picked early in Thursday's event -- spent his entire evening in the green room, patiently waiting for his phone to ring.

As the night went on, television cameras continued to cut to Levis and his group of loved ones ... which included his parents, sisters, and girlfriend, Gia Duddy.

Naturally, social media erupted over Levis' lady ... with many tweeting about her whenever she'd make an appearance on their screens.

FYI -- Will and Gia went Instagram official back in 2021 ... and based on her posts, she was his biggest cheerleader throughout his college career.

But, it wasn't just Gia who was getting a lot of love -- Levis' sister, Kelley, was also the center of a bunch of posts from football fans.

The good news for those watching the draft?? Night two is just a few hours away ... and we're sure the whole crew will be back to support Levis when his name finally gets called.

Bam Margera is on the run from the police with his girlfriend and her 8-year-old child, and to make matters worse, he's developed an addiction to meth ... at least according to his brother, Jess Margera.

The former "Jackass" star's sibling is making the alarming allegations on Twitter, claiming Bam is in a really bad place right now.

Jess says Bam is traveling by car with his girlfriend and her daughter, and he says he "can't even imagine the environment in that car night now," worrying about the kid's safety and adding ... "she doesn't deserve this unnecessary trauma."

Bam's brother claims he's picked up a meth habit recently and is now "unrecognizable." Jess says he doesn't know what Bam's capable of when he's using meth and says it's been "scary" and "heartbreaking" to see Bam "hallucinating."

TMZ broke the story ... Bam's got a warrant out for his arrest in Pennsylvania, where State Police say Bam got into an altercation with his family and then made a getaway into the woods.

Ben Askren might be sleeping on the couch tonight ... and it's all 'cause he accidentally insulted his wife in what was supposed to be a super sappy appreciation post!!!

The former UFC star unleashed the blunder on both his Twitter and Instagram pages Tuesday afternoon ... when he was trying to praise his spouse, Amy, for being a great mother.

In his comment -- which was left as a caption on a photo of him with Amy and their kids -- he wrote, "I've seen some guys posting on social media lately about how they are winning bc their wife is attractive, while I don’t disagree I think finding a wife who is a great mother is 500% more important!!!"

He added, "Thanks [Amy] for being such a great mom to our kids."

The problem ... there appeared to be an insinuation in his post that perhaps his wife, who he's been married to for over a decade, isn't attractive.

Fans were quick to note the gaffe -- they slammed Askren on social media for the way he worded his compliment ... with many urging him to take it down before she saw it.

But, a little over an hour after he wrote it ... Askren blasted those who thought he was inadvertently calling his wife ugly.

"For those of you who are too dumb to realize multiple things can be true at once. My wife is both very hot and a great mother," the ex-fighter said. "Being a great mother is way more important as I originally stated."

Michael Blackson is rejecting Desiigner's "mental health" apology/explanation for his recent indecent exposure charges -- instead, he thinks it's simply a sign American culture is too soft!

On Tuesday, Desiigner posted a video of himself bumping a new tune while claiming he was moments from checking himself into a treatment facility as the aftermath of his bizarre Delta flight unfolds.

TMZ Hip Hop broke the story, Desiigner is charged with indecent exposure for masturbating in plain sight of multiple flight attendants during a flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis. The FBI says he was even armed with a jar of Vaseline.

Michael thinks Desiigner used mental health as a cop-out for his horniness after he got busted and compared American culture to his native homeland of Africa ... a place he says everything gets blamed on the devil!!!

We recently spoke to G Perico, who doesn't have a dog in the fight in the convo, but unlike Michael, says he can see obvious mental health issues in Desiigner's sitch and wished him well.

Steve Martin and Charlie Sheen are but a handful of celebs who seem to really want their blue checkmarks back on Twitter -- and they're making their concerns known, publicly.

The two Hollywood heavyweights took to the bird app over the past couple days to express their dismay at not being verified anymore -- and they tweeted their gripes too ... letting everyone (as well as Elon Musk, specifically) know they want to be 1 of 1 on Twitter.

First, Steve ... who may or may not be joking here. He writes, "I no longer have a blue check. But I would appreciate it if told me that you still see it. I really need this."

He's getting a lot of responses from fans who say he's still blue checkmark verified in their books ... and that he doesn't need Twitter's validation to be considered legit. Again, considering SM's sense of humor -- we feel like he's low-key trolling in this instance.

Then there's Charlie ... who, perhaps, sounds a bit more serious about wanting back in the blue club. He says with some zest, "dear @elonmusk i’m sorry your fancy rocket exploded in spectacular fashion. I’m certain you’ll build an even bigger and more explody one."

CS adds, "now, may i please have my blue check back? it would mean a lot to me. thank you in advance, sincerely - c sheen." Elon responded, saying he feels Chuck's pain.

Of course, some are responding to both Charlie and Steve and asking the obvious -- if you want a blue check, why not just pay for it ... especially seeing how you can easily afford it??? It's a fair question -- but it's also tricky ... 'cause blue checks are kinda cringe now.

Indeed ... the consensus online seems to be, if you still have a blue check -- except for LeBron, William Shatner and Stephen King (whose checks Elon has explicitly said he's comping) -- you obviously pay for it now ... aka, you're sorta in the "loser club," if you will.

If that is, indeed, the case ... there sure are a lot of "loser" A-listers who still have their checks and who presumably pay Elon $8/month -- including Taylor Swift, Arnold Schwarzenneger, LL Cool J, Khloe Kardashian, John Cena, Soulja Boy, Ellen DeGeneres, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and The Weeknd (who's got a gold checkmark, surprisingly).

All these people have opted to retain their verified status ... and clearly see some value in letting the public know they still are who they say they are. Can't really knock 'em.

Feels like we're back in high school again ... so, pick your clique, we suppose. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Drake Bell is at his breaking point with internet trolls calling him a pedophile, saying they're driving him to the point of suicide, and will have "blood on their hands" if things don't stop.

Bell's been replying to various Twitter accounts over the last few days -- specifically, those calling him "pedo" and claiming he's a registered sex offender -- and trying to defend himself against the false allegations.

Bell tweeted, "Noooo Immmm Nooooooottttt!!!! You people are going to kill me" in reply to someone who called him a sex offender. He responded to another with ... "Nooooo I wasn't!! You people are destroying my life."

In another back-and-forth, one fan wrote, "Let’s not forget he’s a pedo" ... but another actually defended Bell by saying, "He's not though."

Bell eventually chimed in on that convo with, "Do a second of research This is what I have to live with everyday they are literally going to kill me. Bloods on their hands..."

The examples are endless, and clearly, something that's had a serious effect on the actor/singer ... especially in the wake of going missing last week, and his wife filing for divorce.

As for why the trolls are teeing off on him -- remember, Drake was sentenced to 2 years probation back in 2021 after pleading guilty to one felony charge of attempted endangering children. A woman claimed she and Bell started exchanging sexual messages and photos when she was just 15, and eventually met at one of his shows, where she alleges she performed oral sex on him.

Bell did not have to register as a sex offender as a result of that case ... which is why he's so pissed about the repeated tweets accusing him of that.

TMZ broke the story, Bell was reported missing last Friday, and cops considered him "endangered" before they located him several hours later.

Bell's brother had told cops Drake threatened suicide over child custody issues.

His month got worse when we broke the story his estranged wife, Janet, filed for divorce Thursday.

Interestingly enough, Bell also sounded off about his divorce, tweeting, "I found out my wife filed for divorce from TMZ...check out my new song" and dropping a link to his song "Going Away."

Twitter's looking really different right now, as some huge celebs are getting stripped of their precious blue checkmarks ... but despite Elon Musk cutting their verifications, some A-listers are handing the bird the monthly fee.

Taylor Swift, Khloe Kardashian, and Ryan Reynolds are among the bunch putting up cash to keep the badge ... as well as Soulja Boy and The Weeknd.

It doesn't stop there -- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Carter, LL Cool J, O.J. Simpson, Sia, and John Cena seem to be shelling out the dough, too.

If you click on their checkmarks, you'll now see the following response -- "This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”

Worth noting, there are a couple reasons why their usernames still come with a side of blue. For starters, they could be paying to keep Twitter Blue's features -- uploading longer vids, making longer tweets and editing tweets.

Of course, these folks could have been paying the $11/month, and made the decision to unsubscribe within the past month ... so, the checkmark is just there until it expires.

You also might have noticed some celebs who have the check, but say they aren't paying -- well, Elon says he's covering the cost for a chosen few ... his Inner Blue Circle, if you will.

As we reported, celebs like Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian and K-pop group Blackpink all had their verification revoked when the change rolled out Thursday ... but it looks like there are a decent amount doing their part to keep the lights on at Twitter HQ.

LeBron James claimed he was too cheap to keep his blue checkmark, but his account showed otherwise on Thursday -- the Lakers superstar's page is now officially subscribed to Twitter Blue.

Thursday marked the end of legacy verified accounts on Elon Musk's app -- with the majority of users losing their badges unless they ponied up $8 a month to keep it.

As we previously reported, the King made his stance on the move crystal clear last month ... saying, "Welp guess my blue ✔️ will be gone soon cause if you know me I ain’t paying the 5. 🤷🏾‍♂️"

But someone on Bron's team must not have gotten the memo ... 'cause as superstars like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Russell Wilson and Aaron Judge said goodbye to the verify, his still has its badge.

The 4-time champ didn't get any special treatment -- his account's check says he subscribed to Twitter Blue just like everyone else who wanted to keep it.

Tom Brady, Klay Thompson, Conor McGregor and J.J. Watt are on LeBron's side -- their accounts are all subscribed to Twitter Blue as well.

There are now two teams on Twitter -- check and no check -- so, pick a side and tweet away, folks.