Viral

Business is booming for the young artist whose Kamala Harris portrait made a big splash -- he just wrapped up a special order from Janelle Monae!!!

Tyler Gordon is the Bay Area teen who wowed Kamala and the country with his portrait of the Vice President-elect ... and his reps tell us his latest work of art is a custom piece for Janelle.

We're told the singer/actress requested a portrait of herself after Tyler's Kamala painting went viral. As you can see, he painted Janelle's in black and white, but went with a green background this time -- a twist from his Kamala piece.

He hasn't delivered it to Janelle yet, and we're told he's giving her a special celeb price ... $0.

Janelle's just the latest big name to hit up Tyler ... he's also painted for Kevin Hart, Missy Elliott, Jennifer Lopez, Janet Jackson and NBA superstar Kevin Durant.

KD actually got 2 paintings from Tyler -- one for him and one for his mother -- and Janet liked hers so much, she flew him to one of her concerts and brought him on stage.

The pandemic will hit the homeless in this country harder than most, especially as the temperatures drop in the coldest parts of the country for Christmas ... because a lot of shelters are being forced to be more restrictive with their services due to COVID.

TMZ spoke with various homeless shelters in some of the coldest cities in America -- which will be covered in snow and freezing this winter, as the pandemic rages on -- and we heard a lot of the same new policies being rolled out ... no volunteers, and no services for the recently displaced. The former's a bummer, but the latter could be devastating.

• Baltimore Outreach Services: This shelter only serves women and children, and they have a population of homeless that caps off at 40. They're not accepting any volunteers for holiday food giveaways, but are accepting outside donations, food and otherwise. They're also not taking in any new homeless clients needing housing, but have a waitlist.
• Hope Street Shelter, Minneapolis: They serve homeless youths between 18-22 years of age, and while they say they will be taking new clients needing housing this holiday season -- they are also not accepting volunteers due to COVID. They're also keeping their services in-house and exclusively for the homeless population currently staying with them.

• Light of Life Rescue Mission, Pittsburgh: This is one of the rare shelters that will take in and use outside of volunteers for Christmas and other food handout events. They plan to serve around 1,000 for Christmas, and will require volunteers to wear masks and distance. Unfortunately, they're not taking in any new homeless clientele due to COVID.
• Detroit Rescue Mission: They are not accepting any new homeless people to stay in their facility, but are committed to feeding anyone who needs a meal on Christmas. Social distancing will be required, and they hope to feed as many as 50 people.

• St. Herman House, Cleveland: No outside volunteers allowed for Christmas, only in-house staff will work to distribute meals on Christmas day, while maintaining proper distancing. They expect to be able to serve up to 150 meals, all of which will be bagged this year. They're also not taking in any new clients, but will start processing new apps soon.
• Coalition for the Homeless, Washington D.C.: This shelter will not be allowing any new volunteers to help out with Christmas activities, whereas they have in the past.

A male high school student in Texas got punished for wearing nail polish on campus -- breaking the dress code -- which he's now calling discriminatory.

17-year-old Trevor Wilkinson started a Change.org petition this week after he received an in-school suspension Monday from officials at Clyde High School in West Texas. The reason ... he had painted his nails black and other colors.

When asked to remove the nail polish by the principal and vice-principal, Wilkinson refused ... and got his punishment, which he says he'll continue opting for as a form of protest.

Trevor, who is gay, said, "Imagine your school not allowing boys to paint their nails and giving boys [in school suspension] ... and the whole administration being ok with it, homophobic and sexist? Welcome to West Texas."

As for the school, their district -- Clyde Consolidated Independent School District -- spoke on its behalf with a blanket statement about the dress code policy ... without touching on Wilkinson specifically. BTW, CHS is a public school ... for what it's worth.

Anyway, CCISD says it conducts a thorough review of its dress code each year and make all students and parents well aware of it before the school year gets underway.

Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame has been repeatedly vandalized over the last few years, but the latest alteration has a double meaning.

The star is now surrounded by a steel barricade. It's also covered by a wood plank.

On the surface, it seems like someone is trying to protect the star from more vandalism. But, there's another way to look at this ... it could be a symbol of Trump's policy separating children from their parents and caging them.

It would seem this is more protection ... otherwise, why protect the star with a board?

There's obviously reason for concern. The Hollywood Historic Trust has spent thousands of dollars repairing and/or replacing Trump's star in the wake of numerous acts of vandalism, some notably committed by Otis Elevator heir James Otis, who proudly showed off his handiwork in front of the camera.

And then, there's George Lopez, who famously fake peed on the star back in 2018.

It seems the ire evoked by Trump's latest antics regarding false claims of voter fraud may have worried the Chamber ... after all, repairs don't come cheap.

Chance the Rapper is a study in redundancy ... this according to none other than Dionne Warwick, and her words sent Chance into orbit!!!

Dionne tweeted Saturday night, "If you are very obviously a rapper why did you put it in your stage name? I cannot stop thinking about this."

Solid point, Dionne. Chance flipped out, but not because of Dionne's note. He fired back, "Sorry I'm still freaking out that u know who I am. This is amazing!"

Dionne, who's a big fan of Chance and loves "Holy," responded, "Of course I know you.  You're THE rapper. Let's rap together." Our take ... THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!!!

But, Dionne wasn't done ... after calling herself "Dionne the Singer," she wondered, "The Weeknd is next. Why?  It's not even spelled correctly?"

He then responded ... "I got roasted by Dionne Warwick and I feel honored! You just made my day."

The author of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" -- the guy who said Hitler had reason to target the Jews -- was cruel to say what he said, according to the guy's own family.

Roald Dahl, a wildly successful author who also wrote "Matilda," "The BFG" and "The Witches," said during a 1983 interview, "There is a trait in the Jewish character that does provoke animosity. Maybe it's a kind of lack of generosity towards non-Jews. I mean, there's always a reason why anti-anything crops up anywhere."

And then, he said this ... "Even a stinker like Hitler didn't just pick on them for no reason."

He practiced what he preached ... Dahl's screenplay for "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" included a large-nosed child snatcher ... an anti-Semitic trope that Dahl seemed to embrace.

Although he died 30 years ago, his anti-Semitism is now making the rounds, which caused his family to issue a mea culpa.

The family said they deeply apologize "for the lasting and understandable hurt caused by some of Roald Dahl's statements. Those prejudiced remarks are incomprehensible to us and stand in marked contrast to the man we knew and to the values at the heart of Roald Dahl's stories, which have positively impacted young people for generations."

The family added, "We hope that, just as he did at his best, at his absolute worst, Roald Dahl can help remind us of the lasting impact of words."

As a COVID-19 vaccine looms, Uncle Sam wants to make sure you don't throw your money away on a bogus miracle cure -- and, as it turns out, there's a lot already out there.

It's inevitable ... criminals will peddle fake vaccines online and elsewhere. When money can be made and people are desperate, the combination is perfect for crooks.

The Food and Drug Administration has gotten ahead of snake oil salesmen who've been trying to peddle fake coronavirus-related products in recent months -- even going so far as to throw images of these junk items onto Flickr, so you can see them up close.

The FDA also says it's already issued warning letters to the vendors associated with these fraudulent medicines while keeping a watchful eye out for more, adding ... "The FDA is exercising its authority to protect consumers from firms selling unapproved products and making false or misleading claims, including, by pursuing warning letters, seizures, injunctions or criminal prosecutions against products and firms or individuals that violate the law."

As for the items themselves, boy some are ridiculous ... corn and cheese, making ya wonder how anyone could be so stupid as to buy them. Thing is ... people do.

Here's a brief list of some of the goofiest ones that caught our eye, and which the FDA flagged as phony.

-- Virus Bioshield, from a firm called "Rats Army." It's an oil-like substance, with claims it's full of vitamins, antioxidants and helpful minerals, and which "Exhibits antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal properties," "Suppresses tumor growth," "Increases vaccine effectiveness," "Protects against oxidative damage," among other things.

-- Biomagnetism Magnetic Therapy DIY Kits: FDA says this is a fraudulent product claiming to be able to prevent, treat, mitigate, diagnose or cure COVID-19. Not so!!!

-- StayWell Copper: Literally a little metal sheet that the FDA says is also claiming to be able to rid oneself of the 'rona, but they busted these guys back in May.

-- COVID-19 Cough Syrup: This one might be the silliest of all. It's a honey bear bottle emptied out and filled with some dark liquid gunk, with a crappy label slapped on the cap that reads, "COVID-19." If we must say it ... DO. NOT. BUY. THIS.

An L.A. restaurant owner is calling out Mayor Garcetti and Gov. Newsom for allowing film sets to continue operating, while once again closing down outdoor dining ... but her comparison might be apples to oranges as far as containing the virus.

This is restaurateur Angela Marsden, and she posted a video showing  a movie production in full swing -- with outdoor tables and tents set up right next door to her now-shuttered eatery, Pineapple Hill Saloon & Grill, in Sherman Oaks.

In the video, Marsden says she can't fathom why her restaurant was forced to shut down (again) -- even after she had successfully ran outdoor dining for months behind her building -- but film sets like this, which look virtually identical in set-up dining-wise, can soldier on.

The new rule -- restaurants close on-the-spot dining, while music/video production can keep rolling -- is one of many that have left Angelenos scratching their head as Mayor Garcetti has instituted a new stay-at-home order in the City, which just got expanded to all of SoCal.

In a section about activities and businesses allowed to keep operating, production in L.A. can continue -- which explains the Sherman Oaks set -- but it says clearly ... they gotta follow COVID protocols as outlined by the County.

That's where Marsden might be mistaken in her juxtaposition. Fact is ... there's a ton of rules that production companies must abide by in order to shoot, including regular testing, plus a bunch of other mandates ... mask-wearing, temp checks, social distancing, sanitized sets, etc.

The big difference is the testing, and who's allowed in or out. A movie or TV shoot can have an awful lot of people on hand (just like a restaurant) at any given time, but the dinstinction is that the set -- while it's shooting -- is treated almost like a bubble, whereas a restaurant is revolving door of strangers, who aren't required to get tested to partake.

Cover your eyes if you hate seeing dogs get hurt, because this pit bull nearly had its head gnawed off by a bear before its owner courageously jumped in to save him.

Meet Buddy -- a rescue dog -- who was viciously attacked in his own backyard by a 350-lb bear the day before Thanksgiving in the Northern California city of Grass Valley, just outside the Tahoe National Forest, and not too far from Sacramento.

According to Buddy's owner, Kaleb Bentham, he heard commotion outside that Wednesday and some growling. When he went out to check, he says he saw a massive bear dragging Buddy away by the head, with its jaws clamped down tight and Buddy squirming.

Without hesitation, Bentham says he charged the beast and actually tackled it to the ground -- going on to start wailing on its head, and hitting it in the eye ... in hopes of forcing it to loosen its grip on Buddy. Miraculously, the bold move worked ... and the bear let go.

Not only that, but it sounds like Kaleb was able to scare the animal off without suffering any harm himself. He then had to rush a seriously injured Buddy to an ER vet clinic -- as you can see ... the doggo was in incredibly bad shape, on the verge of death even.

Buddy's face was damn near skinned, his ears were torn off, his mouth had been bitten through and so had his eyes. Bentham stood by as the pooch went into surgery -- a life-saving procedure that saw Buddy receive multiple staples, stitches and tubes.

While it might look like Buddy was out for the count, the dog has made an incredible recovery since then ... with a majority of his face starting to scab, as Bentham continues to care for him. He detailed the pup's full injuries to CBS 13 in Sacramento.

Buddy's got a cone on his head, but it sounds like he's gonna be okay.

Here's the kicker ... Bentham says he's actually seen the bear roaming his yard a few different times since the attack. In his eyes, he sees it as a wild animal having had its meal literally ripped out of its mouth, and that it keeps coming back to settle the score.

Amazon's at it again ... peddling a product with a blatantly racist description that somehow slipped through the cracks -- this time taking aim at a doll's braided hair.

Check out this children's doll that's being sold on Amazon's digital marketplace right now -- it's a 14-inch figurine meant to depict a Black little girl with braids. However, the way the description points that out is more than just eyebrow-raising, to say the least.

It reads, "Doli Yearning 14-inch Adorable Black Doll with Casual Red Skirt and Colored Dirty Braid Fashion Gorgeous Doll for Ages 3+ Interactive Playtime BPA Free Safety Product Well-Designed Collectable Box." In case you missed that ... "colored dirty braid fashion."

What the hell does that mean, you may ask? Welp, apparently this company -- Doli Yearning -- thinks braided hair is dirty, and they feel the need to qualify it as "colored." BTW ... Doli Yearning is a Chinese company -- looks like they've been on Amazon less than a year.

Doli Yearning's also got other dolls just like this one -- except several of the others depict white girls, and there's no mention of their skin color or their hair at all. Take, for instance, this doll that's got blonde hair rolled up in buns.

The description here reads ... "Doli Yearning 14-inch Adorable Doll with Denim Suit and Colored Headbands Fashion Gorgeous Doll for Ages 3+ Interactive Playtime BPA Free Safety Product Well-Designed Collectable Box." Same deal for their other "white" dolls.

So what do we make of all this??? It's the same issue we've seen time and again with Amazon and their filtering process for product descriptions -- or a lack thereof. There just doesn't seem to be great oversight on this.

Granted, Amazon partners with virtually millions of merchandisers and retailers, and might argue they can't comb through every single one to weed out these awful descriptions -- but the counterpoint to that is ... Jeff Bezos is insanely rich, and he absolutely can.

Let's get it together, yeah?

The man who busted into a woman's home while she was recording on her TikTok is now in custody of immigration officials ... TMZ has learned.

The suspect, Angel Moises Rodriguez-Gomez, was hauled off by ICE agents from the Baltimore Field Office, and authorities let Hannah Viverette know her intruder was back in custody Thursday ... Hagerstown PD tells TMZ.

As we reported ... Rodriguez-Gomez was hit with 2 counts of burglary, second-degree assault, stalking and malicious destruction of property, but he bailed out of jail after his arrest and currently lives in the woman's building.

Hannah told us she's frightened to live in the same housing complex as Rodriguez-Gomez and is desperate to find a new home. Fortunately, the company managing her building tells us she can break her lease with no penalties.

She can also rest a little easier knowing the guy's in ICE custody and not roaming free, but it's not clear if he's getting deported.

Justin Bieber is slamming a Selena Gomez fan as a "sad excuse of a human" after she shamelessly called on other SG fans to bully his wife, Hailey.

The Biebs actually put the woman on blast, reposting a snippet of the so-called Selena Gomez fan begging people "to f***ing bombard" Hailey's Instagram Live comments section and bully her by saying "Selena is better" and "Go after her, please. Let's all go after her."

JB didn't let it slide, saying ... "This sad excuse of a human just encouraged people on video to literally go after my wife telling people to say that my previous relationship was better so on and so [forth]. I just wanted to share this so people get an idea of what we face on a day to day."

The singer also made a dig at the woman saying, "After watching that I could easily let it steal my joy, but then I think about her life and how miserable she must be to want to spend her life trying to make others feel small."

On the one hand, ya gotta admire Justin going all out to defend his wife, but on the other -- he did just give a troll the biggest platform she's ever had, and she's probably thrilled about it. It's a double-edged sword for the Biebers.

Hailey added her own feelings, saying ... "I would never in a million years wish for someone to be treated this way and I will never condone this kind of hateful behavior."

The founder of Luminar Technologies -- a potential major player in self-driving cars -- is snatching the crown Kylie Jenner once wore ... now that he's the world's youngest self-made billionaire.

Austin Russell's only 25, but he's worth a whopping $2.4 BILLION after his company's stock market debut Thursday ... which saw its share price soar to $22.98, giving the company a market value of about $7.8 billion.

Russell owns about a third of that, so do the math ... and yeah, the dude's balling. Forbes dubbed him the world's youngest self-made billionaire, and his wealth is expected to climb even more Friday along with Luminar's stock price.

As you'll recall, Forbes had previously given Kylie that title in August 2018, but earlier this year -- after some forensic accounting -- determined she actually came up about $100 mil short.

Of course, Kylie's "self-made" status was also called into question, but that doesn't seem to be the case for Russell ... who dropped out of college in 2012 to start Luminar.

AR's company's pretty cool ... it makes a device called lidar scanners that use lasers to give autonomous cars a 3-D view of the road and surroundings. The company's already struck deals with Volvo, Daimler Truck and Intel’s autonomous vehicle unit ... and is projected to start raking in billions annually.

Sasha Obama already comes from a very influential family, but if she ever decides to break out on her own as an influencer ... the sky's the limit.

That's what the CEOs of 2 leading influencer-marketing agencies believe anyway, telling TMZ the former first daughter could amass 1-2 million followers on TikTok in her first week ... if not her first day.

Joe Gagliese of Viral Nation tells us, Sasha would be an overnight success story if she joined the popular social platform ... and could reach 10 million followers in a year easily if she posted content consistently.

He also says he could see her making $5-8 MILLION per year -- just off endorsements -- if she signed on with his agency, but they haven't tried to recruit her ... yet.

Joe says they'd be stupid not to try to get her as a client though, because she presents herself in a very "brand-friendly" and classy way ... which he says leads to better business deals. To top it off ... Gagliese believes the youngest Obama clearly has a lot of talent.

Likewise, Mae Karwowski of Obviously tells us, Sasha could rake in a few mil a year with the right brand deals, and she'd be able to charge top-dollar -- six figures immediately -- for pretty much any brand of her choosing.

Mae says Sasha has a cool, mysterious cache because she's kept such a low profile ... so she thinks there's a lot of pent-up interest in her that would result in high demand if she gets on TikTok.

As we reported ... Sasha's not on TikTok yet, but sent the internet into a tizzy this week just by appearing in one with her college friends.

Karwowski points out Sasha may not be ready for attention like that, or even want to seek out the limelight that comes with being an influencer ... it's her call to make.

Hannah Viverette -- the woman whose TikTok recording captured the moment a man allegedly busted into her home -- says she's now stuck between a rock and a very scary hard place due to the ordeal.

Hannah tells us the man who was arrested for stalking after entering her apartment Sunday night still lives in her building. He bailed out of jail after his arrest, and she says his eviction date is still a couple weeks away.

Hannah says she's frightened to live there and has been staying in a safe place since the incident -- but she's desperate to move out for good and find a new permanent home.

Problem is, she claims her apartment complex in Maryland won't allow her to break her lease -- and says she's already dealing with enough hardship as a single mom who lost her job due to the pandemic.

Her attorney, Symone Redwine, tells us she believes what happened to Hannah is grounds for her to immediately terminate her lease without penalty ... and she's talking to the complex to try to make that happen.

As we reported ... Angel Moises Rodriguez-Gomez was charged with 2 counts of burglary, second-degree assault, stalking and malicious destruction of property.

Hannah tells us she also filed for a restraining order a few days after the incident because she was told it would help expedite the process of him getting kicked out of the building. She says his eviction date, as of now, isn't until mid-December.

We reached out to the housing complex, but no word back so far.

Gotta hate humans who pollute our oceans and harm animals ... but also gotta love humans who save animals from harm ... like this jet skier who came to this poor dolphin's rescue.

A guy crusin' on his jet ski off Biscayne Bay, FL happened upon a dolphin in serious distress. The video starts with the jet skier, Nick Tuduri, noticing the dolphin flailing in the waters ... before noticing the dolphin's tail is caught in a net.

It doesn't take long for Nick to jump into action ... using a knife to free the dolphin's tail from the thick rope. The rope was so thick ... Nick spent 3 solid minutes trying to cut it. He's eventually successful ... and the dolphin swims away, hopefully pain-free.

As if this feel-good story couldn't get any better ... a pod of dolphins can be seen swimming beside Nick. They say dolphins are extremely smart animals ... so one can only guess the dolphins were saying, "Thanks, brah!!!"