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Lil Yachty's posted up with Kanye West inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, and from the look of things, Yachty's vibing on "Donda" ... while Ye's morphing into a supervillain.

The "Hit Bout It" rapper paid Kanye a visit at his makeshift ATL home ahead of the second "Donda" listening party set to go down Thursday evening -- and Kanye was wearing his usual full head cover, plus a jacket covered in giant spikes!

Seriously, looks like something from the "Suicide Squad" wardrobe.

Yachty's the latest rapper to visit him inside his quarters at the home of the Atlanta Falcons. Chance The Rapper and Vic Mensa have also popped in to see Kanye.

Apple's launched a stream for viewers to "Watch Kanye finishing Donda in Atlanta," but it's intentionally muted the entire time ... which is why you can't hear any sound coming from the video Yachty posted.

As we reported ... Kanye and co. had been trying to figure out how to make this experience different from the first, which as we first reported, broke the Apple Music Global Livestream record with 3.3 million viewers.

Barack Obama nixing his epic 60th birthday bash at the last minute is creating a potential nightmare for many out-of-town guests ... who might lose out on major dough.

We did some digging around Martha's Vineyard -- where the shindig was supposed to go down -- and as it turns out, a bunch of hotels in the area are not issuing refunds for ObamaFest guests who had rooms booked this weekend.

The reason, we've learned, is many of these hotels have strict cancelation policies -- especially at the Winnetu Oceanside Resort -- where you had to have canceled by February 1st to get any money back!!! 😩

A few of these places -- like The Charlotte Inn and the Vineyard Square Hotel have a 30-day cancelation rule ... so those guests are outta luck too.

Ditto for a hotel called Hob Knob (which can run $800/night), but they'll credit you for a future stay if you cancel within 72 hours. Now, a few ... like the Harbor View ($1,300/night) will let you off clean without fees within a 72-hour cancelation window.

The problem is some of Obama's party crew were arriving Thursday ... so the Wednesday morning change of plans -- due to the Delta variant COVID-19 surge -- left them out in the cold.

Not everyone's screwed though -- we did find a small number of lenient/reasonable hotels that allow cancelations within 48, or even 24 hours.

We know what you're thinking ... why wouldn't these places all be reasonable, considering the circumstances? It's all about timing -- our MV sources reminded us this is the busiest time of year there, so hoteliers don't tend to give up summer revenue.

Hotels aside, ObamaFest is also causing a bit of a worker shortage! The event -- originally planned for roughly 500 guests, and the talk of MV since late May -- was reportedly going to employ upwards of 200 locals.

People in the know on the island say that left other MV businesses short-handed. Also, we're told cab/rental car companies have been slammed and completely booked in anticipation of the party.

"Jeopardy!" has finally settled on a new permanent host to take over for the late Alex Trebek ... and no, it's not Aaron Rodgers, it's not LeVar Burton, and it's not Anderson Cooper.

Executive producer Mike Richards is expected to take the reins of the famous game show that was hosted by Trebek for 36 years ... according to Variety. Richards is reportedly in advanced negotiations with Sony Pictures Television to become the host of "Jeopardy!" and launch a new era.

It's super interesting ... the entire season was all about big celebs vying for the dream job ... Mayim Bialik, Katie Couric, George Stephanopoulos and more. But, in the end, they went in-house. It's not like Mike Richards chose himself -- Sony bigwigs did that. But, well, interesting.

Fact is ... Richards guest-hosted the show in February and crushed it. He's hosted game shows before ... "Divided" and "The Pyramid" for Sony Pictures’ GSN cabler. He's also produced more than 4,000 hours of game shows.

Justin Bieber is apologizing for plugging Morgan Wallen's album -- saying he didn't know about Morgan's n-word scandal, but now that he does ... he admits it's bringing back bad memories for him.

The controversy started Wednesday morning when Justin posted an Instagram story saying he loved Morgan's "Dangerous" album, a post that was quickly deleted ... presumably after he got some backlash, and some knowledge about Morgan's incident.

Justin's been explaining himself ever since ... claiming he had no clue about Wallen's n-word scandal, saying he doesn't support or tolerate racism or discrimination and apologizing to anyone he may have offended by initially supporting Morgan's record.

As you know by now, Morgan was caught on video saying the n-word back in January after a night out in Nashville with friends.

Once Justin heard about that, it immediately reminded him of his own infamous, on camera, use of the n-word when he was 14. He substituted the epithet in one of his early hits, singing ... "There'll be one less lonely n***er."

Selena Gomez thinks she's the butt of a couple jokes on "The Good Fight" ... but production tells us she's got the wrong idea about the kidney transplant jabs.

Selena and her fans were upset about a couple wisecracks in a scene from the CBS drama ... where characters are discussing what kinds of jokes are NOT kosher ... but we're told the joke is going over everyone's head, though Selena's camp disagrees.

A production source tells TMZ … the Selena reference is part of a discussion the characters are having about topics that are not okay to make fun of and the idea of cancel culture and being canceled for telling a bad joke, and it's decided Selena's transplant isn't something to wisecrack about.

The clip started making the rounds on social media this week and folks got "RESPECT SELENA GOMEZ" trending for a bit, with Selena chiming in and calling the scene "tasteless."

Despite what production says, Selena's not buying it.

Sources close to the singer tell us ... context or not, the way the show wrote and delivered the scene was inappropriate and people around Selena still feel like the scene is being used as a joke not as an educational moment

Selena's dealt with this sort of thing before ... as we reported, the kidney jokes were flying in the 'Saved By The Bell' reboot and the show removed them after tons of backlash.

The man who got duct taped to his seat aboard a Frontier plane was incoherently rambling and yelling shortly before he got his trap shut for him ... and it's truly a sight to see.

TMZ has obtained new video showing a different angle of Max Berry getting restrained on his weekend flight from Philly to Miami ... and it captures much of what was happening right before a male flight attendant wrapped him up in tape, and the moments thereafter.

Watch ... after several minutes of Berry ranting, the attendant walks up and then a scuffle breaks out. Not too long after, you see Berry taped to his seat and going on a tirade about what this means big picture. To him, it signaled war was imminent ... although he couldn't seem to articulate why. Between all the cussing/shouting (and slurring of his words, perhaps) it sounds like pure nonsense.

Another weird moment ... Berry mentions that he's white and that there's nothing he can do about that. We're told he was speaking to a Black passenger at the time.

Like we said, one of the crew members eventually comes up behind him and wraps up his blowhole with a crap ton of tape, and the rest of the cabin cheers. And yet, Berry seemed able to get out of that too and continue ranting.

As we reported ... the guy was arrested on several charges over this incident.

The police report, obtained by TMZ, says witnesses claimed Berry had had 2 alcoholic drinks prior to his meltdown, and upon receiving (and spilling) a 3rd, things spiraled into what you see here. BTW, an eyewitness tells us they allegedly saw Berry drinking even before the flight.

He also allegedly grazed the backside of one flight attendant, and was accused of groping another one's breasts. He's facing multiple counts of battery, and was released after posting $4,500 bail.

The Texas cop who mounted a Black teen didn't just get too close for comfort for the family, but perhaps too close for the CDC as well ... because the guy allegedly had COVID that day.

Nekia Trigg's family attorney, Kim T. Cole, tells TMZ ... the Kaufman County Sheriff's Office just got ahold of them to let both Nekia and her mother, Antanique Ray, know that Deputy Conner Martin had tested positive for the virus at the time of the altercation.

Cole says Antanique tested negative Monday, but they're still waiting on results for Nekia ... who just went in for a test herself on Tuesday.

Still, despite testing negative ... we're told Antanique lost 5 days of work because she quarantined until she got her test results back ... she's out a week's worth of income.

The KCSO declined to comment on Martin's condition.

It's just the latest setback for Nekia and co. -- remember, they had to essentially flee their home because of mounting death threats they say they'd been receiving in the wake of the dustup. Not just that, but Antanique still has criminal charges to deal with over the incident.

A few flight attendants are temporarily relieved of duty after their bosses at Frontier Airlines deemed that duct taping an unruly passenger to his seat might have crossed a line.

Check out this insane video that was captured Saturday on a Frontier flight from Philly to Miami ... in which a young guy is seen losing it on passengers, yelling at them that his parents are worth $2 mil and other bizarre ramblings. He's cussing out the flight attendants as well, who were trying to calm him down.

Eventually, he gets into a scuffle with a male flight attendant ... and he's finally restrained to a seat with a ton of duct tape. The rest of the passengers were cheering his detainment.

As for what exactly led up to all this ... the guy's name is Max Berry, and he reportedly emerged from the lavatory shirtless after he'd spilled a drink on himself. As some attendants helped him get a new shirt from his bag, he allegedly went around groping some female attendants' breasts, and things escalated to where the clip starts.

He was arrested and booked on several charges upon landing, but Frontier says it also suspended some of the flight crew in question as an investigation gets underway.

This isn't the first time we've seen passengers held down in this way -- it happened earlier this year on an American Airlines flight where a woman appeared to be having a breakdown.

Venice Beach is looking like a war zone -- this footage shows police officers armed with assault rifles detaining a group of homeless people, but cops say the tense incident was misrepresented on social media.

The video does seem rather menacing -- the heavily-armed LAPD officers were questioning 5 homeless people sitting on their knees in front of a makeshift encampment, with their hands in the air.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... this happened in the afternoon of July 25, when police got a call reporting a man brandishing a gun and threatening someone.

We're told police found a BB gun in the area, but no one was arrested because cops could not find a victim. Our sources say it's routine for cops to respond with heavy firepower when they get a call about a person armed with a gun.

Someone had tweeted the video and said the cops were evicting the homeless at gunpoint ... which sparked, understandable, outrage. However, we're told none of the people in the video were removed.

The Black teen who was mounted by a white cop in Texas has evacuated her home -- along with the rest of her family -- following death threats over the viral video.

18-year-old Nekia Trigg is the woman in the troubling video, and her mother, Antanique Ray, and a few other family members have left their Forney, TX home ... fearing retaliation from local citizens and even law enforcement ... according to Nekia's attorney, Kim T. Cole.

Cole says a slew of the death threats were made via social media, including direct messages telling the family they got what they deserved during the incident with police. Cole advised the family to lay off social media while everything unfolds -- she's expecting the threats to increase.

We're told Antanique got arrested for an alleged altercation with cops as they escorted Nekia away in cuffs, but the day after she and the family packed their bags and went to an undisclosed location.

As for why the family fears law enforcement will retaliate ... we're told they have a general fear of the Kaufman County Sheriff's deputies after prior experiences close family friends have had with them.

We're told Nekia, who just graduated from HS, is worried about her mother facing jail time and fears she may have no place to live if Antanique has to serve time behind bars.

Cole says she plans to file a civil rights lawsuit on Nekia's behalf against Kaufman County and Deputy Conner Martin ... who literally straddled her and held her arms down above her head as she screamed saying she couldn't breathe.

A dog sitter screwed up in a big way ... the dog she was caring for was killed, and the owners are crushed and don't believe the woman's story on what really happened.

Ashley Dingess and Nick Roa shared a Chihuahua/Yorkie mix named Gizmo ... they were going to Disneyland over the weekend and booked a dog sitter through Rover ... an app that pairs dog owners with dog sitters.

It went south fast ... Ashley and Nick say the sitter told them the dog ran away, which they say is B.S. because Gizmo is up there in years and had surgery recently on a bum leg, so she couldn't run fast.

The sitter finally fessed up and said she was running errands and the dog somehow escaped ... she may have jumped out the car window, but that's a hard one for Ashley and Nick to swallow. They just don't know and they say the dog sitter has been sketchy from the jump.

Gizmo ended up getting hit by a car and killed at the onramp of a nearby freeway -- and Ashley and Nick were notified of this by a Good Samaritan. Of course, they're devastated and furious ... and contacted Rover to complain.

We're told the company was apologetic and told them to submit their grievances in writing. In the meantime, they say Rover offered them $500 to cover cremations costs ... but to them, that's simply not enough to right this wrong. This is bigger than just money.

Ashley and Nick tell us they want this to serve as a cautionary tale for other pet owners looking to use Rover's services. Unclear if they're planning to take legal action.

A Rover rep tells us. "Our Trust and Safety team is investigating the incident and we are prepared to take appropriate actions, including removing the pet care provider from our community. Pending the outcome of the investigation, we've paused their account on our platform."

Britney Spears desperately wanted to say "Aloha" to a curly-tailed cutie she spotted on her tropical vacay -- and she excitedly did just that when the opportunity presented itself.

The singer was spotted practically jumping for joy Sunday when she came across a potbellied pig in Hawaii ... where she and her BF, Sam Asghari, have returned for vacation again.

With all her recent conservatorship drama playing out in court, it's been a while since we've seen Brit looking so genuinely giddy as she does here. She completely freaked when she saw someone's pet pig out for a walk on Maui.

Britney bent down to pet and stroke the little guy. Apparently, she's gotten the word ... domesticated pigs are super smart, and make a nice alternative to cats and dogs.

The assistant manager caught on camera calling a Wendy's staffer a "bitch" is now out of a job ... TMZ's learned he got the ax.

So, here's the deal ... Sophia Cargill, who says she's a general manager in training, recorded an assistant manager named Michael going on a tirade -- calling her a bitch and "f***ing lazy" -- after the fast-food joint in Kalamazoo, Michigan had closed for the day.

She shared the video on TikTok, which was then re-posted by D.L. Hughley ... generating nearly 1 million views. In the video, you can see Michael shout the word before Sophia tells him she got him on video, and that it would be the end of the road for him. He defiantly fired back, "No it's not."

Michael also told Sophia he had the right to disrespect her, and yelled she doesn't have permission to record him. Sophia claims Michael had been screaming at her for 5 minutes straight after going on a "power trip."

The incident unfolded nearly 2 weeks ago. Sophia says in a separate TikTok she got suspended without pay, but Michael did not get suspended. A spokesperson for the burger joint tells TMZ ... Michael has now been fired and Sophia was reinstated with back pay.

The spokesperson added, "We have no tolerance for harassment in the workplace. Upon learning of this situation, we acted immediately following our protocols and suspended those involved to run a thorough investigation."

Lollapalooza wasn't just a breeding ground for COVID this weekend -- it also led to some serious violence ... as seen in this brutal video of a festival ticket sale gone wrong.

The scuffle broke out Sunday just outside the Congress Plaza Hotel & Convention Center in Chicago ... literally across the street from Grant Park, where the multi-day music festival was being held outdoors.

In the clip, you can see 3 men tussling in front of a glass window ... which ended up getting shattered when at least one dude got shoved through it.

You see him cry out in pain and then try and drag himself away from the chaos. According to Chicago PD, this was all over one guy selling "bad wristbands" for Lolla to a group of 2 men and 2 women. The dispute between the 3 men ended with the shattered glass and all 3 getting hospitalized for various cuts on their heads, legs and arms.

Cops are investigating, but no one's been arrested yet.

This incident aside, the bigger danger for festival-goers this weekend appears to have been COVID-19 ... in particular, the Delta variant, which is starting to run rampant across the U.S.

CDC officials say it is infecting a helluva lot of people at alarming rates once again. The fact that Lollapalooza was packed to the gills, with a sea of people who were mostly unmasked, probably won't help.

Even those who are vaccinated aren't safe against Delta -- not entirely, anyway. Those people are getting infected just as much as unvaccinated people, but the shot does help mitigate symptoms ... and usually prevents the patient from needing hospitalization.

A notable case in point for this new surge and who's catching it lies in Provincetown, MA -- which is experiencing a major outbreak of Delta. The town was key in the CDC issuing new indoor mask guidance recently ... as positive cases among the vaccinated there were found to be in step with those who hadn't gotten inoculated yet.

So, everyone's at risk again, it seems ... granted, to varying levels.

Still, it's pretty crazy ... Provincetown is a left-leaning city that usually plays by the rules for this type of thing -- and despite that, they're still catching COVID like crazy.

Here's another installment of Paul Rudd Is Benjamin Button -- because the older he gets, the younger he looks ... at least that's what a new viral photo of him suggests on its face.

The veteran comedy actor posed for a new snap this weekend that was posted by the owner of an Indian restaurant in London called Darjeeling Express ... a place he's apparently stopped into before, and brought a pal with him this time around -- Mr. Dan Levy.

Paul's filming the new 'Ant-Man' installment there -- Dan appears to just be in town.

Anyway, the restaurant (and its owner, Asma Khan) posted a sweet photo of Paul and Dan breaking bread in their establishment Saturday, and even though they seem to have hosted PR before ... they were still starstruck, writing in their caption ... "When Paul Rudd returns for dinner to the restaurant and this time brings the lovely @instadanjlevy with him! ♥️❤️."

The photo has since gotten Paul and Dan trending -- with the former being compared to an ageless angel ... because he seriously looks young in this specific pic (Paul's 52, BTW).

They threw up a second shot of Dan on his own, and said they were glad he dug the grub. Still, it's the duo photo of the two of them at the table that's got people chirping.

As you might imagine, the jokes were flying online ... with folks saying they've aged more in the pandemic than Paul has in the last 5 years -- and that may well be true, 'cause he doesn't seem to have a wrinkle or a crack on his face ... well, at least in lighting like this.

Another photo Darjeeling posted mere weeks ago -- from Paul's initial visit, apparently -- paints a somewhat different picture. It's way more well-lit ... and, yes, Paul certainly looks older here. Still great for his age and all -- but it's almost like he went back in time for this weekend's photo-op ... it feels like 2 different people showed up over the course of 2 weeks.

Matt Damon says he just recently stopped using the homophobic f-word slur -- this after his own daughter had to put him in check ... with a detailed thesis of sorts on why it's bad.

The actor did a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Times that was published Sunday, and among the many topics discussed on how the Hollywood landscape is changing (for the worse, Matt seems to think) ... this one was brought up in the same breath.

He says he put the f-word away for good in recent months, explaining he didn't think of it much as a slur when he was growing up, adding ... "The word that my daughter calls the 'f-slur for a homosexual' was commonly used when I was a kid, with a different application."

He goes on to say that he made a joke using the word in front of one of his 3 daughters, -- who range in age between 10 and 15 -- and they actually protested his usage of it.

Matt says, "She left the table. I said, 'Come on, that's a joke! I say it in the movie Stuck on You!' She went to her room and wrote a very long, beautiful treatise on how that word is dangerous. I said, 'I retire the f-slur!' I understood."

The scene Damon is referring to happens toward the end of the raunchy 2003 comedy -- in which he and Greg Kinnear play bros who are joined at the hip, literally. The word comes up in its shortened form as a musical montage starts to play after they've been separated.

There's a lot more in Damon's ST interview -- including a hot take that anyone, really, with wit could've played Iron Man ... not just RDJ. That's a whole other can of worms, though.