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An incredibly rare baseball signed by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky just sold at auction ... and a portion of the proceeds are going to a relief fund for the country.

The winning bid for the autographed baseball came in at $50,103 ... according to Boston-based RR Auction, which will be donating their cut of more than $15k to relief efforts in Zelensky's war-torn country.

The sale price is higher than expected ... remember, the ball was projected to go for $15k, and now that's the figure that's being donated.

Zelensky signed his last name on the baseball in two different languages ... Ukrainian cursive and English print ... with his signature underneath an MLB logo.

The ball comes with a letter signed by Volodymyr Yelchenko, Ukraine's Ambassador to the United Nations in September 2019, when Zelensky left his John Hancock during a visit to New York.

Randy L. Kaplan, a government affairs specialist in the Big Apple, got the ball as a gift from Yelchenko ... and he's been collecting signed Major League baseballs from world leaders and heads of state dating all the way back to 1996 with Bill Clinton.

We're told there were 35 bids entered and the buyer wishes to remain anonymous.

When it comes to the fight over abortion, imagery is all-important, and protesters took that to heart Wednesday night when they wore 'Handmaid's Tale' costumes and took it to the home of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

A small group of pro-choice demonstrators made their way to Falls Church, Virginia to make their feelings known about the SCOTUS draft opinion that would squarely overturn Roe v. Wade.

One of the protesters made a point of distinguishing ACB's choice to give birth to 5 kids from other women, claiming her devout Catholicism skewed the way she looks at the law, saying, "Not everybody wants to have 5 kids, or 4 kids or 1 kid."

There have been other protests at the homes of justices. Demonstrators showed up earlier this week at the homes of Justices Kavanaugh and Alito, as well as Chief Justice Roberts.

It's unclear if the draft opinion -- which has the sign-on of 5 justices -- will be the one that becomes the decision of record, but there's evidence it indeed will be. There has not been a subsequent draft circulated among the justices since the February draft -- this according to Politico -- and that is a strong indication the February draft may be close to the final version.

Sylvester Stallone created monuments to the movie that made him a star, so we thought he'd take them with him when he sold his estate to Adele, but turns out that's not the case.

Adele is now the proud owner of a Rocky statue perched at the base of her new swimming pool.

TMZ broke the story ... Sly sold Adele the estate for $58 million. He's moved to Palm Beach, so you'd think Rocky would follow.

Now, we don't know if the Rocky statue inside the main house is still there, or if Sly took it with him. Put in real estate terms, is the statue more like art or an appliance? The former usually goes with the seller, whereas the latter stays behind.

Adele and BF Rich Paul posed in the front of the house as they both held the keys to their new kingdom. Speaking of which ... interesting Rich has a set of keys. The relationship's clearly serious.

This is incredible ... a black hole smack in the middle of our Milky Way galaxy that is 4.3 MILLION times the mass of the sun!!!

The image was captured by The Event Horizon Telescope Group. Now get this -- it's located 27,000 light-years from planet Earth. Put another way ... as enormous as this hole is ... when you look up in the sky with a naked eye, it looks about as big as a donut on the moon. Wrap your head around that!!!

The hole is at the center of our galaxy and near the constellation Sagittarius. It is, indeed, supermassive. You want your mind blown again ... its mass is equal to 4 million suns!!!

It's being described as "the glue that holds the galaxy together."  As for how black holes are created ... it's when a gravitational pull is so intense nothing -- even light -- can escape.

This image was released days after NASA showed off super clear images of stars ... courtesy of the James Webb Space Telescope.

The $10 billion telescope is just beginning its work, which should unlock some of the mysteries of our universe.

"Selling Sunset" star Chrishell Stause and her new partner G Flip are wasting no time in showing the world just how much they like swapping spit ... making out nonstop in the artist's new music video.

G Flip dropped the raunchy video for "GET ME OUTTA HERE" Thursday, and Stause is the project's main star. In the vid, Chrishell straddles G Flip while they make out, other times they stand and make out, they even make out in a convenience store -- there's a lot of making out.

Dressed in a tight black leather dress, Chrishell is sexy and smiling throughout the vid -- which was shot in L.A.

It was during last week's "Selling Sunset" reunion when Stause revealed, "I recently have been spending a lot of time with someone that's very important to me. Their name is G Flip. They're nonbinary, so they go by they/them. And, they're an extremely talented musician."

When you throw an event called "Mayhem at Lake George" ... well, you gotta expect some mayhem and this year's get-together was true to its name.

Video has surfaced from the event in Volusia County, Florida, in which a massive fight breaks out ... aquatic style.

It got really bad ... one guy was seriously injured. He was taken to shore and flown to a hospital. We don't know his condition.

No surprise ... alcohol was involved, and apparently lots of it. The Sheriff said, “People are just out there to have a good time, but like anything else, when you have a huge concentration of people like this and you have alcohol involved, you do have some incidents."

It's pretty wild ... you see a guy punch another dude in the face and another guy is tackled into the water ... before things erupt into pure chaos.

There were arrests ... 5 of them. The offenses were predictable ... disorderly conduct and boating under the influence. There were also nearly 40 boating citations.

Casey White is a man back in custody, and by the looks of his latest mug shot, reality is setting back in ... and life is miserable.

White was transferred Wednesday back into the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections, and as standard process, had to pose for a new mug shot. He'll now call the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility home.

As for his appearance -- White looks like a man without hope -- a swollen face and markings on his cheek.

Casey and his accomplice, former prison guard Vicky White were captured Monday in Evansville, Indiana after 11 days on the run. Their final attempt to flee was a dramatic one, cops found them at a local motel and a car chase followed.

In the end, their vehicle was rammed, flipped and Vicky took things into her own hands -- shooting herself in the head -- and eventually dying from her injuries.

911 audio from inside Vicky and Casey's vehicle revealed Vicky urged Casey to run, but when it was apparent that wasn't going to work, she began to get pissed at him, blaming him for deciding the couple should stay at some "f*****g motel" instead of running.

Madonna's got trees, plants and even bugs crawling out of her private parts in a recent release of digital NFTs ... and while the project has been hit with a ton of criticism, the singer says it's all in the name of art.

Madonna teamed up with artist Beeple for the collection -- depicting a 3D-cartoon version of herself -- and various things, including centipedes and flowers blooming out of her vagina.

The singer says, "I think it's really important that people know that a lot of thought and conversation went into creating these videos."

She further defended the NFT collection by saying she's simply doing what women have done for thousands of years -- give birth -- she's just doing it to nature and art ... and if people don't understand that, so be it.

The project comes just a couple weeks after Madonna posted a series of raunchy photos on Instagram, grabbing her crotch and posing in fishnet leggings.

LeBron James' Lakers took plenty of Ls in the last 12 months ... but The King's bank account certainly didn't -- because the L.A. superstar raked in a reported $121 MILLION this past year!!

Forbes just released its annual "top-10 highest-paid athletes in the world" list ... and LBJ came in second place, just behind Lionel Messi, who the outlet reports garnered around $130 million.

Forbes says LBJ's cash flow was obviously inflated by his huge Lakers contract -- but his ventures with the new 'Space Jam' flick, his "The Shop: Uninterrupted" talk show, and other endorsement deals pushed him over the $100 million mark, which is quite the feat.

According to the outlet, James is only the 10th athlete ever to earn more than $100 mil in a 12-month span ... and his $121,000,000 figure marks the most ever earned by an NBA player in a year (he previously held the record with $96.5 mil).

Outside of Messi and Bron -- a whole bunch of soccer players and basketball players rounded out the top 10, with Cristiano Ronaldo (#3, $115 million), Neymar (#4, $95 million), Stephen Curry (#5, $92.8 million), Kevin Durant (#6, $92.1 million) and Giannis Antetokounmpo (#10, $80.9 million) making the cut.

The others in the top 10 ... Roger Federer (#7, $90.7 million), Canelo Alvarez (#8, $90 million), and Tom Brady (#9, $83.9 million).

What's interesting ... Conor McGregor for the first time in a long time didn't crack the top 10 -- but don't fret, Forbes says he was close, landing somewhere in the top 50.

As for the 10 dudes at the top of the heap ... Forbes says in total, they all earned a combined $992 million in the last year.

A new popular Snapchat filter depicts users as a crying, blubbering mess -- leading the Internet to believe it might be inspired by Amber Heard ... a theory that's total BS.

If you use the ghost app regularly, you've probably seen this feature by now -- it's an augmented reality lens you can throw onto your mug, changing your facial expression to one that's hilariously sad and emotive ... and it's got the kids hooked, as lots of these videos have now gone viral.

While it might be a hit ... it's also become the cause of a new rumor/joke -- namely, that the Snapchat heads must've used Amber's crying last week on the stand as the blueprint here.

Despite the rampant speculation, we're here to tell you otherwise ... a spokesperson for Snap tells TMZ there's simply no truth whatsoever, that the lens is inspired by Amber Heard and if you think about this logistically -- it just doesn't add up.

We're told that this specific filter -- which just dropped Friday -- has been in the works for 6 months ... so it was being developed well before Amber ever offered her tearful testimony. More importantly, Snapchat tells us they'd never play coy with a DV case.

Another tell that this has nothing to do with Amber ... the fact Snap dropped a filter that does the exact opposite not too long ago (big smiley face), so naturally -- sad face would follow.

Like we said, the crying face filter is all the rage since its debut last week -- it's already amassed upwards of 1.3 billion impressions on Snapchat, we're told -- and it was especially used in NFL circles, where some of the league's biggest stars were having fun shedding fake tears for their followers and friends ... and to be honest, it's pretty freakin' funny.

Kanye West isn't confident Kim Kardashian can continue to be one of the leading figures in fashion -- at least not without his help -- as she explains in a new episode of the family's Hulu show.

Thursday's "The Kardashians" gives fans a look back at Kim's appearance at the WSJ's 2021 Innovator Awards, where Kim was honored. It happened back in November, but what many didn't realize -- it was the first time in a LONG time Kim styled herself without Kanye's help.

According to Kim, Kanye wasn't impressed with her choice -- a brown, form-fitting leather dress -- saying she looked like Marge Simpson and that her career was "over."

Leading up to the event, Kim revealed she was nervous about her upcoming choices, so safe to say Kanye's alleged criticism didn't help.

Not only that, Kim also talked about something Kanye made very clear -- he was pissed about her 'SNL' monologue -- especially the fact she said she "divorced" him. At the time, Ye hadn't signed the divorce docs, so he felt it was wrong she said things were over.

Ciara and Russell Wilson welcomed a new puppy to the family for Mother's Day, but PETA's taking them to task for buying the pup from a breeder, and not rescuing a pooch from a shelter instead.

PETA believes it's clear -- the couple's new dog, Bronco, is a purebred puppy -- and likely from a breeder where "mother dogs are often locked inside filthy cages and bred over and over until their bodies give out."

The animal rescue org also uses some Ciara song references in calling out Russ, telling us the QB made a "One, Two Step mistake by killing a shelter dog's chances of finding a home."

They continue, "PETA is calling on the couple to Level Up on kindness by adopting a companion for this pup instead of fueling the homeless-animal crisis."

As we've told you, Ci and Russ revealed they welcomed their new doggy to the fam over Mother's Day weekend, naming her Bronco after Russ' new team in Denver. Ciara called the puppy, "the sweetest surprise."

Sarah Silverman has a fascinating take on whether Trump should be allowed back on Twitter -- and it all has to do with what George Washington and co. could or couldn't predict.

We ran into the comedian Wednesday in NYC and asked what she made of Elon Musk essentially saying he's going to bring the ex-Prez back onto the bird app -- once his mega $44-billion deal closes, that is -- and she had a very nuanced answer that's worth hearing.

Check it out ... she says her feelings on this have evolved -- first, it was relief that DT got the boot after Jan. 6 ... but then she started thinking about what free speech is supposed to mean philosophically -- namely, tolerating abhorrent speech you don't agree with.

Sarah seems to have thought maybe Trump should've actually been allowed to stay in light of that -- but upon further reflection ... she suggests banning him might've been best.

Her argument boils down to what our founding fathers envisioned when they were writing the Constitution, and she uses the Second Amendment as a good example of an arguably outdated fundamental right we have that didn't have AR-15s in the minds of the framers when it was drafted.

That same logic, Sarah says, could be applied to social media ... the OGs certainly didn't foresee Twitter or the far-reaching impact it has on the masses.

Ex-Lyon defender Marcelo is getting an offer that could salvage his career -- TMZ Sports has learned Dude Wipes wants to hook up the soccer star with a ton of products to make his situation stink a whole lot less!!

Of course, Marcelo made headlines earlier this week ... after reports explained he was demoted from the French club's first team for "constant farting" and laughing in the locker room.

The dudes at Dude Wipes tell us they heard about the 31-year-old's problem ... and immediately set aside a whole year's worth of wipes and spray that will hopefully save his teammates' nostrils -- and his own job.

In fact, we've obtained a pic of a letter from DW to the current Bordeaux center back ... which reads, "Dear Marcelo, we hope this helps."

Marcelo's contract with Lyon was eventually terminated in January ... but he can rest easy knowing DW has his ass covered in the future -- if he wants it.

Before this handsome, brown-eyed boy became a clothing designer and a household name, he was simply stealin' bases left and right, dominating his high school's track team, and growing up in Los Angeles, California.

Once this little leaguer's family started to make waves through Hollywood, this bashful little man put his funny dance moves to the test and became a runner-up on "Dancing With The Stars" ... something his older sister can't say.

Still unsure who this funny guy could be? He is known for being a goofball with his partner in crime, Scott Disick.

"The Flash" star Ezra Miller was aggressive with cops during their arrest in Hawaii, yelling for badge numbers and giving a strange reason why they record incidents.

In police body cam footage from Ezra's March arrest on the Big Island, you see cops ask the actor questions inside the bar where they allegedly became agitated with patrons.

One of Ezra's alleged victims tells cops Ezra attacked him, spitting in his face and going nuts ... and when cops question Ezra, they claim they got assaulted and started filming because, "I film myself when I get assaulted for NFT crypto art."

Ezra raises their voice as they demand names and badge numbers from the officers, but the police ignore them and go back to the alleged victim, who claims he was playing darts and minding his own business when Ezra came up and spit on him.

Once Ezra understands they're the one getting busted for disorderly conduct and harassment, they ask why and again repeat their claim that they were the one who was assaulted.

Ezra also tells police they were complying, but they tell them they weren't ... and when Ezra asks what they did wrong they tell them they're getting cuffed because they allegedly spit in someone's face.

Ezra's claims escalate ... they say their alleged attacker declared himself a Nazi and then they bring up Judaism.