TMZ.com Home

"Cheer" star Jerry Harris getting a dozen years behind bars in his child pornography case wasn't a reason for joy in the household of two of his accusers ... so says their own mother.

Twin brothers Charlie and Sam are among the victims who accused Jerry of soliciting nudes and sex from minors, and their mom, Kristen said in a lengthy statement she's still heartbroken and angry despite his prison sentence.

Kristen says every aspect of Jerry's case is tragic, and she's not feeling a sense of justice just yet ... because she wants to see the folks who run big-time cheerleading take steps to prevent other minors from being abused.

As we reported ... Jerry was sentenced Wednesday to 12 years in prison, appearing in court and telling his victims, "I am ashamed as I know that I took advantage of your youth and weakness. I was wrong and selfish. I caused you harm and I do not blame anyone. I regret my decisions and I am deeply sorry."

Remember ... the Netflix star had been under FBI investigation since 2019, with the feds claiming he was soliciting sex from minors at cheerleading competitions, as well as coercing teen boys to send him sexually explicit photos.

Harris was arrested in September 2020, with the second season of "Cheer" diving into his arrest and sharing the story of his twin accusers.

Charlie claims he was only 13 when a 19-year-old Harris sent him a direct message on Instagram, asking his age and wondering if he would send him nudes. Charlie says he felt pressured to send the pics because he looked up to Jerry as a male cheerleader.

From there, Charlie claims he continued communicating with Harris until they met at a cheer competition, where Harris allegedly assaulted him.

Sam claims Harris started contacting him after allegedly assaulting his twin, and their mom says she started looking into their relationship after finding some of their communications.

Polo G's lawyer thinks cops in Miami did the rapper dirty by only releasing parts of his 2021 arrest that make him look like the bad guy ... but Miami PD is denying it released the bodycam footage.

Polo's attorney Bradford Cohen tells TMZ this is something he's never experienced in his decades of work ... law enforcement releasing what he calls "heavily redacted" body cam footage, and only "the parts that disparage the defendant."

Cohen says there are crucial moments in his arrest that were left out of the released video -- "They didn't show him getting slammed to the ground or the reason why was pulled over. Of course, they wouldn't show that."

The video does show Polo verbally berating one of the arresting officers, but Cohen says that is "part of being a police officer out in public, people are going to say things you are not going to like."

He thinks Miami PD was embarrassed because it had no probable cause to stop him or arrest him last June, and the case has been largely dismissed after Polo completed anger management classes.

Here's the wild card, though -- we asked Miami PD why it only released portions of the arrest, and a spokesman told us the department did NOT release the footage ... which first popped up Thursday on Twitter.

Rhode Island State Senator Tiara Mack is standing by the viral TikTok of her twerking on a beach as a way to garner votes ... saying it's all about being an authentic version of herself.

Senator Mack tells TMZ ... her supporters know exactly what kind of politician she is -- one who's never going to become a fake politician, so she doesn't think an apology is in order for something that is authentically her.

She says she's never shied away from labeling herself as a "queer, Black woman," and hopes she can show the younger generation it's ok to be yourself and stay happy while making a difference in the community.

Senator Mack's comment section has been flooded with hate since posting the clip, and she says it has more to do with her as a Black woman than her as a politician -- seeing racial slurs thrown her way.

Utah Jazz forward Nickeil Alexander-Walker says he'll miss playing alongside newly-traded All-Star Rudy Gobert ... telling TMZ Sports he'll always appreciate the veteran big man for being a great teammate.

We spoke with the 23-year-old out at LAX this week ... and the former Virginia Tech Hokie told us Gobert's departure will be felt both on the court and in the locker room.

"I did message him when [the trade] happened," Nickeil said. "He was a good guy. When I first got there, he welcomed me."

"What he does on the court is special," Nickeil added. "His ability to affect damn near every shot, [a] dynamic roller. So, you're always going to miss playing with someone like that."

Alexander-Walker has only played 4 seasons in the Association, but he did say that he got to interact with Gobert over several dinners ... though, he remains tight-lipped about how those encounters went.

"I been to some good dinners, got to keep those disclosed," Nickeil said. "But, the dinners were fun and cool and I wish him the best."

The Jazz made shockwaves this NBA offseason when they traded Rudy -- who had been the anchor of their defense since being drafted in 2013 -- to the Minnesota Timberwolves ... pairing him with the combo of Karl-Anthony Towns and rising star Anthony Edwards.

Southern hottie Katie Martin spanked the shores of Florida when she pumped up a paddle board and popped into some steamy swimwear that created a new level of heatwave ... even for the Florida humidity!

When Katie Martin isn't creating wild looks for her Instagram and TikTok audiences ... she can be spotted sharing makeup tutorials, traveling, taking care of her French bulldog and is a self-described Oreo addict.

Talk about a treat!

We are continuing to whip up our Summer Hot Shots for 2022 from a distance and have collaborated with some mind-melting hotties from around the world for your viewing pleasure!

Want to live rock star adjacent? Now's your chance ... the home of Aerosmith legend Steven Tyler's daughter just hit the market.

Mia Tyler's Hollywood Hills home is listed at just under $2 million -- and the pad's got plenty of charm -- with 3 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and plenty of room outside to entertain.

The lucky buyer will enjoy a private outdoor space with a fire pit, secluded hot tub and a guest house.

BTW, the home actually used to be a recording studio! So, ya know, a real rock star lifestyle. Tori Horowitz at Compass is representing Mia in the sale.

Of course, the listing comes as the Tyler family celebrates some other good news. Steven recently completed rehab, after a very successful stay.

Steven and Mia have a special bond, he wrote a song named after her on Aerosmith's album "Night in the Ruts" in 1979.

Justin Hartley's looks over the years are definitely award-worthy!

Here is a 26-year-old version of the "This Is Us" actor offering a fresh pose with blonde highlights at the 30th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in Universal City back in 2003 (left). This was just one year after he landed his first reoccurring role on the daytime soap opera "Passions."

And, 19 years later ... the 45-year-old father recently showed his endearing smise at the 'Filming Italy' event in Santa Margherita di Pula, Italy (right).

JH continues to keep his iconic spikey hair look on point!

The question is ...

Duane Brown was arrested on gun charges at the airport this weekend ... TMZ has learned.

The NFL free agent -- who was most recently playing offensive tackle for the Seattle Seahawks -- was busted Saturday at LAX around 2 PM, where law enforcement sources tell us ... he allegedly tried going through TSA with a gun in his luggage.

We're told this happened at Terminal 6, and that during the standard screening ... one of Brown's bags was found to have a firearm inside, which our sources say was unloaded.

Of course, the cops were called immediately ... and our sources say Brown was taken into custody. He was actually recorded being escorted to a police vehicle by a photographer on the scene, and sure enough ... there's DB in handcuffs as he's led along by a few cops.

The charge we're told he's being booked on ... possession of a concealed firearm. Brown's on his way to a nearby LAPD jail for processing.

Twitter is yet again proving it's the worst for bulk bad takes -- this time, debating whether Anne Frank, who was hunted and killed by Nazis, had white privilege while alive. 🥴

You might've noticed the late Holocaust victim was trending Saturday, but finding out why is disheartening ... some, it seems, have floated an argument that Frank benefited from white privilege in Nazi Germany -- an argument that is rightly being shot down left and right.

Unclear how this toxic discourse first started, but it seems to stem from a warped notion that Jews had the benefit of their skin color to go unnoticed in public, if only temporarily, during that bleak time in history ... while POC, historically, haven't been able to do so.

The theory is so twisted, and yet ... it's being defended by a select few on the bird app ... despite a vast majority of folks swooping in to bat down the rhetoric by noting that Jews were, in fact, seen and treated as an inferior race in an ethnic sense ... and that Anne Frank was murdered specifically because she was Jewish. Plus, she was in hiding!

As someone wisely put it, "Anne Frank didn’t have white privilege…you wanna know why? Jewish people aren’t included when white nationalists define the perfect Aryan race. If you think she did, tell that to all the other innocent jewish people forced into concentration camps for not being white enough."

In other words, Jews were not considered one and the same as Nazis at the time, by said Nazis, even pigmentation-wise -- evidenced in their literal extermination by the millions.

This harkens back to another weird debate from a few years ago, when folks were going after Hellen Keller -- who was both blind and deaf -- for only have achieved such notoriety and success in her day due to her own "white privilege." That was bad, this is much worse.

This also seems to be in the same vein as what Whoopi Goldberg put forth on 'The View' this year ... when she likened the Holocaust to one group of white people against another, and not wanting to conflate that with the plight experienced by African-Americans.

She was suspended, and ultimately apologized. As some have noted, convos like these devolve into a contest of suffering -- with this new trend just being the latest iteration.

L.Q. Jones -- a versatile character actor whose career dates back to the 1950s -- has died.

His death was confirmed by his family, who says he passed of natural causes in the Hollywood Hills surrounded by loved ones ... this according to Variety.

Jones had over 160 acting credits to his name, with his first several coming in the year 1955 -- when he starred in military-inspired flicks like "An Annapolis Story," "Battle Cry" and "Target Zero." He also appeared in a few episodes of the western-themed TV show "Cheyenne."

From there, LQJ was on a roll ... with acting in a number of films and TV series like "Annie Oakley," "Gunsight Ridge," "Operation Mad Ball," "Buchanan Rides Alone," "The Naked and the Dead," "Jefferson Drum," "Men of Annapolis," "The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin" and more.

Flip-flopping between war and westerns, Jones stayed busy in the '60s. Some of the more popular titles he was in ... "Lassie," "Klondike," "Laramie," "Perry Mason," "Route 66," "Wagon Train," "Rawhide," "The Virginian," "Gunsmoke" and "The Big Valley" ... just to name a few.

Other hit shows in which he had guest-starring roles included, "Hawaii Five-O," "Charlie's Angels," "Ironside," "Kung Fu," "CHiPs," "Columbo," "Cannon," "The Runaways," "The Dukes of Hazzard" and lots of others. He even starred in "The Incredible Hulk," "Walker, Texas Ranger," "The A-Team," "Renegade," "The Yellow Rose" and more throughout the '80s/'90s.

He'll also probably be remembered for his work on "The Wild Bunch," "Major Dundee," "Ride the High Country" and "A Boy and His Dog" -- the latter of which he wrote and directed.

Jones also had a memorable scene in Martin Scorsese's "Casino." While the guy certainly had already carved out a name for himself before the turn of the century, millennials might actually recognize him as well thanks to a cult classic from the late '90s.

Indeed, Jones plays the Legendary Three-Fingered Jack in "The Mask of Zorro" -- where he had a scene-stealing moment in which he was shot and killed mid-air ... this after being ejected from a mineshaft cart and flying toward a group of bad guys with a pickax.

Jones was 94.

Anthony Mackie is set to take up the mantle as the new Captain America in his own movie, but on speculation over whether Chris Evans might reprise the role ... he says, no chance.

News about Mackie starring in a forthcoming 'Captain America 4' flick surfaced this week, with director Julius Onah reportedly attached to direct. This, of course, comes on the heels of Mackie's Disney+ show -- which ends with him accepting the CA shield.

You'd think that conclusion -- which was made very clear on the show, this after Evans' character, Steve Rogers, had already passed the torch at the end of 'Endgame' -- wouldn't be up for debate ... but apparently, among some fans, it is. And, THR alluded to that in a thread.

In response to uncertainty about Evans' possible involvement with the new movie and the character, CE himself weighed in Saturday ... writing, "Sam Wilson is Captain America."

The reason that's a big deal ... it seems to shut down trolls who, to this day, aren't cool with the idea of Mackie carrying on as the titular superhero -- a controversy that's been brewing since 2019 when he was officially tapped as Chris Evans' successor.

A lot of the pushback over AM has been straight-up racist ... with many saying a Black guy simply shouldn't be allowed to assume the role (even though that happens in the comics).

Now, Chris appears to be confirming he's done with 'Captain America,' and that Mackie will exclusively continue as the character ... without Chris's involvement going forward. Frankly, that makes sense logistically -- Evans is depicted as an old dude in the final 'Avengers' movie ... so to jam him into the plot, beyond just a cameo, feels unlikely/unnecessary.

BTW, Mackie as the new Captain America carries a lot of weight. It's revealed on the show -- based on an earlier comic series, which is canon -- that the fictionalized history behind Captain America is dark, with the U.S. government testing/perfecting the super serum giving him his powers on Black soldiers while Cap was under ice. So, technically, Captain America was built on the backs of Black people ... a metaphor to our own real-life history, some say.

Britney Spears is again bemoaning the fact that she's been the subject of documentaries and TV specials of late -- saying she considers it grade-A bullying by Corporate America.

The pop star posted lengthy thoughts about this on Saturday, which she's addressed before. She writes, in part ... "I feel like America has done a wonderful job at humiliating me," going on to explain that when she was in the conservatorship ... she'd apparently be forced to walk to her car from the airport, on purpose, so that paps could get a ton of shots of her.

Britney's words here are a bit all over the place, but her gripe seems to be with old paparazzi photos -- some of which she thinks are unflattering -- being resurfaced in docs and specials that have aired in the past couple years ... including on Hulu, Netflix and CNN.

On the issue of so much coverage of her now, she adds ... "I've never felt more bullied in my life in this country it's insane ... and come on seriously is it honestly legal to do that many documentaries about someone without their blessing at all??!"

Then, Britney invokes some celebrity names as examples of people who never get this amount of press and analysis without their permission or participation -- including Will Smith, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jennifer Lopez and Halle Berry.

She also says the idea these specials are "helping her" are misguided, suggesting that rehashing this ancient history is embarrassing. BS also appears to believe that most of these docs focus on what led to the conservatorship rather than what she went through while actually in it ... the reality of which she says was far worse than what's been depicted.

The weird thing ... the above-mentioned outlets seem to be the only ones with big docs/specials that have been done about Britney, and the last one came out in fall of last year -- so it's unclear why Brit's talking about this now and what might be triggering her.

What Britney also doesn't seem to understand is this ... her story isn't over, as she and her legal team are continuing to go after her dad, Jamie Spears, and seem dead set on holding him accountable for what they say he put her through during the conservatorship.

Plus, she hasn't done a proper sit-down with anyone yet ... so the intrigue isn't going away anytime soon, especially as she continues to make headlines with her personal life.

Of course, Britney might just be biding her time to fully tell her story in her own words ... probably until she can finish her tell-all book, which she reportedly struck a deal to write to the tune of at least $15 million. In light of that, we're sure she'll speak up eventually.

Jon Stewart would make a perfect Democratic presidential nominee in 2024 -- so says a publication knee-deep in political coverage ... but not everyone is so sure it's a good idea.

The one-time 'Daily Show' host was floated as someone who should seriously consider running for the highest office in the land, and as someone we should all consider as a viable contender -- this according to a Politico op-ed that's getting a lot of attention this weekend.

The piece is titled, "If Tucker Runs in 2024, Here's Who the Democrats Need." The article is supplemented by this Twitter caption ... "Joe Biden should run for president in 2024. But if he decides against it for whatever reason, Jon Stewart should run on the Democratic ticket instead. He's exactly the person they need."

The op-ed starts out with exactly that premise -- that JB oughta run, but a moment later ... they float the possibility he doesn't, and then deflect to Stewart as a good replacement.

The whole argument boils down to Jon being well-versed in politics -- even in a comedic setting -- and a great communicator, as we've seen on Capitol Hill and beyond. But, the centerpiece of this hypothetical is Fox News's Tucker Carlson ... who some think might run.

Neither one has gone on record as saying they're interested ... it's all just speculation and innuendo. But, if any of that materializes for one or the other, Politico seems to think these two would be a perfect matchup -- especially since they've faced off before ... a la "Crossfire."

As interesting as it might be to see Stewart throw his hat in the ring, many online are saying ... enough with celebs jumping in, and enough with trying to prop them up as options.

Many say that charisma alone isn't a good enough qualification for politics ... and that applies to both sides, with many pointing out what we just went through with 4 years of Donald Trump -- who, of course, was in showbiz for a long time before crossing over (and winning).

Interestingly enough, we asked Jon about the prospect of another celeb running for office ... and he didn't write it off, but didn't totally endorse it either. Time will tell if he dives in, or if this is yet another example of wishful thinking.

Oprah is mourning the death of her dad, Vernon Winfrey, who has passed away after battling cancer.

One of Vernon's longtime employees confirmed to TMZ that he died Friday night in East Nashville, TN. A local city councilman first broke the news to Nashville's WKRN.

In what now seems to be a prescient move, Oprah had just been in town last weekend to celebrate her father.

She surprised him by organizing a Vernon Winfrey appreciation day on July 4 ... giving the community a chance to thank Vernon for his service as a former city councilman and longtime local businessman.

As Oprah put it, "My father is ill, so we wanted to be able to have all of his friends come and celebrate him while he's able to receive the joy. So that's what we're doing."

Vernon was seated, appropriately, in a barber chair in the middle of the backyard barbecue ... as his friends and family celebrated him.

He had owned and operated Winfrey Barber & Beauty Shop for more than 50 years -- and was beloved by the community. One of his employees told us, "[Vernon] would give you the shirt off his back."

Vernon's daughter wasn't shy about how proud she was of him, and she's celebrated his accomplishments for a long time.

Back when she had her daily talk show, Oprah took her cameras back for a visit with her dad in his establishment.

Leading up to Monday's celebration, it was obvious how excited she was about planning the event.

Oprah said she was "getting back to my Nashville roots" as she posted several videos and photos with family members prepping for the BBQ.

You might recall ... her mother, Vernita Lee, passed away back in 2018 at the age of 83.

Speaking of her father earlier this week, Oprah said she wanted to make sure to give him his flowers while he was still here, and she couldn't have timed it any better.

Vernon was 88.

RIP

"Stranger Things" has a way with music -- and this season was no different, especially for Metallica ... whose tunes are in high demand, particularly among guitar hero wannabes.

As you've heard, the band's '80s hit, "Master of Puppets," is featured in a pivotal scene toward the end of the 4th season of the Netflix hit (RIP Eddie Munson) -- and like other songs heavily featured in this year's installment ... Metallica's earworm is surging in real life.

Just like Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" got mad love among new listeners, 'MoP' experienced the same -- with a reported 400% boost in streaming among various platforms.

What's different now ... it seems this renewed interest is seeping into the world of musical instruction, specifically through a company called Yousician -- which teaches noobs the basics of how to play certain instruments, including guitar.

Per Billboard, the online school's site reports a massive spike in a certain online lesson they offer -- upwards of 100%, apparently. You see, they actually teamed up with the real Metallica for a virtual master class for their paying customers ... and learning how to play "Master of Puppets" is indeed one of the songs available in their "Metallica x Yousician' course.

Yousician is also said to be adding the song to another internal tool on their site -- a guitar tuning and songwriting one -- as 'MoP' doesn't currently exist there, but will soon.

Armie Hammer is indeed working as a timeshare salesman in the Cayman Islands ... the actor was heard pitching the benefits of owning property in the beautiful vacation spot.

Armie is very much in salesman mode ... you see him sitting with a couple and going over pricing for a unit.

A prospective buyer in the office says Armie was outlining a plan that would cost $2,020 per week ... or, as the "Social Network" star put it, only about $21,000 for 10 years of vacations!

Armie delivered that sales pitch last month. Vacationing couples were enticed to go to the timeshare office through a flyer that promised discounts for excursions on the island.

As we reported, Armie was spotted outside the office in late June after reports he was working there ... Armie's rep told us he had a friend who worked at the resort, but didn't know whether or not Armie was showing or selling timeshares.