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An Antonio Gates hasn't been in the NFL since the 2018 season ... but another could be on the way soon -- and, according to the Chargers legend himself, the next one could be better than the first!!

Gates tells TMZ Sports ... his boy -- Michigan State Univ. redshirt freshman receiver Antonio Gates Jr. -- has the goods to one day make it to the NFL, and be an even bigger star than he was once he arrives.

"I think so," Gates said out in Beverly Hills this week. "I really believe that."

So far, the younger Gates is still learning how to be effective on the collegiate level ... after not playing the entirety of the 2022 season, he's played sparingly in 2023.

But, the elder Gates said with all the resources at his disposal -- a transformation into a beast on the gridiron isn't far off.

"I can kind of give him the information that's important for him to be successful," Gates Sr. said. "So, he's got a great future ahead of him."

But, either way, Gates Sr. said he's a very proud Papa nonetheless.

Angelyne is doin' something that will shock most L.A. natives -- the media personality is selling one of her iconic pink Corvettes in a last-ditch effort to complete her self-produced biopic.

Angelyne tells TMZ ... she's unloading one of her famous rides for a whopping $200k, or the best offer she can get, with the cash going to help wrap up the movie she's making about herself.

She says she's owned the bright ride since 2008, but is almost done with the flick apart from music, coloring, and sound tweaks, so it's essential she come up with the funds. Angelyne tells us the finances from the sale of the car will allow her to maintain creative control of the film, which is important to her.

Angelyne says she's gotten some lowball offers in the past few days but is holding out for the $200k to come rolling in -- and not to worry, Angelenos, she still has 3 other pink 'Vettes left ... so she'll still be recognizable around town.

For those unaware, Angelyne has been a West Coast icon since the 1980s, often spotted driving around the city in one of the 11 pink Corvettes she's owned in her lifetime. She also gained a lot of attention when she appeared on a series of billboards that simply had her name on it and a raunchy pic of her.

Apart from her local fame, she appeared with the soon-to-be-sold Corvette in the 2017 film, "The Disaster Artist," with James Franco and Seth Rogen.

American actor Christopher McDonald was in his early 40s when he rose to prominence with his antagonistic movie roles like playing Shooter McGavin -- the cocky, talented and arrogant pro golfer -- in "Happy Gilmore" starring Adam Sandler ... back in the 90s.

McDonald's other notable characters include 'Daryl' -- the controlling husband -- in "Thelma and Louise", 'Ward Cleaver' -- the white-collar workman in New York City -- in "Ward Cleaver" and 'Wilson Croft' -- who steals Flubber from professor Philip Brainard (played by Robin Williams) in "Flubber."

To this day, Christopher McDonald still hops into his 'Shooter McGavin' character when he's out on the green!

Adele may be a married woman again -- at least that's what the Internet thinks, yet again, after she gave her boyfriend, Rich Paul, a very significant promotion in the title department.

The singer was doing her Vegas residency show Saturday, and per usual ... she was going around chopping it up with her audience, weaving in and out of rows of seats and interviewing folks on the spot Oprah-style. What else is new, right?

However, this time around -- a slip of the tongue appears to have befallen Adele ... 'cause when a female fan asked if she could marry her, Adele said she was already hitched.

Check it out -- Adele turns this woman's marriage proposal down in hilarious fashion ... saying she's straight, and not just that, but that her "husband" was in the crowd and probably wouldn't appreciate it. She didn't say Rich's name -- but he's the only dude she's seeing.

It's unclear if Adele simply misspoke here, or if she did actually say "I do" the famous basketball agent -- who reps the likes of LeBron James and tons of other NBA stars.

We do know that Adele has spoken glowingly of Rich Paul since they first got together a couple years ago. She's even gone so far as to say she's the happiest she's ever been in a relationship with him ... so, it's easy to see her walking down the aisle with him.

This is far from the first time people have speculated on where things are between Rich and Adele. There's already been a first wave of marriage rumors dating back to last September ... when eagle-eyed fans noticed a book at her house that a title of "The Pauls."

Maren Morris is divorcing herself from the music genre she got famous in -- saying modern-day country music is unrecognizable to her ... and has morphed into pure political posturing.

The singer -- who cut her teeth in country and, for a long time was considered a Nashville darling -- has gone scorched earth on her peers ... this after dropping two new tracks this week that speak to her anger and disillusionment over where things stand in the biz.

In one of the music videos for her new songs, Maren can be seen walking away from a burning town ... and she hit that point home in a follow-up interview with the LA Times.

She says, "I thought I'd like to burn it to the ground and start over. But it's burning itself down without my help." She goes on to say that she feels very distanced from a lot of the stories that mainstream country artists are telling today ... adding she's tried avoiding that.

Maren goes on to say that she's done trying to fit her musical style within the traditional country paradigm -- noting that she finds the entire genre stale and out of touch lately.

She goes for the jugular by saying this ... "After the Trump years, people’s biases were on full display. It just revealed who people really were and that they were proud to be misogynistic and racist and homophobic and transphobic."

Maren finishes with this final thought -- "All these things were being celebrated, and it was weirdly dovetailing with this hyper-masculine branch of country music. I call it butt rock."

Drew Barrymore will not cross the picket line, after all ... she now says she is NOT going back into production on her talk show while the Writer's Guild strike continues.

Drew completed a massive flip-flop Sunday morning when she announced, "I have listened to everyone, and I am making the decision to pause the show’s premiere until the strike is over. I have no words to express my deepest apologies to anyone I have hurt and, of course, to our incredible team who works on the show and has made it what it is today."

The turnaround comes exactly one week after she first said she would start shooting new episodes -- and since then she's faced a wave of backlash and criticism that nearly brought her to tears in a video apology for coming back, but oddly said was still going to return to production.

Perhaps not coincidentally, her change of heart -- to pull the plug on a comeback -- comes hours after Rosie O'Donnell ripped into her.

As we reported, Rosie O’Donnell excoriated Drew on Saturday, posting simple instructions on how she can save face with the union and the public. She wrote, “Stop taping the show. Stop asking audiences to cross the picket line, Then ask someone to help you craft three declarative sentences. They should follow along these lines: I made an error. I apologize to the WGA for disrespecting the work of professional writers. I apologize to all union members who are withstanding real hardship as I live a life of luxury.”

Well, Drew didn't say that word-for-word, but, in essence, it is what she ended up saying.

BTW, the video apology has been deleted, and Drew now seems resolute in not coming back until the strike ends. She says, "We really tried to find our way forward. And I truly hope for a resolution for the entire industry very soon."

It will be interesting to see if other shows or hosts bow to pressure to honor the strike -- "Real Time With Bill Maher," "The Talk" and Jennifer Hudson's talk show are also returning without their striking writers.

"Oppenheimer" just became the highest-grossing film based on a real-life person to ever hit the big screen, and its 2nd-place competition shares something in common ... Rami Malek.

Indeed, the actor stars in both Christopher Nolan's latest blockbuster -- in a scene-stealing moment, no less -- as well as "Bohemian Rhapsody" ... the biopic about Freddie Mercury ... which, up until this Sunday, was the top dog when it came to flicks about historical figures.

That changed, however, after "Oppenheimer" crossed a big threshold at the worldwide box office ... the number being $912 million, which is how much its made in its theatrical run.

That barely edges out Rami's 'BH' ... which peaked at $910M while it was still out. Below that is a significant drop-off in Clint Eastwood's "American Sniper," which made over $540 mil at the global box office. After that ... "The Greatest Showman," "The King's Speech" and so on.

Again ... the common denominator for the two crown jewels in this category is Rami. He was obviously the lead star in 'Bohemian' -- winning an Oscar for Best Actor in that -- and he has a crucial role in "Oppenheimer" as well ... when he outs RDJ as the big bad toward the end.

Assuming "Oppenheimer" goes on to swoop up some statuettes next year -- like most everyone expects it to -- Rami can say he's been in two Academy Award-winning films.

Teyana Taylor just confirmed what folks have long suspected about her and her husband, Iman Shumpert ... their relationship is over.

The singer officially broke the news Sunday, taking to IG with a lengthy statement. She writes, "Not too much on my bestie! In all fairness, Iman and I are separated and have been for a while. To be 1000% clear, 'infidelity' ain’t one of the reasons for our departure."

She adds, "We are still the best of friends, great business partners and are one hell of a team when it comes to co-parenting our 2 beautiful children. Most importantly we are FAMILY & in the 10yrs together, 7yrs married we ain’t ever played with or about THAT."

Teyana goes on to explain that the reason she's kept this under wraps is because she's private ... and didn't feel like it was anyone's business -- a decision she's happy with as she and Iman have been able to navigate this on their terms without so much noise.

She finishes by saying ... "The only reason I’m even sharing THIS part of the chat is because the narratives are getting a little out of hand & it’s unfair to all parties involved. I hope this provided some clarity for y’all. Okay AunTey taking y’all back out the chat bye!"

Travis Kelce is said to be "hanging out" with Taylor Swift -- something the NFL world just can't get enough of ... and which bled into Sunday's broadcast of his big game.

NFL announcer Ian Eagle -- who called the Chiefs game Sunday -- snuck in a Swift reference after TK scored his first touchdown of the season against the Jags. It was a simple toss from Mahomes into the end zone ... but a big deal since Trav missed last week's opener.

As Travis and his teammates were celebrating ... Eagle said, "Kelce finds a blank space for the score!" His broadcasting partner didn't say anything, but everyone picked up on it.

Even right after this, Eagle kept it going ... saying Kelce was able to shake it off considering he didn't play last week following an injury. So, yeah, everyone's still giddy about the news.

ICYMI ... word of Travis and Taylor possibly dating first started to percolate earlier this week after The Messenger reported they've been seeing each other lately. Other outlets confirmed they're spending time together ... but stopped short of saying they're full-blown dating.

Based on what Travis's bro had to say about it on TNF ... sounds like they're just banging.

Remember, back in July ... Travis revealed he tried shooting his shot with Taylor during one of her concerts -- but apparently got denied at the time. Since sharing this story, however, it sounds like TS got in touch and then some -- which just goes to show, manifesting is real!

If Taylor and Trav are, in fact, keeping it casual ... that lines up with how she handled the Matty Healy fling earlier this year. TayTay's obviously doing her thing post-Joe Alwyn.

There's a new host over at 'Meet the Press' -- and on day one of the job, she got Donald Trump to admit he needed votes to win the 2020 election ... which is quite something.

Kristen Welker is now at the helm after Chuck Todd stepped down, and her first show Sunday featured a lengthy interview she did with the former President ... and it contains an interesting soundbite where she asks him about his refusal to accept the election results.

Check out this exchange ... Welker points out that Trump has repeatedly said he only needed a few thousands votes in each state to win -- not to mention calling some Secretaries of State in an attempt to pressure them to "find" votes -- and he acknowledges that's true.

Then Welker asks the obvious ... "When you say you needed one-tenth of a point, you needed one-tenth of a point to win?" Trump concedes he needed only a smattering of votes.

She again presses ... "To win?" DT responds, "Yeah." Welker then goes to the next obvious fact here ... "But Mr. President, you’re saying you needed more votes to win the election, are you acknowledging you didn’t win?" That sends Trump into an "Excuse me" frenzy.

When she finally asks him if he's admitting to losing ... he says no, insisting it was rigged.

There are other interesting takeaways from the sit-down ... including Welker asking Trump if he fears going to prison. He tells her no, because apparently, he doesn't even think about it.

Now, we should point out ... Welker/NBC is catching a bit of flak over their decision to interview Trump at all and to give him a "platform." That's silly, though -- the guy is headed toward becoming the Republican nominee, and he continues to be newsworthy. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Tinashe says she regrets her collaboration with Chris Brown -- something he heard loud and clear, and which he didn't kindly to ... trashing her by suggesting she's not big time.

The singer was on a podcast earlier this week and at one point, she was asked about her R. Kelly and CB joints in 2015 ... which made Tinashe cringe, not to mention explain. She actually laughs out loud in distancing herself, saying she didn't want to work with them.

For the R. Kelly team-up -- 'Let's Be Real Now' -- she says she blocks that memory out of her mind. Tinashe also says it was strictly a label decision ... and says the same thing applied for her Chris collab. From her POV, having him on the song didn't make sense.

Of course, most media outlets ran headlines pointing out Tinashe seemingly bashing Chris -- even though she really didn't go all that hard on him -- and Chris caught wind of it.

He responded to an IG post that captured a headline which read, "Tinashe Regrets 2015 Collaborations with R. Kelly & Chris Brown: 'That Is So Embarrassing.'" In the comments, Chris wrote, "NAME 5 TINASHE songs or die ... EVERYBODY DEAD."

After Chris's burn, the Internet has reacted a couple different ways -- naturally, many people are slamming Chris for trying to diminish Tinashe's career ... and some are even saying they couldn't name 5 Chris Brown songs with a gun to their head. Twitter's calling cap, though.

Fact is, Chris has far more recognizable of a catalog than Tinashe does ... and a more decorated music career in general. Others are also saying the song they did -- that Tinashe now regrets -- is actually a bop ... going on to speculate that she's only saying this because it's fashionable these days to stiff-arm CB over his controversial personal history.

Joyner Lucas put it quite well in a video ... saying he'd defend Chris to the death, and that he wouldn't accept any slander of him. Per usual, everyone's divided on the issue.

As for Tinashe ... she's moving on. On Sunday, she appeared to respond to all the hubbub, taking to Twitter and writing ... "Anyways ... stream NEEDS." It's her new single, and that's clearly what she wants to focus on -- as opposed to ancient history.

Still, it is interesting that Chris continues to be as polarizing as he is. Anytime somebody works with him these days -- or even reflects on working with him -- it creates a buzz.

Billy Miller -- a longtime soap opera star, who starred on some of the most famous shows in the genre -- has died, and it sounds like he was battling some demons ... TMZ has learned.

A rep for the actor tells us Miller passed away Friday in Austin, TX. An exact cause hasn't been revealed, but we're told he was struggling with manic depression at the time of his death. His team suggests he may have taken his own life.

It's incredibly shocking and sad news for the soap community, as BM was one of the brightest stars in the biz for a good while. The guy had incredible runs on both 'The Young and The Restless' as well as a memorable role on 'General Hospital.'

He starred in over 700 episodes for the former -- playing Billy Abbott -- and acted in nearly 600 episodes for the latter, playing different characters. In addition to these two iconic shows, he also starred in 'All My Children' in the mid-2000s, which kicked off his soap career.

Miller's work on daytime TV was recognized and praised by his peers -- he won Emmys in 2010, 2013 and 2014 for Outstanding Lead and Supporting Actor in a Drama Series for his role on 'Y&R.' He was also nominated a handful of other times, including for 'GH.'

He didn't just work on soaps, either, BTW -- BM acted in a number of other TV series and movies ... such as 'CSI: NY,' 'Justified,' 'Ringer,' 'Castle,' 'Ray Donovan,' 'Suits,' 'Truth Be Told,' 'The Rookie,' 'NCIS' and others. He also starred in flicks like 'American Sniper' and more.

Miller is survived by his mother, Patricia, and his sister, Megan ... as well as other extended family and friends. He was only 43.

RIP

Two teens were heard laughing on a video as they deliberately plowed their car into a bicyclist in Nevada, killing the man -- a retired police chief.

The 17-year-old driver and his passenger were cruising down a street in Las Vegas on August 14, coming up behind Andreas Probst as he rode his cycle in the bike lane.
Filming with his cell phone, the passenger was chuckling with the driver as they plotted to run over Probst. You can hear them say, "Ready?" and "Yeah, hit his ass."

Moments later, the driver crashed into Probst, causing him to fly up onto the windshield before tumbling to the ground.

Probst was rushed to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead. He reportedly moved to Vegas after retiring as chief from California's Bell Police Department in 2009.
The teens fled, but the driver was soon arrested for the hit-and-run. The charges were later upgraded to include murder when the video recently surfaced online, showing the crime was intentional.

Taylor Swift may be hooking up with Travis Kelce -- at least there is smoke pointing to that -- but Saturday was girl's night out.

Taylor and her bud, Blake Lively, hit up Zero Bond in NYC ... it's the second time the 2 broke bread in a week. Last Monday, T.S. hit up Emilio's Ballato restaurant with Blake and her hubby Ryan Reynolds along with Channing Tatum, Zoë Kravitz, and Gigi Hadid.

Taylor had a busy weekend ... chowing down Friday with Selena Gomez at a restaurant near Taylor's Rhode Island estate.

Gomez and Taylor have been friends for years, and Selena underscored their friendship with words of loyalty.

Selena wrote, "Thas my best frien -she a real bad," referencing lyrics from Saweetie's track, "Best Friend."

"Dancing With The Stars" is always down to tap into the biggest rumors in H-Wood, and almost had a ménage à trois for the ages.

As you know, Mauricio Umansky will be puttin' his dancing shoes on for the upcoming season. What you DIDN'T know ... we've learned producers also reached out to his estranged wife, Kyle Richards, and her good friend, Morgan Wade.

Well, the ladies gave DWTS a 1 out of 10 for that proposal, but wouldn't it have been awesome? We're guessing all 3 would have had professional dancers as partners, but maybe they would have tried something new if the troika was fully on board.

We're told the 3 of them were all approached at the same time, but Kyle and Morgan passed. Both women are now in Paris, shooting Morgan's documentary.

Thing is ... there'd be no tension had it happened. We know Mauricio and Kyle are still getting along great, and even Mauricio and Morgan seem kosher.

Kyle and Mauricio are still living under the same roof, although their status is still "separated."

Rep. Lauren Boebert's presumed boyfriend is not only a Democrat but presumably a supporter of the LGBTQ community ... so the plot just keeps thickening.

Quinn Gallagher, the man who was grabbing Bobert's breast as she was grabbing his crotch as they watched a musical, has a bar in Aspen -- the Hooch Craft Cocktail Bar -- which hosts drag shows.

As you probably know, the Republican firebrand has railed on drag shows, worrying that children might somehow be influenced to do something, although she's never been specific.

It's the latest twist in a nutty tale. As we reported, Boebert was ejected from the "Beetlejuice" performance in Denver, after vaping (something she denied but is as clear as day in the surveillance video), signing, disrupting and talking trash to other audience members.

In another video, you see Gallagher pawing Boebert's breast and Boebert groping his crotch.

And, as we told you, on their way out of the theatre, she flipped off an usher.