TMZ.com Home

American actor and stuntman Kane Hodder was 33 when he was first cast to play Jason Vorhees -- the revenant zombie with a machete ... disguised with a hockey goalie mask for disguise at Crystal Lake -- in the horror/thrasher film "Friday The 13th Part VII: The New Blood" back in 1988.

Kane slayed his way through the dreary set with Lar Park Lincoln as the 17-year-old with psychokinetic powers who mistakenly freed Jason from being chained to bottom of the lake, Tina Shepard and Kevin Spirtas, who rented a cabin next to Tina's ... and also survives Jason's murder attempts.

Hodder portrayed this character four times in the 'Friday The 13th' franchise.

These luscious ladies didn't scratch their heads when optioning the classic black cat Halloween costume over the years ... clearly clawing into their frisky and feline selves!

Bringing you all the luck this Friday the 13th ... Vivica A. Foxx, Chrissy Teigen, Lele Pons and Nicola Peltz Beckham are just a few of the wild women slaying in cat ears and looking oh so purrrfect, but which pretty pussycat is playing naughty ... and who is playing nice kitty?

Ready to attack in black, Kim Kardashian donned an all-black cat costume, lookin' fierce and feisty with her kitty cat ears and sharp teeth ... rawr!

And, Lindsay Lohan has always been down for a "Freaky Friday," but she switched it up after a Halloween shindig, showin' peace and love to the paparazzi... rockin' some lace with fake blood on her face!

These women are owning their cattitude, and their black cat costumes are top pawformance!

Taylor Swift's helping out Erin Andrews while supporting Travis Kelce and the Kansas City Chiefs ... wearing a jacket from the sportscaster's clothing line to the NFL game.

Sources close to Erin tell TMZ … the NFL broadcaster sent Taylor some items from her WEAR by Erin Andrews clothing line in the hopes Taylor would wear something in the future, and Taylor came through.

We're told Taylor's windbreaker jacket retails for $112 ... and as you can see, it's got the KC Chiefs logos and patches all over the place ... so Taylor fits right in at Arrowhead Stadium.

Taylor's at her third Chiefs game in the last four weeks ... and she's once again cheering on Travis from his suite ... and hanging out with his mom, Donna.

The Thursday Night Football game is part of a whirlwind 24 hours for Taylor ... last night she was in Los Angeles for the premiere of her 'Eras Tour' concert movie, which shut down the world-famous outdoor shopping mall, The Grove.

While Erin's not besties with Taylor or Travis, she does have a connection to the couple ... back in August, Erin played matchmaker on her podcast and suggested the two hook up.

Post Malone has found a way to combine two things he holds near and dear -- the Dallas Cowboys and chicken fingers -- while also giving some of his fans the surprise of a lifetime.

Posty made a surprise visit at the grand opening of the Post Malone-and-Cowboys-themed location of Raising Cane's in Dallas Thursday. The rocker sported a custom Dallas jersey while posing for pics with fans, and of course, eating some of those tasty chicken fingers.

The location, which just opened today, comes complete with the blue and white Cowboys color scheme -- and a giant Cowboys star as you enter the Drive-Thru that stands 32 feet tall.

Post played a big role in getting the location together, and there are even some silhouettes of his most famous stage poses around the restaurant's exterior.

Jada Pinkett Smith is gushing about her love for Tupac Shakur again, but this time she's using language that feels like a slight against Will Smith -- the husband she hasn't really been with for 7 years.

The actress is set to release her tell-all memoir, and on Thursday, spoke to Christal Jordan for RollingOut ... and called the late rap icon her one true "soulmate," despite 19 years of marriage to the Fresh Prince.

Jada's reason for never getting romantically involved with Pac is simple, at least to her -- she claims they didn't have any chemistry.

Even more confounding, Jada told Christal ... Pac had proposed marriage to her -- she turned him down, but ya gotta wonder why he was asking someone to marry him if they had zero chemistry???

Jada did explain she feels a "soulmate" isn't about romance.

Earlier this week, the longtime Hollywood couple revealed they actually called it quits on their marriage in 2016 -- splitting up in every way, but legally -- leaving fans confused about why they kept up public appearances.

Not to mention, totally putting Will's Oscars slap on Chris Rock in a new light!

Jada's been unearthing her personal Pac memorabilia in the public eye for years -- which, for a lot of people, felt disrespectful to Will.

She claims all the questions will be answered when her book, "Worthy" drops on Oct. 17.

Jess Smith -- AKA the Sun Baby from the popular children's show, "Teletubbies" -- is expecting a little ray of sunshine of her own ... do ya feel old yet?

The former child star, who's now 27 years old, announced she's pregnant with her partner, Ricky ... posting shots of her ultrasound, and giving fans a first look at her child-to-be.

Fans of the series remember Jess playing the character for years ... overlooking Teletubbyland -- where Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po all lived.

Jess appeared when the show debuted in 1997, starring when she was just 9 months old -- she stayed on the show until 2001 when she was no longer a baby in real life, obviously.

She claims she was cast on the show while being weighed at the hospital -- saying producers for the children's series were in the hospital looking for smiley, laughing babies to use for their new show, and Jess fit the bill perfectly.

BTW, there have been several spin-offs of the kids' show over the years ... but if producers are looking to make a proper reboot, we know just the baby for the job.

Warner Bros. is being sued by an angry mom who claims a 'Harry Potter' replica wand seriously injured her toddler's eye ... and she wants a huge check to cover the damages.

According to the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, Jessica Perry says she bought a 'Potter' replica wand with a light-up pen function from a store and gave it to her kids ... only for it to end up impaling her 3-year-old's eye.

Jessica claims her older son was waving the wand around -- like wizards do in the movies and books -- when the metal writing portion of the pen ejected from the wand, flew across the room and pierced her younger son's eye.

In the docs, she says the pen ruptured his eyeball, nearly leaving him blind and forcing him to undergo a pair of eye surgeries.

She alleges the wand was defective, and Warner Bros. should have known about the risks ... because she says there's at least one online review describing a similar incident.

In the suit, Jessica claims her son had to use painful eyedrops which made him scream in agony ... and she says the eyepatch he had to wear frightened him so much, he could only sleep with his bedroom lights on.

She also says her little boy now has to guard against injuring his retina again ... which means for the rest of his life he can't play sports, roughhouse or have a normal life.

She's suing WB for several million dollars -- $8 mil in compensatory damages for her son's injuries and emotional distress, plus punitive damages.

A Palestinian militant was captured by Israeli troops during a news broadcast ... then blindfolded and whisked away while the cameras rolled on the intense situation.

Fox News correspondent Trey Yingst was with members of the Israeli forces on Thursday in Israel -- close to the grounds of the gruesome Supernova music festival massacre where 260 innocent people were murdered.

While reporting, gunshots ring out -- as Yingst and his camera crew ducked for cover, soldiers surrounded a man on the ground who was stripped down to his underwear.

They blindfolded him and escorted him away from the festival grounds ...  a senior commander confirmed with Yingst that the nearly-naked man was a Palestinian militant who either came into the area from Gaza or had been hiding out in the area since Saturday's killings and kidnappings.

He says he'll likely end up being questioned ... which could shed even more light on the tragic Supernova incident.

As you know, Hamas terrorists hit Israel hard starting on Saturday, including a brutal attack on the festival ... where people like 22-year-old Shani Louk were kidnapped -- you'll recall, she was stripped naked and paraded by Hamas while her body was spat on.

College football player Ronnie Caldwell -- a junior safety at Northwestern State University -- was shot and killed on Thursday morning in Louisiana, police said.

He was just 21 years old.

According to the Natchitoches Police Department, the tragic incident happened near NSU's campus -- which is about three hours away from New Orleans -- at around 1:08 a.m.

Police say they were dispatched to a street near the university after 911 callers reported gunshots in the area. When officers arrived, they say they found Caldwell suffering from gunshot wounds ... and he was later pronounced deceased.

Cops say an investigation into the shooting is still ongoing.

The Northwestern State football team, meanwhile, canceled its Saturday game against Nicholls State after learning of the heartbreaking news.

"Ronnie Caldwell was a young man who had a bright future ahead of him on or off the football field," Demons head coach Brad Laird said on Thursday. "He was our voice in the locker room."

"Our hearts are broken and ache for Ronnie's family and friends. His loss will be felt here at Northwestern State, in Natchitoches and in his home."

Caldwell -- who transferred from Tyler Junior College after the 2021 season -- appeared in 11 games last season and finished seventh on the team in tackles. He did not play yet this season due to an injury he suffered in the preseason.

The Texas native was also a business administration major who helped coach a local youth baseball team over the summer.

The phone belonging to the boyfriend of Shani Louk -- the artist and festivalgoer who was kidnapped by Hamas -- sent chilling texts after Saturday's attack ... including ones about spitting on people.

30-year-old Orión Hernández Radoux was reportedly with 22-year-old Louk at the Supernova festival near the Gaza Strip over the weekend when Hamas terrorists opened fire with guns and rockets, kidnapping those at the event.

Louk was one of many taken hostage, and it's believed Radoux -- who is still missing -- was kidnapped along with her. According to The Sun, his phone has been used to send threatening messages to his contacts in the days following the festival massacre.

The texts, written in Arabic, reportedly say things like, "Liberate Palestine," "God damn you," and "I spit on you."

As we reported, video from just before the Hamas attacks showed Louk having fun at the festival ... before she was taken, stripped naked, and spat on while being paraded in the back of a pickup truck.

Rudolph Isley, the singer known as one of the founding members of The Isley Brothers, has died.

The iconic singer passed away Wednesday in Illinois, TMZ has learned. The cause of Rudolph's death is currently unclear, though one person involved tells us it's believed he suffered a heart attack.

Rudolph started singing at a young age in his local church and created The Isley Brothers with his siblings Ronald, O'Kelly, and Vernon when he was just a teenager.

After Vernon was tragically hit by a car while riding his bike at just 13 years old in 1955, the brothers moved to New York to record music ... signing with RCA Records a few years later and debuting with their first song, "Shout" -- arguably one of their most significant tracks.

While the group was still in its infancy, Rudolph married Elaine Jasper in 1958 ... living the married life while the Brothers all went on to garner success with tracks like "Twist & Shout," "This Old Heart of Mine," and "It's Your Thing."

Despite Ronnie often taking the lead in the group, Rudolph got to record lead vocals for some of their songs, too.

As the years went on, The Isley Brothers grew -- adding younger brothers Ernie and Marvin and Rudolph's brother-in-law Chris Jasper into the mix in 1971.

Rudolph left the group in 1989 to carry out his goal of being a Christian minister, but he reunited with the group over the years. They were even inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1992 ... being given the award by fellow music legend Little Richard.

The group has been cranking out tracks for over half a century -- something many groups can't come close to -- with more recent songs like "Busted" and "Contagious" after Rudolph left.

They also made it into some popular rap hits ... being sampled in Ice Cube's "It Was a Good Day" and Notorious B.I.G.'s "Big Poppa."

Rudolph was 84.

1:09 PM PT -- Logan Paul was, indeed, bloodied during Thursday's skirmish with Dillon Danis ... with a new angle of the scrap showing blood pouring out of the WWE Superstar's eye area almost immediately after he was hit by the microphone.

But, he says despite the wound, Saturday's fight will go on as planned.

"Dillon can’t escape me," Paul said on X. "The fight is very much happening, the stakes just got higher."

Paul also shared a selfie on his Instagram page just minutes ago ... showing that while the side of his face seems to be somewhat swollen, he's in good spirits.

"Can't see the haterz," he captioned the pic.

10:23 AM PT -- Dillon Danis just posted a photo of blood spatter on the ground near Thursday's altercation ... insinuating he made Logan Paul bleed with the microphone throw.

"Play with fire get burnt p****," Danis captioned the photo.

Dillon Danis and Logan Paul just got into a wild altercation at their prefight press conference Thursday ... one in which Danis actually hurled a microphone full speed at Paul's face.

The fracas happened just minutes ago as the two were on a stage trying to promote their Saturday boxing match ... when Paul chucked a bottle at his bitter rival as they were set to walk toward each other for a ceremonial staredown.

In response to being hit in the gut by the object ... Danis went nuclear -- and hurled a heavy microphone directly at his opponent.

It appeared to catch the WWE superstar in the face -- and then everyone jumped in to try to separate the two.

Several people were seen throwing more objects as Paul and Danis were whisked off stage ... though it's unclear if anyone -- including Paul or Danis -- was hurt in the melee.

The tilt was hardly the only notable moment from the contentious presser -- as just minutes before chaos erupted, Paul brought out Chris Hansen to mock Danis ... someone whom he's repeatedly called a "predator" over the last few weeks.

Danis and Paul are slated to box each other in just about 48 hours ... that is, of course, assuming no one sustained any fight-altering ailments during the onstage battle.

Jonathan Goodwin, who nearly died doing a stunt for 'AGT: Extreme,' is suing NBC over his gruesome injuries, alleging the network didn't do enough to ensure safety on set.

According to a new lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, Jonathan claims NBC and producers kept upping the ante on stunts to go bigger and bolder to keep eyeballs on the 'AGT' franchise, and he says that led to producers signing up contestants to perform extreme stunts ... while cutting corners on safety.

In the docs, Jonathan claims the show controlled, designed and interfered with the safe performance of stunts ... which he says nearly cost him his life when he got seriously injured on set.

Jonathan says he was "catastrophically injured" during an October 21 rehearsal at the Atlanta Motor Speedway in Georgia, where he was crushed and burned by 2 exploding cars before falling more than 20 feet to the ground and landing violently.

In his suit, Jonathan claims he dislocated his spinal cord, lost his left kidney, suffered 3rd-degree burns and fractured his legs, ribs and shoulders.

Remember ... we first obtained video of the stunt, and it shows Jonathan suspended in the air, hanging from a wire and attempting to free himself from a straightjacket before two swinging cars smash together.

The footage shows the cars sandwiching Jonathan in midair ... and sources on set told us folks who were there thought Jonathan had died.

It's been nearly 2 years since the incident, and Jonathan says there's no end to his suffering from his mental, physical and emotional injuries from the "catastrophic, life-altering" incident.

In his suit, Jonathan's blasting the show for what he says was a failure to implement industry safety standards. He says the production hired unqualified people to oversee and design the stunt, which he says wasn't tested with a crash dummy before he got in the ring.

He's suing for damages.

Pairing facial recognition with AI is a dream come true for law enforcement, but it could also be a nightmare for privacy as we know it -- which is why an author says it might be time to pump the brakes on the technology.

Kashmir Hill, a New York Times tech reporter, joined us Thursday on "TMZ Live" to tell us about the facial recognition databases lurking in the shadows, how the technology works and what its implications are for the future.

Google and Facebook first developed facial recognition tech in early 2017, but Silicon Valley's major players didn't dare unleash it on the public ... though Kashmir says another company, Clearview AI, picked up the baton and pushed the boundaries.

Kashmir wrote a book about the topic, "Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest," and she says Clearview AI's database scraped the internet for photos of human faces -- without consent -- amassing 30 billion images and counting. Those numbers make it likely your face is already in their database.

There are some practical, and good, uses right now -- the tech is being used to solve crimes, and it was recently used to identify folks who stormed the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

However, Kashmir paints a picture of a dystopian future where the tech completely strips away privacy for everyone ... which, for example, could make for some embarrassing trips to the pharmacy.

Britney Spears is in The Big Apple, celebrating the upcoming release of her memoir with a couple of the hottest names in music ... J Balvin and Maluma.

Spears hit Zero Bond Wednesday night for some sushi and conversation with the two music hunks, posing with her tongue out and sunglasses on while the three sat together.

J Balvin and Maluma are certainly friends, and have been for a while ... but the Britney connection is interesting considering we've never seen her hanging with the musicians before. It's also possible they simply were in the same spot at the same time and decided to join forces ... Page Six reports the guys waved Britney and friends over to their table.

Britney's memoir, "The Woman in Me," is set for release October 24 so there's a good chance she's in NYC for promotional events and a small press tour.

TMZ broke the story, Britney will serve as the voice for a portion of the audiobook and a mystery celeb will handle the other duties. We don't yet know who the mystery celeb will be, but our sources say at one point Reese Witherspoon was asked ... she wasn't available.

Taylor Swift hopped onstage at the AMC Theater at The Grove Wednesday night, thanking her fans who showed up for the premiere of her movie, telling them how overwhelmed she is with the phenomenal success of her "Eras" tour.

TMZ broke the story ... 2,200 fans were invited to the world premiere of "The Eras Tour." All 14 AMCs were packed to the gills, and things got way better for them when Taylor took the stage.

She gave a 3-minute speech thanking folks for showing up, with a special shout-out to her family and her band, all of whom were present. She said the band has become family just like her mom, dad and brother.

She explained the process of selecting who got tickets for the world premiere ... saying they were "hand-selected and handpicked ... because you've shown some type of extra support for this tour."

She gave several speeches at the various theaters in The Grove, saying, "I’m always looking out for people with elevated levels of passion, incredible senses of humor on the internet, attention to detail. These things are very important to me."

The success of the flick is insane ... it's broken all records for single-day advance ticket sales -- $26 million. By the time the weekend is over, the film is expected to gross $115 million!

During the showing, Taylor was singing and dancing along in the audience.

Taylor was also there bearing gifts, including popcorn, free alcoholic drinks and candy. Fans predictably were furiously trading bracelets during the evening.

A bunch of celebs showed, including Adam Sandler, Beyoncé, Simu Liu, Mariska Hargitay, Flavor Flav, Maren Morris and Julia Garner.