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J Balvin is praising Britney Spears for her tell-all memoir and the book's instant popularity ... telling us she deserves every bit of success coming her way.

We got the "La Canción" singer Wednesday in Tarzana and our photog asked him about Britney's new book, "The Woman In Me."

J Balvin says he's super proud of her and she's someone who deserves love and respect for inspiring so many folks across the world ... and he's glad to see her back on top.

Remember ... Britney celebrated earlier this month with J Balvin and Maluma, with the trio going out in New York during her promotional tour. J Balvin tells us Britney was in a really good place then, and he says that's going to set her up well for any hate she may get for her book.

But, so far, the reception has been mostly positive ... Britney's book is flying off the shelves and, as we told you, her music is getting a streaming bump too.

A pair of diamond-encrusted Death Row pendants Tupac Shakur and Snoop Dogg once dangled around their necks are going up on the auction block ... along with other hip hop treasures tied to Suge Knight's old empire.

GottaHaveRockAndRoll.com tells TMZ Hip Hop ... the consigner got their hands on the latest round of rap memorabilia from Reggie Wright Jr. -- the former head of Death Row security -- who's been sharing his recollection of the label's heyday for years.

We're told Suge commissioned separate sets of Death Row chains that he would loan to his artists -- the 14kt "Fully Iced" pendant was reserved for the big dogs like Pac and Snoop, and is expected to go for somewhere between $500K and $1 million. Some partial diamond pendants are estimated to go for $200K - $500K.

Tupac's 1996 SNL performance envelope and personalized ticket are also up on the auction block with an estimated value between $8K and $12K.

The online bidding starts today and will end November 10 in conjunction with Gotta Have Rock and Roll's celebration of hip hop's 50-year history.

Death Row Records' revival has been all the rage this year.

Former child actor Adam Wylie -- who starred on the hit show, "Picket Fences" -- is in a little hot water for hitting up the ol' Target boutique and allegedly leaving without paying for a bunch of stuff.

Burbank PD tells TMZ ... the loss prevention team at the local Target store spotted Adam on Friday the 13th -- what luck -- taking health and beauty products from a display shelf and loading them in a shopping cart with other items.

They say Adam headed to the self-checkout area, but only scanned some of the items from his cart before heading for the exit. Once he got outside with the merch, store security nabbed him.

We're told the items recovered totaled $108, and Burbank police arrived shortly thereafter, citing Wylie for petty theft before releasing him.

Young Adam had a very memorable face in his role as Zachary on the '90s TV show "Picket Fences" ... playing the son of Sheriff Brock. He also appeared in "Kindergarten Cop," the Disney Channel film "Under Wraps" and on Broadway in 2002's "Into the Woods."

Orange you pumped pumpkins are at the forefront of your feeds? Stars have been showing off their festive finds and enjoying their seeds! What better way to honor these gourd-geous pics on National Pumpkin Day?!

Dylan Sprouse posed next to two nearly identical pumpkins, showing how 'suite life' can be with some big ole squash!

And harvesting any day now ... Kourtney Kardashian flaunted her beautiful baby bump next to a pack of decorative pumpkins.

If anyone in New England still had thoughts of cutting ties with Bill Belichick this season despite the Patriots' upset win over the Bills on Sunday ... Rob Gronkowski tells TMZ Sports they need to change that mentality ASAP.

Out at LAX just a day after his old team beat Buffalo on a last-second touchdown, Gronk said he's nearly positive Belichick will continue his squad's turnaround after improving its record to 2-5.

"They could definitely build off that momentum now," the former Patriots tight end said, "and do a little damage this year."

While never quite this bad, Gronk told us he saw some darker times with Belichick when he was with "The Hoodie" in New England ... and yet, he explained Belichick "always" found a way out of it.

"He'll keep it together, that's for sure," Gronk said. "If there's one thing that he taught us, it's to always black out the outside noise. So, I'm 100 percent sure that's what he's doing."

Of course, some fans aren't as convinced ... while the Pats' win over their divisional rival was a big one -- a loud portion of New England faithful still seem ready to move on from Belichick.

But, according to Gronk, there needs to be patience when it comes to the coaching GOAT.

American actor Sterling Beaumon was just 13 years old when he was cast as Max Doyle -- the aspiring magician who is half-psychic and afraid of ghosts -- in the fantasy film "Mostly Ghostly" back in 2008.

Beaumon shared the big screen with Brian Stepanek as the evil ghost, who tortures Max in hopes of finding the ghost siblings, Phears, Luke Benward as Max's friend who becomes frightened when realizing he's a ghost, Nicky, and Madison Pettis as Nicky's brave sister and ghost, Tara.

Sterling also played the young version of Benjamin Linus on ABC's "Lost."

"The Walking Dead" actor Erik Jensen has been diagnosed with stage four cancer ... this according to his wife, who has started a GoFundMe to help cover the rising costs.

Erik's wife, Jessica Blank, said on the fundraiser her husband has stage four colorectal cancer ... and his diagnosis is coming a year and a half after he survived a brain aneurysm.

She says Erik's cancer "has metastasized to his liver," but his doctors "have a shot at shrinking the tumors enough to do two very major surgeries and get them all out" ... adding how strong and resilient her husband is.

Jessica points out that Erik, like countless other actors like him, has been financially affected by the "lack of streaming residuals" over the years ... not to mention the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike, which has shut down most of Hollywood.

She says they have mountains of medical costs, and now Erik's facing "serious risk" of losing SAG insurance ... which is why she's asking for his fans to help in any way they can.

It seems like folks have already been supporting Erik during his health crisis -- he's received over $97k in a week, with a goal of $300k.

The writing's on the wall -- or the body -- for the downfall of Mauricio Umansky's relationship with Kyle Richards ... 'cause the guy forgot how many tattoos his wife's got.

Kyle informed Mauricio about her tat count in a preview for the upcoming season of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," which premieres Wednesday night on Bravo -- while he was convinced Kyle only had 3 pieces on her, he forgot about 2 others.

She even threw a playful jab at him when tattoo numbers 4 and 5 slipped his mind ... telling him he should be paying a bit more attention to her body. 👀

Kyle and Mauricio pulled the plug on their relationship after production wrapped for the reality show, but the camera crew got back to work quickly after news broke about the split ... so it's unclear if this was shot while they were still together or not, but the tension is strong.

As we reported, the couple split in July after 27 years of marriage, but both have denied any talk of them going through with a divorce -- they've also been living under the same roof, with sources saying their relationship is "generally amicable."

However, the pot was definitely stirred this week after Mauricio and his 'DWTS' partner, Emma Slater, were photographed holding hands while out to dinner ... resulting in Kyle deleting a pic of the 2 dancers from her social media.

Travis Kelce's ex-girlfriend is opening up on her decision to cut ties with Brittany and Patrick Mahomes on social media ... saying she still has love for her friends, but she had to create a distance to "protect" herself amid the tight end's new romance with Taylor Swift.

Kayla Nicole -- who dated Kelce for five years -- hit the "unfollow" button on her longtime friends' Instagram accounts last month ... something she says she discussed with Brittany in private.

"I do think it's important to publicly address this because I did publicly unfollow people," Nicole told People. "The reality is I know these people in real life. And so, in real life, I've communicated to these people why I've had to publicly make the decisions that I made."

Shortly after Kayla's social media activity, many speculated she was pissed about Brittany getting chummy with her ex's new woman ... but she says that's not the case -- seemingly claiming she is still in contact with not only the Mahomeses, but Travis as well.

"To everyone it's like, 'Oh, you broke up a year ago,' and that meant it's like a light switch, you turn it on and off and everything goes dead and black and you don't ever speak to anyone ever again. That's not reality. I have ongoing relationships with all parties involved."

Kayla added Brittany knows she still cares about her ... but it sounds like she decided to separate herself in the public space to avoid further drama as she looks to move on with her life.

Britney Spears' book isn't the only thing with a lot of eyes and ears right now ... cuz her music has racked up MILLIONS of streams just one day after her tell-all hit shelves.

According to data from Spotify and YouTube, Britney's library received over 7.1 million streams Wednesday -- the day after "The Woman in Me" became available -- with Spotify accounting for 4.7M of those listens.

As for how the listening streams break down -- Britney's album, "In The Zone," grabbed around 1 mil ... "Circus" got 790k, "...Baby One More Time" got roughly 750k, and "Oops!...I Did It Again" had around 650k streams.

In terms of individual songs on Spotify, "Toxic" came out on top with around 680,000 streams -- while her other megahits like "Gimme More" "Oops! ... I Did it Again" and "... Baby One More Time" landed bewteen the 400,000 - 500,000 mark.

YouTube data shows "... Baby One More Time" -- her debut single -- grabbed over 400k clicks alone. Safe to say, there's some great cross-promotion going on here.

As we reported, Britney is reeling in 25% of net profits from her new book. Sources told us it should cover the advance she got, which was $12.5 MILLION. More than 400,000 copies have already been sold ... but our sources say the trajectory could go over 1M.

Britney Spears says she once felt something otherworldly while driving through the Arizona desert ... describing the eerie feeling as God, a higher power or a paranormal experience.

The singer says the feeling came over her when she was speeding through the desert in a convertible with a friend ... saying she had escaped to Arizona to mentally recover from her abortion and breakup with Justin Timberlake.

In her "The Woman In Me" memoir, Britney says the split made her feel like she was under a curse and she went to Arizona with a friend who had broken up with JT's best friend at around the same time ... with the goal of getting away from it all.

Britney says the sky overhead was full of stars and they were driving with the top down and the wind blowing in their hair when "an eerie feeling settled over me," later describing it as "a profound beauty, otherworldly and humbling."

She says she stopped herself from asking her friend, "Do you believe in aliens?"

Britney says she "stayed quiet and sat there with the feeling for a long moment" ... until her friend asked her, "Do you feel that? What is that?"

While Britney can't put her finger on what they felt out there in the desert that night, she says "we felt it at that moment because we needed it. We were so spiritually open and so raw. It showed us there was more than just what we could see."

Shakira's stage presence clearly didn't rub off on Gerard Piqué during their relationship ... 'cause the soccer star took a nasty fall off a platform Tuesday night -- and the singer's fans are dubbing it payback.

The retired Spanish defender was finishing up an event for his new 7-on-7 organization, Kings League Américas ... when he started walking toward the side of the stage to interact with his supporters.

Unfortunately for GP, it appears he wasn't too focused on where he was going ... and the dude straight-up plunged right into a hole.

The crowd above the stage quickly peeked over the railing to check and see if the former Barcelona star was okay ... and according to reports, he was able to escape uninjured.

The incident was quickly shared on social media ... and Shakira's fans started firing off posts about how the whole thing was revenge for his nasty split from the Grammy winner last year.

"Don't disrespect the stage queen and then expect the stage to respect you," one X user said ... while another added, "Things haven't been working out for him since Shakira got her hips outta there."

Of course, Shakira went scorched-earth on her ex after he went public with Clara Chia Marti seven months after their breakup ... even dropping a diss song featuring the famous line, "You traded a Ferrari for a Twingo."

Mark Zuckerberg's Meta made sure to design Facebook and Instagram so they are super hard to quit, and the result has been bad for society ... at least that's the allegation from Tennessee's Attorney General, and 41 other AGs.

Jonathan Skrmetti, the Volunteer State's top cop, joined us Wednesday on "TMZ Live" to lay out why 41 states -- and Washington, DC -- are suing Facebook and Instagram's parent company for allegedly harming our nation's youth.

He says the social media apps are intentionally designed to take advantage of the way we're all wired -- making the platforms extremely addicting with features like infinite scrolling, reminders and notifications, just to name a few.

Skrmetti says Meta is fully aware the apps are hard to quit and bad for folks -- he says they cause sleep deprivation, anxiety, ADD, depression and potential suicide.

In his eyes, there's only so much parents can do to stop their kids from getting hooked on social media, and it's at a point now where the government needs to step in to make changes.

Britney Spears stands to make a fortune off her memoir, because TMZ has learned she's pulling in 25% of the net profits from the book.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ, the 25% Britney is getting should cover the advance she got -- $12.5 million. There have been reports she received a $15 million advance, but we know it's $12.5 mil.

"The Woman in Me" is selling at $23.05 a pop on Amazon from its original $32.99 price ... $16.99 for Kindle. The audio CD goes for $29.69 a pop.

More than 400,000 copies have been sold, and the trajectory could take the book north of a million.

Our sources say the unsung hero in the success of the book is Britney's best friend/manager Cade Hudson. Multiple sources tell TMZ, Hudson repeatedly pushed Britney to write and finish the book. There were times she wanted nothing to do with it, but Hudson pushed her and eventually -- belatedly -- it happened.

Wiz Khalifa says he's been dry for 8 months and is a better man for it ... but he's got no plans to abandon weed and shrooms.

The "Black & Yellow" rapper is back with a new album "Khali Sober," which he explained on the "Cuhmunity" podcast as his custom spin on sobriety living in the Golden State.

Wiz says his key to quitting drinking was he stopped taking sips in between takes while recording in the booth and ultimately decided to stop after the occasional lapse during performance time or family functions.

He tested out being booze-free on the road for the first time ever this past summer when he and Snoop Dogg embarked on their High School Reunion Tour ... and had everyone getting in shape without worrying about hangovers.

Rappers have been cleaning up their act left and right this year ... the last time we spoke to Lil Uzi Vert, they praised the act of sobriety, having recorded "The Pink Tape" drug-free before it became the first hip hop album to go No. 1 in 2023.

French Montana, Busta Rhymes, Method Man and several other rap legends recently banded together for a healthcare initiative ... it's a growing trend.

Chandler Jones spent about 30 minutes with officers during his September arrest ... and new police video, obtained by TMZ Sports, shows he rambled and made bizarre requests throughout nearly the entire duration of their interaction.

According to police documents, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Dept. officers initially confronted the former Raiders star outside of his ex's house ... after they said he was in violation of a temporary protection order.

In footage captured on one of the responding officer's body cameras ... you can see almost immediately, Jones began making strange requests from inside his Mercedes.

"I want you to grab me and take me out," he said. "Please."

He then asked to have one of the officers put his phone in the other cop's pocket ... before he tried to explain why he was parked out front of his ex's house.

"I'm sorry about this," he said. "The reason why I'm here is because I was taking out her trash, and I was just dropping off the dumpster in the backseat. No problem."

Jones then began asking for more favors from the cops. First, he wanted them to take off his hat. Then he asked if he could sit on the ground -- before he tried to get an officer to itch his nose and pull up his shirt.

Eventually, cops told him they were going to have to take him to jail for violating a TPO -- but when they tried to get him into a squad car, Jones had more issues.

He swore he couldn't fit in the ride, saying, "Look at me. I'm 6'5. I'm a professional athlete, bro. I have 112 sacks -- I play for the Raiders."

Later, he complained that his back was cramping ... and when officers said he could get water at the jail, he asked, "What kind of water do you guys have at the county? Is it Dasani or is it Aquafina?"

Jones then asked the cops for yet another request, seeing if they could give him the keys to his car. A few minutes later, he clearly became agitated.

"Sir, can you take me to jail, sir?" he said. "Because I'll make louder noises, and make a sheriff come out here. Take me to jail now, or I'll make louder noises."

"Sir!" he then yelled. "Oh my God! I need help! Help! Give him the key!"

As Jones piled back into the squad car, he then told a cop, "I will not sue you," before later adding, "I'm a millionaire."

Jones was eventually booked on two separate charges of violating a domestic violence temporary protection order ... before he was released.

According to police documents, though, Jones was arrested once more in early October just days after he got out of jail ... after cops said he violated a TPO again by sending Instagram messages to his ex.