*NSYNC Staying Supportive of Justin ... As He's Dragged in Britney Memoir

Justin Timberlake is feelin' the heat amid Britney Spears' new book release -- and all the spilled secrets about their relationship -- but we're told his *NSYNC bros still have his back.

Sources familiar with the situation tell TMZ ... Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, Chris Kirkpatrick, and JC Chasez have nothing but love for Justin, and they're supporting him through all the harsh criticism due to "The Woman in Me."

We're told they've all known him for 25 years, and would be more than happy to be back performing with him ... despite all the negative energy Britney and her loyal fans are aiming at JT.

Remember, in her book Brit blames him for talking her into an abortion, accuses him of cheating and claims a run-in with Justin triggered a panic attack that ruined her 2007 VMA performance.

While *NSYNC fans and RCA Records would love another Reunion, it isn't in the cards right now -- we're told Justin's focused on his new solo single, album and a tour next year.

BTW, our sources say the hate JT's been getting isn't impacting his career plans. The single and tour for next summer are a full go -- however, we're told he's quietly removed some club appearances that were set for early next year, tied to the release of his single and album.

As we reported, there are no current talks about *NSYNC doing more together -- Justin said recording "Better Place" would just be a special thing for his 'Trolls' sequel.

102623_tmz_live_nsync_justin_britney.01_03_18_15.Still022
STICKIN' BY OUR BOY
TMZ.com

Still, our sources say the other 4 members are staying excited about the potential for Justin to change his mind, and get back in a studio -- or on a stage -- together.

Jonathan Majors Ex-GF Arrested for Assaulting Him ... But D.A. Won't Prosecute

The ex-girlfriend who's accusing Jonathan Majors of assaulting her is now herself in trouble with the law for allegedly striking him, and she's now surrendered to police in NYC.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Grace Jabbari was arrested Wednesday evening at Manhattan's 10th Precinct for allegedly attacking the "Creed III" actor after Majors filed a cross complaint against her back on June 22.

Our sources say Jabbari allegedly scratched Majors on his right hand and smacked him across the face with an open hand, causing a cut to his cheek and ear pain. She then allegedly tore buttons off his coat, and damaged the front pocket.

We're told she's being booked for misdemeanor assault and criminal mischief.

102623_tmz_livejonathan_majors_ex_gf_arrested.01_00_55_17.Still021
SURRENDERED TO POLICE
TMZ.com

There's one big problem ... the Manhattan D.A.’s office filed court papers Tuesday, saying it informed the NYPD last month it has no intention of prosecuting Jabbari for "the belated allegations made by defendant [Majors] regarding the incident on March 25, 2023."

Clearly, the D.A. and police are not seeing eye to eye on this case -- NYPD believes it has probable cause to arrest Jabbari, and even though the D.A. didn't ... cops are still booking her.

As for Majors, he was charged with misdemeanor assault and harassment in March after Jabbari accused him of assaulting her inside a Manhattan apartment. Jabbari was later treated for head and neck injuries at a local hospital and released.

jabari small 4/23/23
PARTY ALL NIGHT LONG

Majors believes his side has a smoking gun proving his innocence -- security footage of Jabbari partying all night after the alleged attack. In court docs, Major's attorney Priya Chaudhry noted Jabbari was seen walking normally into the establishment, ordering drinks, dancing and pushing her hair back with the hand she claimed Majors injured.

At a Wednesday hearing, the judge set Major's trial date for November 29.

J Balvin I'm Super Proud of Britney ... For Revealing Truth In Book

102523-j-balvin-kal
IT'S BRITNEY, BITCH
TMZ.com

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.

With Britney hitting a home run here, JB says he hopes she gets in the studio to make some new music, and he's also got an interesting response to a recent diss from Bad Bunny.

Death Row Records OG Diamond Pendants 💎 Could Fetch $1M in Auction!!!

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.

042723-Suge-Knight,-2Pac,-Dr.-Dre--(Video-2)-4-
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
TMZ.com

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

Snoop bought the label last year and Suge's been sharing his version of events with TMZ Hip Hop ... and will do even more on his 'Collect Call' podcast at the end of the month.

'Picket Fences' Star Adam Wylie Arrested for Shoplifting ... Allegedly Hit Target

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."

Adam's also shown off his skills as a magician in recent years, but it looks like his alleged sleight of hand didn't work this time around.

Pumpkin Party In Hollywood ... Go Big Or Gourd Home!

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.

All shapes and sizes ... pumpkins are all a-round town, and they deserve to be celebrated ... Check out our gallery of Celebrity Pumpkin Pics!

Rob Gronkowksi Bill Belichick Will Turn Around Pats ... 'He'll Always Find A Way'

102323-rob-gronkowski-kal
GOTTA STAY LOCKED IN
TMZ.com

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.

"They're just going through a rough patch right now," he said. "I'm sure they're going to bounce back."

Max Doyle In 'Mostly Ghostly' 'Memba Him?!

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."

Guess what he looks like now!

'Walking Dead' Actor Erik Jensen Diagnosed With Stage 4 Cancer

"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.

Fans of the AMC series remember Erik portraying Steven Edwards, a doctor working at the post-apocalyptic medical facility, Grady Memorial Hospital. He's also worked on projects like "Mr. Robot," "The Equalizer," "Chicago P.D.," and "CSI."

Kyle Richards Awkward Exchange with Mauricio ... Wait, How Many Tattoos??

102523-kyle-richards-mauricio-umansky-kal 10/25/23
MY BODY, MY CHOICE
Bravo

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.

We were told Kyle's deletion was intentional ... while Mauricio claimed they held hands because he was overtaken with emotion while talking about marrying Kyle, the 'Real Housewives' star wasn't buying it.

Travis Kelce's Ex, Kayla Nicole I Still Love Brittany Mahomes ... Unfollowed Her To Protect Myself

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.

"That's a lot of history and friendship there, that doesn't change overnight," Kayla said. "But publicly, because things are happening so quickly and so publicly, I have to protect myself. That's really all that is. The love is still there."

Britney Spears Music Catalog Gets Millions Of Listeners ... After Memoir Drops

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.

102523_tmz_live_britney_kal
BRITNEY BREAKS THE BANK
TMZ.com

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 I Had Paranormal Experience ... In Wake Of Timberlake Split

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?"

102523_tmz_live_britney_kal
BRITNEY BREAKS THE BANK
TMZ.com

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."

Trippy.

Gerard Piqué Falls Off the Stage At Event ... Shakira Fans Call It Karma

102523-gerard-pique-kal
GOIN' DOWN
X / @HelianHdz

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."

Guess Taylor Swift ain't the only one singing "Karma" these days!!

TN Attorney General Meta's Apps Too Addictive for Teens ... We're Suing to Make Social Media Safer

102523-jonathan-skrmetti-kal
TIME TO STEP IN
TMZ.com

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.

032323_taylor_lorenz_kal
WHAT ABOUT THE OTHERS
TMZ.com

It's pretty wild ... Skrmetti tells us why social media apps are on par with addictive drugs, and it sounds like more lawsuits will be coming against other social media platforms.

Britney Spears Memoir She's Gettin' 25% of Net Profits from 'Woman in Me'

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.

102523_tmz_live_britney_kal
BRITNEY BREAKS THE BANK
TMZ.com

Britney thanks Hudson in her acknowledgment in the memoir.

Old news is old news!
Be First!

Get TMZ breaking news sent right to your browser!