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Stacey Abrams is getting a round of applause from Rep. Karen Bass, who says Georgia wouldn't have gone blue for Biden without Stacey, and now she could help the Dems run the table in D.C.

The U.S. Congresswoman spoke with us Monday on "TMZ Live" and explained why the upcoming run-off elections for two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia are HUGE for her party, and more importantly ... why Abrams deserves a ton of the credit for getting it to this point.

Rep. Bass says Stacey's efforts to register hundreds of thousands in the Peach State, not only helped Biden (who won GA by a hair), but also the Democrat hopefuls looking to replace GOP incumbents.

If Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock beat out their Republican counterparts in a January runoff, the Democratic Party would have the WH, the Senate and the House -- and Biden could push through his agenda without pause.

We also talked coronavirus with the Congresswoman, and while she's happy about Pfizer's claim it has a 90% effective vaccine ... she's also cautiously optimistic.

Dr. Jill Biden is paying her respects to Alex Trebek, and remembering her time with the late "Jeopardy!" host.

The First Lady-elect just posted a picture of her and Alex on the game show set, a throwback to 2016 when she was the Second Lady and a special guest presenting the Final Jeopardy clue. Jill captioned the pic, "Rest In Peace, Alex ❤️."

Jill's 'Jeopardy' appearance came about 3 years before Alex announced he was battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer. As you know, Alex didn't let his cancer diagnosis and chemo treatments stop him from hosting his game show ... just as impressively as ever.

As we first reported, Alex passed away peacefully at his home Sunday morning, surrounded by friends and family.

Alex's death came the morning after Joe Biden was announced the projected winner of the Presidential election -- a very emotional weekend for Jill, and America.

Orlando Bloom might have just expanded his family of 3 with Katy Perry to a family of 4 ... thanks to a new pooch.

Orlando's version of Sunday fun day included a little shopping with a new fluffy companion ... a white poodle. Orlando and his new companion hit up a pet store in Montecito, and it looks like Orlando grabbed a bag full of things for his new best friend.

The new pup comes into Orlando & Co.'s life nearly 4 months after the actor made a tearful goodbye to his beloved dog, Mighty. As we reported ... Orlando was inconsolable after his dog disappeared in the Santa Barbara area.

We don't know yet if the new dog is a permanent addition or just a visitor in the Bloom-Perry household -- but a new pup would just be more for them to celebrate.

At last!!! It looks like a COVID vaccine is on the horizon that will change the world.

Pfizer just released incredible data -- preliminary though it is -- showing they've developed a vaccine that is MORE THAN 90% EFFECTIVE IN PREVENTING CORONAVIRUS INFECTIONS. That level of protection matches the effectiveness of the measles vaccine, which has effectively wiped out that disease.

Scientists were warning a vaccine might only be 55% effective ... maybe slightly higher, but we hadn't heard percentages like this before in the various trials.

The stock market reacted in spectacular fashion ... futures are up 1500 points, and it makes sense -- the pandemic has wiped out our economy, and this is the light at the end of the tunnel.

Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer's CEO, called the results a "great day for science and humanity."

The vaccine requires 2 doses, and the protection kicks in 28 days after the initial dose.

As for the size of the trial ... pretty impressive. There were 43,538 participants, and of those, there were 94 confirmed COVID infections.

Pfizer says by year's end it should have enough doses to immunize 15 million to 20 million people.

The Operation Warp Speed folks have promised Pfizer nearly $2 billion to deliver 100 million doses to Americans free of charge.

Larsa Pippen says her falling out with Kim Kardashian and her sisters was at the behest of Kanye West ... who she believes has brainwashed all of them.

Larsa opened up about her relationship with Kim on the "Hollywood Raw Podcast," saying the rift began earlier this year because Kanye didn't trust anyone with Kim ... which led to Larsa and Kim unfollowing each other on social media.

Larsa believes Kanye then got Kourtney and Khloe to turn on her too by making her out to be a bad seed ... even though she says she had nothing but love for all of them.

Larsa says she and Kanye never had any serious altercations either ... but she mentions an alleged incident between Travis Scott and her that could have set off Kanye.

She also claims Kanye used to call her a lot to vent about stuff ... but she eventually got tired of it and blocked his number. Larsa says Kanye didn't like that either.

President Trump's eldest son has his tinfoil hat on Monday morning -- he thinks the promising COVID vaccine news coming out right after the election is more than coincidence ... he's insinuating the drug company held its findings back till after the election so Trump wouldn't get a bounce and possibly win as a result.

Donald Trump Jr.'s response to Pfizer developing a coronavirus vaccine that may be more than 90 percent effective ... "Nothing nefarious about the timing of this at all right?"

The President repeatedly claimed during the lead up to the election that a vaccine would be announced before voting day. On top of that, Trump touted Pfizer as a company with great promise in finding a vaccine. So his son is suggesting the findings were available but held back.

For his part, President Trump took a different approach to Pfizer's vaccine results by tweeting -- in all caps -- "STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!"

President-elect Biden says he was informed of the vaccine development Sunday night and says, "I congratulate the brilliant women and men who helped produce this breakthrough and to give us such cause for hope."

Bert Belasco -- famous from BET's "Let's Stay Together" -- has died ... TMZ has learned.

Bert's father, Bert Sr., tells us his son's body was found Sunday inside a hotel room in Richmond, VA -- where we're told he was about to start on a project for a new movie role. Bert Sr. says Bert was required to quarantine at the hotel before he could come on set.

While the circumstances of his death are unclear, we do know Bert's girlfriend couldn't get a hold of him and eventually asked hotel staff to check on him. We're told when he was discovered, there was blood on the sheets -- the family is awaiting autopsy results.

His father tells us he believes his son suffered a fatal aneurysm.

Bert's career was well on the way up -- even at his young age, he's already racked up 23 acting credits and had starred in a bunch of shows and movies. Obviously, he's perhaps most well-known for playing Charles Whitmore on 'LST' for 52 episodes between 2011 and 2014.

He also appeared on several episodes of "Pitch," "I'm Dying Up Here," and has lots of one-off roles in series such as "American Princess," "Superstore," "The Mick," "The Soul Man," "No Names," "The Big Show Show," 'NCIS,' 'Key and Peele,' 'Justified' and others.

Bert had just turned 38.

One day, we'll be able to zip through tubes at super-fast speeds like "The Jetsons" -- and that day is coming sooner than later thanks to Sir Richard Branson's company ... which just tried it out with humans.

Virgin Hyperloop announced Monday it had successfully tested a Hyperloop ride with a couple of passengers -- 2 company execs -- over the weekend out at their Las Vegas test site.

The track -- which is, in fact, completely tubular -- only runs about 500 meters or so, and because of that ... the pod was only able to reach up to 100 MPH.

Normally, according to techy lore, a full-blown hyperloop track should (theoretically) be capable of firing down a cylinder at around 600 MPH -- which is faster than a freakin' airplane. Unfortunately, this test didn't quite get there ... but by all accounts, it was a huge first step.

If you're unfamiliar with what a hyperloop system is exactly, it's basically propelled by magnets -- with zero friction on the vehicle you're actually traveling in. So, in other words, you're pretty much hovering ... and because of that, sky's the limit as far as speed. Again, in theory.

There are other companies and wizzes that have eyed getting into the hyperloop market -- like Elon Musk, for example -- but with Virgin ... it seems they're the first ones through the gate on this endeavor. There's other hyperloop-like tech already in use in places like Japan and Germany ... where some of their train systems use magnetic tracks.

It's not quite like this though, and if Virgin continues to roll out passenger tests with more success -- not to mention building out their track for faster speeds -- it could open a whole new mode of transportation, the likes of which we've never seen but were always promised.

We have POTUS, FLOTUS, SCOTUS and now ... an official title for the First Family's furry friends, DOTUS, which just became Twitter official.

Dr. Jill and President-Elect Biden set up online accounts for their 2 German Shepherds, Major and Champ, with a handle of @First_Dogs_USA. Unfortunately, some troll already snapped up @DOTUS, which is dedicated to "The Don of the U.S." -- so the Bidens settled for this.

Their bio reads, "We are the First Dogs of the USA, Champ and Major Biden,” their Twitter profile said. “You can call us #DOTUS. We love nom noms, snuggles and we can’t wait to explore the WH!”

Doesn't look like the dogs have a formal Instagram account dedicated to their White House adventures just yet ... which would be a good idea, since more people probably wanna SEE Major and Champ more so than read their canine thoughts and musings. Just a thought!

As of Monday morning, the DOTUS Twitter page has over 94k followers, and counting.

Like we told you, Major and Champ will be the first dogs in the White House since Barack Obama was there with his family's two Portuguese Waterdogs, Sunny and Bo. Not just that, but Major is the first rescue to set its paws down at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Morgan Wallen's pissed Joe Biden supporters can pack in together to fill the streets in celebration during the pandemic, yet he can't perform concerts.

The country music star posted a video showing the massive group of people outside the White House celebrating President-elect Biden's victory ... with zero social distancing.

Wallen wrote "Time to start booking shows" which was shortly followed by "The hypocrisy is unreal." His beef?

It's clear he feels there's a double standard ... given he lost his 'SNL' gig last month after he was seen partying irresponsibly in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, yet Biden supporters have no problem gathering in large crowds to celebrate.

As we reported ... Wallen was seen at a bar taking shots and kissing women and at a house party. He wasn't wearing a mask, much less social distancing. At the time, Wallen admitted his actions were "short-sighted" and he seemed contrite about losing his opportunity.

But now ... Wallen's fuming he got canceled for the exact same thing Biden supporters did over the weekend. He wrote, "If it's OK for us to party in the streets with no 'social distancing' then we can book shows right now." Morgan points out ... his band and crew have families to feed, which they can't do without touring.

Better start warming up that arm, Mr. President-Elect.

The Washington Nationals have invited Joe Biden to throw out of the first pitch of the 2021 season -- when they take on the New York Mets at home on April 1st.

And, right now, it seems they expect him to accept.

"We look forward to hosting President-Elect Biden on Opening Day of the 2021 season," the team said in a statement.

"We're excited to continue the long-standing tradition of sitting Presidents throwing out the first pitch at the home of the national pastime in our nation's capital."

Worth noting ... Donald Trump did NOT throw out a ceremonial first pitch at an MLB game during his presidency -- the ONLY president to skip the tradition since it began with William Taft in 1910.

Trump famously attended Game 5 of the 2019 World Series when the Nationals played the Houston Astros -- but he didn't throw out the first pitch.

As for Biden, he played a little baseball as a kid -- and threw out the first pitch for the Baltimore Orioles during Opening Day in 2009.

The pitch wasn't horrible (looking at YOU, Dr. Fauci) ... but it wasn't a perfect strike either.

Michael Jackson's famous Neverland Ranch is the backdrop for a new music video, but it's not for a posthumous MJ track ... it's an artist who allegedly snuck onto the property.

Here's the deal ... up-and-coming artist Daeshard shot his music vid this summer, and while he tells us he had permission to be at Neverland Ranch, the folks who run the property say he's full of it.

MJ fans who came across Daeshard's video started to raise the alarm, saying there's no way someone would be approved to film a project at Neverland Ranch. We reached out to honchos at Colony Capital, which owns the ranch, and they tell us the video was NOT authorized.

Colony Capital claims the people who shot the video, including Daeshard, were trespassing and security asked them to leave, which they did.

Sources close to the situation tell us security spotted 3 individuals with 3 GoPro cameras and an iPhone shooting the video on July 23.

Our sources say security told them they were trespassing, and ordered them to erase the footage and get off the grounds. We're told security erased footage right in front of them and thought everything was erased before they left, and that's the only reason they didn't call the police.

But, Daeshard obviously didn't stop till he got enough ... footage. His music video was recently released, and very clearly shows him rapping all over the ranch.

He also posted a pic from the property ... so, it's not like he's trying to hide it.

Our sources claim the group intentionally hid some of the footage when confronted by security.

Steve-O thinks Oregon's new law legalizing drugs is going to create enormous problems, because he thinks it opens the door for young people to become addicts.

The "Jackass" star tells TMZ ... anyone looking to do cocaine, meth or any other hard drug will find a way to scratch that itch whether there's a law against it or not. But, with Oregon recently voting to decriminalize possession of small amounts of cocaine, heroin, oxycodone and meth ... Steve-O thinks it may send the wrong message.

Steve-O -- who's been sober for over a decade -- thought it was a joke when he heard about the new law. That said ... he worries the new law may make it seem like it's OK for kids to try cocaine and meth.

Evander Holyfield has a message for Mike Tyson -- I WANT NEXT!

Here's footage of 58-year-old Evander busting his ass at the Heavyweight Factory gym in Hollywood, FL -- and we're told it's all in the hopes of getting a rematch with his old rival.

We've been covering Evander's comeback for months -- after Mike Tyson announced he would be returning to the ring, Holyfield followed suit.

Now, with Mike set to take on Roy Jones Jr. on Nov. 28 -- we're told Evander wants the next fight with "Iron Mike" ... and feels confident he can win.

And, get this ... our Holyfield sources tell us they believe Tyson is actually avoiding Evander.

One source put it this, "It's not even about the money at this point, I think Tyson is scared."

"We've offered multiple times and Tyson vs. Holyfield is the fight that should happen."

Tyson and Holyfield first clashed back in 1996 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas -- where Evander dominated Mike in an 11th round TKO.

Everyone remembers the rematch in 1997 -- the last time Evander had two intact ears.

Tyson was disqualified in the 3rd round for taking a few bites out of Holyfield's lobes.

Years later, Tyson apologized to Holyfield and they became friends ... but it's clear, Holyfield is itching for another chance to punch Mike in the face.

Tyson has said he wants to continue fighting after the Roy Jones match -- but hasn't locked in any opponents.

"Too Hot to Handle" star Bryce Hirschberg has a new hook to impress the ladies -- it's new music to float their boat ... and it was written, recorded and produced on his floating studio.

The reality star tells TMZ he needed to stay productive and creative during quarantine this year, so he came up with his soon-to-be-released single, "Midnight Mystery."

The track was made entirely on his infamous houseboat in Marina del Rey -- living on a boat was his claim to fame on the Netflix dating show -- and it's set for release later this month on Black Friday.

We've obtained a sneak preview of Bryce's musical debut ... and naturally, he's singing about sex, love and relationships. It's not exactly yacht rock, but it's totally on brand for him.

Remember ... Bryce sang a song for one of the babes on "Too Hot to Handle" while wearing a captain's hat.

Missouri-born model and actress Ola Ray was 23 years old when she shot to stardom after she was cast as Michael Jackson's girlfriend -- both in the '50s werewolf freaky film scene and the zombie uprising -- in the 1983 short film masterpiece, "Thriller," by John Landis.

After her role in the music-movie, Ola was cast as an actor in a long list of television shows and movies including "Cheers," "Beverly Hills Cop II," "Gimme A Break," "The Night Stalker," "Fear City" and many more ... but never reached the same fame she achieved from the MJ music video.