Movies

Machine Gun Kelly went absolutely bananas after one of Megan Fox's movie costars made an artistic request -- so says Tyson Ritter ... who was allegedly on the receiving end of this.

The All-American Rejects front man -- who also dabbles in acting -- was telling the wild tale on Ted Stryker's podcast Tuesday, where he recounted a moment he claims went down in Megan's trailer while they were shooting the film "Johnny & Clyde."

Tyson says he wanted to pitch something to Megan for her death scene -- which they were about to film -- and that included putting his fingers in her mouth ... which made sense in the context of the script, and which he thought would've been a cool thing to try on the fly.

Well, MGK certainly didn't take that ask very kindly ... according to TR, the dude lost it and berated him in front of Megan -- going "apes***," as Tyson describes, and from 0-100.

Tyson says he just sorta WTF'd his way out of it, and it definitely doesn't sound like the finger-in-mouth idea was attempted. However, some good did come from the confrontation ... Tyson explains that he was actually inspired by Kelly's burst of energy and emotion.

You see ... Tyson says he was working on another movie around the same time, and he was trying to figure out a way to approach a certain scene in which he also needed to go ballistic out of nowhere. After seeing MGK do it in the flesh in front of him, he says he did the same on set for his other movie ... and that it ended up making it into the flick.

Pee-wee Herman is going on another big adventure -- only this time it's going to be in court ... 'cause the guy just filed a lawsuit claiming his priceless belongings have been jacked.

Paul Reubens -- who played Pee-wee on TV and on the big screen for years -- is suing James Comisar and his memorabilia company, The Comisar Collection, for what he says is straight-up theft of some of the old, iconic props that he walked away from the show with way back when.

In the docs, obtained by TMZ, Reubens claims that he loaned certain items from "Pee-wee's Playhouse" to Comisar -- with the understanding that this stuff would make its way into a "Museum of Television" for display to the public and based on the promise he could get the stuff back upon his request ... but Reubens said he later discovered there was no museum at all and Comisar was keeping the items for their private collection.

Reubens said when he demanded return of the stuff, the dude held onto the items and claimed they'd been "gifted" to them -- and ultimately started hocking them at auction ... keeping the profits for himself.

Reubens says the collection includes some notable props that fans would certainly recognize ... like the Dog Chair, the Floory puppets, and Mr. Window -- plus, Reubens says, cue cards and signed photos from the set that are all worth a pretty penny to any TV enthusiast.

Reubens now wants the court to sort it all out and is asking the judge for an order stating he's entitled to immediate possession of the items or, if they can't be recovered from folks who already bought the stuff at auction, for at least $1 million

He also wants an injunction to stop the sale of whatever else may be left. We've reached out to Comisar ... so far, no word back.

Safe to say Serena Williams' 5-year-old daughter is a big fan of "The Little Mermaid" ... Olympia LOST IT after she got a Halle Bailey "Ariel" doll, and the entire adorable reaction was captured on video!

The video, which was shared on Olympia's Instagram, shows dad Alexis Ohanian handing his daughter a package from Amazon.

"Momma and poppa wanted to get this for you," Ohanian said.

When Olympia realized it was Bailey as Ariel, she (literally) jumped for joy ... and started screaming hysterically.

"Yay! 'Little Mermaid!'" Olympia yelled. "Thank you!"

Olympia explained it was her first LM doll ... and even broke down how she was going to play with Ariel for Mom and Dad.

The 2023 live-action version of "The Little Mermaid" has been a hit at the box office ... with Bailey recently celebrating the movie being number one in the world.

The movie reportedly grossed over $164 million globally over Memorial Day weekend, according to Deadline.

Of course, Olympia also made news a few days ago, losing it when Serena told her she was going to be a big sister!

The 23-time Grand Slam champ said Olympia had wanted a baby brother/sister ... and she's finally getting her wish.

T.J. Newman is on a journey from flight attendant to Hollywood scriptwriter -- she wrote a book that became a bestseller, and now her second novel is getting turned into a screenplay, creating a bidding war in the process.

T.J. joined us on "TMZ Live" and told us all about her new book, "Drowning," which comes out today ... telling us why her story is so coveted by movie studios and big-shot Hollywood producers.

Like her best-selling debut "Falling," T.J.'s new novel takes place on an airplane ... with the jetliner crashing into the ocean after taking off from Hawaii, trapping passengers in a cabin as it sinks beneath the waves. It's aviation's version of the famous "Poseidon Adventure."

T.J. says she wanted to write about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances ... and there was a bidding war for the movie rights, pitting Nicole Kidman against the likes of Steven Spielberg and Jerry Bruckheimer, plus the usual movie studio suspects.

In the end, Warner Bros. emerged victorious ... shelling out $3 million and bringing T.J. along for the ride as an executive producer.

This makes T.J. 2-for-2 in Hollywood -- her first novel, "Falling," is also being turned into a movie after flying off the shelves ... Universal Pictures paid $1.5 million for the movie rights to her best-selling debut novel, also winning a bidding war.

T.J. says she's actually writing the screenplay for "Falling" ... an honor she says is "bonkers" and a process that brings new challenges.

Something about the new live-action version of "The Little Mermaid" isn't sitting right with singer Paloma Faith ... who says the movie's plot is a really hard one to explain to her kiddos.

Paloma took to social media over the weekend, first congratulating Halle Bailey for her performance in the new Disney flick -- before dragging the story's main focus, saying "I don’t want my kids to think it’s ok to give up your entire voice and your powers to love a man."

She added, "Wtf is this s***?! Not what I want to be teaching next gen women at all.” Of course, she's referring to Ariel giving up her own voice to become a human to be with her love interest, Prince Eric.

For those unaware, it's the same trope that was used in the original 1989 version, so it seems Paloma might've forgotten the story before watching this new adaptation.

However, Halle told Edition earlier this year that her new version "definitely changed that perspective of just her wanting to leave the ocean for a boy ... It’s way bigger than that. It’s about herself, her purpose, her freedom, her life and what she wants.”

Milt Larsen, founder of the legendary Magic Castle, has died.

Family sources tell TMZ Milt passed away in his sleep Sunday night at his home in Hollywood with his close friends and family by his side.

Milt is known heavily in the world of magic -- forming the ever-popular Magic Castle ... a private club for magicians located in the heart of Hollywood, CA which is also home to the Academy of Magical Arts.

He and his brother Bill grew up together in a family of magicians, and worked together to promote the Castle and recruit members, opening the doors in 1963.

Milt also celebrated the 50th anniversary of his annual stage show, "It's Magic!" with a big bash at the then-Kodak Theater in 2006. He and Bill also were honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Milt's family was named 1 of the 100 most influential magicians of the 20th century in 1999's "Magic" magazine.

Apart from magic, Milt also had a long writing career --  working with Richard M. Sherman of the Sherman Brothers for decades, writing several scores together for nightclub speakeasy revues, comedy albums, and musicals like "Pazzazz!"

He also was a writer for the Bob Barker TV show, "Truth or Consequences" ... as well as "Malibu U" and audience participation shows with the likes of Vin Scully and Jim Nabors.

Milt was 92.

Benedict Cumberbatch's home was subject to a terrifying break-in ... as a man wielding a knife was destroying his property and shouting at the actor and his family while they all feared for their lives inside.

According to Daily Mail, 35-year-old chef Jack Bissell kicked his way through the front gate of Benedict's $3.5 mil North London property -- shouting "I know you've moved here, I hope it burns down" while the actor, his wife, and their 3 kids could hear him just outside their doors.

Bissell, who formerly worked at the Beaumont Hotel in Mayfair, reportedly yanked out one of their plants and threw it against the garden wall ... and also spit on their intercom before ripping it off the building.

The chef fled the scene before things could escalate further ... and luckily, police found his DNA on the intercom, leading to his eventual arrest. He was slapped with a fine and a 3-year restraining order from the Cumberbatch family.

During this month's trial, prosecutors said Bissell bought 2 packs of pita bread at a nearby store before the incident, telling the shopkeeper he was going to break into Benedict's home and burn it down.

Bissell pled guilty and was sentenced on May 10, although specifics surrounding the date the incident occurred haven't been revealed. According to DailyMail, details of the case could not be reported until they "successfully challenged blanket reporting restrictions this week."

It's unclear what the connection is between Bissell and Cumberbatch.

Johnny Depp's American fans are going to have to wait a little longer to see him live, 'cause the guy's got a bum ankle right now ... and it's temporarily put him out of commission.

Sources close to the actor tell TMZ ... Johnny's upcoming U.S. shows with his band, The Hollywood Vampires, are getting postponed on doctor's orders ... as a result of a nagging lower-body injury.

We're told JD recently tweaked his ankle during his Cannes press run, and he stressed it further while trying to power through some recent music gigs ... when he was doing back-to-back Jeff Beck tribute shows. You'll recall ... he was front and center for those in the U.K.

Now, our sources tell us Depp's ankle is fractured and his medical team has instructed him not to fly for the foreseeable future -- which means the first 3 HV gigs are off the table.

Those initial shows were on the East Coast -- Manchester, NH, Boston and Bethel, NY. We're told Johnny and co. are trying to find a way to reschedule them toward the end of their tour -- which will begin to wrap up around late July ... when they'll be in Europe.

Our source tells us Johnny's disappointed over this, explaining ... "Johnny went from two full days of press appearances in Cannes, straight to London for rehearsals and then played two tribute shows in honor of his dear friend, the late great Jeff Beck."

They add, "His ankle was already bothering him at Cannes, and it got progressively worse, but he wanted to honor his commitments for 'Jeanne du Barry' and for Jeff. He’s devastated to postpone the shows, but his doctor believes flying could make the situation much worse. He plans to rest up so the European dates go off without a hitch." Those will start in June.

As we reported ... Johnny's been taking his health much more seriously amid his comeback -- with a lot of rest and clean eating -- and this move is just further evidence of that.

The last time he was in the U.S. was way back in November -- when he did a concert with Jeff Beck here in L.A. Since then, the guy's mostly been across the pond ... this after his W in his defamation case against Amber Heard.

The makeup artist who gave Ursula her look in "The Little Mermaid" says the blowback he's gotten from members of the LGBTQ community is ridiculous ... that only someone from that community should have been tapped for the job.

Peter King, a seasoned makeup artist, has been under fire from some LGBTQ members, who groused Melissa McCarthy's sea witch character -- inspired by drag queen Divine -- should not have been done up at the hands of anyone outside the community.

King went on the offensive, saying, "I find that very offensive. Why can't I do as good a job as a queer makeup artist?"

Mr. King is seasoned at his craft, doing makeup for "The Lord of the Rings," "Star Wars: Episode VIII -- The Last Jedi, and "Spider-Man." He said, "I personally don't get it. Yes, I'm very old now, so that's fine, I get that too, but you know, a makeup artist or makeup designer could design makeup, they don't have to have an attachment to the nature of what they're doing."

Meanwhile, the #1 film this weekend -- expected to top $120M -- had a famous guest in one of the theaters ... Halle Bailey, who posted video of herself in disguise taking in the action.

And, speaking of action, a fight broke out at one theater ... unsure what it was about, but fists were flying -- adult fists -- which is crazy, right?

A sign of the times.

Leo DiCaprio may be as famous for yachting as he is for another, even bigger ship, but these days he's strictly upper deck!

The "Titanic" star was lounging this weekend on the top deck of a super yacht with some buddies ... along the coast of Sardinia.

There he was -- again -- a shirtless Leo lovin' life on the high seas. He was recently seen on another yacht in Cannes, where he was promoting his upcoming flick, "Killers of the Flower Moon."

The movie is a throwback -- an American Western crime drama -- directed by none other than Martin Scorsese.

Leo made an appearance at the Cannes Film Festival but still found the time to jump on a yacht with his pal, Tobey Maguire.

Jodi Benson's looks over the years are out of this world!

Watch and you'll see ... a 38-year-old version of the first 'Little Mermaid' looking absolutely fin-tastic at the premiere of "The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea" in Hollywood, California back in 2000 (left). This was over a decade after the release of the original Disney classic film.

And, 23 years later, the stunning actress recently ran a dinglehopper through her hair and hit the premiere for the live-action, "The Little Mermaid," where she looked like no time had gone by (right).

Jodi has shined like a trove full of whozits and whatzits for decades, but the question is ...

Underneath this mashed-up photo is a comedian and actress who's all about the "girl code," and back in 2018 ... you may have seen her hosting an 'SNL' episode! Grab your shiniest snarfblatt and see if you can play with this unknown star!

Somewhere above the sea, this girl has cracked many knee-slappers in her day like playing Rachel Chu's bestie, and while she may not be the tallest gal on the block, she sure is mighty ... just ask her 'Jumanji' costar Dwayne Johnson.

Can you say "farewell" to this scrambled face before they go after the sea witch?

Jane Fonda isn't chasing award show glory anymore, and she certainly wasn't about to chase the winner of one France's after a director took top honors ... see for yourself.

The actress was on hand Saturday at Cannes, where the the Palme d'Or was awarded to French filmmaker Justine Triet for her flick, 'Anatomy of a Fall' -- with JF announcing her as the winner and there to give her the actual prize ... a scroll/certificate with her name on it.

Watch ... after Triet accepted the award and gave a heartfelt speech, she started heading back to the nearby bleachers onstage where the rest of her team was, as she was prepared to give a round of hugs. Only problem -- she forgot the actual award at the podium!

Jane was right on it, grabbing the certificate and briefly running after Triet to flag her down so she could take her paper hardware with her, but it doesn't look Triet heard her at all.

After quickly realizing it was a lost cause and that Triet wasn't coming back for it anytime soon, Jane stopped in her tracks and chucked the thing at her ... and it made contact. 😅

Everyone in the audience saw it, and the moment was actually captured as part of the broadcast. Funny enough, a gent standing right there picked it up and also tried to giving it to Triet -- but even he was unsuccessful in getting it back to her. She was in the zone!

No harm, no foul -- the certificate is as light as a feather and it doesn't appear she even felt it hit her back when Jane threw it at her. All in all, it was hilarious ... and oh so very Jane.

Katherine Heigl and Ellen Pompeo probably have a lot to talk about since famously parting ways on television over a decade ago -- and they'll do just that in the very near future.

The two actresses -- who once starred opposite each other on "Grey's Anatomy," before KH left the show in 2010 -- are set to be paired up for Variety's latest season of 'Actors on Actors' ... where stars interview each other and talk shop about their craft/projects.

There were a ton of other duos announced Saturday, but Kat/Ellen's stands out -- as these two haven't publicly sat down and talked for a very long time ... and this would mark the first time they've done so since Katherine exited 'Grey's' under controversial circumstances.

Fans of the show probably remember this time well -- Katherine asked showrunner Shonda Rhimes to be let out of her contract 18 months early ... citing harsh work conditions, which she aired out publicly at the time. Plus, she was blowing up as a movie star back then.

Of course, she was allowed to leave ... and her character, Dr. Izzie Stevens, was written off after 6 seasons. Katherine was a fan fave and a staple in the series, until she wasn't.

Since then, Ellen has walked the line when discussing Katherine's departure -- which she rarely has -- but in 2013 ... she offered a candid review of the saga to the New York Post.

She was quoted as saying, "When Katie left, it was tough. You could understand why she wanted to go -- when you’re offered $12 million a movie and you’re only 26. But Katie’s problem is that she should not have renewed her contract. She re-upped, took a big raise and then tried to get off the show. And then her movie career did not take off."

More recently, however, EP has actually praised Heigl for speaking up the way she did in the 2010s ... consenting that the hours were grueling and not conducive to a healthy workplace.

There doesn't appear to be any beef between the two ladies -- the same can't be said for Kat and ex-'Grey's' costar Isaiah Washington -- but people are undoubtedly interested to tune in to see them talk about the old days. BTW, the interview has already been shot.

A former toy owner has claimed Barbie was never for the broke and downtrodden but, rather, for the rich/privileged -- however, as the Queen once said ... recollections may vary.

A fierce debate -- which has largely been one-sided -- unfolded on Twitter this weekend ... this, after comedian Avery Edison posted a tweet that clearly PO'd Barbie fans everywhere, who came out in droves to correct her take on the doll's affordability, historically.

In her OG remarks, which have been deleted, she wrote ... "don't know if this is entirely fair but when someone says 'I grew up loving Barbie' I hear 'my family was not poor.'" She goes on to describe kids who had Barbies growing up as ones who "had savings accounts and went on vacations." Avery also cheekily invited Barbie discourse in a follow-up tweet.

Welp, Twitter was definitely up for it -- users flooded her comments and retweets en masse with a lot of eyebrow-raising and questions ... like, where were you buying your Barbies?

The reason ... it appears Barbie dolls are actually pretty damn cheap, and perhaps always have been -- which flies in the face of what AE was suggesting -- namely, that they were indicators of class and wealth, which is something most people don't seem to agree with.

In fact, some even pulled up old catalogs dating back to the '60s and '70s ... and there, too, the dolls look to have been reasonably priced. American Girl dolls, by contrast, are the "rich kid" toys -- at least that seems to be consensus on Twitter. In other words, Twitter was screaming "WRONG!!!" and quite loudly too. So, what does the original tweeter think now?

Well, she's lamenting the fact this has turned into such an aggressive virtual dunking at her expense, and she's defending herself by saying she was simply sharing her personal memories and offering musings/light-hearted analysis as it relates to the upcoming movie.

AE also slams people resorting to personal attacks for her take, noting how toxic the app truly is ... regardless of who owns it. It's a double-edged sword, really -- Twitter is the town square for debate, but dogpiles are common ... oftentimes over something as silly as this.

Halle Bailey's 'Little Mermaid' got tons of backlash when it was first announced, but now that it's out -- it seems folks are more curious than angry ... 'cause they're flocking to see it.

Disney's latest live-action adaptation hit theaters this weekend -- a 4-day one at that -- and so far, 'TLM' is cleaning up in ticket sales ... projected to land on a record-setting box office haul, with an estimated $120 mil-$130 mil to its name by the time Monday rolls around.

Some analysts have the film pegged to make more than $130MM -- but Disney's hedging their bets, saying it'll probably be closer to $125 MM domestically. Overseas, the movie is said to likely draw an additional $80 mil ... so it could hit around $200 mil soon enough.

That's great for the Mouse House, as this movie reportedly had a budget of about $250 million -- so they need this one to continue doing numbers for a bit to turn a profit.

While there's certainly excitement for the debut weekend, time will tell if Ariel has legs to go the distance in the weeks thereafter. As we reported, "Aladdin" star Mena Massoud recently opined he didn't think it'd hit a billion like his movie did ... which came out pre-pandemic.

Funny enough, with these estimated figures, 'Mermaid' is actually on pace to overtake what "Aladdin" achieved in 2019 -- and it's on a new list of Memorial Day weekend titans. If all goes according to plan, 'TLM' should sit at fourth behind "Top Gun: Maverick," "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End," and "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull."