Twitter

Jennifer Connelly (in the '90s) was way more attractive than Zendaya is today -- and she was considered pretty mid on the hotness scale ... so suggests this weekend's Twitter doofus.

Here's the deal ... a troll on the bird app has everyone fired up over a ludicrous tweet he posted Friday -- in which he tries to shade Zendaya by comparing her to Connelly ... but he inadvertently shaded JC too in the process -- and folks are stunned by his measuring stick.

This fella writes, "Any zoomer who thinks right pic is above average attractive doesn't understand that in the '90s, a '7' looked like left pic." In his tweet, he's got a photo of young Connelly next to an unflattering pic of Z ... so already, Sun Optimist is off to a biased start.

He ends with this wild statement, "'Above average' meant something else back then. There'd be like ten girls as or more beautiful than Connelly working at every chain restaurant."

In other words, this guy is saying that young women in the '90s were simply much prettier, on average, than your everyday hottie in 2023 -- and he's using Jen as an example ... by claiming you could find a million Connellys anywhere in America back then. Again, he's also saying Jen wasn't even considered a true dime in this regard ... a few notches below, in fact.

Two things ... he's a jerk for pitting these two beautiful women against each other -- but also ... a lot of people think he's dead wrong about Connelly, specifically. Many say, she IS a 10!

Zendaya is no slouch either, of course, so his entire premise is absurd. In a follow-up tweet, he says the modern "zoomer" thinks heavier-set women are the cream of the crop ... so he clearly has a bone to pick with the conversation about modern beauty standards, etc.

Not to fan the flames on this or anything, but considering Zen and Jen are knockouts in their own right ... we are somewhat curious who the public considers the lovelier dame here.

LeBron James is sending his thoughts and prayers to Jamie Foxx after the award-winning actor suffered a medical emergency earlier this week.

Foxx, who was in Atlanta shooting a movie with Cameron Diaz, was hospitalized on Tuesday with what we're told was a serious medical issue. We're told Jamie is improving, but is still in the hospital.

James -- who's preparing for the Memphis Grizzlies playoff series -- wrote a heartfelt message on Twitter after hearing about the 55-year-old actor's health scare.

"Sending my thoughts and prayers to the heavens above to my brother @iamjamiefoxx!!!!" the Lakers star tweeted.

"Get well and back to yourself SOONER THAN LATER! God willing 🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽✨✨✨✨✨✨♥"

Jamie and LeBron are buddies ... in fact, Foxx does impressions of the 19x All-Star all the time. He even did it on the 'Jimmy Kimmel' show.

Outside of King James, former NFL star-turned-rapper Antonio Brown also sent well wishes to Foxx.

"Pray For Jamie Fox," AB said on Thursday. "Overly Love."

Sources tell TMZ that Foxx is doing a lot better since the medical emergency and is even joking with the family now.

We're told while Jamie has gotten better, he's likely to remain in the hospital for a few more days.

Symba thinks Doja Cat's anti-Twitter blue checkmark stance is a valid cause ... and he has zero plans to pay for his own verification either!!!

TMZ Hip Hop caught up with the Bay Area-bred lyricist on the set of his upcoming music video, "Hell of a Feeling" with LaRussell, where we took his temp on Doja's comments.

Twitter boss Elon Musk's proposed blue checkmark sweep on April 20 could throw a monkey wrench in artists' reach and visibility, but Doja doesn't give a damn ... basically labeling the check a Veblen good.

LeBron James also railed against the change and Symba wholeheartedly agrees, although he doesn't have a ton of answers on how to separate real and fake celebs without the blue check ... and is still verified himself, for now.

Symba even thinks the Twitter Blue defection could spark some sort of cool-kids movement amongst the unverified.

Lots of folks who watch "Succession" had Sunday night's episode ruined by the Los Angeles Times ... and they're pissed at the newspaper for spoiling a huge plot twist.

For those who have seen the episode already, or don't care to have the hit HBO show spoiled, click here to continue reading.

It seems some 'Star Wars' diehards can't deal with Lizzo and Jack Black's cameos on 'The Mandalorian'  ... 'cause they're calling their appearances the death of the franchise. Yeesh ...

Here's the deal ... the 2 A-listers popped up on last week's episode of the hit Disney+ show, and it ruffled some feathers in the 'Star Wars' fanbase. Some thought the series, and the IP as a whole, had jumped the shark ... and that the magic of 'SW' was over and done with.

That sentiment came to a fever pitch this weekend with one dude's now-viral tweet ... which has spurred a lot of discourse about who, exactly, 'Star Wars' was made for in its original iteration ... and what it's come to represent now. Check out how this fella put it.

The Twitter user writes, "#StarWars isn't for us nerds anymore. We who respect the lore & would be in tears after being cast in one of the movies or shows. Star Wars is now for the popular kids who giggled & high-fived the bullies for stuffing you in your locker."

He adds with some doom and gloom, "It's crashing and #Disney deserves it." Jesus, dude!

The fanboy's thoughts were quite divisive on the bird app, with many responding to his tweet with confusion and shock. Basically, they feel like he's overreacting -- and that 'Star Wars' can (and should) be for everyone ... not just the locker-dwellers from the '70s and '80s.

While many tried shutting this guy down/laughing him off, there's a lot of folks who actually agree with him -- claiming Disney's just out for big names and brands ... and that 'Star Wars' has devolved into a soulless money grab. The Mouse House is definitely out for cash, no doubt, but ya gotta figure they have the best intentions with hires like Lizzo and JB.

Of course, the opinion of an OG goes a long way too ... Billy Dee Williams weighed in on this, and he's cool with Jack and Liz being in the family. That's gotta count for something.

Elon Musk appears to be flip-flopping on whether Twitter considers NPR to be state-run media -- although it's unclear if he's gonna take that label off their account.

The Twit-in-Chief was directly asked about this by an NPR reporter this week ... and when he was shown the hard numbers on where NPR gets its funding -- with only 1% of it coming from the U.S. government, and a majority of it coming from donors -- he relented a bit.

According to the journo -- citing an email exchange he says he was having with Musk personally -- EM apparently didn't understand the difference between public media and state-sanctioned media ... and replied, "Well, then we should fix it" as it pertains to NPR's status.

Musk then supposedly asked for the breakdown of their finances, which the reporter says was provided to him ... to which Musk then apparently responded, "The operating principle at new Twitter is simply fair and equal treatment, so if we label non-US accounts as govt, then we should do the same for US, but it sounds like that might not be accurate here."

Earlier in the day, Musk said NPR's new state-affiliated media label --  which Twitter has yet to remove -- seemed "accurate." But now, based on this new reporting, it sounds like he's not sure. Musk reportedly told this reporter Twitter would mull over a final decision.

Of course, NPR is not state-controlled media -- unlike the ones in North Korea, China and Russia ... it's a nonprofit news org that operates independently and has provided accurate reporting for years. In light of Twitter's designation, NPR has stopped tweeting altogether.

You'd think Barbie fans would be more than satisfied with the latest trailer for the Margot Robbie flick ... but some have a serious question for those who worked on the movie -- where's the freakin' Aqua song?!?!

That's right, fans are scratching their heads at this week's new look at Warner Brothers' "Barbie" -- with many calling the absence of Aqua's "Barbie Girl" a HUGE missed opportunity.

Check out the responses to the missing 1997 hit ... one says it'll be heartbreaking if the song doesn't make the cut.

Another fan points out, the trailer starts with Ken, played by Ryan Gosling, shouting out "Hi Barbie!" ... with Margot responding, "Hi Ken!" ... just like in the Aqua track.

When the movie was first announced, Ulrich Møller-Jørgensen -- manager for Aqua lead singer Lene Nystrøm -- said the track wouldn't be used but never explained why.

Of course, there's been a legal battle between Mattel and Aqua. The toy company filed suit against MCA Records back in 1997 for distributing the track -- Mattel was concerned it would hurt the brand. Aqua came out victorious in the end.

Even Barbie is controversial these days ... jeez.

NLE Choppa's "Slut Me Out (Remix)" hasn't even dropped yet, but it's already pissing off some people in the industry ... due to what they see as blatant misogyny.

The Memphis rapper teased the visual for his updated track on Monday, which raised plenty of eyebrows -- it shows him dog-walking his female costars Sukihana and "Pound Town" rookie rapper Sexxy Red by their colorful weaves.

Sukihana's rap career revolves around XXX tropes and Sexxy Red has been going viral for her song's "my booty-hole brown" lyric ... so yeah, NLE's casting for the video was, arguably, spot-on.

However, Lil Mama disapproved of what she witnessed ... only for Sukihana to get wind of the since-deleted comments, and quickly dragged the "Lip Gloss" rapper for her infamous Jay-Z stage crash of 2009.

An unbothered Lil Mama responded to Suki with an eloquent tongue-lashing -- explaining she feels Black women like Suki uphold negative sexual stereotypes, despite history proving it's the wrong route to go.

TMZ Hip Hop spoke to NLE about the track, and he claimed it was an empowerment anthem ... but good luck convincing folks of that, now that the video clip is out.

Elon Musk's Twitter Blue experiment continues to attract more fallout from its high-profile users ... with a couple of rappers making it clear they won't play Elon's game just to prove it's really them tweeting.

Akon, who's been on the platform since March 2009, recently slammed Elon's verification upheaval ... looking back to the time when Twitter was a startup company that needed celebrity branding to attract more users.

The "Smack That" artist thinks Elon's money grab is essentially a smack in the face after the company once begged him, and other artists, to tweet and bring their fans to the bird app.

The Game didn't spew any venom in Elon's direction, and instead targeted consumers who purchased a blue check ... especially those he knows personally.

From Game's POV ... anyone shameless enough to buy a blue check is too phony to associate with him and should delete his contact info, pronto!!!

The rappers are echoing LeBron James, who recently set off another Twitter Blue defection with his public refusal to pay.

Fact is ... rappers' tweets make headlines all the time, so having a slew of unverified accounts out in the Twitterverse seems like a recipe for chaos. Just a hunch. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Elon Musk has ordered his company, Twitter, to strip the New York Times of their verified checkmark effective immediately -- and it appears he targeted them out of pure spite.

Here's the deal ... the NYT lost its blue/gold checkmark Sunday (we can't even keep up with the colors anymore), which guaranteed verification and authenticated the account as a legit news organization. The timing and reason is no secret ... Elon made the call from the top.

The reason we know that is because EM himself commented on the state of the Times from his personal Twitter account, kinda crapping on them ... literally. He writes, "The real tragedy of @NYTimes is that their propaganda isn’t even interesting."

Elon adds, "Also, their feed is the Twitter equivalent of diarrhea. It’s unreadable. They would have far more real followers if they only posted their top articles. Same applies to all publications." BTW, the Times is the only major legacy news co. to lose its check so far.

Now, as for why the NYT was quite clearly singled out ... well, it seems like Elon was made aware that they publicly said they wouldn't be shelling out to pay for their gold check going forward -- something that all companies will now have to do at a rate of $1,000/month.

They went on record this past week to say ... "We aren't planning to pay the monthly fee for verification of our institutional Twitter accounts." They also said they wouldn't be reimbursing most employees for their own verified accounts either ... except a select few.

They were far from the only media companies to say something similar, FWIW -- CNN, WaPo and the LA Times (just to name a few) are planning to do the same thing ... AKA, not pay.

However, in what looks to be since-deleted tweets from Elon ... he was allegedly only notified about the Times' defiant stance, specifically -- and based on these screengrabs from Twitter sleuths, it sounds like he may have taken it personally and pulled the trigger on 'em early.

One alleged tweet of his says he's going to give folks a few weeks to make the shift (to paying either $8/mo or $1,000/mo) but when he learned the NYT already dug their heels in ... he appears to have said, "OH YEAH?!?" Wouldn't you know it -- now NYT is unverified.

Elon Musk and co. are making a major change to Twitter starting this month -- and it's going affect just about every verified celeb out there ... many of whom aren't happy about it.

Of course, we're talking about the coveted blue checkmarks -- which, for years, have served as the official verification system on the bird app ... to distinguish prominent public figures and other people of note from all the normies. Word is, that's all coming to an end in April.

Going forward, Elon has said he's going to start charging people $8/month for Twitter Blue subscriptions -- giving 'em the option to buy their blue check. Not just that, but he's discontinuing legacy verifications ... that stripping-down is supposed to start today, April 1st.

In other words, all the stars that have enjoyed official verification status are going to be just like the rest of us -- and a good handful are already mourning, Chrissy Teigen included.

She jokingly bid her blue check status farewell with a cheeky response ... indicating she ain't ponying up the cash to stay verified. Ditto for a ton of other celebs, some of whom seem genuinely peeved about this. Jason Alexander says he's outta here if he loses his check.

William Shatner also recently sounded pretty annoyed by the lack of checks and balances in Twitter's new space, writing ... "Hey @elonmusk what’s this about blue checks going away unless we pay Twitter? I’ve been here for 15 years giving my ⏰ & witty thoughts all for bupkis. Now you’re telling me that I have to pay for something you gave me for free? What is this-the Colombia Records & Tape Club?" And Dionne Warwick, too, griped about it.

She writes, "I am not paying for a blue check. That money could (and will) be going towards my extra hot lattes." Ice-T said something similar this week ... vowing to go blue check-less if push comes to shove. As we reported ... LeBron James promised something similar.

A lot of stars seem to be willing to lose their verification if it means they gotta pay, but as of now -- just about everyone still has their checks ... so maybe this is an April Fools' joke?

Probably not. Just a couple days ago, Elon was pointing folks in the direction of Twitter's Verified Organizations system -- which seems geared toward making sure companies, news orgs and other notable entities continue to stay verified on Twitter ... sans impersonation.

Everyone else, though -- including individual journos, etc. -- might have to shell out if they want their blue checks. It's sure to be a s***show for a bit ... we'll see where the chips land.

LeBron James -- a billionaire -- says Elon Musk can't get him to shell out $8 a month to keep his Twitter verification ... admitting he's simply too cheap to cough up the dough.

The new Twitter CEO recently announced major changes to his social media platform ... saying any "legacy" account that wants to keep its blue badge will have to pay starting April 1 -- with a few exceptions to major companies.

The move has been met with hesitancy for several reasons -- one, the date falls on April Fools Day, and Musk is known to be a troll ... so there's still speculation it could all be a stupid prank. Two, most people, LeBron included, don't think it's worth paying nearly $100 a year just to be verified.

"Welp guess my blue ✔ will be gone soon cause if you know me I ain't paying the 5," LeBron tweeted on Friday.

Of course, just because LeBron's filthy rich doesn't mean he's obligated to pay up ... but it's pretty interesting he doesn't care about maintaining his official status, considering he was targeted by trolls when Musk first decided to give blue checks to anyone who paid for Twitter Blue back in November.

The end result was an account pretending to be LeBron making a trade request from the Lakers ... which had NBA Twitter running wild for a split second.

If you're a die-hard Elon Musk fan, then an exciting new auction might be right up your alley, because a couple of unique items from his past could be yours ... if you've got a ton of cash to spend, of course.

Auction house, GottaHaveRockandRoll is kicking off its new Pop Auction Wednesday, and two super rare, Musk-themed finds are in the mix ... one straight from the Tesla CEO's early days.

A rep for GottaHaveRockandRoll tells TMZ ... one collectible is his original business card for Zip2, Elon's first-ever company which licensed city guide software to newspapers. He founded it back in 1995 along with Greg Kouri and Musk's brother, Kimbal.

The card's expected to fetch upwards of $20K -- a ton of change for a piece of paper.

The other piece of history is a signed dollar bill which he inked with the phrase, "To the moon." As you know, Elon's been obsessed with space travel for some time. But, the phrase is also one he's used when promoting crypto like Dogecoin, so it could just be just a plug ... and an ironic one, writing it on legal tender.

NBA player Andre Drummond is going off the grid to improve his mental health ... saying he's quitting social media and changing his phone number to free his mind.

The Chicago Bulls center was open with his struggles to his 840k Twitter followers on Tuesday ... calling on anyone battling similar issues to seek help -- just like he is.

"Deleting all my social apps my Management will take over," Drummond said. "also changing my number .."

"Time to focus on my mental health. If you too are struggling with your mental health, you are not alone 💙 it’s okay to ask for help."

Andre -- who is averaging 6 points and nearly 7 rebounds a game for the Bulls this season --- has spoken out about mental health awareness previously ... and shared his path to wellness in a video with the National Basketball Players Association last year.

Maksym Galinichev -- a European boxing champ and Youth Olympic medalist -- was tragically killed while defending Ukraine against Russian troops. He was only 22.

Galinichev was with the 25th Separate Airborne Sicheslav Brigade (part of Ukraine's Air Assault Force) when he was killed on March 10 ... Anton Gerashchenko, advisor to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, announced on Twitter, saying Galinichev was defending Ukraine in Luhansk region.

"Maksym enlisted as a volunteer and came back to the frontlines twice after being wounded and recovering," Geraschenko said.

"Eternal memory to Hero."

The Ukrainian boxer started his career when he was just 10 -- winning two gold medals at the European Youth Championship and the silver medal at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Argentina.

He could've participated in the European Boxing Championships in Armenia last year but refused so he could join Ukrainian forces.

Tributes from fans and athletes have been flooding social media since his death, including from Vladyslav Heraskevych, the first-ever skeleton racer from Ukraine, who praised Galinichev for defending his country.

"Glory to Hero 😢"

Antoine Dodson -- the guy who became Internet famous for a very memorable interview says he's fine with white people using Black memes ... because they pay for it, literally.

We spoke to the viral star -- whose iconic quotes from the 2010 WAFF news piece, including "hide your kids, hide your wife," were turned into a catchy song -- and he weighed in on the CNN digital Blackface controversy. As it turns, out, he has quite a bit to say about it.

Antoine tells us the argument that whites are maliciously mocking African Americans -- intentionally or otherwise -- through the use of GIFs/memes just isn't his experience. If anything, he says he's only encountered reverence from Caucasians for his own meme fame ... which has translated to cold hard cash when they hire him as talent. Top dollar, at that.

Check out AD's perspective for yourself, because the way he breaks this down is unique ... and sorta scathing. He says if anyone has made him into a joke, it's other Black people.

Antoine says he doesn't really do Black-sponsored engagements 'cause it doesn't compare to the treatment he might get from whites. As he puts it ... if white people are only out to make him a punchline for their amusement, they're going to expensive lengths to do so.

Bottom line ... Antoine feels like the notion we gotta restrict white people's meme usage is ridiculous -- which is how a lot of Twitter users felt about it this weekend, frankly.

While some might agree with the writer, John Blake, the consensus seems to go in the opposite direction -- and Antoine's in that camp. BTW, he also touches on his sister's real-life scary incident being turned into humor ... and he explains why he's good with that too.

Last year Antoine got into the adult beverage business partnering with an Alabama brewery to craft "Run N Tell That" lager and just recently launched his own hot sauce.