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Jennette McCurdy owes Josh Peck and his podcast partner for scrapping their debut episode at her request -- so says Josh Peck ... who's now catching flak over this.

The ex-Nickelodeon child star is trending this weekend over an episode of his pod, 'Good Guys,' that aired earlier this month ... which the internet is just learning about right now. The reason he's getting dragged -- JP, according to some, comes across as a bit of a jerk.

Here's the context ... Josh and his right-hand man, Ben Soffer, are talking to Tana Mongeau -- who brings up Jennette's memoir from last year, in which she addresses some childhood trauma she went through at the hands of her family and Nickelodeon execs back in the day.

Tana praises Jennette for speaking her truth -- something Josh/Ben say they also tried to do by having her on as their first guest in August ... in an episode that was never released.

Josh and Ben are giving themselves pats on the back for being "good guys" and nixing the episode after Jennette apparently asked them to (unclear why). However, after some time passed, Josh says he reached out to her again in hopes of getting her back on for a redo.

He says it seemed like she'd inexplicably blocked him -- after which, he says he felt like a little quid pro quo was in order since they did her a solid. Twitter doesn't agree, though.

You can go through the "Josh Peck" trend for yourself to see how people are tearing into the guy -- but bottom line ... they feel like he sounds entitled and completely insensitive here.

Mila Kunis may just be tapped to play The Thing in the new "Fantastic 4" movie -- that is ... if you buy a rumor that's running rampant on Twitter this morning.

A movie insider named @MyTimeToShineH -- who's credited with getting scoops before trade publications, and generally being in the know on superhero news -- sent the bird app into a frenzy Friday when they claimed Mila was in talks to portray a female version of Ben Grimm.

Grimm is the name of the dude in the comics who becomes The Thing ... a giant orange rock figure who fights crime alongside Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman and the Human Torch.

MTTSH writes, "They are looking at Jewish actors, both male AND female for The Thing in Fantastic Four. Mila Kunis is one of them." They added that the director of the upcoming 2025 flick, Matt Shakman, insisted Grimm be portrayed be a real-life Jewish actor ... as the character is explicitly depicted as Jewish in the comic books, albeit in later iterations.

Now, in case it went over your head -- The Thing is a male character ... and has always been portrayed as such. Whether it was Chuck McCann in the '90s cartoon, Michael Chiklis from the 2000s flick, or Jamie Bell from the 2010s version -- The Thing's known as a guy.

Now, however, based on this report -- or gossip, more like -- it sounds like Marvel's possibly looking to switch things up with a little gender swap ... or at the very least, considering it.

As you might imagine ... Twitter users, by and large, aren't reacting well to the news. The jokes are flying -- and the consensus seems to be, if Kevin Feige and co. go down this road, much of the fanbase will turn their backs on the studio ... as they view this as a step too far.

Of course, it wouldn't be the first time a woman replaced a role usually played by a man -- it notably happened in "Ghostbusters" ... and more recently, in 'Black Panther 2' and "She-Hulk." among other examples. Point is ... it's been done before, and sometimes with success.

As for Mila potentially being eyed for the job ... she wouldn't be half bad. Big star with name recognition and a good range of films under her belt, including action movies and comedies.

Elon Musk has taken nothing but heat for a while, but he had an ally Friday night -- one Bill Maher.

Elon appeared one-on-one with the 'Real Time' host, and Bill was more than complimentary. He essentially said, like him or not, Elon Musk is changing the world in profound ways.

As Bill says, the most transformative things in society have come from technology ... the printing press, the light bulb, the phone, the internet, flying, and on and on.

BM gave Elon mad props for his work with reusable rockets, electric cars, the Neuralink, just to mention a few.

Elon was actually funny in the interview, getting laughs and applause from the audience.

As for Twitter, Musk explained he bought the platform because it was censoring too much. As he said, it's easy to allow speech you agree with -- the point of free speech is to allow people to make remarks you may find abhorrent ... presumably still within limits.

They get into cancel culture, politics, the works.

Former Kentucky star Will Levis didn't have his name called during the first night of the NFL draft ... but there's a bit of a silver lining for the quarterback -- 'cause he was in the presence of his smokin' hot girlfriend!!

The 23-year-old QB prospect -- who was expected to be picked early in Thursday's event -- spent his entire evening in the green room, patiently waiting for his phone to ring.

As the night went on, television cameras continued to cut to Levis and his group of loved ones ... which included his parents, sisters, and girlfriend, Gia Duddy.

Naturally, social media erupted over Levis' lady ... with many tweeting about her whenever she'd make an appearance on their screens.

FYI -- Will and Gia went Instagram official back in 2021 ... and based on her posts, she was his biggest cheerleader throughout his college career.

But, it wasn't just Gia who was getting a lot of love -- Levis' sister, Kelley, was also the center of a bunch of posts from football fans.

The good news for those watching the draft?? Night two is just a few hours away ... and we're sure the whole crew will be back to support Levis when his name finally gets called.

Bam Margera is on the run from the police with his girlfriend and her 8-year-old child, and to make matters worse, he's developed an addiction to meth ... at least according to his brother, Jess Margera.

The former "Jackass" star's sibling is making the alarming allegations on Twitter, claiming Bam is in a really bad place right now.

Jess says Bam is traveling by car with his girlfriend and her daughter, and he says he "can't even imagine the environment in that car night now," worrying about the kid's safety and adding ... "she doesn't deserve this unnecessary trauma."

Bam's brother claims he's picked up a meth habit recently and is now "unrecognizable." Jess says he doesn't know what Bam's capable of when he's using meth and says it's been "scary" and "heartbreaking" to see Bam "hallucinating."

TMZ broke the story ... Bam's got a warrant out for his arrest in Pennsylvania, where State Police say Bam got into an altercation with his family and then made a getaway into the woods.

Ben Askren might be sleeping on the couch tonight ... and it's all 'cause he accidentally insulted his wife in what was supposed to be a super sappy appreciation post!!!

The former UFC star unleashed the blunder on both his Twitter and Instagram pages Tuesday afternoon ... when he was trying to praise his spouse, Amy, for being a great mother.

In his comment -- which was left as a caption on a photo of him with Amy and their kids -- he wrote, "I've seen some guys posting on social media lately about how they are winning bc their wife is attractive, while I don’t disagree I think finding a wife who is a great mother is 500% more important!!!"

He added, "Thanks [Amy] for being such a great mom to our kids."

The problem ... there appeared to be an insinuation in his post that perhaps his wife, who he's been married to for over a decade, isn't attractive.

Fans were quick to note the gaffe -- they slammed Askren on social media for the way he worded his compliment ... with many urging him to take it down before she saw it.

But, a little over an hour after he wrote it ... Askren blasted those who thought he was inadvertently calling his wife ugly.

"For those of you who are too dumb to realize multiple things can be true at once. My wife is both very hot and a great mother," the ex-fighter said. "Being a great mother is way more important as I originally stated."

Michael Blackson is rejecting Desiigner's "mental health" apology/explanation for his recent indecent exposure charges -- instead, he thinks it's simply a sign American culture is too soft!

On Tuesday, Desiigner posted a video of himself bumping a new tune while claiming he was moments from checking himself into a treatment facility as the aftermath of his bizarre Delta flight unfolds.

TMZ Hip Hop broke the story, Desiigner is charged with indecent exposure for masturbating in plain sight of multiple flight attendants during a flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis. The FBI says he was even armed with a jar of Vaseline.

Michael thinks Desiigner used mental health as a cop-out for his horniness after he got busted and compared American culture to his native homeland of Africa ... a place he says everything gets blamed on the devil!!!

We recently spoke to G Perico, who doesn't have a dog in the fight in the convo, but unlike Michael, says he can see obvious mental health issues in Desiigner's sitch and wished him well.

Steve Martin and Charlie Sheen are but a handful of celebs who seem to really want their blue checkmarks back on Twitter -- and they're making their concerns known, publicly.

The two Hollywood heavyweights took to the bird app over the past couple days to express their dismay at not being verified anymore -- and they tweeted their gripes too ... letting everyone (as well as Elon Musk, specifically) know they want to be 1 of 1 on Twitter.

First, Steve ... who may or may not be joking here. He writes, "I no longer have a blue check. But I would appreciate it if told me that you still see it. I really need this."

He's getting a lot of responses from fans who say he's still blue checkmark verified in their books ... and that he doesn't need Twitter's validation to be considered legit. Again, considering SM's sense of humor -- we feel like he's low-key trolling in this instance.

Then there's Charlie ... who, perhaps, sounds a bit more serious about wanting back in the blue club. He says with some zest, "dear @elonmusk i’m sorry your fancy rocket exploded in spectacular fashion. I’m certain you’ll build an even bigger and more explody one."

CS adds, "now, may i please have my blue check back? it would mean a lot to me. thank you in advance, sincerely - c sheen." Elon responded, saying he feels Chuck's pain.

Of course, some are responding to both Charlie and Steve and asking the obvious -- if you want a blue check, why not just pay for it ... especially seeing how you can easily afford it??? It's a fair question -- but it's also tricky ... 'cause blue checks are kinda cringe now.

Indeed ... the consensus online seems to be, if you still have a blue check -- except for LeBron, William Shatner and Stephen King (whose checks Elon has explicitly said he's comping) -- you obviously pay for it now ... aka, you're sorta in the "loser club," if you will.

If that is, indeed, the case ... there sure are a lot of "loser" A-listers who still have their checks and who presumably pay Elon $8/month -- including Taylor Swift, Arnold Schwarzenneger, LL Cool J, Khloe Kardashian, John Cena, Soulja Boy, Ellen DeGeneres, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and The Weeknd (who's got a gold checkmark, surprisingly).

All these people have opted to retain their verified status ... and clearly see some value in letting the public know they still are who they say they are. Can't really knock 'em.

Feels like we're back in high school again ... so, pick your clique, we suppose. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Drake Bell is at his breaking point with internet trolls calling him a pedophile, saying they're driving him to the point of suicide, and will have "blood on their hands" if things don't stop.

Bell's been replying to various Twitter accounts over the last few days -- specifically, those calling him "pedo" and claiming he's a registered sex offender -- and trying to defend himself against the false allegations.

Bell tweeted, "Noooo Immmm Nooooooottttt!!!! You people are going to kill me" in reply to someone who called him a sex offender. He responded to another with ... "Nooooo I wasn't!! You people are destroying my life."

In another back-and-forth, one fan wrote, "Let’s not forget he’s a pedo" ... but another actually defended Bell by saying, "He's not though."

Bell eventually chimed in on that convo with, "Do a second of research This is what I have to live with everyday they are literally going to kill me. Bloods on their hands..."

The examples are endless, and clearly, something that's had a serious effect on the actor/singer ... especially in the wake of going missing last week, and his wife filing for divorce.

As for why the trolls are teeing off on him -- remember, Drake was sentenced to 2 years probation back in 2021 after pleading guilty to one felony charge of attempted endangering children. A woman claimed she and Bell started exchanging sexual messages and photos when she was just 15, and eventually met at one of his shows, where she alleges she performed oral sex on him.

Bell did not have to register as a sex offender as a result of that case ... which is why he's so pissed about the repeated tweets accusing him of that.

TMZ broke the story, Bell was reported missing last Friday, and cops considered him "endangered" before they located him several hours later.

Bell's brother had told cops Drake threatened suicide over child custody issues.

His month got worse when we broke the story his estranged wife, Janet, filed for divorce Thursday.

Interestingly enough, Bell also sounded off about his divorce, tweeting, "I found out my wife filed for divorce from TMZ...check out my new song" and dropping a link to his song "Going Away."

Twitter's looking really different right now, as some huge celebs are getting stripped of their precious blue checkmarks ... but despite Elon Musk cutting their verifications, some A-listers are handing the bird the monthly fee.

Taylor Swift, Khloe Kardashian, and Ryan Reynolds are among the bunch putting up cash to keep the badge ... as well as Soulja Boy and The Weeknd.

It doesn't stop there -- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Carter, LL Cool J, O.J. Simpson, Sia, and John Cena seem to be shelling out the dough, too.

If you click on their checkmarks, you'll now see the following response -- "This account is verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue and verified their phone number.”

Worth noting, there are a couple reasons why their usernames still come with a side of blue. For starters, they could be paying to keep Twitter Blue's features -- uploading longer vids, making longer tweets and editing tweets.

Of course, these folks could have been paying the $11/month, and made the decision to unsubscribe within the past month ... so, the checkmark is just there until it expires.

You also might have noticed some celebs who have the check, but say they aren't paying -- well, Elon says he's covering the cost for a chosen few ... his Inner Blue Circle, if you will.

As we reported, celebs like Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian and K-pop group Blackpink all had their verification revoked when the change rolled out Thursday ... but it looks like there are a decent amount doing their part to keep the lights on at Twitter HQ.

LeBron James claimed he was too cheap to keep his blue checkmark, but his account showed otherwise on Thursday -- the Lakers superstar's page is now officially subscribed to Twitter Blue.

Thursday marked the end of legacy verified accounts on Elon Musk's app -- with the majority of users losing their badges unless they ponied up $8 a month to keep it.

As we previously reported, the King made his stance on the move crystal clear last month ... saying, "Welp guess my blue ✔️ will be gone soon cause if you know me I ain’t paying the 5. 🤷🏾‍♂️"

But someone on Bron's team must not have gotten the memo ... 'cause as superstars like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Russell Wilson and Aaron Judge said goodbye to the verify, his still has its badge.

The 4-time champ didn't get any special treatment -- his account's check says he subscribed to Twitter Blue just like everyone else who wanted to keep it.

Tom Brady, Klay Thompson, Conor McGregor and J.J. Watt are on LeBron's side -- their accounts are all subscribed to Twitter Blue as well.

There are now two teams on Twitter -- check and no check -- so, pick a side and tweet away, folks.

Elon Musk's crusade to remove Twitter's blue checkmarks from legacy verified accounts is going into overdrive ... with a couple notable casualties among the celebrity ranks.

Beyonce, Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian and K-pop supergroup BLACKPINK all had their blue checks stripped Thursday from their official Twitter accounts.

Elon targeted April 20 as the date for removing legacy blue checkmarks, announcing his intentions earlier this month, but lots of folks weren't sure if the bird app would actually follow through ... and now the reckoning is here.

For years, Twitter's blue checks were coveted ... they used to serve as the social media platform's official verification system, distinguishing prominent public figures from all the normies.

But, after buying Twitter for $44 billion, Elon decided to go in a different direction ... he's now charging folks $8 a month for subscriptions that come with blue checkmarks, and getting rid of the legacy checkmarks.

Tons of celebs have railed against Elon's policy ... including LeBron James, who said he wouldn't pay for a blue check, only for him to switch course.

Netflix's latest hit show, "Obsession," features a sex scene with just a man and pillow ... and it's freaking out the general public, who are thinking twice about their next check-in.

Richard Armitage's character, William, gets into an affair with his son's fiancée -- played by actress Charlie Murphy -- and at one point in the mini series, he ransacks a hotel room that she had just stayed in ... desperately looking for any lingering sign of her left behind.

Eventually, he finds a pillow on the bed where she slept and picks up her scent ... which then launches him into a full-blown sex act where he's going at it with the cushion, literally. The dude sniffs it up, bites it and humps it like a dog -- as if it was the actual person.

That's where Netflix fans seem to have drawn the line on the kinkiness ... several took to Twitter to express their disgust, joking that they'd never look at another hotel pillow the same way again. That's probably a good rule ... but "Obsession" takes it to a new level.

Of course, a lot of folks are joking with their gross-out takes -- posting funny memes/GIFs to react. Some, it seems, even thought it was pretty hot! To each their own, we suppose.

Here's the crazy part ... the dude himself, Armitage, actually says this scene was largely improvised -- which just speaks to how good of an actor he is -- seeing how damn into it he was on camera. He explains that they were going to do a lipstick thing, but thought the pillow would be more realistic and jarring ... considering how much of a sex fiend the character is.

Latto seems to have no problem picking at the scab covering her Nicki Minaj beef ... and debuted a new song at Coachella that has fans thinking she once again is firing at her!!!

The "Big Energy" rapper provided exactly that Sunday when she premiered a new track on the Sahara stage ... rapping ether like, “Bitches acting like they running shit, they really ran through” and “She thought I would kiss her ass, she mustn’t have took her meds.”

The biggest clues the song was about Nicki came during Latto's song-ending ad-libs ... "Say she got a problem, imaginary smoke/ Bitch, you said it’s up, then put on the floor”

She then walked off the stage yelling, “Pussy hoe… Let a bitch know, we tired of the subtweets this year” ... as she and Nicki's very public Twitter spat is still heavy fodder for her fans as well as the Barbz.

The two fell out after the 2022 Grammy Award noms were released -- where Nicki's "Super Freaky Girl" was absent while Latto's "Big Energy" record made the cut.

From there, an all-out war ensued, complete with leaked phone calls sparking a rift that still hasn't been resolved.

Netflix screwed the pooch on a live reunion that was heavily promoted -- as it turns out, the episode is gonna be taped and aired with a delay ... but it's unclear what the hold-up was.

Of course, we're talking about 'Love Is Blind' ... the fourth season of which just recently wrapped and whose big postmortem episode was advertised as a live event on the streaming service which was set to premiere on Sunday evening. That never happened, though.

When the expected air time hit -- 8 PM ET -- there were mass reports of an error code that was popping up on Netflix ... and the live reunion simply never came, after hours of waiting.

People kept refreshing to see if it was an issue on their end ... but it wasn't. Netflix just wasn't ready to get the cameras rolling, and a proper explanation was never really offered as to why the show hadn't gotten rolling yet ... Netflix just kept saying they'd be on soon.

Some assumed it was technical difficulties, but it doesn't sound like that's the case. In the end, Netflix said it was starting to film around 9:30 PM ET ... and that the episode would be aired the following day (Monday) at 3 PM ET.

Netflix apologized to fans, writing ... "To everyone who stayed up late, woke up early, gave up their Sunday afternoon… we are incredibly sorry that the Love is Blind Live Reunion did not turn out as we had planned." They added, "We're filming it now and we'll have it on Netflix as soon as humanly possible. Again, thank you and sorry."

In the interim ... questions, outrage and jokes were flying -- all at Netflix's expense. Folks were legitimately wondering what went wrong ... and it seems some actually stayed up quite late waiting for the reunion to upload. The discourse even roped in some big-time names ... like AOC, for example, who chimed in and made a crack about one of the castmates.

Some of Netflix's own competition also weighed in and crapped on them ... like Blockbuster, Redbox and even Hulu. A lot of publicity, obviously -- but for all the wrong reasons.

In short, the 'LIB' live reunion turned out to be a disaster for Netflix ... which is embarrassing considering how much confidence they had in all their promos leading up to it.

Remember, they just started dabbling in live programming with the Chris Rock special. That went off without a hitch, but their second attempt crashed and burned ... so, back to the batter's box, it seems.

A new AI-generated song featuring fake Drake and The Weeknd is taking the internet by storm -- but it might just be a tech startup behind this ... according to a deep Twitter dive.

The track is called 'Heart on My Sleeve' ... and it's all over TikTok/Twitter right now. Purportedly, this was created with nothing but the use of AI programming -- meaning there wasn't a human involved in the making of what sounds like a banger ... with what absolutely sounds like Drizzy and Abel. In other words, AI efficiency is getting scary good.

Right from the beginning, you hear the familiar Young Metro intro ... which then goes into a bass-heavy club beat with Drake starting the opening verse. It's incredibly solid -- and it sure sounds like something Drake may have even written/rapped. Ditto for Weeknd's chorus.

On its face, you'd think this was a leak ... but Twitter sleuths are claiming it isn't, and that it's solely the work of a robot -- which is frightening if true ... especially for the labels.

Now, as for who may have created this track and why -- as an AI program needs to be told to do something like this by a person somewhere along the line, unless we're already in 'Terminator' territory -- one man thinks he has the answer ... and he might be on to something. Shout out to Mitchell Cohen of AppSumo for doing the heavy lifting here.

He started a Twitter thread that did a lot of digging in the origins of 'Heart on My Sleeve' ... and it all seems to have started with a TikTok account by the name of ghostwriter977.

That account claims to have the full song at the link in their bio, but when you click it ... it takes you to a weird site that is then asking for your phone number, with the promise of sending you song that way. If it sounds fishy ... that's because it very well may be.

The site that the link takes you to is owned and operated by a startup company called Laylo ... and they tout themselves as being able to give creators more tools to reach more fans/subscribers ... via "drops." Anyway, this ghostwriter account also uploaded another AI Drake song a couple days ago ... where he's covering Colbie Caillat's 'Bubbly.'

Mitch stops short of saying it definitely is Laylo's doing ... but the company itself is feeding into the narrative that it is ... seeing how they retweeted his entire thread and responded with a cheeky ghost emoji. Because of this, Mitch and others feel like this a genius marketing ploy just to attract new users/customers to Laylo ... assuming it is, in fact, them.

As for Drake and Weeknd ... yeah, they might wanna get on this. 'Cause this song is too good to be out in the world without their sign-off.