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Matt Lauer's closing the book on his life in NYC ... at least for now.

The fired "Today" show co-host finally unloaded his 4 bed, 4.5 bath apartment on Manhattan's Upper East Side Monday, months after news broke he was selling it. Pics of his pad show a closet full of Lauer's on-air suits ... which have obviously been gathering dust since late November.

Matt used the home during the week while he was working in the city, but after he was canned from his TV job for sexual misconduct ... he put it on the market.

According to the NY Post, he hauled in more than $7 million on the sale.

O.J. Simpson says there's a silver lining to having a kidnapping felony on your record ... you can still get the royal treatment in Vegas!

Simpson clowned with a guy at a Sin City restaurant ... a place O.J. frequents. Fact is ... he's the local celeb in restaurants and bars off the Strip. Think Norm from "Cheers."

We've been told by multiple people Simpson is NOT treated anything like an ex-con. He's bombarded by tourists and locals who beg for selfies, autographs and high-fives.

Remember ... O.J. served 9 years in prison for kidnapping in a botched robbery attempt where he was trying to recover his old football memorabilia in a Las Vegas hotel room ... pulling a gun didn't help.

Dog is man's best friend ... escalators are not dog's best friend, which is why this video of Dennis Quaid's dog on an escalator is so interesting.

We got Dennis and his bulldog, Peaches, Monday at LAX, and the actor strolled up to the escalator and he showed no remorse about the pooch hopping on for the ride.

Dennis clearly loves his pet, but we did some research and the ASPCA actually put out a warning a few years back about the dangers of dogs on people movers. They've been known to cause serious injuries to dogs, including amputations.

In fact, one pooch had to be rescued earlier this year at LAX.

Lil Pump's nightmare set at Lollapalooza was nearly upstaged by what went down in his Lambo ... while talking about the Lollapalooza nightmare.

We got the "Gucci Gang" rapper out on Sunset Blvd. Monday and asked him about his performance in Chi Town over the weekend. ICYMI ... Pump's set was cut short when event organizers and cops felt the crowd was getting outta control.

Some fans bitched about the mess on social media -- but LP told us he blames Lolla officials, and he kiiinda throws his fans under the bus. The catch here is, our whole convo with him went down while he was behind the wheel of his Lamborghini Aventador.

Who needs CSI when you have the Internet?

The cops who arrested NASCAR honcho Brian France found 5 oxycodone pills on him during the bust and used the website Drugs.com to identity them ... this according to court docs obtained by TMZ Sports.

The Sag Harbor PD says the pills -- yellow in color, labeled T194 -- came right up on the website ... which touts its "pill identifier" feature on the home page.

Don't worry, the cops also submitted the pills to the lab for confirmation.

There's more ... cops say France's blood alcohol level was .19 -- more than twice the legal limit in New York when he was busted at 7:08 PM on Sunday.

During the arrest, France had slurred speech, glassy eyes and was unsteady on his feet.

France was booked for drunk driving and criminal possession of a controlled substance.

If convicted on both counts, he faces up to a year in jail and loss of driving privileges for a year.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West will be so chill through the dog days of summer, thanks to their brand new pool ... which is really more like a small inland sea.

According to building permits, obtained by TMZ, Kim and Kanye got the go-ahead from the city of Hidden Hills last month to install an enormous in-ground pool at their roughly $60 million estate. As you can see from this pic in June ... they got a little head start on construction.

Kimye's big dig is 20' wide by 60 feet long! FYI, we normal humans average pools around 20 feet wide by 30 feet long.

The construction work is valued at a little over $50k, but they're almost guaranteed to spend more than that to get it done. It's unclear how close they are to completion, but August in that neck of woods is legendarily SMOKING HOT!

You'll recall ... the couple was originally talking about putting in something that really would have been more lake-like. They might have downsized a little, but we're guessing this will still challenge Drake's pool ... which he bragged about in "Summer Sixteen."

The Wests also got approval to build a new guard shack, valued at almost $12k. Gotta keep neighborhood riff-raff outta that pool!

6:15 AM PT -- HGTV has now been announced as the winning bidder for the iconic Hollywood home. The company claims it intends to return it to its "1970s glory."

Lance Bass has someone who is squarely siding with him in the mess over the sale of the 'Brady Bunch' house ... that someone is his real estate broker, who says his client was shamelessly defrauded.

Lance's real estate broker tells TMZ, there was no misunderstanding ... the realtor for the seller of the 'Brady Bunch' house made it crystal clear ... Lance was the highest bidder and the house was his.

The broker says before Lance submitted his bid, which was just under $3 million, the seller's realtor was unambiguous ... the cutoff for submitting offers was last Thursday at 3 PM and they would take NO OTHER OFFERS after that. The highest bidder would get the house. Period.

Lance was indeed the highest bidder, and his broker tells us the seller's realtor even doubled down and said the house was Lance's. What's more, Lance's broker says the seller's realtor even sent paperwork to him to finalize the deal.

Lance's broker says the seller's realtor told him this was a solid "gentleman's agreement," with paperwork to follow, which it did.

This must really be God's plan. Drake is looking to lock up the rights to the phrase "God's Plan" as the rapper continues cashing in on his hit song.

According to docs obtained by TMZ ... Drake is aiming to use "God's Plan" for a bunch of clothing merch and a TV game show ... plus the usual things like downloadable music, music videos, audio recordings, marketing and promotion.

Drake's filing comes about a month after the release of his 5th studio album, "Scorpion." The music video for "God's Plan" has over 760 MILLION views, and Drake boasts in the vid about giving away just shy of $1 million to strangers -- the trademark means he's now ready to cash in for himself.

Becca Kufrin just eliminated Blake Horstmann on the finale of '"The Bachelorette" -- which means Garrett Yrigoyen won her heart ... and our photos were spot-on!

The 'Bachelorette' star sent Blake packing on Monday's finale episode, and it's something we saw coming for a long time now. As you'll recall ... TMZ obtained photos of Becca making out with a dude in what appeared to be a big scene for her season.

We weren't quite familiar with her suitors at that point, but it's pretty obvious now this was Garrett all along. This fella's a dead ringer for the controversial contestant.

Speaking of that controversy ... it's unclear if Becca was aware of Garrett's old Instagram behavior while filming or in picking him to be her future husband. In a since-deleted IG account, Garrett was seen liking a number of offensive memes that mocked transgender people, immigrants and the Parkland shooting ... all of which surfaced during the season.

Tamar Braxton isn't mad at Delta Airlines after one of their pilots ridiculed her on a flight -- which her sis chalked up to #flyingwhileblack -- but she does think they make crappy hires.

We got the former co-host of "The Real" at LAX just a few days after her sister, Towanda, posted a video of a Delta pilot chastising Tamar and condescendingly asking if she could follow simple direction from flight attendants.

Towanda blamed the confrontation on race, but Tamar thinks it has more to do with how she's portrayed in the media -- specifically, on TV.

She hasn't been on "The Real" since 2016, but did recently ink a deal with Steve Harvey's production company for her own talk show. She's also made appearances on VH1's "Hip Hop Squares," where she's had some confrontations.

Serena Williams says she was in a "funk" during her historic loss at the Silicon Valley Classic last week -- all because postpartum emotions made her feel like a bad mom.

Williams suffered the worst loss of her pro career to 43rd ranked Johanna Konta -- going down in straight sets ... 6-1, 6-0.

Now, Serena -- who gave birth to her daughter back in August 2017 -- says postpartum emotions definitely played a role.

"Last week was not easy for me. Not only was I accepting some tough personal stuff, but I just was in a funk. Mostly, I felt like I was not a good mom," Williams wrote on Instagram.

"I read several articles that said postpartum emotions can last up to 3 years if not dealt with. I like communication best. Talking things through with my mom, my sisters, my friends let me know that my feelings are totally normal. It’s totally normal to feel like I’m not doing enough for my baby."

She added ... "Although I have been with her every day of her life, I’m not around as much as I would like to be. Most of you moms deal with the same thing. Whether stay-at-home or working, finding that balance with kids is a true art. You are the true heroes."

Fat Joe thinks Eric Benet is TRIPPINNNN' by saying "rich and famous" rappers that glorify the darker sides of hip-hop are proxies to white supremacy ... 'cause they're just tunes, bro.

We got the legendary New York MC over on the West Coast Monday in Bev Hills, where our photog asked if Joe had seen Eric's hot take on certain rap serving a nefarious purpose.

Eric posted a message on IG saying that rappers who promote killing black people, degrading black women, abusing drugs, materialization or living a low life are not artists ... but actual agents of white supremacy -- and are being used to destroy their own race.

Destroying Donald Trump's Hollywood Walk of Fame star with a pickax just got real for Austin Clay ... because he's now facing the possibility of several years in jail.

The L.A. County D.A. slapped him with one count of felony vandalism for obliterating -- on video, obtained by TMZ -- the President's star. If he's found guilty, Clay could get a max sentence of 3 years in county jail.

As we reported, Clay put pickax to concrete almost 2 weeks ago. He eventually turned himself in to cops. Trump's star has since become a battle ground for pro- and anti-Trump groups ... with several brawls breaking out there.

Although it's already been repaired, Clay told us he'd like to the see the city remove Trump's star permanently ... to avoid further violence.

King Yellowman says Snoop Dogg needs to keep his alter-ego, Snoop Lion, in retirement -- 'cause the hip-hop superstar's reggae album wasn't up to snuff ... by Jamaica's standards, anyway.

The dancehall reggae legend arrived in L.A. for a festival show, and we asked him about Snoop's reggae one-off album from 2013. You'll recall, Snoop was inspired after taking a trip to Jamrock -- but Yellowman says the locals were not impressed.

He reminded us, even Bob Marley's old Wailers partner, Bunny Wailer, gave da Lion da thumbs down.

Still, we're betting a little ganja would go a long way to settle this real quick. Especially because Yellowman also told us he'd be down to collab with Snoop.

Dogg, that is. Irie?