Mel Gibson has emerged as a popular Republican candidate to run for California governor … and while he appreciates that confidence from voters — there’s no way in hell he’s running.

A source close to Mel tells TMZ … he’s “flattered” to have done so well in a recent straw poll among 2,640 respondents, emerging as the top Republican candidate with 12% of the vote — but it ain’t happening.

We’re told Mel has never had any political ambitions — and that isn’t changing now even if voters are digging his criticisms of current Democratic leadership on the state and local level.

As you know, Mel is pretty outspoken when he has a bone to pick, which happened a lot recently when he — along with many other Angelenos — blasted L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Newsom over their response to January’s deadly wildfires. MG was among those who lost their home.

Mel was also super critical of Kamala Harris when she was running against Trump for president … telling TMZ straight up last fall he thinks she has the “IQ of a fence post.”

And hey, it all worked out pretty great for Mel since not only did Trump grab a huge victory over KH … but among his first orders of business was to appoint Mel — along with Jon Voight and Sylvester Stallone — as Hollywood’s new Special Ambassador.

Trump said the purpose of creating these positions is to bring business back to Hollywood … which he claims has been lost to foreign countries in the last 4 years.

The artist formerly known as Kanye West is accusing virtually all his former collaborators of betrayal … including Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, The Creator, Ty Dolla $ign … in his words, nobody gets a pass!!!

Ye’s latest rap rant appears to have been triggered by Playboi Carti pinging Kim Kardashian to get North West on a feature … hours after Kim shut down Ye’s attempts of getting North on a song with Diddy!!!

Carti released his big streaming album “Music” last week, with Ye only appearing on one of the 30 tracks — as a producer — and Ye seeing Carti attempt to backdoor the North West track was the final straw.

Ironically, the song Ye produced for Carti was “Backd00r” … which featured Kendrick Lamar, who might want to fire up another diss song.

Kanye says he never liked “Not Like Us” … a surprising revelation because he was 100% Team Kendrick during last year’s 2024 Rap Wars, when he hopped on Future and Metro Boomin‘s “Like That (Remix)” to bury Drake further … but Ye claims they betrayed him too.

The song never officially came out — and Ye claims the dynamic duo went silent when he started dissing UMG boss Lucian Grainge!!!

Iggy Azalea, also got put on the defensive when Ye used Onyx, the son she shares with Playboi Carti, as an analogy for being left off the “Music” album … and hinted Carti may have more than the 2 kids the public knows about!!! 👀

Ye then turned his scorn towards Tyler, The Creator and roasted the Odd Future rapper’s entire career with shots that he’s not only never made a memorable song, but his latest album “Chromakopia” is a carbon copy of his music talent.

Any hopes of getting a “Vultures 3” with Ty Dolla $ign were also crashed out … Ty$ says he doesn’t condone hate speech — and now Ye doesn’t condone him!!!

Travis Scott and Pusha T were also blasted for siding with Jews over Ye … because he’s a Nazi and all.

The 2025 iHeartRadio Music Awards had all the heart, with major industry stars turning out for the big night — and we’ve got all the BTS action!

From the icon herself, Mariah Carey … to Bad Bunny crowd-surfing, the excitement was off the charts Monday evening, which was packed with live performances from music’s biggest stars.

The guest list was star-studded, with Kelsea Ballerini and Lady Gaga rubbing shoulders in the audience — Gaga, of course, taking home the Innovator Award for the night.

It was a huge night for Gracie Abrams, who proudly held onto her Breakthrough Artist Award while snapping pics with Billie Eilish.