Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is all for "Joker" putting a spotlight on a local NYC attraction she's known her whole life, but it sounds like she'd like to keep it a neighborhood secret.

We got AOC Tuesday on Capitol Hill and she dished on the famous Bronx stairs featured in the new flick. No spoiler here, but Joaquin Phoenix's Clown Prince of Gotham dances his way down the landmark to celebrate his transformation to the Joker.

The Congresswoman from the block says those stairs have been there since forever, and folks have been busting moves -- and maybe a few asses -- down them long before Joaquin made 'em trendy with tourists. AOC added it wasn't always the safest hang either.

If you haven't noticed, the stairs have been showing up all over Instagram -- as "Joker" fans anywhere near the borough wanna pull off their own versions of Arthur Fleck's dance.

As much as AOC appreciates the shine on her district, she also doesn't want locals to lose their sense of ownership. You gotta see AOC as she declares, "Keep your Instagram posts outside of the Boogie Down! This is for us!!!"

You can take the girl outta the Bronx, but ...

A famous gold medal-winning Paralympic athlete died Tuesday after taking her own life through euthanasia in Belgium, officials confirm.

40-year-old Marieke Vervoort battled degenerative spinal disease -- yet was able to compete in wheelchair racing at the highest levels.

She won two medals at the 2016 Paralympic games ion Brazil and famously clinched a GOLD medal during the 2012 Paralympics in London.

But, when she wasn't competing, Vervoort lived with extreme physical pain which sometimes limited her to only sleeping for 10 minutes a night.

Vervoort also suffered epileptic seizures -- and in one case in 2014, a seizure caused her to spill boiling water on her legs while cooking pasta. She suffered major injuries and was hospitalized for several months as a result.

Vervoort had considered euthanasia for years and began planning for the end of her life back in 2016.

In fact, Vervoort spent her last night surrounded by friends and family, sipping on sparkling wine ... just as she planned.

After her passing, the Belgian royal family issued a statement praising their Paralympic hero -- saying, "Marieke 'Wielemie' Vervoort was an athlete tough as nails and a great lady. Her death touches us deeply."

Piers Morgan says President Trump's use of "lynching" is lazy and ignorant, but Joe Biden's guilty of it too ... so all the outrage is a bunch of rubbish.

We got the British TV host leaving Staples Center Tuesday night and asked about Trump's "lynching" tweet to describe his potential impeachment, and he points out many politicians have used the language for many years ... so going after the Prez is totally disingenuous.

Or, as he puts it ... it's just another fake scandal.

Morgan's case in point is Biden -- who called Trump's tweet "abhorrent" -- using the same term in 1998 to describe the impeachment process at the time against President Bill Clinton.

Joe said in a CNN interview ... "Even if the president should be impeached, history is going to question whether or not this was just a partisan lynching or whether or not it was something that in fact met the standard, the very high bar, that was set by the founders as to what constituted an impeachable offense."

After the clip surfaced, Biden apologized for using the word, but stuck to his criticism of Trump ... claiming POTUS chose his words deliberately to continue to stoke racial divides in America.

40 Glocc is close to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in his prostitution case ... he's just cut a plea deal with prosecutors.

According to court docs, obtained by TMZ, the rapper has agreed to plead guilty to 1 felony count of promoting prostitution of an individual. As part of the plea deal ... prosecutors have agreed to drop 2 other felony charges -- fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle and engaging in the sex trafficking of an individual.

Under the terms of the deal ... Glocc can argue for a jail sentence of between 4 and 12 months.

For now ... the rapper will be out on bail until his next hearing in February. Until then, Glocc's gotta keep his nose clean.

A judge still has to sign off on the deal and sentence Glocc before it's all official. So, Glocc's not outta the woods just yet, but he's inching closer.

As we first reported ... Glocc was nabbed in a prostitution ring back in 2017. He had allegedly driven a woman to an unknown location after an undercover cop contacted her through an ad posted on Backpage.com.

Antonio Brown got "FREEEE" from the Raiders ... and now he's trying to get "FREEEE" from his awesome Oakland pad ... listing the Bay Area home for $3.3 million!!!

Of course, AB's time in the Silver and Black lasted a whoppin' 181 days ... but prior to all the drama during that short time, Brown bought the Alamo home through listing agent Maria Afzal in partnership with Jordan Stuart and Next Move.

The 4,199 square-foot crib has 6 beds, 5.5 bathrooms, a master suite with a huge walk-in closet and a marble bathroom ... as well as a big patio with a huge pool and hot tub.

The backyard is where AB's infamous celebration went down after the Raiders released him ... so if you wanna channel your inner Antonio Brown, all you gotta do is cough up $3,375,000!!!

Brown briefly switched coasts to play for the Patriots for one game ... before eventually going without a team for the rest of the season (so far).

As we previously reported ... Brown is also parting ways with his Pittsburgh mansion (which is listed at $2.3 million) ... so there's a lot of AB property on the market right now.

Maryland-born actress Kimberly J. Brown was only 14 years old when she took on the role of the witch in training, Marnie Piper -- who leaves the mortal world with her siblings to battle the evil warlock, Kalabar -- in the OG 1998 Disney Channel spooky movie, "Halloweentown."

Kimberly J. Brown was cast alongside some other young actors including Joey Zimmerman as the middle sibling and bus-hopping brother, Dylan Piper, and Emily Roeske as the youngest sister and tagalong troublemaker, Sophie Piper.

Brown was also in the cinematic sequels including "Halloweentown II: Kalabar's Revenge" and "Halloweentown High," but was ultimately replaced by Sara Paxton in the 2006 final film "Return To Halloweentown."

"Halloween is cool."

Pornhub has taken down hidden camera footage shot inside of a women's locker room at a South Carolina college amid a police investigation ... and cops have ID'd a "person of interest."

Officials say someone installed a hidden camera in the visiting locker room at Limestone College in Gaffney, S.C. around late 2012 and recorded footage for months.

The footage reportedly captured women from at least 5 different schools in the act of changing, showering, etc. None of the women knew they were being recorded.

The creep who had the footage didn't upload the video to Pornhub until 2019 -- and that's when someone came across the video and reported it to Limestone officials.

Cops launched an investigation -- and the 5 videos were ultimately removed from Pornhub last week.

Pornhub's VP Blake White commented on the situation saying, "Through the years, we have supported legislation that has made revenge porn illegal and have also worked directly alongside local authorities on individual cases to assist in prosecution. On our platform, we strongly condemn non-consensual content, including revenge porn."

Officials say they have identified a "person of interest" in the case -- who was NOT a student -- but did say the person was "associated with the school at the time."

Limestone College also issued a statement saying its "primary goal continues to be the safety of our students, faculty, staff, and guests."

Cuba Gooding Jr. is racking up new charges in NYC at an alarming rate -- the D.A. just announced he's been indicted on 2 more counts related to alleged sexual misconduct.

The Manhattan D.A. says the Oscar winner is now facing an additional count of forcible touching and another sexual abuse in the third-degree charge. After last week's indictment that brings Gooding's tally up to 6 charges related to 3 different accusers.

Prosecutors have not said when the new accuser's alleged incident went down. As we reported, the prior accusers are a TAO Nightclub server and a patron at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar and Lounge, both in NYC.

TMZ broke the story ... surveillance video appeared to show some contact between Cuba and the woman at Magic Hour Rooftop back in June, but he adamantly denied touching the woman's breast ... as she claimed to cops.

Gooding will be back in court on Halloween for yet another arraignment. His attorney, Mark Heller, tells us Cuba will plead not guilty ... just as he did for the 4 previous charges.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says President Trump is intentionally stirring up racial outrage in America by comparing his potential impeachment to a "lynching" ... and she believes it's all part of his master plan.

We got AOC on Capitol Hill Tuesday morning, and she ripped into the President for the tweet that definitely got America buzzing -- equating his impeachment inquiry to mob violence. She got kinda choked up as she called his use of slave imagery "horrifying."

She says what's even more disturbing is Trump using the word "lynching" on purpose. The freshman Congresswoman pulled back the curtain on what she believes POTUS is doing -- and it's all about riling up his base ... no matter how divisive it is to the country.

That being said ... AOC says folks can't allow Trump's rhetoric to become normalized, and she poses some important questions about America's future.

Drake really DOES need some really big rings ... 'cause Drizzy just copped a Toronto Raptors championship ring ... and then got an even CRAZIER one done for himself!!!

TMZ Sports has learned ... not only did the Champagne Papi get the "official" ring the Raptors received during their opening night ceremony on Tuesday ... he also hit up Jason of Beverly Hills to get him a one of a kind ring to commemorate his team's title run.

The piece is incredible -- it's got 30 carats of diamonds, which is more than any other championship ring in NBA history.

Jason tells TMZ Sports ... "Drake had me fly to Turks and Caicos for an emergency design meeting."

"It's a championship that's dear to his heart and he wanted to create an over the top ring that not only paid homage to his city but made a statement above and beyond anything else in history."

As for the rings Kyle Lowry and Co. received on Tuesday ... those have a face made of 74 diamonds (to represent the number of team wins during the season), one large diamond, and custom-cut baguette diamonds to make up the Toronto skyline.

The outer edge of the ring is lined with 16 rubies to go with each roster member's numbers ... and the inside of the ring includes personal messages for each player.

According to the Raptors, it has more than 640 diamonds total -- which is a record for most on any pro-championship ring.

Zooey Deschanel's husband has pulled the trigger and filed for divorce ... TMZ has learned.

Jacob Pechenik filed legal docs Tuesday citing "irreconcilable differences" as a reason for ending the marriage.

The couple announced their split last month after 4 years of marriage. At the time they said, "After much discussion and a long period of contemplation we have decided we are better off as friends, business partners and co-parents rather than life partners."

Zooey and Jacob met on the set of the Bill Murray comedy "Rock the Kasbah," on which Jacob was a producer.

The couple has 2 kids together ... 4-year-old Elsie and 2-year-old Charlie.

This is the "New Girl" star's 2nd divorce. She split from Ben Gibbard -- lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie -- at the start of 2012.

Jake Paul is doubling down on his claim he hooked up with Bellator fighter Dillon Danis' GF ... and he tells TMZ Sports he WILL take their beef to the ring ... just not yet.

So, a bit of a crash course here -- 22-year-old Jake first called out Danis last year, saying he'd beat his ass in a boxing match because his "striking is super weak."

The 2 have traded insults ever since ... and Jake recently went to IG to tell Danis to "ask savannah about the time we hooked up," ... referring to Savannah Montano, an Instagram model Danis has been dating for a while now.

Fast forward to Monday, when Danis told Ariel Helwani he was offered between $4 to $5 million to face off with Paul to finally settle their differences in the ring (while also calling BS on Paul's most recent jab).

We spoke with Jake at Wild Card boxing gym on Tuesday about the huge offer ... and Paul said, "I don't know what he's talking about."

And, then Jake went IN on Danis.

"Dillon, I know you're watching this ... Just remember you're still a bitch and I hooked up with your girlfriend. Savannah, how you doing? What's good?"

Jake added ... "He's not worth $5 million. The only reason anyone knows who he is, is because he's used me and my brother's name to make a name for himself and he got punched in the face by Khabib [Nurmagomedov after UFC 229]. That's the peak of his career."

"He's Conor McGregor's best friend. That's all this guy's done."

Jake says he's not fighting Danis yet because it's not what the fans want right now ... but when the time is right, he's fully prepared to take him on.

At least one Paul brother will be taking the ring soon ... Logan will have his highly anticipated rematch with KSI on Nov. 9, which will be streamed on DAZN.

Paul Shaffer says he had an awesome time on "The Masked Singer" despite his early exit ... once he overcame a small case of claustrophobia.

We got the legendary "Late Show with David Letterman" bandleader at LAX Monday and asked about his time as the Skeleton on the mysterious singing show ... which he calls "hilarious fun."

That is, of course, after he got used to the huge, elaborate costume. Paul says other than getting hot and sweaty in there, he freaked out a little the first time he put the suit on ... and needed to make a quick escape.

The good news -- he tells us the 'Masked Singer' crew took care of him and once he got acclimated it was all good ... no bones about it.

Shaffer also tells us his big reveal as Skeleton came as no surprise to his old pal, Dave. He says after 33 years working nonstop with Letterman, he had him pegged from the start ... and so did all of his friends.

Rob Kardashian's been using his time out of the public eye to focus on his health and drop some pounds ... and a lot of it's thanks to saying no to alcohol.

The Kardashian bro was spotted in Kim's Instagram Story from her birthday celebration Monday night, clearly looking a lot leaner than he used to.

Sources close to Rob tell TMZ ... he quit drinking recently and has been focusing on making better diet choices -- including cutting down on fast food. We're told he's also exercising on the reg and playing a lot of basketball to get in shape.

All of this combined has led to him shedding a lot of weight -- our sources say in the ballpark of 20 lbs. ... maybe more compared to a couple years ago.

We're told Rob's in the best place he's been mentally in a long time too ... fully devoted to raising his daughter, Dream, and making sure she's growing up happily.

Along with this positive development, Rob's also managed to avoid any dust-ups with his baby mama, Blac Chyna, for the past several months ... and that's good for everyone's health.

As for Rob's sister's 39th birthday party ... it was pretty sweet. The fam got a "home cooked meal" from Carousel Restaurant -- which cooks up Middle Eastern cuisine -- and Kim was showered with gifts.