Pablo Escobar's bro wants to squash his "flamethrower" beef with Elon Musk ... by proposing they go into business together, but only if Elon can convince Prez Trump to issue a pardon.

Yeah, things just got weird.

The Colombian kingpin's bro, Roberto, fired off a letter to Elon -- or as Roberto calls him, "smart gringo" -- to offer several ways they can put their bad blood behind them. As we first reported ... Roberto claims Elon's The Boring Company committed intellectual property theft when one of its engineers jacked the idea of making a toy flamethrower.

Roberto starts the letter -- obtained by TMZ -- by giving Elon a nickname ... La Mosca (The Fly). Read the letter ... Roberto explains why he gave him the nickname. What's more ... one of Roberto's proposed solutions is to get Elon to speak to Trump and pardon him ... so they can build the company "Escobar Musk Enterprises." No joke.

Roberto's second solution ... roll up their sleeves and start a weed biz!!! Seriously ... Roberto's even got a company name picked. Roberto also offers a third solution ... if ya wanna call it that.

A$AP Rocky is getting royally screwed by Swedish authorities, and the battle lines have been drawn right here over race. So, we gotta ask ...

NBA star Trae Young says the hype about LaMelo Ball is REAL -- because he believes it's entirely possible the youngest Ball bro ends up a top 3 NBA draft pick in 2020.

The Atlanta Hawks star just came off a FANTASTIC rookie season, and has been working out with LaMelo while he's out here in Los Angeles.

So, when we saw Trae in BH (#shopping) we wanted to know if he thinks Ball has the goods to be a top three pick in the NBA draft when he's eligible next year.

"Possibly, yeah for sure. He'll be ready the by the time he gets to the league."

Young didn't stop there, telling us it really doesn't matter where Ball is drafted, because no matter where it is he's gonna be a dope NBA player.

"He'll be good in the league. If he's #1, #2, #3 ... regardless he'll be a good player."

Ball is a mystery in basketball circles -- he's 6'7" with real playmaking ability ... but his bizarre basketball journey (remember Lithuania?) is making some scouts think twice.

We'll see what happens, but at the very least we know 'Melo seems to have Trae's vote.

The man who voiced the prince in "The Little Mermaid" says the guy expected to land the role in the live-action remake is a perfect fit ... and the new Ariel's a home run.

Christopher Daniel Barnes -- who voiced Prince Eric in the 1989 classic -- tells TMZ ... Harry Styles would be an excellent choice, because he actually checks all the boxes of a Disney prince in real life.

Styles is reportedly the front-runner for Eric, and Barnes says it's an added bonus he can sing ... now that some songs have actually been added for him.

Because, fun fact -- Barnes didn't get to sing any catchy tunes in 'Little Mermaid' ... and says he's the only Disney prince with that distinction.

Gilbert Arenas was NOT the problem in a crazy car crash earlier this month that wrecked his Maybach and caused another car to FLIP OVER ... TMZ Sports has learned.

Arenas was involved in a terrifying accident back on July 7, when a 2000 Toyota RAV4 collided with his 2018 Mercedes on the 101 freeway in Encino, California.

But, the California Highway Patrol tells us a 27-year-old man, who was the driver of the Toyota, was actually at fault for the car crash ... 'cause the CHP says he was speeding when he hit the NBA superstar.

Fortunately for everyone involved, the CHP says the man only suffered minor injuries ... while 37-year-old Arenas was not hurt at all.

But, seriously, it's crazy no one was hurt ... we obtained 911 calls from the scene -- and they paint a picture of a wild accident.

We're told no arrests or citations were issued in the incident ... and it's unclear what the cost of all the damages were.

Model Cat Kennedy's new bathing suit definitely hits the spot ... to purrrfection.

Cat was spotted -- haha, spotted -- showing off her beach bod in a leopard print bathing suit for a little fun in the sun next to the world famous Santa Monica Pier. Lots of moods to appreciate for sure ... from pensive and playful to mysterious and chill.

Ex-San Diego Chargers star Shawne Merriman is being sued by the parents of a deceased Playboy employee, who claim he drugged and possibly assaulted their daughter before she overdosed while partying with him ... but Merriman flat-out denies wrongdoing.

The employee was Kimberly Fattorini, who died in 2017. At the time, her death was ruled accidental, with the cause being overdose from a cocktail of substances ... including booze, coke and a commonly used date rape drug known as GHB.

In a lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, Kimberly's parents claim that she and some friends went to a club event 'cause of an invite from a promoter, who the parents allege went on to host the girls at his house, continuing to party into the early morning.

The lawsuit alleges that the promoter texted Shawne at some point the next day, saying ... "Got 3 whores over," with the idea being that Shawne could take a couple off his hands.

Kimberly's parents go on to claim that Shawne did in fact show up, and was allegedly witnessed carrying a bottle with some sort of liquid inside. After that, the parents allege that Kimberly texted the promoter from inside the house saying, "you friend just poor'd half G in my drink," and the parents believe G refers to GHB, which is a powerful depressant.

The lawsuit alleges Kimberly sent a number of texts afterward that made no sense, with the implication being that she was incredibly intoxicated. The suit claims that Kimberly, Shawne and a friend of hers then went to her friend's place after ... and then around 3 PM, a 911 call was placed by Kimberly's friend who found her unresponsive.

Kimberly's parents claim that first responders found her "half-naked with her jeans unzipped and unbottoned." They also allege Shawne was in the room when 911 was called, and that he made clear to the present parties that he didn't want it known he was there.

The suit alleges that a preliminary report from the autopsy didn't indicate any foul play, but they also note that a test for sexual assault wasn't done because officials said it wasn't conducted at the time of the initial autopsy, and couldn't be done properly afterward.

Now for an alleged text Kimberly's parents claim they dug up between a friend of Kimberly's and the promoter who initially invited Shawne ... it allegedly read, "Shawn killed her ass, what a f***ing idiot." Another alleged text from the promoter reads, "That dumbass been drugging girls for years."

The complaint claims negligence, battery and a violation of the drug dealer liability act. The family's asking for damages.

As for Shawne, a representative for him tells TMZ ... "As of right now Shawne, nor his attorney, have any knowledge of him being named in any lawsuit. This alleged lawsuit is baseless. Shawne attended an after party more than two years ago where a young woman unfortunately overdosed."

Luke Voit is one tough SOB -- he took a baseball to the face this weekend, but temporarily stayed in the game and even ran the bases right afterward.

The Yankees slugger was up to bat Saturday against the Rockies at the bottom of the 4th -- with the Yanks up 6-0 -- and on a 0-2 fastball from pitcher Chad Bettis, which got away from him ... the ball made contact with the front of Voit's face ... grazing his lip and chin.

It looked a lot worse than it ended up being, but geez ... talk about freaky. Miraculously, Voit avoided a serious injury and took his place at first ... no big pause or anything either.

Yankees manager Aaron Boone rushed out right away to check on his first baseman, and as Voit worked out some kinks in his jaw and wiped off his lip, he seemed to signal that he was okay. A short while later, he got to third on another hit ... and appeared fine doing it.

Still, the ball definitely connected with Voit's face and it's quite a sight to behold in slow-motion. You can see his face jiggle and vibrate as the ball slides across his mug.

Dave East is onboard with just about everyone else about getting A$AP Rocky the hell out of a Swedish jail, but when it comes to boycotting the country ... DE ain't doing it.

We talked to the New York rapper -- who hails from the same borough A$AP is from, Harlem -- and asked for his take on the sitch in Europe, where Rocky's been in custody for nearly three weeks now on a BS assault charge ... and Dave has some interesting insights.

First off, he tell us ... yeah, A$AP shoulda been out of that jail cell a long time ago, and agrees with G-Eazy about the notion that white entertainers are simply treated differently than black ones ... which he says comes down to privilege and racism.

Dave puts it this way ... a lot of rappers that go overseas are black, rich, flashy and probably NOT what a lot of foreigners might be used to (or like, for that matter) -- and they'll wanna put an end it to it any way they can. In A$AP's case, he suggests that means lockin' him up.

Here's the kicker though -- our guy asks Dave if he's gonna join the chorus of entertainers and others who've vowed never to perform in Sweden again for the mistreatment of A$AP.

Jussie Smollett's lawyers say the Osundairo brothers misquoted alleged defamatory statements they thought his team made, but turns out ... their own attorney said 'em.

Mark Geragos -- who repped Jussie during his criminal trial when he was still in the hot seat in Chicago -- filed legal docs asking a judge to toss the Osundairo Bros.' defamation lawsuit against him, one of his colleagues and his firm, which they filed in April.

One of the main quotes the brothers were suing over in their initial complaint was something they alleged attorney Tina Glandian -- another one of Smollett's attorneys -- said to the media that implied they were part of "illegal" Nigerian steroid trafficking.

The quote the Osundairos attributed to Glandian in their lawsuit read, "platform ... is all about being steroid-free ... Their whole thing is, you know, all-natural bodybuilding. It's ridiculous."

Welp, Geragos points out in his court filing that Ms. Glandian never said that at all -- in fact, it was their attorney, Gloria Schmidt, who said that to the Chicago Tribune in early April ... word-for-word. That alone, Geragos argues, is enough grounds for dismal -- but there's more.

Geragos and co. say that the brothers also paraphrased something they claimed Geragos said on a podcast he does with comic Adam Carolla, alleging the celeb attorney dragged their reps through the mud by indicating they'd attacked Jussie, committed perjury and conspired to make false statements to clear their names.

Geragos submitted transcripts of his podcast during the time of the criminal legal proceedings, and he notes ... he never said the brothers' names, nor did he say or indicate what they attributed to him. Another example Geragos cites for nixing this thing.

Long story short ... Jussie's attorneys say the brothers can't get their quotes straight, and by falsely attributing statements to Geragos and co. ... the suit should be axed, and the Brothers should also be punished with sanctions for allegedly lying to the court.

It was a shocking scene. An enormously popular Hong Kong actor who has a number of American movie credits -- is in the hospital after a man jumped onstage and stabbed him ... and the dramatic scene plays out on video.

Actor Simon Yam -- who appeared in 'Lara Croft: Tomb Raider' -- was onstage Saturday for the opening of a new store in the southern province of China. He was speaking to the crowd when a man walked onstage, pulled out a knife from his pocket and lunged at Yam with the weapon, stabbing him in the abdomen. The assailant then follows up by slashing Yam and then trying to stab him a second time.

Security intervened and subdued the assailant, who was taken into custody.

64-year-old Yam, who also appeared in 'The Cradle of Life' starring Angelina Jolie, "Election," "Exiled" and many other movies, is recovering from abdomen wounds and wounds on his arm from the slashes.

Well this is a twist ... Donald Trump just said he's personally guaranteeing bail for A$AP Rocky if Swedish authorities release him ... meaning the President would be on the hook if Rocky skips out.

It's a bizarre turn in the case. Trump just tweeted, "Just had a very good call with @SwedishPM Stefan Lofven who assured me that American citizen A$AP Rocky will be treated fairly. Likewise, I assured him that A$AP was not a flight risk and offered to personally vouch for his bail ..."

Trump didn't use the word, but it sounds like he's saying he's willing to become a guarantor on Rocky's bail application.

As we reported, a judge ruled Friday A$AP is a flight risk and therefore can't be let out of jail while the case grinds on.

So, he's now spoken to the Swedish Prime Minister who really promised nothing ... especially if he views what's going on as fair. As we reported, A$AP has been jailed for more than 2 weeks and not a single criminal charge has been filed against him. Prosecutors say they need another week to investigate -- even though any lawyer out of school for a year could process this one quickly, since there's video -- and they convinced a judge to hold Rocky in custody while they figure it out.

And, by the way, prosecutors blew it by sending out a press release saying they plan to indict him ... so why the charade of pretending the investigation is continuing? When we contacted them they told us they mistakenly put that info in the press release and then removed it. The mistake was clearly just that they played their hand.

The reality is this ... Trump and his State Dept. have already made a full court press to get Rocky out and it fell on deaf ears. Good that he's trying, but Swedish authorities up to this point have been immovable.

As we reported, Kanye called Trump Friday and made a plea for the President to get involved.

Jennifer Lopez -- who regularly steps out in only the bare essentials -- covered her entire bod in the sweltering NYC heat, but it may be a brilliant marketing ploy.

It was 90 degrees Friday in the Big Apple, but felt north of 100 because of humidity. That's why walking out in Guess threads from head to toe would certainly draw attention.

You may recall ... less than 2 months ago Guess announced a J Lo "It's My Party" line. Camo is not part of her line, but it could be.

NASA did the impossible 50 years ago -- putting a man on the moon -- and achieved a similar feat 50 years later ... putting on a spectacular Apollo 11 celebration for relatively pennies.

TMZ's got the receipts from the blowout celebration this week on the National Mall ... and according to federal procurement docs, NASA doled out only $1.4 mil for a series of special events ... that's like a small house in Burbank, maybe.

Now, get this -- at it's time, the Apollo 11 mission cost $25 billion -- a number experts say would land just south of $300 billion in today's dollars.

This week's events include hands-on exhibits, live performances, speeches from moon experts and a 363-foot projection of the Saturn V rocket on the Washington Monument. This showed how space exploration affects our daily lives and can inspire the next generation of explorers.

Federal procurement docs show NASA spent a little over $43,000 back in 2009 for the 40th anniversary of the moon landing ... a small celebration on Capitol Hill and a White House photo op with astronauts Buzz Aldrin, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong alongside Barack Obama. That was like a backyard fireworks display compared to one at the Statue of Liberty for July 4th,  which is what's going down this weekend!!!

So, NASA saved it pennies ... presumably for a trip to Mars.