TMZ.com Home

A bench-clearing melee is NOT good social distancing -- but these guys couldn't care less!

Two teams in the Chinese Pro Baseball League (based in Taiwan) nearly came to blows Sunday after a pitcher fired a laser into an opposing player's ass!!

Ex-Houston Astros pitcher Henry Sosa was on the mound for the Fubon Guardians when up came Rakuten Monkeys infielder Kuo Yen-Wen.

Long story short, Sosa has a CANNON for an arm -- and was throwing HARD and inside at Yen-Wen ... almost like he was trying to send a message.

Finally, after 3 VERY close calls, Sosa drilled Yen-Wen right in the ass ... AND THE BENCHES CLEARED!

Of course, Taiwan is dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic like everyone else in the world -- they've banned fans from attending the games (cardboard cutouts instead!). And, they've been strongly encouraging social distancing -- but everything went out the window when Yen-Wen got hit.

There was some pushing and shoving (no crazy haymakers) -- but eventually everyone returned to their dugouts without any serious injuries.

Teddy Riley and Babyface's battle was the talk of social media Saturday night, but for all the wrong reasons ... and Teddy Riley's audio equipment is to blame.

The two music legends were supposed to square off as part Swizz Beatz and Timbaland's Instagram battle series ... and nearly 400k people were tuned in to watch it go down. Babyface was solo, set up in what looked like his home studio, and Teddy had something more elaborate ... with a microphone and crew around him.

The audio issues were immediate, Teddy's sound was muffled, ruining the timing and quality, while Babyface's sounded perfectly clear.

Teddy -- who had what appeared to be an audio crew with him -- took several pauses, trying to fix the tech issues ... but the sound never improved and the competition ultimately got canceled.

Fans were disappointed ... and the whole thing turned into a social media frenzy with memes and even tweets sent out by celebs mocking the whole thing.

The fallout from the coronavirus pandemic runs far and wide, and one woman is beside herself with anger and frustration because she's at risk for coming down with rabies and can't get help.

Check out this video ... she says a cat scratched her and she's trying to get a tetanus shot ... typically to prevent rabies.

She says she went to UCLA and they told her to go to a nearby Urgent Care, which they said was open. She followed instructions, but when she arrived at Urgent Care at 4:30 PM Saturday no one was in sight, despite a sign saying they were open until 6.

Before Joe Exotic was known to the world as the Tiger King, he desperately tried his hand at being a "Wolf King" ... but he got dethroned after a very short reign.

TMZ's learned Joe Exotic got his hands on 28 gray wolves back in early 2018 after a so-called "petting zoo" in Minneapolis was forced to give up the animals following an unfavorable ruling at trial over a lawsuit alleging it violated the federal Endangered Species Act.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund was behind that lawsuit ... and it didn't take long before the ALDF had Joe in its crosshairs. Christopher Berry, the ALDF attorney behind the lawsuit, tells TMZ ... he fired off a legal letter to Joe accusing him of also violating that law.

The letter accuses Joe of transporting the wolves from Minnesota to Oklahoma, which is one of the ESA violations because it's against federal law to transport protected animals across state lines without a permit.

The lawyer also accused Joe of trying to sell protected animals ... Berry pointed out the commercial sale of a protected animal violates federal law. Berry also alleged Joe tried to sell at least 4 wolf pups on social media.

And, get this ... Berry offered to resolve the issue amicably, but Joe wasn't having it. Berry tells us a few days after Joe received the letter, Joe was pissed off to the point he called Berry and chewed him out in a profanity-laced rant ... denying he broke any laws.

We're told, Joe ultimately admitted trying to get a handle on wolves proved way more challenging than he anticipated. One example ... the wolves often clawed out of their enclosures and ran amok at Joe's G.W. Exotic Animal Park.

Berry says Joe ultimately turned the wolves over to Lockwood Animal Rescue Center ... an animal protection org. in Ventura, CA. After complying with Berry's letter, we're told the ALDF took no further legal action against Joe.

As for how Joe's facility got selected to receive the wolves ... we're told the Minnesota petting zoo was desperate to find the wolves new homes, but irresponsibly sent 28 of the as many as 60 wolves to Joe, who clearly was not equipped to care for them.

But, just when ya think there's a happy ending ... think again. Berry says only 25 of the 28 wolves at Joe's facility were transferred to Lockwood. He says one of the wolves died from an infection at Joe's park. As for the two remaining wolves ... they went MIA and no one ever figured out what happened to them.

Then again, Joe Exotic's been accused of heinous acts against animals.

Katy Perry's beloved street cat, who became a mascot for the singer and her legion of fans, has passed on.

Kitty Purry made an inauspicious entry into Katy's life -- through her then-boyfriend's window.  Fast-forward to Katy the singing icon ... the darn cat became so popular it even appeared in Katy's music video for "I Kissed a Girl."

Fans would swarm Katy and Kitty after her concerts ... begging for a selfie. Short story ... next to Grumpy Cat, Kitty Purry was top of the kitty litter.

Katy posted an homage to her beloved pet ... "Kitty Purry crawled through my then-boyfriend’s window 15 years ago, fully pregnant and seeking shelter. Two litters and many moons later, this street cat became a lovable mascot to many. Sadly, Kitty completed her 9th life last night. I hope she rests in salmon fillets and tuna tartare way up in catnip heaven. Kitty, thanks for the cuddles and companionship along the way. Big thanks to my brother David and @garethwalters for being great co-parents 💔 #kittypurryforever"

Katy's had a rollercoaster 2020 ... she's expecting her first child with Orlando Bloom, so she's clearly stoked about that, but she lost her grandma last month so she's also dealing with that hardship.

Kitty Purry was 15.

Bob Dylan's penmanship and lyrical genius are worth millions of dollars ... handwritten lyrics to some of his biggest hits are hitting the open market, and the asking prices are enormous!!!

Bob's handwritten original lyrics to three of his classics -- "The Times They Are A-Changin'," "Subterranean Homesick Blues," and "Lay, Lady, Lay" -- are going up for sale through the memorabilia company Moments in Time, and you're gonna need some extremely deep pockets to take them home.

It's pretty amazing ... the lyrics sheet to 'Times' is being hawked for a cool $2.2 million, while the lyrics sheet to 'Homesick Blues' is going for $1.2 mil. If those are outta your price range, consider lyrics to 'LLL' for only $650,000.

Bob's handwritten lyrics were acquired from a collector who bought them from the singer's manager years ago, and you can see Bob's mind at work just by looking at the pages -- there are tons of edits, scribbles, notes and even doodles!!!

Neiman Marcus, one of the largest retailers of its kind in America, has hit the mat and can't get up in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, and the chain is reportedly ready to file for bankruptcy.

Neiman's 43 stores all shut down during the self-quarantine, along with its Last Call stores and its 2, NYC Bergdorf Goodman department stores. The Dallas-based company is carrying nearly $5 billion in debt, and the payments alone are millions of dollars a month ... bottom line -- they just can't pay the bill ... this according to Reuters, which says the bankruptcy filing could only be days away.

It's not really hard to understand. Retailers who support brick-and-mortar stores need customers to come in and buy things, and there are none. That's why other big chains, such as J.C. Penney, Macy's and Nordstrom are all on the financial ropes.

In the case of Neiman's, nearly all of its employees -- 14,000 strong -- have been furloughed.

It's unclear what kind of protection Neiman's would be seeking in bankruptcy court, but these are clearly tough times.

Hidden within this stretched-out snap is a sexy star with an incredible voice! This fine fella got his start in a popular boy band and is now thriving as a solo artist. He released his second studio album at the end of last year and it debuted as No. 1 on the Billboard 200. The singer has since been spending the last few months on tour.

Take a real good look at the photo above and use the clues here to help you try and figure out which celeb could be hiding in this warped photo!

Great news for big time gamblers ... YOU CAN STILL BET ON FOOTBALL ... kind of.

With live sports still on hiatus, gamblers need their fix -- and one of the biggest online sports books in the world is turning to VIDEO GAMES!

We spoke to a rep for BetOnline.ag who tells us they are running simulated NFL games on the "Madden 20" video game.

If you're unfamiliar, there's an option to allow a full computer simulation without any human influence.

In other words, a human can select the 2019 Packers to play the 2019 Chicago Bears ... and A.I. takes over from there, simulating the entire game -- every single play and even the weather conditions.

We're told BetOnline livestreams the games on Twitch -- so gamblers can see the action for themselves in the name of transparency.

There are real gambling lines too -- for example, Texans are 3-point favorites to defeat the Falcons in a simulated matchup this weekend! You can even bet on the over/under.

Crazy, right?!

BetOnline tells us they've been getting a ton of action on the video game sports so far -- "We are getting as much action on them as an average non-nationally televised MLB game, believe it or not. Action keeps getting better daily."

One rep told us, "I strongly believe simulated betting is here to stay, even once the big sports return."

Melissa Joan Hart must have a spell to keep her looking this ageless!

Here is an 18-year-old version of the "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" star showing off her wicked good looks at an award show in Los Angeles, CA back in 1994 (left).

And, 26 years later ... this actress is spending the weekend celebrating her 44th birthday.

Since her days of visiting the other realm, this glowing gal has starred in plenty of TV shows and movies including, "Melissa & Joey," "My Fake Fiancé," "No Good Nick" and much more! She was last spotted earlier this year looking better than ever at a party in West Hollywood, California (right).

Must be witchcraft!

The question is ...

President Trump just did something that rarely ever happens live when he's got a hold of a mic -- he fact-checked himself ... but only to serve his agenda.

DT was doing his daily White House Press Briefing Saturday, and while he was ticking off figures about testing in New York, he compared rates there to those in Singapore ... which he said were 6% higher than the South-Eastern Asian country.

Or, so said his notes, which he paused to correct, while calling out the typo. Trump said the actual number was closer to 67% -- a YUGE difference -- and that 6% didn't "look too good." He also seemingly took a shot at his staff, saying ... "Good job out there."

First off ... the fact that Trump is comparing New York testing rates per capita to Singapore -- which has about a quarter of the population NY does -- is pretty ridiculous, even if Singapore was one of the countries that seemed more prepared for COVID-19 than others.

Also, it's ironic that Trump would point out a typo ... when his tweets are often full of 'em, which get published as is, without correction. Here, when it's to boost his image of how he guides the States he oversees ... he wants to get it right.

Unfortunately, it appears the typo remark was only made to push the narrative that there's more than enough testing going on, and that Democratic governors -- like Cuomo, who's been calling for way more federal help lately -- are simply complaining to complain.

Monique Coleman says there's a perfectly good explanation why her old Disney Channel costar, Zac Efron, didn't join in on a big broadcast sing-along ... the almighty Wi-Fi signal.

We talked to the 'High School Musical' alum -- who was one of the former child stars in the hit DC movie series, and who performed "We're All In This Together" Thursday alongside Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale and others -- and she told us why Zac was MIA during the nationally televised performance. Long story short ... dude's probably got a bad signal.

Monique says Zac -- the lead man in the 'HSM' movies -- got on-board at the very last minute, and was only able to introduce the song from a fuzzy video he sent in. The reason he wasn't able to sing along with the crew is because he's likely in a remote part of the world with crappy Internet. Last she heard, ZE was in Papua New Guinea filming for his new Quibi show, "Killing Zac Efron" -- so yeah, he wasn't gonna risk a bad show.

More importantly than that, though, is the fact that Zac is one of the most down-to-earth celebs there is in the biz ... according to Monique, anyway. She says she's not surprised he didn't cave to the Disney pressure to get in on the sing-along ... and did what he realistically could.