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May the 4th be with you quickly turned into may the Lethbridge, Alberta police force have mercy on you ... when cops took down a Stormtrooper for including a toy blaster in her cosplay.

The crazy scene went down Monday in the Canadian province where a bar employee -- at the Coco Vanilla Galactic Cantina, no less -- was roughed up by cops. Someone reported seeing her with a firearm, and things quickly went south when officers surrounded her.

The video starts out calmly enough, with a man recording the bar employee -- who was out in costume for a company parking lot shindig in honor of 'Star Wars' day -- and joking around with her and asking her to do some Stormtrooper moves. She's half into it ... whatevs.

The crazy part happened moments later, when Lethbridge PD swarmed the scene with guns drawn ... shouting at the Stormtrooper and demanding she drop her weapon. She did, almost immediately.

What happened next is up for debate. Cops say the woman didn't follow their orders by getting down to the ground right away, but she and her boss argue she couldn't because of the damn suit (hard to bend in that thing) -- which she apparently tried relaying to the police on the spot. Eventually, she was able to get down.

The woman claims cops roughed her up as they put cuffs on her, allegedly shoving her face into the ground and making her nose bleed. Once all the commotion settled down, the cops eventually realized there was no threat -- and cut the gal loose without charging her.

She and her co-workers are pissed -- but cops say they were just responding to reports of someone with a firearm and were only doing their jobs.

Joe Exotic is going right to the top in his bid to undo his criminal conviction for attempting to kill his archrival ... he's going right to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. to ask for a pardon.

Sources connected to the 'Tiger King' star tell TMZ, Joe's legal team out of Ft. Worth, Texas is preparing a case file that will be sent on to Trump, claiming Joe was wrongly convicted for the murder-for-hire plot against Carole Baskin.

They wrapped a big bus and plan to roll out the big announcement in a few days, but the endgame is clear ... get Joe out of prison.

There are interesting grounds for a pardon. For starters, Joe told everyone who would listen that he wanted Carol dead and even suggested to various people -- some he hardly knew -- that he'd pay as much as $50,000 to have Carol murdered.

Typically, people who seriously hire people to kill people don't tell everyone who would listen that they're marketing a murder plot.

What's more ... the alleged hitman, Allen Glover, was the star witness at Joe's trial, because he's the only one who took money from Joe. Glover says Joe gave him $3k for the hit ... Joe says it was to get Allen the hell out of the zoo.

We interviewed Glover for our TMZ Fox special a few weeks ago, and he made it clear ... this was "payback" and Glover says Joe caused so much misery to people and animals, he wishes he could have done more to hurt him. That's what you call a biased witness, and if the jury heard that they may have discounted his testimony.

And, there's even more ... the prosecutor in the case also charged Joe with killing tigers. His lawyers feel it was done just to dirty Joe up, to make the jury hate him, so they would convict him of ordering the hit on Carol.

Scott Disick is enraged he's been betrayed by the rehab facility he's been staying at ... he's checked himself out and is going to sue.

Scott has been staying at the All Points North Lodge in Edwards, Colorado since last Tuesday. There are reports he's there for cocaine and alcohol abuse ... he's struggled with substance abuse in the past.

His lawyer, Marty Singer, says, well a lot. For starters, Singer says Disick was NOT there for coke and booze. He says, "In an effort to finally come to terms and deal with the pain that Scott has been silently suffering for many years due to the sudden death of his mother, followed by the death of his father 3 months later, Scott made the decision to check himself into a rehab facility last week to work on his past traumas."

We're told he was quarantining in L.A. by himself and it gave him time to realize he had not properly dealt with the death of his parents.

As for Scott's photo that was taken inside the rehab facility ... Singer says it's an outrageous HIPAA violation.

Scott's team believes the photo was taken by a staff member and not a patient, and that could trigger criminal prosecution. We're told the photo was taken of Scott upon his check-in to the facility.

As soon as he learned of the photo leak, Scott immediately called for a car to pick him up, and he's now left the facility and is en route back to L.A.

Though Disick and Co. maintain this has nothing to do with drugs or alcohol, he has struggled over the years -- in and out of rehab at least 3 times ... not to mention at least one hospitalization as a result of substance use. It wasn't until he started dating Sofia Richie in 2017 that he cleaned up his act.

Elon Musk is having himself quite a week -- he put 2 homes on the market, he's potentially shooting a movie in space with Tom Cruise, and oh yeah ... he had a baby with his girlfriend, Grimes.

The Tesla honcho revealed the news on Twitter Monday evening by first replying to a tweet by saying the birth was a few hours away, then following it up by tweeting ... "Mom & baby all good."

Soon after, he responded to a request for a baby pic with a shot of him holding his newborn son ... which he claims shall be named "X Æ A-12 Musk." He also posted one later of his kid with some "savage" face tattoos via social media filters.

The baby is the first for Grimes and the sixth for Musk. He has five sons -- a set of twins and a set of triplets -- from his previous marriage to author Justine Wilson.

As we've reported ... there hasn't been a dull moment with Elon the past week or so, especially on Twitter. He's been pushing to "free America now" amid the coronavirus pandemic, and has vowed to sell "almost all physical possessions" and not own a house.

He seems to be walking the walk too ... because he just put a pair of his Bel-Air mansions on the market this weekend.

As for that movie in space with Tom Cruise ... the actor and Musk's Space X are working with NASA on an action-adventure flick that would actually be shot in outer space, according to a Deadline report.

It's apparently in the early stages of development ... just like Musk's newborn son.

Like we said -- never a dull moment.

"Ask a silly question" ... is what Kristin Cavallari and Jay Cutler are clearly thinking in this video, which proves the writing was on the wall a couple months before they announced their divorce.

TMZ obtained this clip of the now-estranged couple at an event back in February, where they were doing a meet and greet with fans in Chicago at Kristin's Uncommon James store.

At one point, a woman who said she was newly engaged asked for advice about being newlyweds and marriage. Kristin quickly blurted out a very telling answer ... "Don't do it."

Everyone had a laugh about it -- including Jay who seems very uncomfortable sitting right next to Kristin -- but it sure seems like she was being honest, based on what we now know.

Not too long after this she and Jay officially called it quits, with him filing for divorce -- but Kristin's since said in her divorce papers ... they were close to pulling the plug late last year. They made one last-ditch effort that went south in March. The split has been anything but civil.

As we reported ... Kristin accused Jay of "marital misconduct," which we found out pertained to them not agreeing on child custody. They're also at odds about a living situation right now, as Kristin wants money freed up to buy a new place of her own.

Her fans can't say she's not honest.

You can breathe a huge sigh of relief, Asian "murder" hornets are highly unlikely to kill you or your loved ones ... according to wildlife expert Coyote Peterson, so you know it's legit!!!

The Animal Planet star showed up on "TMZ Live" and schooled us on the latest buzz surrounding the deadly insects threatening to wipe out human civilization and bee populations as we know them.

Coyote says don't believe the hype ... these little buggers don't even have the most painful sting in the animal kingdom -- that's reserved for the executioner Wasp -- and they're highly unlikely to kill any Americans, despite their menacing moniker and penchant for decapitating bees.

As we told you ... sightings of Asian "murder" hornets are spiking in Washington, but reports from everyday citizens are mostly false.

Coyote says it's important to remember only a single hornet has actually been found in the United States, and it's dead. CP says entomologists are working to find a potential colony, and if they do, the hornets will be eradicated before they can wreak havoc on humans and bees.

As for the hornets' potent venom -- described as hot metal driving through skin -- and the dozens of people who get stung and die each year ... Coyote tells us why that's a little misleading, and why you're unlikely to be another statistic.

Before this dolled-up darling was making people laugh as a breakout sitcom star, she was just another brown-eyed beauty with bangs growing up in Los Angeles, CA.

This little lady earned herself eight Primetime Emmy Award nominations for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series and ended up taking home two wins. She got married to the famous funny fella, Nick Offerman, in 2003 and have since appeared together in many television shows, including the popular NBC mockumentary, "Parks and Recreation."

She recently reprised her most well-known role with her sarcastic attitude and unforgettable voice.

Designer Michael Costello's not shedding any tears over this year's canceled Met Gala, because he believes the funds raised at the pricey benefit should be going to charities now.

The former "Project Runway" star tells us there's no love lost between the famous fashion gala and him -- he's never been invited -- and he doesn't understand where all the money from the event goes.

The annual New York City gala's been around since 1948, and since 2005 it's been held the first Monday in May. That would've been tonight, but the coronavirus had a different plan.

Michael says tickets to attend go for $30-50,000 a pop ... something he suggests is both ridiculous and suspect.

He tells us even though he looks forward to what celebs and designers bring to the table every year, he'd never dish out that kind of dough to go ... and believes it should go to helping people in need instead.

That's what Costello's been doing lately. As we told you, he's converted his factory into a mask-producing operation in L.A. to benefit frontline workers.

He says he's still focused on that, and won't even check in on the virtual Met Gala going down Monday night on YouTube.

Vogue's calling it "A Moment with the Met" -- but Michael won't even give it that much time.

Asian "murder" hornets arriving on America's doorstep are creating a mass panic we haven't seen since ... well, last month, and one state is already inundated with mostly false reports ... TMZ has learned.

The Washington State Dept. of Agriculture tells us ... its office has received HUNDREDS of reported sightings from all over the country. The flood of calls came in the last few days ... in the wake of a NYT story about the first confirmed encounters with the giant insects in the Pacific Northwest.

That's scared the crap out of people, but fortunately, we're told most if not all of the reports to the WSDA have been erroneous. It's usually not the Asian giant hornet (gov't name for "murder" hornets) folks are seeing, but instead ... its Western cousin, the European hornet -- which isn't nearly as scary.

The main differences between the two are pretty noticeable -- so hopefully this helps people chill out and STOP blowing up phones at the WSDA. The agency wants people to contact their own local agriculture agencies. We're told staffers are even getting calls from Great Britain.

As for how to tell which is which -- the European hornets, a dime a dozen in the States, are actually LARGER than the Asian "murder" hornets, and they look different too, if you look closely. European hornets' thoraxes and abdomens feature more yellow, while the Asian hornet is mostly black/dark brown in appearance ... with a yellow stripe closer to its stinger.

Of course, that all assumes you can safely observe the bugger up close.

For an even closer look at what European hornets look like -- here's a shot of one a Philly-area resident took over the weekend, mistakenly thinking it was Asian. He reported it to the Pennsylvania Dept. of Agriculture ... and they assured him it wasn't a "murder" hornet.