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Martin Bashir -- the journalist who infamously interviewed Princess Diana and just got trashed for it -- says he didn't do anything wrong or deceitful in nabbing the sit-down ... despite what an independent report has concluded.

Bashir made his first public comments about the scandal to the Sunday Times ... denying any nefarious behavior he and the BBC are alleged to have engaged in back in '95, when Diana agreed to talk to him on camera about her relationship with Prince Charles.

It almost sounds like an apology, but it ain't ... because Bashir straight up says he played no part coming up with alleged fake docs and/or bogus phone calls placed to Diana. He says, "Even in the early 1990s, there were stories and secretly recorded phone calls. I wasn’t the source of any of that."

He goes on to say the idea the interview was somehow something Diana didn't want, or that it was framed in a way that harmed her afterward is simply not true ... regardless of what her boys, Prince William and Prince Harry, might be saying now ... nearly 30 years later.

Bashir says, "Everything we did in terms of the interview was as she wanted, from when she wanted to alert the palace, to when it was broadcast, to its contents," while going on to say he and his family loved the Princess, and they remained close even after the interview aired.

MB goes on to say this, "I don’t feel I can be held responsible for many of the other things that were going on in her life, and the complex issues surrounding those decisions." He went on to say Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, squarely putting the blame of Diana's death on his shoulders was "unreasonable and unfair" -- while also explaining he gets the grief.

After the report came out affirming the BBC had, in fact, undertaken deceptive methods -- including made-up bank statements purportedly showing Palace staffers accepting payment for stories about her -- PC and PH both slammed the outlet, and Bashir by extension.

A handwritten letter featuring Albert Einstein's famous theory of special relativity has sold for a bundle at auction -- fetching a 7-figure amount!!!

The one-page note was written by Einstein in 1946, and sent to fellow physicist Ludwik Silberstein ... who's said to have doubted AE's theories. Translated from German, the part about kinetic energy reads, "Your question can be answered from the E = mc2 formula, without any erudition." Reports say this is the 4th time Albert had mentioned the theory on paper, and it's supposedly the only one made available through a private collection.

It was put up for grabs last week by Boston-based auction house, RR Auction, which says it eventually sold for a cool $1.2 million ... this after an all-out bidding war between five parties that eventually became a two-horse race once it started creeping past the $700k mark.

On Thursday, the sale closed -- with one bidder prevailing ... but they're staying anonymous, only being ID'd as a document collector. A rich one at that, too.

A punk rock band made of four ethnically diverse girls is on its way to producing its first professional record -- 'cause they just got signed ... this after a kickass performance.

The band is called The Linda Lindas, and it features four pre-teen/teenage girls -- aged 10 to 16 -- who describe themselves as "Half Asian/Half Latinx" ... and who rocked the house so hard earlier this month at the L.A. Public Library that landed them a deal with a major label.

Variety confirmed The LLs had been signed to Epitaph Records -- which has had quite the repertoire of rock acts in its roster over the years ... including Green Day, Weezer, Rancid, The Offspring, Pennywise, Bad Religion and scores of other legendary punk bands.

Now, the Linda Lindas are part of that mix -- although the details of their contract aren't out yet. In any case, it's a helluva achievement ... and it's all due to a set they put on in early May as part of AAPI Heritage Month, which got tons of love and famous fanfare.

ICYMI ... the Linda Lindas performed a number of original songs at the library, including one called "Racist Sexist Boy" -- the origin of which they explained had to do with the increased Asian hate that's been rocking the nation of late. To vent, they came up with this banger.

Lakers guard Ben McLemore was involved a single-car accident in the hours following his team's huge win over the Warriors ... but, thankfully, he was uninjured -- TMZ Sports has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell us sometime Thursday morning -- shortly after the Lakers beat the Warriors in their play-in game Wednesday night -- cops responded to a 911 call for an accident in Playa Vista, Calif.

We're told when officers arrived on the scene, they found McLemore and his crashed Ford truck ... and conducted a field sobriety test.

Sources say the 28-year-old, though, passed all their tests and did NOT appear to be drunk.

We're told McLemore explained to officers he had accidentally hit the gas instead of the brakes and crashed into a gate arm.

McLemore -- who had no injuries -- was not arrested and not issued any sort of ticket, we're told.

The former Kansas star played in 21 games for the Lakers this season ... averaging 8.0 points per contest.

He did not play in the team's win over Golden State due to a coach's decision.

Two Vegas-area police officers used a deaf woman's own children to help interpret while detaining their mother ... which is now being called a blatant violation of the ADA.

The lady's name is Andrea Hollingsworth, and she recorded the encounter last month after running into a North Las Vegas PD cop ... who was responding to a call alleging Hollingsworth was stalking/harassing someone outside of their home.

Hollingsworth makes clear during the incident that she's deaf and can't hear the officer as he tried figuring out what was going on ... but lost his patience constantly. Another officer arrives on the scene not too long after and also expresses frustration with Hollingsworth.

Eventually, the officers get one of her kids -- who was riding with her when they got approached -- to try and be in the intermediary ... this as they put Hollingsworth in cuffs and sat her down on the curb. It's a distressing situation -- you can hear the children crying and Hollingsworth desperately tries to both reassure them and talk to the cops at the same time.

Once everything is calm (relatively speaking), the officers get some context from what sounds like one of Hollingsworth's daughters ... who says they're simply trying to get some money back from a friend who'd recently moved out of an apartment they were sharing.

The officer chastises the mom to the kid ... explaining police procedure and why it's important for people to cooperate, which he says Hollingsworth was not doing, making it all the more difficult to get to the bottom of what had happened. In the end, no charges were filed.

Now, more than a month later ... Nevada's ACLU chapter, as well as some deaf orgs, are crying foul over Hollingsworth's treatment, saying the cops violated the Americans with Disabilities Act -- not to mention police protocol, which says ASL interpreters must be dispatched in these types of run-ins, as they're on call and available 24/7.

Shanna Moakler has been divorced from Travis Barker for a decade, but the bitterness still lingers, and she's blaming Kourtney and Kim Kardashian for "destroying my family."

Shanna unloaded on Travis and the Kardashians while at JOEY in Woodland Hills, saying she's now estranged from her 3 kids as she takes aim at Kourtney, although she refuses to call her by name.

Moakler maintained her drumbeat that Travis and Kim had an affair during their marriage ... something they have strongly and consistently denied.

She's clearly reeling from Travis' new relationship with Kourtney, saying, "My family is broken because of this family and now my kids and I are alienated from each other because of another sister in the family, so yay for me."

Shanna says she doesn't care about Travis and Kourtney at all, but listening to her that's a tough sell. The photog even asks what she would say to Kourtney and Kim. Her answer ... "Thanks for destroying my family twice."

Travis and Shanna married in 2004. He filed for divorce 2 years later and they reunited twice before finally parting ways in 2008. They have 2 kids ... 17-year-old Landon, 15-year-old Alabama. Shanna has a third child, Atiana whose father is Oscar De La Hoya but she lives with Travis.

A crazy post-crash site has a lot of people reminiscing on early 2000s horror -- because it looks eerily similar to a killer moment from the 'Final Destination' franchise.

A guy named Aaron Cox posted a video showing a giant wood log piercing the windshield of a white van, pulled over behind a transport truck on a freeway ... which of course, is ripped right out of "Final Destination 2," as any terrified viewer who remembers will tell you.

There's not a whole lot of context -- like where, when or what happened next -- but it's kinda funny ... 'cause the guy filming, presumably Aaron, literally mentions 'FD' as he captures the wreckage.

You don't see any blood inside of the van, which we think means (hopefully) nobody was seriously injured. Weirdly enough, the freakin' radio is still playing inside, something that seems to indicate it looks worse than it actually was.

Still, the fact that life imitated art here to a T is uncanny.

If you haven't seen the movie -- it follows the same beats as the OG ... starting with a mass death sitch where a bunch of people die from one incident (in this case, a highway pile-up that kicks off with the logs), which gets prevented by a character having a premonition ... only for the Grim Reaper himself to circle back to everyone who cheated death.

Spoiler alert ... everyone dies later in cool death scenes as the movie goes along -- but that's beside the point.

One last factoid about this -- "Final Destination 2" has scarred so many who watched it that this exact joke was made on none other than TikTok itself by content creator PatD Lucky ... who joked about being caught behind a big rig carrying a massive load of pipes, and immediately wanting to get out of the way out of fear of facing Officer Burke's fate.

Morgan Wallen's starting to get back to performing after his n-word controversy, while seemingly snubbing an organization we're told he'd pledged to meet with ... the NAACP in Nashville.

According to NAACP Nashville President Sheryl Guinn ... after her branch reached out to the country singer in February, she says his team expressed interest in scheduling a sit-down because they claimed he felt terrible about using a racial slur and wanted to make amends.

Guinn tells us both sides agreed to a meeting that was likely to include multiple Black leaders, as well as several people accompanying Morgan ... all they had to do was iron out the details.

However, we're told Wallen's team went silent after that initial phone call, and there's been no effort by Morgan to make it happen ... along with no explanation.

The NAACP Prez says her Nashville chapter never pressured the country star for a face-to-face, but simply wanted to make itself available because he publicly expressed a desire to educate himself. Guinn tells us her hope was to help Wallen become an advocate for Black equality and enlist his fans to do so as well.

To be fair ... shortly after TMZ broke the story that Morgan was recorded by a neighbor casually calling a buddy the n-word, he claimed he'd met with several Black groups that helped him realize how harmful his actions were.

Wallen also stated in April he was taking time to work on himself and would not be adding any tour dates this summer.

As we reported ... he did get back on the stage this week in Nashville at Kid Rock's Big Ass Honky Tonk bar in front of what looked like a packed house.

Kendall Jenner had a splashy launch party for her 818 tequila, and she brought her family along for the celebration.

The Kardashians were out in force Friday night at The Nice Guy in WeHo ... Kim, Kylie, Kris, along with Katy Perry, Kate Hudson, Hailey Bieber and Stassie Karanikolaou.

818 was stacked almost from floor to ceiling as the fam celebrated in mostly skintight duds.

Before hitting up the party, Kim, Khloe and Kylie chowed down at Craig's in WeHo.

Kendall has been a master at pitching her booze ... driving a truck with 818 emblazoned on it to hawk her product. She took heat -- we say unfairly -- for an ad showing her at a farm in Mexico where the tequila is made.  Some folks called it exploitive, but that's ridiculous. This is where the tequila is made and men -- like Clooney, Gerber and The Rock -- who did exactly what Kendall did to promote their brand never got criticized. In other words, the criticism is BS.

Khloe, who had COVID earlier last year, was wearing a mask as she showed up to the party. The other Kardashians were mask-free.

George Floyd's family will travel to The White House Tuesday to meet with President Biden on the first anniversary of Floyd's murder ... this according to The Hill.

Biden has history with the family ... he spoke with them several times after Floyd's death. The visit coincides with Democrats trying to pass a bill bearing George Floyd's name ... a bill designed to reimagine policing in America.

It's unclear if the family will speak with members of Congress during their visit in support of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. Among other things, the bill would ban chokeholds by federal officers. It would also end qualified immunity ... which bars families of police abuse from filing civil suits. The bill is expected to pass the house, but prospects in the Senate are far less certain.

Although Derek Chauvin was convicted of murdering George Floyd, civil rights activists like Tamika Mallory say the trial can't be looked at as a solution to police abuse.

The Mayor of Windsor, California has resigned after Farrah Abraham reportedly became the 9th woman to accuse him of sexual assault.

Mayor Dominic Foppoli has been under fire for allegedly assaulting 8 women from 2002 to 2019. The allegations include forced oral sex and rape ... this according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Foppoli strongly denied the charges and refused to resign, but Friday he reversed course and said he was immediately leaving office ... this after Farrah accused him of sexually assaulting her in Palm Beach Florida, according to the Chronicle.

Foppoli said, "It is with a heavy heart that I am resigning, effective today. I recently learned that a woman in Palm Beach, Florida is accusing me of non-consensual acts while I was visiting there in March of this year. I have no doubt she is making these allegations in an attempt to leverage the situation to her advantage."

The woman to whom he's referring is Farrah, who filed a police report early last month, according to the paper. Her attorney says police have photos, video and audio that supports Farrah's allegations.

The Sonoma County Sheriff's and Palm Beach Police are investigating.

Drake is about to get a huge award and he wants his family close as he receives it.

Billboard will bestow the Artist of the Decade Award on Drizzy Sunday night and it's clearly something that's meaningful to him. His mom, who almost never makes a public appearance, will be front and center as her son accepts the honor ... this according to production sources.

Drake's son, Adonis, will also be in the audience ... watching his dad clutch the award.

The award is a big deal ... previous winners include Mariah Carey in the 1990s and Eminem in the 2000s.

Drake has snagged 27 Billboard Music Awards, and that makes him the record-holder. He received 12 in 2019 alone. As accomplished as he is, Drake was stoked to dine with his idol ... Ronald Isley of the Isley Brothers. Drake said he was "high on life" after dining with Ron.

BTW ... Nick Jonas will host the event, which airs on NBC at 8 PM.

The only thing bigger for Drake might be a chance to play for the Raptors.

Henry "Nacho" Laun, famous for eating massive portions on "Wahlburgers," is fighting for his life in the hospital after being found unconscious.

Sources close to Laun tell us the reality star was on a road trip from Boston to Cape Cod when he made a pit stop at a gas station Wednesday. We're told a customer at the gas station noticed Laun was unconscious in his vehicle and called 911.

Laun was rushed to a local hospital where he remains. His exact condition is unclear, but one thing is for sure ... we're told he's in bad shape. One source tells us he's in a coma, and the underlying condition is serious.

A friend of Laun's tells us his health leading up to the medical emergency wasn't great ... but it's unclear what led to the event.

We tried to get in touch with his family, but Henry's been estranged from them for years.

A fan favorite on "Wahlburgers," Nacho is one of the original members of Mark Wahlberg's entourage and he's known to never shy away from an eating challenge.

The Bill Gates divorce became clearer this week, and the Oprah/Harry mental health doc is making waves. So we gotta ask ...

Potentially huge news from Dana White ... who tells TMZ Sports he's considering making Michael Chandler vs. Justin Gaethje -- in a fight that could be one of the most violent matchups of all time!!

Chandler is coming off a tough loss to Charles Oliveira at UFC 262 ... but MC flashed the K.O. power and explosiveness that fans have come to love in "Iron Michael."

Michael said he wants to get back in the mix and work his way back into a title picture ... and when we spoke to Dana, he told us he's considering #2 ranked lightweight, 32-year-old Gaethje as Chandler’s next opponent.

"That's a good question. I mean, there's a few opportunities," White says ... "He can fight Gaethje, we'll see. We don't have anything done yet but that makes sense and that'd be a fun fight. Imagine Chandler and Gaethje."

Gaethje is also coming off a tough loss. He was submitted in the 2nd round by Khabib at UFC 254 in October 2020 ... Nurmagomedov's final fight.

But, the bottom line is both Michael and Justin aren’t just top-level fighters... they're exciting as hell to watch.

Both men pack dynamite in their fists ... and have racked up 29 combined professional knockouts.

Now, it’s not a done deal ... but when Dana likes something, he usually finds a way to make it happen.

We also asked White about 28-year-old star, Mackenzie Dern ... and the UFC honcho broke some news.

Dana says Dern will face 34-year-old Marina Rodriguez -- who just beat Karate Hottie, Michelle Waterson -- at an upcoming event (DW didn't have the date.)

"[Mackenzie] does have a fight coming up. I was just talking about her this morning. We haven't announced it I'm sure, but I'll give it to you anyway. Hopefully, it's done. My people hate when I do this. She's taking on Marina Rodriguez next which is a great fight."

Dern has looked super impressive in her last few fights ... and recently submitted Nina Nunes via armbar.

Lil Mosey is being ordered to stay the hell away from his alleged sexual assault victim after being charged with second-degree rape.

The "Blueberry Faygo" rapper has been hit with a sexual assault pre-trial protection order ... according to new legal docs obtained by TMZ.

The order, issued in Lewis County, Washington, bars Lil Mosey from contacting the alleged victim in any way and requires him to stay at least 500 feet away from her at all times while he awaits trial for rape.

TMZ broke the story ... Lil Mosey was charged with rape last month for the alleged incident back in January. Mosey's pled not guilty.

According to the docs, Lil Mosey is also prohibited from obtaining or possessing a firearm, other dangerous weapons or a concealed pistol license and must surrender any firearms to the Sheriff's Office.