Celebrity Feuds

"I couldn’t care about them 2 dingbats."

Conor McGregor is days away from one of the biggest fights of his career, but the UFC superstar's still getting grilled about Jake and Logan Paul ... saying he has no intention of ever fighting the YouTubers-turned-boxers.

... but he's not counting it out for good!!!

"The Notorious" -- who's seeking revenge against Dustin Poirier at UFC 264 on Saturday -- was asked if he'd ever step in the ring with the two bros this week ... and his answer is very interesting.

"I don’t see so, but never say never," Conor said. "If they’re gonna keep competing and what not, who f***in' knows? But dingbats, the 2 of 'em."

In other words -- SO YOU'RE SAYING THERE'S A CHANCE!!!!

Remember, Jake has incessantly gone after McGregor for months ... offering $50 million to make the fight happen, even releasing a wild video claiming the superstar and Dana White are scared to set it up.

Conor -- who loves making money -- has kept his options open about fighting Jake in the past ... and you'd think there's gotta be a reason for that.

Stephen Dorff came out swinging against Marvel and its latest big screen offering, "Black Widow," as well as its lead star in Scarlett Johansson ... for whom he says he feels sorry.

The veteran actor straight-up bashed ScarJo's newest flick in an interview with the U.K.'s Independent outlet ... saying, in part, "I still hunt out the good shit because I don't want to be in Black Widow. It looks like garbage to me. It looks like a bad video game. I'm embarrassed for those people. I'm embarrassed for Scarlett!" Tell us how you really feel!

Steve went on to add this for good measure ... "I'm sure she got paid five, seven million bucks, but I'm embarrassed for her. I don't want to be in those movies. I really don't. I'll find that kid director that's gonna be the next [Stanley] Kubrick and I'll act for him instead."

SD continued on with his diatribe, expanding the scope to include the film industry at large -- which he characterized as a "big game show" -- but his main gripe seems to be with what he considers selling out to the big studios ... and maintaining some sense of artistic integrity.

That's interesting coming from Steve ... seeing how he's been in superhero movies himself -- including a Marvel fan fave, 'Blade' -- but also another superhero film that many considered "garbage" ... his 2015 appearance in "American Hero," which was like a farce of the genre.

One could argue -- as many online are right now -- that Stephen's other film credits aren't necessarily Kubrick-esque either. He's been in a bunch of films that some might consider bullish and not-that-artsy (aka, B-films) ... including "Felon," "Carjacked" and lots of others.

Rachel Nichols -- a star anchor for ESPN, covering all things NBA -- was caught on camera last year talking to LeBron James' publicist about how to prevent a fellow female anchor, who's Black, from taking over her job during the Finals ... and the fallout seems devastating.

The New York Times published a bombshell report Sunday, detailing the drama at the sports network over the past year and change ... this after a video of Nichols talking to Adam Mendelsohn was secretly recorded by an ESPN employee, leaked ... and spread like wildfire.

Nichols was working/filming from a hotel room last May just as the NBA Playoffs were getting underway (due to the pandemic) and it appears she left her camera on somehow, and the thing was still recording when she had this chat with Mendelsohn ... with the feed going back to the ESPN studio, where somebody captured the damning words exchanged.

In the first snippet posted by the Times, you can hear Nichols venting to Mendelsohn -- who's a PR/comms wiz -- about how ESPN had approached her with the idea of doing sideline reporting during the Finals that year, as opposed to hosting -- a task Nichols has shared on and off lately with Maria Taylor, another rising star ... who's African-American.

Check out the convo ... Nichols basically says she declined ESPN's offer, because she knew it would make way for Maria to handle hosting duties full-time, essentially pushing Nichols out of the picture ... something she was clearly not down for, as she wanted to maintain her gig.

Nichols goes on to say of Maria shortly thereafter ... "If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity -- which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it -- like, go for it." She adds, "Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away."

In a 2nd audio snipped ... Mendelsohn is heard giving advice to Nichols about how she could frame the dynamic of ESPN pitting two females against each other in order to gain leverage, even if it would potentially be at Maria's expense. He also had some interesting thoughts on #MeToo and BLM, saying he had "nothing left" and was exhausted ... in what sounds like what he (and perhaps Nichols) considered phony pandering/appeasing at the executive level.

After this video/audio was spread around among ESPN workers internally, it eventually reached the higher ranks ... and the NYT reports the network has been in damage control mode ever since, with fears that Nichols might sue -- and that Taylor might leave entirely.

Richard Branson is closing in on winning the billionaire space race with Jeff Bezos -- because Virgin Galactic now has a flight planned for next weekend, and the British billionaire will be onboard.

Richard's company announced plans Thursday to launch the rocket-fueled flight July 11 ... just 9 days before Bezos plans to travel to suborbital space July 20 with his Blue Origin mission.

Virgin Galactic says Branson will be joined by 2 pilots and 3 other astronauts on the spaceflight, with Richard "testing the private astronaut experience" ... a fancy phrase for the views from space, the cabin, seating and zero gravity.

Richard's company says the spaceflight on Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo rocket plane will stream live on social media, and the mission's been dubbed "Unity 22."

If all goes according to plan, Virgin Galactic and Richard will beat Blue Origin and Bezos by a healthy margin.

Remember, when Jeff announced his launch, back on June 7, Branson hadn't even publicly mentioned a date for his trip. That changed within a matter of days.

Meghan McCain is leaving "The View," and the reason why is absolutely because of a series of nasty back-and-forths with her cohosts ... TMZ has confirmed.

Sources tell TMZ ... Meghan felt it was too hard for her being the only conservative voice on the show and it had become too challenging, as she felt she was getting ganged up on every day.

We're told McCain will address her departure Thursday on the show. It's unclear exactly what reason she'll give the audience for her departure, but make no mistake ... it's about the politics. Remember, she gave birth to a daughter back in September, so it's possible she may also mention wanting to spend more time with her baby girl.

The news comes a little over a month after Meghan and Joy Behar's last major on-air blowup -- the one that prompted ABC News President Kim Godwin to step in and call a last-minute meeting demanding all of the 'View' cohosts chill with personal attacks.

Our sources at the time also said ABC was getting flooded with pleas to fire Meghan over her latest tantrum and attacks on Joy ... which is what sparked the virtual meeting.

We were also told Godwin told the staff their personal attacks are coming off as toxic to the audience. The issue, we were told, weren't the debates ... but the attacks between the cohosts.

This is the latest shakeup in daytime talk shows. Remember, their competition over at "The Talk" just had to blow up their show, firing Sharon Osbourne after her very personal on-air battle with Sheryl Underwood.

White Sox star Lucas Giolito was so furious that Twins 3rd baseman Josh Donaldson made a "sticky" quip during their game Tuesday ... he straight-up called the Minnesota player "a f***ing pest."

The scene on the diamond was pretty wild ... after Donaldson homered off Giolito in the 1st inning -- he celebrated by insinuating the Chicago pitcher had previously used sticky substances to throw better.

As Donaldson crossed home plate, he rubbed his hands together and yelled toward his dugout, "It's not sticky anymore!"

Of course, Donaldson's implying the MLB's new crackdown on pitchers and foreign substances was affecting Giolitio ... and the Sox ace did NOT like that at all.

After the game -- which Giolito ultimately earned the win for -- he sounded off on JD ... eviscerating him in a profanity-laced rant.

"He's a f***ing pest," Giolito said. "It's kind of a classless move. If you're going to talk s***, talk s*** to my face. Don't go cross home plate and do all that. Just come to me."

Giolito continued, "We won. The W is next to my name. They're in last place."

Tuesday's contest was the first of a three-game series between the Twins and Sox this week, and while Giolito won't throw again against Minnesota in the next 2 days ... the series just got a whole lot more interesting regardless.

'90 Day Fiance' star Deavan Clegg claims Jenelle Evans is spewing lies about her since their podcast project went south, and she's lawyering up to take the former 'Teen Mom' to court.

Deavan's planning to file suit against Jenelle for defamation and cyberstalking ... according to her publicist, Lindsay Feldman of BrandBomb Marketing. As for how their relationship got this nasty ... it's a bit complicated, but the gist is a few months ago they teamed up for a podcast called "Girl S#!t" -- along with Gabbie Egan, and when it didn't work out, the mudslinging began.

Deavan accused Jenelle and Gabbie of bullying and ganging up on her, and Jenelle accused Deavan of spreading lies.

It all came to a head recently though, with Jenelle posting a 44-minute video explaining her side -- but also dropping an allegation that after a weekend with Deavan, Jenelle's supply of anxiety meds for her esophagus problems turned up missing. Deavan later alleged the medication Jenelle seemingly accused her of taking was Xanax.

Deavan vehemently denies that, and it's one of the main reasons she's threatening to sue Jenelle.

While she's at it, we're told she's also considering legal action against Gabbie for allegedly violating an NDA related to the podcast.

Olivia Rodrigo's latest cover art looks an awful lot like something Courtney Love put out years ago -- and the latter isn't afraid to point that out ... not to mention demand credit.

The 18-year-old singer -- who's blowing up right now from her "drivers license" hit, plus her debut album "SOUR" from earlier this year -- teased a new visual project tied to her record, which will apparently be all about prom ... and OR never being able to attend her own.

She posed for a shoot in which she's in a prom dress, a tiara and mascara running down her face ... with a bouquet of flowers in tow. If that looks familiar, it's 'cause it is ... Courtney's band, Hole, released "Live Through This" in the '90s, and it's got a very similar aesthetic.

CL poked fun at this ... reposting Olivia's photo, and captioning it with, "Spot the difference! #twinning! 🥸@oliviarodrigo 😉👸👸." Seems like it was all in good fun, but it would appear Courtney is legit upset about this ... and perhaps rightly so.

Olivia eventually responded in Courtney's comments, writing ... "Love u and live through this sooooo much." Not really an apology or acknowledgment of inspiration (in our minds) ... and it looks like Courtney thought so too, because she told Olivia to send her flowers and a thank you note, while making sure to note her favorite florist. Indeed, it's deliciously petty.

Some are saying Courtney's expecting too much here -- as there's an argument that artists (especially ones from vastly different generations) are ripping each other's style all the time, consciously or unconsciously. It's also unclear if Olivia was aware of Courtney's work when she/her team were putting this whole concept together. Either way, Court doesn't care.

She dug in, writing ... "Does Disney teach kids reading and writing? God knows. Let's see. Yes this is rude. Rage inducing? Honey if I had a dollar for everyone this happens? I'd be real rich!"

Richard Branson just cleared one huge hurdle in his quest to beat Jeff Bezos into sub-orbital space ... the FFA just gave Virgin Galactic the green light to fly passengers.

The Virgin Galactic honcho got the all-clear Friday after the Federal Aviation Administration reviewed extensive data gathered from his aerospace company's May 22 test flight. The review reportedly confirmed the flight performed well.

BTW ... it's the first time the FAA has licensed a spaceline to fly customers. Huge deal.

Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said, "We’re incredibly pleased with the results of our most recent test flight, which achieved our stated flight test objectives. The flight performed flawlessly, and the results demonstrate the safety and elegance of our flight system."

He added, "Today’s approval by the FAA of our full commercial launch license, in conjunction with the success of our May 22 test flight, give us confidence as we proceed toward our first fully crewed test flight this summer."

It should be noted, there were reports Branson was going to be traveling in one of his rocket-fueled flights over the July 4 weekend -- but the company has not announced any plans yet to do so -- aka, it almost certainly won't happen in that timeframe.

If it did takeoff ... that would edge out Bezos' Blue Origin flight by a couple of weeks.

T-Pain says Usher summoned him some years back just to casually let him know he had torpedoed the music biz by popularizing autotune ... which T says sent him into depression.

The 'Buy U a Drank' singer recently told the tale on Netflix's new docuseries 'This Is Pop' -- detailing what he claims was a seriously cold-ass encounter in 2013. Watch how T-Pain describes the alleged put-down ... apparently, they were both flying in the same airplane on the way to an award show, when T says he was called to Mr. Raymond's seat. They exchanged pleasantries, and then T-Pain says Usher laid in.

According to T, Usher believed T-Pain had tainted professional singing for guys (like Usher) who use their natural voice, and he supposedly said it with a straight face.

T-Pain says he was shocked and that, before he knew it, he realized he'd fallen into a depression, which he says lasted 4 years -- something he seems to be attributing to the Usher moment itself. It's a wild story.

Of course, people are jumping to T-Pain's defense in light of this, assuring him he not only did NOT ruin music, but might've actually revolutionized it ... considering every other famous rapper/singer these days uses some form of autotune.

And, for argument's sake ... even if you agree with Usher's sentiment, why break it to someone in that manner, and so randomly??? Seems like a jerk move -- on its face, anyway. We'll see if Usher offers a different version of the story.

Courtney Stodden thinks an Oprah interview with Chrissy Teigen on cyberbullying would be remiss to leave out one important piece to the story ... Courtney Stodden!!!

Courtney was on their way into their show Friday at the 1720 in downtown Los Angeles when a photog asked if Stodden would like to go on Oprah for a Megan Markle-type interview with Chrissy.

As you know ... Chrissy's reportedly in talks with Oprah for her first interview after her cyberbullying scandal, which involves Courtney and, more recently, Michael Costello. Courtney claims Chrissy once sent a DM telling Stodden to commit suicide, and CT has since apologized for the merciless online bullying.

Courtney, who is nonbinary, says Chrissy's potential sit down with Oprah would be really interesting ... and they want to come on and share their story too, as long as doing so would help folks dealing with cyberbullies.

Of course, the ball is very much in Oprah's court.

Kane Lim might've been doing more bad than good with his harsh words about Yamashiro -- whether he knew it or not ... this, according to his reality TV costar, Christine Chiu.

We got the "Bling Empire" cast member leaving Craig's in WeHo Friday night, alongside Dorothy Wang -- who's said to be filming for season 2, and should be featured on the show in the future. Of course, our photog had to ask about Kane's drama with Chef Vallerie.

Remember ... Vallerie accused Kane of spreading "Asian hate" when he called her sushi restaurant "disgusting" on camera -- but he pushed back, saying he was just expressing an opinion ... and that he didn't even know Vallerie or her work as head of the new grub.

That's where our camera guy picks things up -- asking CC straight-up ... who's in the right here??? Check it out -- she tries being diplomatic, but clearly sides with the chef ... telling us Asians need to band together and put on a united front, instead of bashing one another.

Dorothy hits that point home with an even more nuanced take -- saying it's fine to have preferences, and to even express those preferences ... but there's a way to say things, especially these days when topics such as this are delicate to talk about. Well said.

She also touches on another angle that rings true as well -- in light of restaurants now opening back up to full capacity on the heels of the pandemic. Watch ... she says Kane should've been mindful of that dynamic as well, before spouting off so recklessly.

Chrissy Teigen says she has "no idea what the f*** Michael Costello is doing" when it comes to faking an alleged DM convo between them ... and she's doubling down, insisting he's lying.

Chrissy unloaded on the 'Project Runway' star Friday ... accusing him of fabricating the screenshots he released to the public to make it look like she had privately bullied him online.

CT says she actually thought things were cool between her and Michael until he suddenly accused her last week of mounting a yearslong campaign to get him blacklisted from the fashion industry over an alleged racist comment he made on social media.

Chrissy says she's "never conspired with anyone to harm his career" and claims they were being friendly online until he recently attacked, and claimed she nearly drove him to suicide.

As you know ... Michael posted what he says are direct Instagram messages from Chrissy calling him racist and threatening his career back in 2014 ... but she says those are all BS, and the proof is in the details of the purported DMs.

For instance, Chrissy says the camera icon for the video chat function in the upper right corner is the smoking gun -- video chats weren't available on IG until 2018 and she also points out the convo's color formatting appears to be from the app's 2020 update. In other words, she's saying there's no way the DMs are from 2014 ... so, the whole convo is fake.

As we reported ... John Legend came to his wife's defense earlier Friday, accusing Michael of faking the DMs just so he could insert himself in Chrissy's bullying controversy.

Chrissy also announced Friday she's stepping away from Safely, the self-care and home cleaning line she launched 3 months ago with Kris Jenner, to take time to focus on herself and be with her family.

Michael Costello's doubling down on claims Chrissy Teigen's bullied and traumatized him, and says her attempts to discredit him confirm "she remains the same bully."

The "Project Runway" star's responding to news that broke Thursday night -- Chrissy's team alleges the 2014 Instagram direct messages Costello shared earlier this week to show how she bullied him ... are fake, or at least manipulated.

Chrissy's side claims the purported DMs between Teigen and Costello contain technical inconsistencies suggesting they were altered.

As we reported ... Costello claims Teigen attacked him because she mistakenly believed he had posted something racist, and he says it led to a yearslong campaign to get him blacklisted from the fashion industry. He also claims Chrissy nearly drove him to suicide.

Though Chrissy's team is calling the DMs into question, Costello maintains that for 7 years he's been "a victim of trauma and bullying by Chrissy Teigen both online and offline" ... and points to public comments she posted as further proof.

He adds ... "When a victim feels like their only recourse is to speak up, and the abuser’s first move is to discredit the victim and shame him publicly, this perpetrates victim-blaming and it costs lives."

Costello also alleges he has emails and documents unreleased to the public that show Chrissy went beyond social media to blacklist him in the real world, "making him endure over seven years of suffering - mentally and financially."

While Chrissy has said she plans to reach out personally to some of the people she bullied -- the continued back and forth allegations between Michael and her don't bode well for any sort of face-to-face ... as he had invited her to do.

Kelly Dodd may no longer be part of "The Real Housewives of Orange County" cast, but she's kicking the reality TV drama into overdrive anyway ... and directing her ire at Braunwyn Windham-Burke.

As we told you, both ladies will not be returning for the new season of 'RHOC,' and Kelly is placing the blame for that squarely on her former castmate ... and not pulling any punches.

She just shared a recent text exchange with Braunwyn that started with Braunwyn checking in on her -- something Kelly described as "audacity" -- and then Kelly responded by going off on her for their ousting from the show.

According to Kelly ... if Braunwyn "didn't make things so dark and ugly and brought all that political 'woke' BS" to the show, she believes they'd still be on it. Kelly also says Braunwyn calling her a racist and homophobe was "horribly destructive."

Kelly's attack on Braunwyn is apparently in response to Braunwyn going on a podcast and addressing the 2 of them -- along with Elizabeth Lyn Vargas -- not being invited back for the next season.

Kelly wrote ... "She said she was fired from the show because we all didn’t like her because she’s gay. Not because she’s a horrible person. Not because she treated everyone like s**t and made no effort to be friends with us."

Then Kelly went really hard, calling Braunwyn a "terrible mother," "horrible person to her husband" ... and a "f***ing nut job classic narcissist!"

We listened to the podcast, and while Braunwyn did say Kelly has made a lot of controversial comments and admits "the two of us were diametrically opposed on social justice issues" ... she also called her "the most interesting person on the cast" and added, "Kelly does have a good heart underneath it all."

The audacity!!!

We spoke to a production source who was adamant, telling us Dodd was not let go from the show because of the storyline around Braunwyn or her sexuality -- but the source would not specify what did trigger Dodd's departure.

One of the stars of Netflix's "Bling Empire" got called out for allegedly spreading Asian hate by dissing a famous sushi joint -- but he's hollering right back ... respectfully, calling BS.

Kane Lim -- a Singaporean real estate developer -- was recently filmed on a pal's IG Story, hyping up the fact they were eating from another sushi restaurant in town, Tadaima, instead of L.A. celeb hot spot Yamashiro ... which they, including KL, openly mocked and called "disgusting."

Yamashiro's head chef, Vallerie Castillo Archer, took the jab personally, and also leveled an allegation against Lim and his buddies ... saying they were helping spread hate against their own race.

She wrote, in part ... "How can we promote Stop Asian Hate when we are the ones publicly hating on Asians?" She added that she found Lim's remarks hurtful to the cause.

Despite how Vallerie interpreted Lim's comments, he tells TMZ she's got this one wrong, and is kinda making a mountain out of a mole hill. Kane says his remarks were simply based on his own eating experience at Yamashiro from a few years back -- and were not aimed at her, her work or her staff directly. He just didn't dig the food there, period.

With that said, Kane adds this ... "It's unfortunate this has escalated to this level. I get how it has been interpreted and am disappointed it's been crafted into an Asian-hate thing."

Kane goes on to clarify that he does NOT hate his own race, and as far as Val ... he's more than willing to make amends and give Yamashiro another shot. In fact, we're told they're making plans to meet up and hash this out in the near future.