Controversial S#!T

Harvey Weinstein is asking the judge who will sentence him Wednesday for mercy ... a 5-year prison sentence.

Weinstein's lawyers filed legal docs late Monday, laying out personal matters they want the judge to consider in handing down the sentence.

For starters, the lawyers honed in on Ronan Farrow's New Yorker article ... "Since the New Yorker article was published in 2017, Mr. Weinstein's life has been destroyed. His wife divorced him, he was fired from The Weinstein Company, and in short, he lost everything."

The lawyer goes on to describe "his fall from grace [as] historic, perhaps unmatched in the age of social media."

The lawyer asks the judge to consider that Weinstein otherwise has no criminal history. The lawyer tried reopening the case by writing, "Both [victims] continued consensual relationships with Mr. Weinstein after the alleged assaults and contacted him for jobs, tickets, and professional advice."

The lawyer also wants the judge to give weight to Weinstein's charitable contributions, including millions for the 9/11 firefighters and police officers. He also helped raise $2.5 billion for the Robin Hood org.

The lawyer wrote, "...the trial did not fairly portray who he is as a person. His life story, his accomplishments, and struggles are simply remarkable and should not be disregarded in total because of a jury's verdict."

67-year-old Weinstein faces a maximum of 29 years in prison for a Criminal Sexual Act in the First Degree and Rape in the Third Degree. Prosecutors have asked the judge to impose a sentence that reflects the seriousness of his offenses, his total lack of remorse and the need to deter him from engaging in further criminal conduct.

UFC star Valentina Shevchenko -- one of the top MMA fighters on the planet -- thinks the judges got it wrong ... and Joanna Jedrzejczyk should have gotten the decision over Weili Zhang.

"I don't believe [the judges got it right]," Shevchenko told us in NYC ... claiming Joanna landed "more clear strikes" than her opponent.

In fact, when you watch our clip with Valentina ... even though she's very respectful about Weili, it's pretty clear she wasn't super impressed with Zhang's performance.

We asked Valentina if she would be interested in dropping down a weight class to fight Zhang, but Shevchenko doesn't think Weili wants the smoke.

The long story short ... VS says if Weili struggled to beat Joanna, she'd get DESTROYED by Shevchenko, who beat up Joanna pretty decisively when they fought in 2018.

"She's a good fighter," Valentina says ... "but it's not enough for the high league competition."

As for Valentina, she's currently on a 5-fight win streak with victories over legit fighters like Katlyn Chookagian, Jessica Eye and Joanna.

Valentina's only losses in the UFC have come from Amanda Nunes, who's widely regarded as the greatest female fighter of all time.

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are wrapping up their senior royal duties before Megxit becomes official, but not before a reunion with Queen Elizabeth ... before God.

QE2, her grandson and his wife all attended Sunday service at the Royal Chapel of All Saints in Windsor Great Park.

Now, it wasn't as warm and fuzzy as you might have hoped -- Harry and Megs drove in separately from the Queen -- but it was the first time all 3 appeared at the same public event since the couple bolted for Canada.

Meghan and Harry are in the middle of a farewell tour of sorts -- they've been in the UK since last week attending several events ... their last engagements as senior royals.

On Monday they're scheduled to perform their final duty at a Westminster Abbey service for Commonwealth Day.

They've been greeted with cheers at most of their stops around the country -- and even when Meghan went solo for an event on Friday, she was embraced.

They always love ya when you're walking out the door.

Madison Beer opened up about a scandal she says has been dogging her for years -- but she's ready to let it go and own the mistake, for which she won't be shamed over anymore.

The singer penned a powerful note Sunday -- making mention of the fact it's International Women's Day -- and basically said she's done being belittled over old private photos and videos she sent to a significant other in her teens ... which have apparently resurfaced as of late.

She writes, "when i was around 14 and exploring my body & sexuality, i sent very private snapchat's of my body to a boy i really liked at the time. i sent these, at 14, thinking i could trust the boy as we had known each other for years & shared feelings for one and other."

Madison continues, "but of course he shared it with all of his friends." She goes on to describe how the pics and vids have popped up over the years, which she says were discussed among her contemporaries, friends, family members and even music execs.

Welp, Madison says she's finally ready to forgive herself ... and more importantly, to let herself move on and not let the incident have power over her anymore. She writes, "so today, on IWD i am going to free myself of this weight i carry."

Madison ends her wise words with some advice for other young people -- remember she's just 21 -- which entails not letting one's mistakes define you, or keep you in fear.

Elizabeth Warren looked herself in the mirror Saturday night ... actually, she was just looking at Kate McKinnon who was playing her on 'SNL,' and it was pretty funny.

The Massachusetts senator took the stage and first answered questions from Kate, who was playing FNC's Laura Ingraham, who debriefed Warren on her exit from the race and the endorsement everyone wants to hear.

Then, as Warren thanked her supporters -- various school teachers and teacher's pets -- Kate changed outfits and came out as EW.

Harvey Weinstein's getting special treatment in jail so far, but it's not necessarily something he wants -- he's being kept isolated and under watch 24 hours a day ... likely until his sentencing.

Senior Dept. of Corrections sources tell TMZ ... ever since Weinstein was transferred to Rikers Island this week, he's been staying on the 6th floor of the main building of the North Infirmary Command.

We're told the floor has 30 beds in a dorm-like setting, but right now, Weinstein has the whole floor to himself ... which keeps him safe from other inmates.

Our sources say a 24-hour security system is in place to monitor the disgraced Hollywood producer's every move, which includes surveillance cameras and frequent check-ins by guards. At night, he's moved to a cell with two other inmates to sleep.

As we told you ... NYC prison officials were concerned about Weinstein harming himself, so it seems the DOC's making sure to avoid that, as well.

Weinstein was moved to his infirmary unit at Rikers Thursday after undergoing a heart procedure at Bellevue Hospital ... which is where he went after being convicted of a 1st-degree criminal sexual act and 3rd-degree rape.

His new digs at Rikers comes with 24/7 medical care and an attending physician on hand. There's also a nearby annex on the grounds for any other medical needs.

As for Weinstein's other prisoner perks ... it's pretty standard stuff. According to the DOC ... he gets one hour of recreation time per day and access to the law library and religious services. He also gets heart-healthy options for breakfast, lunch and dinner ... but we're told he can also request junk food from the commissary.

Weinstein's sentencing is scheduled for Wednesday ... it's unclear if or where he'll be moved after the judge hands down his punishment.

We reached out to his attorneys, Donna Rotunno and Arthur Aidala ... both declined to comment.

Talib Kweli's been engaging in an online war with racists, bigots, Nazis and Russian trolls, and he's not backing down ... because he says it's empowering to put them in their place.

The rapper and activist tells TMZ ... combating Nazism in the Russian hip-hop scene is just the tip of the iceberg -- he says the racist trolling online goes way deeper and darker than that, but he's up for the challenge.

Talib feels certain world leaders -- Putin and Trump among them -- are coddling racists and allowing their message to spread. He says racist behavior on social media can't just be dismissed as harmless trolling, because it enables more racism ... and he's out to check it.

Kweli concedes many people aren't up for battling bigots because it's too stressful, but the good news -- he makes it clear it doesn't stress him out at all ... he loves it.

The rapper says the feeling he gets when he's able to correct a racist liar or get Nazis' accounts taken down is nothing but empowering ... and his fans are joining the charge.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry are seeing red just weeks before they get outta Dodge London and live happily ever after ... everyone else is seeing that color too, BTW.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex were looking like a couple of burning flames Saturday in the U.K., where they're attending the annual Mountbatten Music Festival at Royal Albert Hall -- a military-sponsored event meant to honor the brave Brits who fought in WWII.

That's why Har here is decked out in his red marine coat and Meg followed suit with a stunning matching dress of her own. It's one of their last events as senior Royals ... after this, they're ditching the titles, military ones included. The couple steps down on March 31.

In any case, it's good to see Harry and Meghan being good sports about it. It's also great just to see them in general ... following up a spectacular outing on Thursday with one that's even more showstopping. We'll give 'em this ...  they know how to dress for an occasion.

On Monday, they'll have their final Royal event ever alongside the Queen -- and after that, it's sayonara for the pair. If the dress code here is any indication, they'll go out with a bang.

'RuPaul's Drag Race' has laid down the hammer on one of their current contestants after a catfishing scandal came to light ... and he copped to it himself.

Sherry Pie -- who's real name is Joey Gugliemelli -- was disqualified from filming the rest of season 12 this week, according to the official 'RuPaul' Twitter page. The tweet reads, "In light of recent developments and Sherry Pie’s statement, Sherry Pie has been disqualified from RuPaul’s Drag Race."

They continued, "Out of respect for the hard work of the other queens, VH1 will air the season as planned. Sherry will not appear in the grand finale scheduled to be filmed later this spring." It's pretty crazy ... only two episodes of the new season have aired thus far.

Sherry has been introduced as a "big, loud Broadway dame" who considers herself the "Queen of camp." A majority of the filming is presumably complete for Season 12, but 'RuPaul' usually films a live reunion/finale episode, and brings everyone back for it.

Sounds like Sherry won't be though ... it's unclear how far along she made it in the show, but it appears VH1 will air the season as is, and simply won't invite her back for any further participation.

The reason Sherry got the boot ... at least 5 men have come forward to accuse Sherry/Joey of catfishing them over the years -- allegedly posing as a casting director and asking them to submit explicit videos of themselves in degrading acts. One guy says he was asked to masturbate on camera, and he agreed.

Woody Allen's been officially canceled ... by the publishing company that was going to release his memoir next month.

Hachette Book Group announced it will no longer publish the famed, but controversial, director's memoir, "Apropos of Nothing," which was originally scheduled to hit bookshelves in April.

The decision comes on the heels of a staff walkout at one of HBG's imprint companies, Little, Brown and Company ... which is Ronan Farrow's publisher. After Ronan voiced his disappointment HBG was working with Allen ... employees at Little, Brown and Co. staged a walkout Thursday, saying ... "We stand in solidarity with Ronan Farrow, Dylan Farrow and survivors of sexual assault."

As you know ... Allen was accused in 1992 by Dylan, his adoptive daughter, of molesting her when she was 7. He's repeatedly denied that.

HBG says, "The decision to cancel Mr. Allen’s book was a difficult one. At HBG we take our relationships with authors very seriously, and do not cancel books lightly."

The publisher adds ... "Also, as a company, we are committed to offering a stimulating, supportive and open work environment for all our staff. Over the past few days, HBG leadership had extensive conversations with our staff and others. After listening, we came to the conclusion that moving forward with publication would not be feasible."

HBG will return all rights of the memoir to the author.