Controversial S#!T

Botham Jean's neighbor -- who testified against Amber Guyger, the Dallas cop who gunned down BJ in his own apartment -- has now been killed ... days after the guilty verdict.

Joshua Brown was discovered Friday night in Dallas after what appears to be a drive-by shooting, according to local reports. Officers reportedly found Joshua on the ground with multiple gunshot wounds at an apartment complex in Turtle Creek.

Eyewitness told police they saw a silver, 4-door sedan speeding through the parking lot of the complex after the shots rang out. No suspects or motive have been identified as of yet.

Cops hadn't even publicly ID'd the victim, but an attorney for Botham's family confirmed on Facebook that it was, in fact, Joshua. He died from his injuries at a hospital.

LeBron James says he's the G.O.A.T. ... but Byron Scott says LBJ's not even the G.O.A.T. Laker ... 'cause he tells TMZ Sports there are 2 players James will NEVER pass on the all-time list.

Of course, Scott is part of the rich Lakers history -- he won 3 titles with the Showtime Lakers in the '80s ... and played 11 seasons in the purple & gold.

Some of the best players in NBA history have put on a Laker jersey -- Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Shaq, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar ... hell, even Karl Malone was in L.A. for one season.

We spoke with Scott at LAX about where the King sits among the list of all-time Laker greats ... and he says there's NO WAY LeBron will ever take the throne.

"That ain't possible. It's Magic and Kareem," Scott says ... noting that Kobe is definitely in the conversation.

But, Scott doesn't think LBJ's stint with L.A. will resemble that of Malone's, Steve Nash's or Gary Payton's -- he thinks James will be able to bring home multiple titles back to the Lakers.

The University of Tennessee has booted Jeremy Banks off the football team days after footage surfaced showed him berating police officers during a recent arrest.

UT coach Jeremy Pruitt announced the move moments ago ... saying, "While I will continue to support Jeremy in the next steps in his life, information I recently received made it clear this decision is in the best interest of the football program & university."

As we previously reported, Banks was stopped for making an illegal U-turn in Knoxville on Sept. 15 and during the incident, cops noticed an outstanding warrant stemming from a failure to appear in court for a prior traffic issue.

While Banks was in the police car being taken to the station, he went off on the officers.

At one point, Banks says the following to a female intern who's participating in a ride-along -- "You don't wanna be an intern because where I'm from we shoot at cops. I'm from Memphis, Tennessee."

He also made comments like, "I don't like the police, bro. Hell nah," and "Y'all police are some p*****s, bro. Real s**t, I don't f**k with y'all."

AOC was taken aback when a Trump supporter showed up at her town hall meeting, trolling the congresswoman by suggesting the solution to climate change was eating babies.

The woman, who wore a shirt emblazoned with the words, "Save the Planet, Eat the Children," seemed mentally disturbed at first, but as she ranted her message it became apparent she was a climate change denier.

The meeting in Queens, covered by C-SPAN, came to a grinding halt as the woman groused, "Even if we were to bomb Russia, we still have too many people, too much pollution. So we have to get rid of the babies. That's a big problem. Just stopping having babies is not enough. We need to eat the babies."

The woman was escorted out, AOC kept her cool ... and the town hall meeting continued. An extreme right wing group that's endorsed Trump claims the woman is one of their operatives and they planned the whole confrontation with AOC.

AOC later tweeted, "Turns out the woman yelling was a Trump supporter," and then added, "Doesn't rule out potential mental issue."

Justin Bieber's not playing with PETA -- he's firing back hard at the animal rights org after it slammed him for dropping $35k on 2 exotic cats ... telling them to suck it.

JB adopted a pair of Savannah kittens a little more than a month ago -- which he named Sushi and Tuna -- and revealed the brother and sister felines on Instagram as "my children" ... much to the dismay of PETA.

It released a statement chastising his exotic pets purchase, grousing he should have adopted cats from a local shelter. Justin caught wind of the criticism ... and went off.

In a series of IG Stories, Bieber first posted a screenshot of an article about the backlash but added his own caption -- "PETA can suck it."

James Franco is being accused in a new lawsuit of pressuring his acting school students to get naked for auditions while he dangled promises of movie roles that rarely panned out.

The suit, filed by Sarah Tither-Kaplan and Toni Gaal, says that both women were students at the L.A. branch of the Studio 4 school -- which Franco co-founded -- back in 2014. The women claim Franco, and other instructors, engaged in "inappropriate and sexually charged behavior toward female students." In docs, they claim Franco created "an environment of harassment and sexual exploitation."

According to the docs, Franco offered them roles in independent films he was producing or directing. Their issue is what they had to do got those roles. In the suit, they claim Franco blew off several film industry guidelines for nude scenes. For instance, they claim young and inexperienced female students were "routinely pressured to engage in simulated sex acts that went far beyond the standards in the industry."

Joe Giudice is getting his wish -- he's returning to his motherland as he awaits a final decision in his deportation case.

According to federal court records, the judge signed off on Joe's request for his immediate release from an ICE detention center so he can travel to Italy while the courts decide on his appeal of deportation.

We broke the story ... Joe wants to return to his native Italy so he can work and send money back to the States to support his wife, Teresa Giudice, and their 4 daughters, who are all living in New Jersey.

Now he's got the green light, but the question remains ... will it be a temporary trip or permanent?

The WNBA is investigating L.A. Sparks General Manager Penny Toler after the exec admitted to using the n-word in an emotional postgame outburst in the team locker room after a loss.

Toler -- who is African American -- went off on the team after the Sparks lost Game 2 of the WNBA semifinals to the Connecticut Sun on Sept. 19.

Several players, who didn't wish to be named, spoke with ESPN's Ramona Shelburne about the incident ... saying Toler called them "motherf**kers" and showed "total disrespect."

53-year-old Toler says "it's unfortunate" she used the n-word but insists, "By no means did I call my players the n-word."

"I'm not saying that I couldn't have used it in a context," Toler told ESPN ... "But, it wasn't directed at any of my players."

Toler acknowledges she shouldn't have used the word, adding, "Nobody should ... but you know, like I said, I'm not here to defend word by word by word what I said. I know some of the words that I'm being accused of are embellished. Did I give a speech that I hoped would get our team going? Yes."

Now the WNBA has announced the league is investigating the incident ... saying in a statement on Thursday they have ZERO tolerance for offensive racial language.

“We’ll be looking into it as a league. We understand the heat of the moment and that the Sparks lost in the semifinals, but we don’t condone that kind of language and will be reviewing it over the next couple of days,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said.

There is nothing blessed about a bride and groom's wedding photo in front of the notorious Wall from "The Handmaid's Tale" ... so say some outraged fans of the show.

A photography company shared this shot Wednesday of the happy couple kissing on their big day, but the location and Photoshopping of the pic has not drawn much praise ... instead, people find it sickening.

The newlyweds' photo is in front of the wall in Cambridge, Ontario used for filming "The Wall" on the Hulu series.

For those unfamiliar ... The Wall is a boundary of the city where "The Handmaid's Tale" takes place, and bodies of executed men and women who have disobeyed the laws are often hung there as a warning to others.

Yeah, pretty dark stuff.

The photographers who shared the photo had a much brighter take on it, though, writing ... "Praise be! Kendra & Torsten are married!" If there’s any The Handmaid's Tale fans out there, you’ll know most of it is filmed in Cambridge!"

Robert De Niro is being sued by a former assistant who claims he made sexually charged comments to her, was verbally abusive and assigned her "stereotypically females duties" ... a lawsuit she filed after he sued her.

According to a new lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, Graham Chase Robinson claims she was hired by the actor in 2008 as his executive assistant. The then 25-year-old claims De Niro communicated to her in a "hostile, abusive, and intimidating manner" and referred to her as "a bitch" and "a brat." She claims De Niro referred to a female business partner as a "c***."

She also claims De Niro was often intoxicated and would lash out at her. He would also joke with her about his Viagra prescription, and would ask her to "imagine him on the toilet."

De Niro allegedly suggested Robinson could get pregnant by using sperm from a male coworker.

Demi Lovato is NOT taking a political stance in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but someone thinks she is -- and now she's had to do a mea culpa for her trip to religious sites.

Demi felt enough backlash Wednesday night that she felt compelled to post a detailed apology ... in which she admits accepting a free trip to Israel "in exchange for a few posts."

She added, "No one told me there would be anything wrong with going or that I could possibly be offending anyone." Demi went on to say she was sorry, and make it clear she didn't intend to hurt people.

The mystery here is ... WHO lashed out at her for what appeared to be purely a spiritual journey?

Demi's turned off comments on her Instagram, so there's no way to see what anyone said in response to the pics she posted of herself getting baptized in the Jordan River, touching the Wailing Wall and visiting several other landmarks.

Soledad O'Brien is so confident President Trump's going to get impeached, she's putting her money where her mouth is ... and our photog's now on the hook!!!

The TV journalist and host was at Reagan National Airport Wednesday when our guy asked what the chances are that the impeachment inquiry will turn into the real deal.

Soledad says the evidence out in the open makes a strong case already, so she thinks it's only going to get worse for POTUS ... but better for those banking on him getting impeached.

In fact, she's now one of those bettors dropping some cash on Trump becoming just the third prez to be impeached -- along with Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton.

Ex-Dallas cop Amber Guyger just got 10 years in prison -- on the heels of her conviction for murdering her neighbor, Botham Jean ... whose brother created a shocking moment in court.

The sentencing went down Wednesday in Dallas and while there were cheers when it was announced ... the most stunning event came earlier when Brandt Jean gave his victim's impact statement. He spoke directly to Guyger and told her to go to God and ask for forgiveness. He got choked up as he asked the judge if he could hug Guyger.

The judge said yes, and then they tearfully embraced for nearly a minute. You could hear people crying in court.

Brandt said he never wanted to tell his family he's personally forgiven Guyger.

Botham's family members burst into tears after her 10-year sentence was announced, and it appears even Judge Tammy Kemp -- who is black -- was moved by Brandt's statement. After the hearing, she also embraced Guyger.

Justin Trudeau is trying to fight his way out of his blackface scandal ... by stepping into the ring with a black boxing champion.

The embattled Canadian Prime Minister put on a pair of gloves, slipped into some boxing trunks and threw on a sleeveless shirt to spar with boxing champ Ali Nestor Wednesday, ahead of the leader's huge debate in his quest for re-election.

Justin looked like he got in a great workout with Ali, a retired boxer who now runs a non-profit geared toward helping disadvantaged youth. Trudeau got some boxing tips from Ali, but more than anything ... this seems all about optics.

As you know ... Trudeau is embroiled in controversy after photos surfaced showing him in blackface when he was 29 years old.

Trudeau's apologized for what he says was a racist lapse of judgment when he dressed up as Aladdin back in the day, but some Canadians have been calling for him to step down and bow out of the race ... and Al Sharpton told us Justin's mea culpa rings hollow.

Lolo Jones says her LSU Tigers are in trouble after the new California NCAA bill got signed ... telling TMZ Sports recruiting could suffer BIG TIME if things don't change!!!

Lolo is a huge LSU fan -- she went there back in the early 2000s -- and she keeps up with the school's athletics regularly.

So, when we got her out in NYC ... we had to ask about the new bill Gavin Newsom just inked which makes it legal for athletes at California universities to profit off their names and likenesses without penalty.

That's when Lolo told us Louisiana better adopt the law too ... OR ELSE!!!

"Right now, California passing this, it gives them an advantage in recruiting," Lolo says.

"Because let's say an athlete is choosing between USC or LSU. Well, now if they know they can monetize their likeness and make money, they will go to USC all day over LSU."

The bill isn't set to go into effect until 2023 ... so states have time to hop on board -- and it seems Lolo is saying they better get on that train ASAP.

"They're going to have to make it fair for all the athletes in the U.S.," Lolo says.

The officers who arrested Stacey Dash believed the actress was hispanic, but labeled her as "white" on their final arrest report.

Dash -- who has an African American father and Mexican American mother -- was arrested on a domestic battery charge in Florida on Sunday after an incident with her husband. After the police report was issued, many noticed it labeled her race as "white."

A spokesperson for the Pasco Sheriff's Department tells us, "Stacey Dash was never asked her race by the arresting deputy, nor did she volunteer any information about her race. The arresting deputy assumed that she was Hispanic."

He continues, "However, the Pasco Sheriff's Office follows the Department of Justice Uniform Crime Reporting standards and, according to the DOJ reporting requirements the only allowable races are: Asian/Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, Black/African American, American Indian/Alaskan Native, Unknown, or White."

The spokesperson says reports do list a Hispanic option if a deputy fills it out by hand, but most use their computers, which do not give a Hispanic option.

There was also an error in Dash's name on the report -- calling her Stacey Dash Lauretta -- the spokesperson says that will be corrected on the official arrest record.

As for Dash's race ... the spokesperson says he believes that will remain the same as Stacey never specified during her arrest.