Controversial S#!T

Matt Patricia was a graduate assistant for the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute football team while he was being prosecuted for sexual assault ... but the head football coach says he was kept in the dark.

Patricia played for RPI from '92 to '95 -- but his coaching career started the very next season when he was a graduate assistant for his alma mater.

According to court docs obtained by TMZ Sports, the alleged rape occurred on March 15, 1996 and Patricia was indicted on August 14, 1996 -- the same day as RPI's opening game of the '96 season.

So, how was Patricia allowed be a part of the program while being investigated for rape?

We spoke with Matt's coach, Joe King, who told us it's a pretty simple answer ... nobody ever told him Patricia was involved in a rape case.

In fact, King says he was completely unaware about the legal proceedings until this week -- when reports surfaced in the Detroit News.

For his part, King says Patricia was a model student athlete and an all-around great guy.

"He's as high a quality individual as I've ever coached, as I've ever known. I just find it hard to believe that this happened."

Amy Schumer broke a huge rule on the comedy club circuit by crashing an up-and-coming comedian's stand-up set, according to fellow comic Michael Blackson.

We got Blackson at LAX Thursday afternoon where he told us what Amy did this week at Carolines in NYC was just plain rude. If ya missed it, she interrupted Brendan Sagalow Tuesday night, right in the middle of his set to practice her monologue for 'SNL.' She's hosting this week.

Sagalow has said he's cool with how it went down, but other comedians are taking Amy to task. Michael says it's not that an A-lister like Amy doesn't get preferential treatment -- it's just that there's a way to do it, and Michael says Amy should know that.

He had some harsh advice for her, for which we suspect HE's gonna catch some flak.

R. Kelly is calling out Spotify for what he calls its hypocritical move to yank his tunes from all playlists.

Kelly's team fired back at Spotify's decision to stop promoting his music on their playlists while allegations he's running a sex cult continue to swirl. His managers say the streaming service is "bowing to social-media fads" and "picking sides in a fame-seeking dispute."

Most importantly, they point out, Kelly has not been charged with a crime, and doesn't have any pending criminal charges against him. They add, Spotify's new "Hate Content & Hateful Conduct" policy has no relevance to Kelly's love songs -- especially when the service continues to feature artists who are "convicted felons," and whose lyrics promote violence against women.

BTW, XXXTentacion's getting the same treatment from Spotify. One of his reps sent a letter to a NY Times writer in which she names names of other artists who've been accused of sexual misconduct. Important to note, most have denied the allegations and very few have been criminally charged.

Bill Belichick says the New England Patriots didn't know about Matt Patricia's 1996 rape case ... but he's voicing his support for the Detroit Lions head coach.

"The New England Patriots were not aware of the matter which recently came to light," Belichick said Thursday.

"For 14 years in our organization, Matt conducted himself with great integrity and is known to be an outstanding coach, person and family man. We have always been confident in Matt’s character and recommended him highly to become the head coach of the Detroit Lions."

Patricia and a college football teammate were accused of raping a 21-year-old woman 22 years ago during a spring break trip to South Padre Island, off the coast of Texas.

Patricia publicly denied the allegations on Thursday, saying "I was innocent then and I'm innocent now."

Pamela Anderson's throwing a Hail Mary to Kanye West to help her friend, Julian Assange -- who she claims is being tortured.

The former "Baywatch" star

, which TMZ obtained, to the rapper asking what he thinks about the WikiLeaks founder, saying ... "I support him and I know you value Free Speech." She says Assange -- who's claimed political asylum at London's Ecuadorian Embassy -- is in grave danger "for exposing corruption in governments" and thinks people are trying to kill him.

She also says he's been cut off from phone calls, internet and all visitors -- including her, but she has a plan that could set him free.

Pam believes Assange just needs more people to see his side of things and understand his genius ... and Kanye could be the guy to drum up public support.

She writes to Ye -- "I've always supported your 'no filter' - you speak your mind. And you make an impact. I'm sure a lot of people feel like you - They just are stuck in what society says is OK to say."

Pam's encouraging Kanye to research Assange because she thinks he'd admire him.

Meghan Markle has the exact same skin color as her fiance, Prince Harry -- at least according to LEGOLAND's special display ahead of the royal wedding.

LEGOLAND's Windsor Resort unveiled a new exhibit this week in honor of Meghan and Harry's big day, which is just over a week away. The problem is LEGO Meghan is pretty whitewashed. We all know the real Prince is very fair-skinned ... so there's no way his bride-to-be's skin tone should match his.

Biracial Meghan -- half black, half white -- obviously has tanner skin than Harry, so LEGOLAND clearly missed the mark. Their explanation? Not enough brown LEGOs. Seriously.

A rep for LEGOLAND tells TMZ ... "Our small LEGOLAND figures are not detailed representations of any of the characters and are all built using a limited range of [primary] brick tones."

That's funny, 'cause their figurines of Mel B and Meghan's mom, Doria Ragland, look a lot more realistic, skin tone-wise than Meghan's character does.

Is it the end of the world? Of course not, but interesting choices made by the LEGO artists. Another way to look at this -- LEGO Harry's way too dark!

T.I. is tired of setting the record straight about his record in trap music, which probably explains why he's shading mega producer Brian Grazer's planned biopic on Gucci Mane.

We got T.I. out in Bev Hills Wednesday and asked him about Brian's big news -- he told us he's doing an "8 Mile"-style movie about Gucci because he sees the rapper as the "progenitor of trap music."

For starters, Tip dropped a bombshell, saying he turned down Brian's movie proposal way back in the day. Translation: Gucci's gettin' my trappy seconds!

As for the dispute about who's the true father of trap ... T.I. got pretty intense, calling it "idiocy" to even talk about it at this point.

John McEnroe says Donald Trump offered him $1,000,000 to play a tennis match against Serena or Venus Williams ... but he shot it down.

"I was calling a match and suddenly I get this envelope and it's from Donald Trump," McEnroe said on "In Depth with Graham Bensinger."

McEnroe didn't specify WHEN Trump sent the envelope -- only noting it was before he became President.

So, why'd John turn it down?

"It's never been something where I was like ... I wanna go play a woman in a match."

You gotta watch the clip ... John is pretty confident he'd win -- reminding everyone he was once the #1 player in the world.

A lot of people are excited about the rumors surrounding Wayne Rooney possibly signing with D.C. United and playing in the MLS.

Alexi Lalas is not one of those people.

Lalas is usually stoked about bringing European soccer legends to the states -- just like David Beckham and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

But when it comes to Wayne ... Alexi ain't feelin' it.

"For me, Wayne Rooney doesn't move the needle," Lalas said.

"It might fill some seats, but not that many seats."

Lalas says Rooney was a baller in his prime ... but his prime is in the past -- even though Rooney's only 32 years old.

Listen up, Dez Bryant ... Nuggets guard Devin Harris is about to give you pro athlete to pro athlete advice on where you should end up, now that your time with the Cowboys is over.

Harris played in Dallas for YEARS and knows what it's like to leave big D behind, so when we got him in Beverly Hills we wanted to know if he had any potential landing spots in mind for Dez.

Devin says he has the perfect team ... and while you're gonna have to watch to see what he says, we'll be kind enough to give you some hints.

Hall of Fame QB (1st ballot lock) ... Bryant already has history there (infamous moment) ... he'll need some heavier coats if it happens ... and lastly, it's a spot close to Harris' heart.

Caitlyn Jenner should be stepping up her game repping the transgender community in the U.S. before she jets to the U.K. to address Parliament ... according to "RuPaul's Drag Race" star Carmen Carrera.

There's been backlash over the diversity speech Caitlyn is supposed to give Wednesday because some people in the LGBTQ community, including Carmen, don't think she's a great flag bearer. Facts are ... Cait's a white, rich, conservative woman who's also world famous.

Carmen's point is Caitlyn's gotta connect better with the common trans woman. Y'know ... put some thigh-high boots on the ground in the community.

The former head prosecutor of the Major Crimes Division for the L.A. County D.A. -- who once allegedly said he wanted to jack off on a colleague while she strangles to death -- received virtually no punishment for the sexual misconduct allegations which resulted in a high 6-figure settlement with the women who sued him ... and he got to retire with a full pension.

How's that feel, Eric Schneiderman?

Gary Hearnsberger was the Head Deputy of the MCD when he was sued in 2015 by 2 female lawyers who worked under him for unwanted physical touching, offensive and graphic sexual comments and sexually suggestive gestures.

According to legal docs ... Hearnsberger frequently commented about their sex life, asking one after she returned from vacation, "Is your p***y sore?" He also allegedly made gestures to the women mimicking oral sex, and was quoted as saying ... "You know what a sign of a good boss is? One who will f*** the people that work for him and still not give them any good cases."

He allegedly reached under the skirt of one of the women suing at a work-related event and grabbed her crotch, and he rubbed the butt of the other woman at another work event and said ... "You know you like it."

According to the suit ... Hearnsberger also remarked about current L.A. judge Deborah Brazil -- who was a Deputy D.A. at the time -- that he'd like to "string her up and jack off on her while she strangles to death."

There's more -- in July 2012, according to the docs, Hearnsberger showed up at a work "Hillybilly Party" with other lawyers from the Hardcore Gang Division, dressed only in denim overalls with a stuffed sheep attached to his crotch, as if he was sodomizing the animal.

Despite the serious allegations against him, Hearnsberger was transferred to run the D.A.'s Public Integrity Division. He was eventually put on administrative leave drawing his full salary and resigned only after one of the women suing demanded he leave the office as a condition to settlement. The county settled with the women for $700k and the county also paid Hearnsberger's legal bills.

We're told the D.A. never launched a criminal investigation.

We reached out to Hearnsberger but he did not respond -- however, he has said in the past the allegations are untrue. The D.A. Office tells us they will not comment on on personnel matters.

Nancy Grace is heated about Scott Peterson, who she believes has NO shot at rehabilitation ... but she says granting him a new trial would be a travesty of justice.

We got the famed legal analyst Tuesday in Atlanta, and talked to her about Peterson's current appeal ... which could give him a slim shot at freedom. So, we asked Nancy the big 'if' ... as in, IF Scott were released after 13 years in prison -- could he be a reformed criminal?

We barely got the question out before Nancy started going off.

She also thinks Peterson doesn't really give a crap about his appeal, because he's living the high life in San Quentin State Prison.

Nancy had more to say about the chance of his appeal going through, and made a pretty deft pivot to plug her A&E show with Dan Abrams ... "Grace vs. Abrams." They're tackling the Peterson case on Tuesday night's episode.

Melania Trump is being accused of plagiarizing material from the Obama administration, but the First Lady is firing back ... saying it's not what it seems.

Melania launched her "Be Best" initiative -- promoting online safety for kids -- Monday at the White House, but she's catching heat because the pamphlet attached to her campaign is a nearly exact copy of a pamphlet published in 2014 ... while Michelle and Barack Obama were in the White House.

The pamphlet's cover, text and images under the Obama era are almost exactly the same as Melania's version. The text inside the pamphlets are the same.

Melania's office responded to the backlash and told us, "Mrs. Trump agreed to add Be Best branding and distribute the booklet in an effort to use her platform to amplify the positive message within." Her office went on to say the Federal Trade Commission, which originally authored the pamphlet, was excited Melania included it in her campaign.

The White House website initially said the material was written "by First Lady Melania Trump and the Federal Trade Commission." After the backlash, it's been changed to "a Federal Trade Commission booklet, promoted by First Lady Melania Trump."

Perhaps the most famous of R. Kelly's alleged brainwashed sex slaves sure didn't look like a hostage to her situation late last month -- quite the opposite, actually.

TMZ has obtained video of Kells doing a little shopping with Joycelyn Savage at a mall in Chicago on April 28. You see them walking around a Nordstrom store, checking out products ... and acting super couple-y.

As far as we can tell, there's no indication of distress or forced behavior on Joycelyn's end. In fact, they look more like they're dating. Joycelyn's affectionately touching Kelly's neck says as much, anyway.

As we've reported ... Joycelyn's family insists Kelly has Joycelyn brainwashed, and say she's now a part of his alleged sex cult. She's denied that claim herself, as has Kelly, but her family continues to believe she's being held against her will.

The actor who played Tim Allen's eldest on "Home Improvement" wants to end the stereotype associated with "The Simpsons" character Apu, and he's donating a lot of money to make it happen.

Zachery Ty Bryan gave $25k to the Apu Screenwriting Contest, which is being spearheaded by producer Adi Shankar. Shankar's contest is crowdsourcing short scripts for Apu that do NOT involve Indian stereotypes.

The contest got a big up from Kanye West, who shared Shankar's contest announcement on social media, and Zach, who just worked with Adi on a film, has more in common with Kanye than just saving Apu. He's also a massive Trump fan, and says it's time for all Americans to get behind 45.