Controversial S#!T

Senator Ted Cruz apparently got a little spicy with some airport employees this weekend -- so much so, in fact, that a police officer had to step in and calm him down.

Check out this video of Cruz arguing with a couple of United Airlines staffers at the check-in counter Sunday at Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport in Montana ... after he'd missed his flight, according to the original poster of the clip.

The eyewitness claims they overheard Sen. Cruz getting all 'Karen' on the airline employees ... allegedly asking for names and to speak with their manager. Moments later, as you can see in the vid, cops showed up.

The airport cop is seen standing at the ticket counter and talking down Cruz, and while you can't really make out what either of them is saying -- the Senator was masked up -- it seems pretty tense. Push didn't come to shove, though, and all's well that ends well ... with TC reportedly getting rebooked without further incident.

Cruz was supposedly on his way to D.C. for the Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson -- who's being grilled as the Senate considers her nomination to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer.

As you know by now, Cruz definitely made it on time in the end ... he was one of a handful of senators who made quite a spectacle in their opening statements, bringing up the hearings for Brett Kavanaugh, and invoking race right from the jump.

Seems like his mood might've been influenced by his FUBAR trip 24 hours earlier.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson is about to undergo a grilling this week as her SCOTUS confirmation hearings begin, but before that ... she's putting the spotlight on her loved ones.

The U.S. federal judge -- who President Biden nominated as the best person to next serve on the high court -- finally got a chance to speak Monday on Capitol Hill after hearing from senators on both sides of the aisle about what to expect over the next several days.

During her long-awaited opening remarks ... Jackson took a tender moment to acknowledge her family and how much they've meant to her in getting to this potentially historic milestone.

If confirmed, she would become the first Black female justice to serve on the bench -- and with that in mind, the judge gave it up for her hubby of 25 years, Patrick, as well as her daughters, Talia and Leila, whom she thanked in what made for a pretty emotional scene.

It was reflective of when Biden first announced her as his pick ... there, too, she took time to honor her brood.

As for other highlights from Day 1 ... it was a mixed bag of both praise and prefacing of expectations.

Dems gave props to Jackson for making it this far and possibly becoming a trailblazer. Meanwhile, Republicans preemptively brought up what they're anticipating -- namely, being accused of racism for asking tough questions.

They also made sure to repeatedly promise ... they would NOT do to her what they claim Democrats did to Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing -- which they label a character assassination. This, of course, before they've even asked her one question.

Russian forces are unloading on a besieged city in Ukraine, firing dozens of deadly missiles that are now being seen on video for one of the first times in the war.

Check out this clip released by Russia Today and believed to be produced by the Donetsk People's Republic -- a breakaway territory in Ukraine that's sympathetic to Russia -- showing tons of rockets being launched into Mariupol.

These missiles are said to be thermobaric bombs ... which are devastating to anyone and anything in its immediate proximity, and Ukrainian civilians are in the line of fire.

The way these rockets work is scary -- essentially, when they land ... a vapor cloud laced with fuel is unleashed, which is then ignited by the fire to incinerate everything and everyone in the vicinity.

The video, produced with music and narration, shows Russia's army firing missile after missile toward Mariupol, which has been under constant attack for days now ... as both sides accuse the other of violating cease-fires intended to allow citizens to flee through protected corridors.

Jusuf Nurkić didn't play a single minute Sunday night, but the Blazers big man got some action after the game ... walking over to a heckling Pacers fan and tossing his phone.

The incident went down following the Blazers' 129-98 blowout loss to Indiana ... when Nurkić apparently heard a fan say something he didn't like, confronted him with an intimidating stare-down, and chucked his cell.

The fan was completely shocked ... saying, "Why'd you throw my phone?"

Security staff intervened by stepping in between Jusuf and the fan ... and the Portland center ended up walking away before things escalated further.

It's unclear what exactly was said that led up to the altercation ... but it's clear whatever words were exchanged didn't sit well with the Bosnian hooper.

Nurkić -- who's sidelined at the moment due to plantar fasciitis -- wasn't required to talk to the media after the game ... so details surrounding what happened are minimal.

Nurkic's showdown with the fan is an ongoing theme this season -- NBA players have been clearly fed up with the hecklers "taking it too far" ... prompting the ballers to take matters into their own hands.

Guys like LeBron James and Carmelo Anthony have had fans tossed from the arena ... and most recently, their teammate Russell Westbrook confronted a fan before a game for calling him "Westbrick."

Julia Fox is doing a moonwalk after she told TMZ her ex, Kanye West, wouldn't hurt a fly.

When we got Julia outside Barry's Bootcamp a few days back in WeHo, she called Ye's rants "artistic, creative expression," though she said she wasn't following his blow-by-blow social media attacks against Kim and Pete.

Well, apparently she started looking more closely, because Julia posted -- then deleted -- "I would like to point out that I had not seen the latest Instagram posts at the time of this video," adding, "Believe it or not I have a life and a son, and I don't have google alerts for this man!"

And then the comment that's hard to swallow ... "I thought this question was in reference to the music video."

Julia, who dated Kanye for a few weeks, says she's stuck between a rock and a hard place ... "Yeah I could just not answer questions but then it would be 'Julia is mad she salty' etc and I'm not! It's a real catch 22 so please stop F'n asking me!"

And then, as if she's as perplexed as the millions of people who follow Kanye, she said, "I wish I had the answers, but I do not. I would like to remain an Indie Queen. The mainstream life isn't for me."

Hey Julia ... even Switzerland's taking a stand these days.

Bill Murray is being labeled as an old and out-of-touch guy after seemingly lamenting the fact we've had to wear masks during this pandemic ... likening it to a fear of death. 🤔

The actor recently did an interview with The Independent about his concert film that was shot in 2018 at the Acropolis of Athens, and while discussing it ... Bill and co. mention how it's like looking into a time capsule due to how carefree he and everyone else was.

With that in mind, the author says there's nothing quite like a pandemic to put the kibosh on spontaneous interaction -- and then right after, Bill is quoted as saying this ... "We just went out with our friend to walk the dog, and you're wearing a mask, everyone's wearing a mask. The dog is the only one who's completely alive!"

He adds, "He's living the dog's life. The rest of us are afraid to die, and afraid to kill, so we're masked up and we're injected, and so forth. It's the most challenging time of this life cycle for us."

Finally, BM compares how we've dealt with the pandemic with how previous generations dealt with global events, saying ... "We didn't have a world war or a depression, the things our ancestors had. This is the hand we got dealt and if you fold, you can't win."

Pretty cryptic on its face, but Twitter seems to know what Bill means here ... and they're tearing him apart over it, with many saying his comments are incredibly tone-deaf.

Bill might be misunderstood in this sitch, because he's spoken about COVID quite a bit over the past two years ... and not once has he come off as resentful about how the world reacted to the virus. If anything, he's been kinda optimistic and impressed.

Kanye West was apparently all set to perform at the Grammys, but his online antics have now gotten him barred ... so says the guy's own team and industry pals.

Ye's rep confirmed the news to Variety Saturday, saying it was true that the rapper wouldn't be hitting the stage in a few weeks. The reason cited ... his "concerning online behavior," which the Recording Academy clearly felt might translate to a fiasco in a live setting.

His involvement with the Grammys was something that hadn't been public until now -- earlier this week, the first round of official performers was announced, but KW wasn't on the list.

His rap buddy, The Game, let the cat out of the bag about this as well -- taking to IG with a lengthy caption decrying the decision to uninvite Ye ... likening it censorship and even invoking slavery.

He writes, in part ... "Time & time again they show us that they only want to STEAL the culture, not allow you to ever be their equals. In a more than obvious move for reasons of minuscule actions."

Game went on to muse about the reasons, including the fact Trevor Noah is hosting and that Kanye's account was suspended for 24 hours this week.

He adds, "Speak your mind in this country for yourself, family or your people & you're ostracized immediately & if you push them hard enough they will stop at no ends to try and put an end to you as a whole."

As you know ... this saga crescendoed when Kanye called Trevor a "k***" for taking him to task on his own show about how he was dealing with the divorce, including publicly airing out the family's business. TN speculated it could lead to real-world violence, or worse.

Bill Maher bent minds Friday night ... with the premise companies and organizations have hidden behind old images of who they once were ... changing everything but their name.

The "Real Time" host ticked off some pretty undeniable examples ... TLC used to be about learning ... now, "My Teen Is Pregnant and So Am I." Yet it's still called TLC.

A&E used to be about arts -- now, "Psychic Kids."

The History Channel offers nothing historic anymore, and MTV has nothing to do with music.

As Bill says, "You can have a petting zoo and turn it into a bondage dungeon, but you gotta change the sign!"

And, then there's Playboy, and Bill harkens back to the 'ol days when it was a "whack-off mag" for straight guys. Now, the woman are gone and the mags gone in every which direction.

And, then there's the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue ... and here he drops a line you'll just have to listen to yourselves.

Two more. Weight Watchers, which he says used to be a club for people to lose weight. Now, he says, despite the fact obesity is linked to a slew of serious diseases, it's recast as body positivity. The company's now ashamed of its name, he says, so it's now just WW and people who talk about weight loss are slammed.

Disney World is under fire after allowing a high school cheer group to march during a parade at the theme park with both chants and uniforms featuring racist Native American stereotypes.

A video of the performance spread quickly on social media Thursday featuring dozens of students from The Port Neches-Groves “Indianettes” High School drill team, a group out of Texas. Each member is dressed in fringed outfits, danced with moves similar to those seen in Native American cultures and chanted, "I-N-D-I-A-N-S scalp 'em, Indians, scalp 'em."

Of course, people were outraged, calling the incident racist and tagging the school's Twitter page -- which has seemingly since been deleted.

In a statement Friday, a Disney spokesperson said, "The live performance in our park did not reflect our core values, and we regret it took place. It was not consistent with the audition tape the school provided and we have immediately put measures in place so this is not repeated.”

In a somewhat parallel incident, it was last summer when the theme park removed all "native" characters from its Jungle Cruise attraction.

"Shark Tank" star Daymond John is having a hard time enjoying this year's NCAA Tournament ... saying he believes it's "horrible," and is actually "modern-day slavery."

The 53-year-old businessman spelled out his beef with March Madness to Harvey and Charles on "TMZ Live" on Friday ... explaining he thinks the players are getting a raw deal in the huge event.

John said there's a ton of people making millions -- if not billions -- off the tourney ... yet players aren't seeing much of the pie at all.

"The players make nothing! Zero off of all that," John said. "I think this is modern-day slavery and they're just giving them a little bit of a crumb."

John acknowledged that players do get scholarships and do now have the ability to get paid from NIL deals -- but he insisted that's nowhere near enough.

"These players are bringing in billions of dollars and making absolutely zero," he said. "It is really, I think, what business model do you know that makes billions of dollars and pays their employees zero?"

Racial tension is simmering in the nation's capital where the so-called "People's Convoy" is taking a KKK-ish turn -- a protest leader invoked lynchings while promising to "take back" Black Lives Matter Plaza.

The convoy of truckers has been roving around Washington D.C. highways for about 2 weeks, purportedly to protest COVID restrictions. However, during a Friday rally, one of the truckers vowed to "tar and feather" BLM Plaza ... the street just a few blocks from White House grounds that was renamed in June 2020.

The trucker's pronouncement drew big cheers from the crowd, and the unidentified man also said they -- whoever "they" are -- were also going to "tar and feather delegates."

When the "People's Convoy" started, it sounded like America's version of the convoy in Canada earlier this year ... which made for some tense standoffs with law enforcement, but never turned violent.

Interestingly, BLM Plaza is currently undergoing renovations to make it a permanent installation. The big yellow lettering is still there, but it's been moved about a half block.

Russell Westbrook had yet another altercation with a heckler this week ... this time, the Lakers star got into it in the street with a guy who simply wants him to play to his full potential.

The video made rounds on social media Friday ... showing a man approach Russell and express his frustrations with #0's slump.

The fan is heard saying things like, "I f*** with you, I just want you to play better" ... and "I bet on you every night."

Westbrook is clearly annoyed with the man's advice ... telling the guy he's "not a little kid."

Of course, this has consistently happened all season -- and it got so bad, Westbrook had to plead with fans to stop calling him "Westbrick," as he finds it disrespectful to his family.

Just this week, Russell confronted a heckler for calling him the infamous nickname ... and that interaction was caught on video as well.

The Lakers have been clapping back at trolls in the stands all season -- even having fans ejected for jawing at them during games -- as they continue to fall to the bottom of the Western Conference.

Brittney Griner was in a Russian court on Thursday ... and will remain in custody for AT LEAST another two months after they extended the arrest of the WNBA star, who's accused of bringing drugs into the country.

Video was released showing the Phoenix Mercury center walking, presumably outside the Moscow-area courtroom, flanked by two female guards. The footage is the first we've seen of 31-year-old Griner since she was taken into custody weeks ago.

Russian news agency TASS says the Moscow court granted more time to investigate the alleged crimes ... and "extended the period of detention of the U.S. citizen Griner until May 19."

Griner has been in custody since February after Russian customs officials claim they found hashish oil (vape cartridges) in her carry-on luggage at an airport.

As for the conditions of her "detainment," TASS reports she's sharing a cell with two other women who have no prior convictions. They also reported the 6'7" athlete was issued a bed too short for her frame.

After her arrest, Russian officials said they opened up a drug trafficking investigation into Griner.

Everyone from NBA and WNBA stars, actors and actresses, to Griner's wife has called on the country to release Griner ... to no avail.

"There are no words to express this pain," Griner's wife, Cherelle, said earlier this month.

"I'm hurting, we're hurting. We await the day to love on you as a family."

Several prominent politicians have spoken out about Griner's arrest -- including Hillary Clinton, who recently wrote "Free Brittney" on social media.

U.S. Congressman Colin Allred -- who also happened to attend Baylor U. -- recently told us he hopes Griner doesn't become a political pawn during the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Many fear Griner -- who has played pro basketball in Russia for years -- could be used as a bargaining chip against America ... as the west has levied very stiff sanctions against the country.

It's been months since LeBron James shaded Kyle Rittenhouse for crying in a courtroom ... but he is clearly nowhere near ready to let it go, 'cause he trolled the Lakers star's diss while sharing an anti-Joe Biden meme Thursday.

The 19-year-old posted the short video on his Twitter page ... taking a shot at LeBron's famous "lemon heads" comment while going after Biden over America's high gas prices.

The meme featured footage of a tearful Rittenhouse from his day on the stand ... edited onto an arm holding a gas pump.

"No, it's not Lemon Heads ...," Rittenhouse captioned the video, jabbing at Lebron, "it's the burning hole in my pocket thanks to a Joe Biden presidency."

Rittenhouse went on to thank the "mememaster" who created the piece in another tweet for sending it his way.

You'll recall, LeBron blasted Rittenhouse back in November after he believed the teenager was fake-crying while on the stand during his murder trial.

"What tears?????" LeBron said after watching Rittenhouse's reaction in court. "I didn’t see one. Man knock it off! That boy ate some lemon heads before walking into court."

Rittenhouse -- who was eventually found not guilty on all charges -- has fired away at LBJ ever since ... saying in December "f***" him."

A driver for "Grey's Anatomy" is accusing LAPD of racial profiling after officers pulled him over at gunpoint and arrested him in front of the cast and crew ... only to discover they had the wrong guy.

Ernest Simon Jr., who is Black, says he'd just dropped off crew members near a Tarzana, CA set in March 2021 when he got pulled over. In a lawsuit filed Thursday, he says officers told him an automated license plate reader linked his vehicle to a stolen BMW sedan, which was pretty shocking to Ernest ... because, at the time, he was driving a Ford van rented by Disney.

Ernest says the parking lot attendant where he'd pulled over told the cops Ernest was part of the 'Grey's' crew ... still, with guns drawn, they made him lie face down on the asphalt, and even called for backup. In the suit, obtained by TMZ, he says no fewer than 7 cop cars raced to the scene ... and he claims they also called for helicopter support.

Other crew members recognized what was happening, and Ernest says they tried explaining to cops they had the wrong guy -- but in docs, he says cops only yelled at them "Get out of the line of fire." He says that, combined with the fact he was Black, had him terrified he was about to get shot.

Now handcuffed, while still lying on the ground ... Ernest claims the crazy scene went on for about 30 minutes. According to his lawsuit, it only ended when a white male co-worker reiterated to officers they had the wrong guy -- which is the same story he claims a Black male co-worker had already told cops, but to no avail.

At that point, cops took off the cuffs and released Ernest, but he doesn't think it's a coincidence this happened in Tarzana -- an L.A. suburb, where he points out the population is 70.7 percent white, and only 3.6 percent Black.

Trevor Noah's response to Kanye West hurling a racial slur at him is filled with compassion for what he sees the rapper becoming -- a situation the 'Daily Show' host calls heartbreaking.

Trevor went right to the source, posting a comment on Ye's IG that seeks to deescalate their feud -- initially pointing out how much of a positive impact West has had on his life.

Then Trevor tugs at Ye's heartstrings, saying ... "You're an indelible part of my life Ye, which is why it breaks my heart to see you like this."

Trevor says he doesn't care if Kanye supports Donald Trump or roasts Pete Davidson, then adds ... "I do however care when I see you on a path that's dangerously close to peril and pain."

Keep in mind, Trevor left this comment on Kanye's since-deleted post where he called Trevor a "k**n" ... which Kanye posted in the wake of Trevor warning Ye's feud with Kim Kardashian and Pete could turn violent.

Trevor urges Kanye to understand there's a difference between fighting for his family, and simply fighting his family -- because he doesn't want to wake up one day to news Kanye did something terrible.

As we reported ... Julia Fox told us her ex-BF is harmless, and just expressing himself as an artist when he goes after Pete and Kim online. However, Trevor says he'd rather be the idiot who takes Kanye's words seriously and speaks out ... as opposed to staying silent and later regretting it.

Trevor also addresses the racial epithet, telling Kanye, "Don't ever forget, the biggest trick racists ever played on black people was teaching us to strip each other of our blackness whenever we disagree."

As we reported ... Kanye's attack on Trevor was part of the reason he's been suspended from using Instagram.

Trevor's comment ends with some comedy to lighten the mood ... he says Kanye's diss was actually funny and wishes Ye well, hoping they can laugh about the beef one day.