Controversial S#!T

Bill Murray has broken his silence about a complaint that shut down production on his new movie -- and his response is ... he doesn't wanna be an old dog that can't learn new tricks.

The actor spoke with CNBC Saturday while making an appearance at the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting, and he was directly asked what led to Searchlight Pictures pausing things in recent weeks after someone alleged inappropriate behavior against him.

ICYMI ... Searchlight halted production to Aziz Ansari's debut feature, "Being Mortal," and it's been reported that Bill was at the center of the ongoing investigation.

While it's still unclear what exactly may have happened, Bill does cop to having been involved -- explaining that he and a female costar, whom he didn't identify, were working on a scene together ... and that he apparently did something he thought was innocently funny.

The woman, however, didn't think so ... and went to management to lay out her grievance. While it sounds dubious, BM makes clear he's in contact with the woman ... and that he's hopeful they can work out their differences and get back to shooting soon.

Bill also says times have evolved, and he's learning that first-hand right now -- suggesting he may have, in the past, done things that others found inappropriate ... and how he doesn't want to be left behind as someone who's out of touch or tone-deaf. He wants to change too.

With that said, he says learning and listening ... and willing to tweak his sense of humor to accommodate others. That's the takeaway here.

Oprah's got a new project that addresses racial disparities in healthcare and COVID ... something she believes definitely isn't over, and which has been somewhat forgotten.

The media mogul spoke with LA Times to plug her new documentary, "The Color of Care," which is debuting this weekend on the Smithsonian Channel ... and she opened up A LOT about racism, healthcare, celebrity privilege, mask mandates and what one might characterize as COVID amnesia ... especially relating to those who've died in the pandemic.

First off, she discussed putting a spotlight on what POC, particularly those living in relative poverty, have had to deal with navigating the healthcare system these past 2 years ... and how she believes race has had much to do with them getting the cold shoulder.

Then, Oprah got personal with her own history ... acknowledging that she's been afforded an enormous amount of access and priority as a well-known person throughout her life.

She says that's actually one of the best perks of being famous ... being able to get the best of whatever you need anytime something is wrong. And, yet -- she explains that one time in the mid-2000s, she had a thyroid problem that was misdiagnosed by multiple doctors, whom she suggests didn't want to find what was really wrong with her out of fear of her fame.

When she did go to a thyroid specialist, she claims the guy told her to "embrace hunger," otherwise she'd gain a lot of weight. Some say that speaks to the fatphobia that permeates this country -- but big picture, O says that even the medical establishment is deeply flawed ... and advocates for folks to get multiple opinions, and to have a support system with you.

On the issue of masks ... Oprah says she still very much supports wearing them, even at this point ... saying it's too soon in her mind, but that she respects those who wanna ditch it.

Finally, Oprah spoke about the idea that we as a society seem to have glossed over the many COVID deaths we've endured ... saying, "I don’t recognize a country where you’ve lost nearly a million people and there hasn’t been some form of remembering that is significant. Not at the opening of a speech or mentioning in a State of the Union."

Amanda Bynes has tried to clarify what happened that caused 2 911 calls to her home a few days ago -- when she accused her fiance, Paul Michael, of using crack and doing other things -- but her clarification is alarming.

Amanda jumped on Instagram late Friday night and wrote, "To clarify: I said what I said about Paul relapsing because he did. I don't know when he got clean and because of the disturbing porn he was watching, I assumed he must be on drugs now. Also Paul did vandalize his mom's home 2 weeks ago."

She wasn't done ... "His brother Mark called the cops on him but Paul left before they got there. When I saw the mom and son porn on Paul’s phone, I got upset and kicked him out. When he left I was worried he would vandalize my home because he still had the keys. That's why I called the police."

And, then there's this ...  "At any rate, I shouldn't have said he's currently using, because he's been sober for 2 weeks. Also, he told me he searched milfs and the other content auto filled the search engine."

The couple reconciled the morning after cops came to their house, but, as we reported, friends and family are alarmed and worried Paul has anger issues that make for an unhealthy living situation. We've spoke to people who say Paul flies off the handle way too much.

Adele is close to finalizing a deal to bring her Vegas residency to a new home ... with her sights set on a premiere date in a few months.

Sources with direct knowledge of the singer's plans tell TMZ ... she and her team are in serious talks with the people over at Planet Hollywood, and will do the show at Zappos Theater -- barring any unforeseen setbacks.

As we reported, Adele was supposed to do a residency at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace earlier this year -- but the show was derailed and canceled after what she first claimed was a COVID outbreak, but then it came out the postponement was really over creative issues.

Our sources say there'll be some major perks for Adele at Zappos ... she'll have full creative control over the show. And, get this, we're told Adele will also rake in a large cut of ticket sales -- a significant enhancement considering Zappos holds 7,000 people compared to The Colosseum's 4,100.

As for the dates, the official schedule is still being worked out, but the aim is for a late summer start that will run through the end of 2022 -- makes sense considering she recently revealed she wants to have a baby in 2023.

You'd think there might be some bad blood between The Colosseum and Zappos with Adele -- but both venues fall under the Caesars Entertainment family -- so all is good.

Adele's been spending the last few months with her bf Rich Paul, taking in NBA games and even dropping in at a London gay bar for some fun.

Bill Maher thinks Elon Musk has a superhuman mission, and it's not about sending people to Mars ... it's about saving Twitter.

The "Real Time" host bore in on the current CEO -- whom he says will probably get a pink slip from Mr. Musk -- who boasted Twitter is not defined by the First Amendment. He said that because the First Amendment only applies to Congress making no laws abridging free speech. Well, Bill says that's a dodge, plain and simple.

Maher is reacting to Elon's promise to make Twitter a bastion of free speech. There's been a lot of criticism and fear over this, but Bill says let the sunshine and free discourse in!

As for how Twitter has failed by censoring free speech, Bill says there are plenty of examples. He notes the New York Post got booted from the platform for writing about Hunter Biden's emails, but turns out the story had validity. He notes Twitter blocked discourse over the theory COVID came from a lab, and there's now a school of thought among some scientists it did indeed.

But, the best is a Christian news and satire site that posted a skit about Twitter being too sensitive and twitter flagged it! As Bill said ... a complete lack of self-awareness.

As Bill concluded ... "If that's where the line is you have failed Twitter."

As for Elon taking over, Bill says thank God it's not a 23-year-old who's at the helm ... cause he thinks Gen Z kinda sucks.

X-Pac tells TMZ Sports there's no way in hell he'd step inside the ring to fight WWE Smackdown women's champion, Charlotte Flair ... saying, "She'd f***ing kill me."

We spoke with the WWE Hall of Famer about Charlotte, daughter of "Nature Boy" Ric Flair, this week ... and asked him if the "Nature Girl" should compete against men on a regular basis.

"You know, I'm open-minded about all that," Pac said. "I mean, obviously, I come from an older school of thought, so it's weird for some of us older cats to see that, but I think we should be open to that, man."

"Plus, she's incredible. She's an alpha female if there ever was one."

Intergender wrestling, commonly referred to as mixed wrestling, is not uncommon in WWE. Women wrestle men all the time in tag-team matches, but as far as 1-on-1s, they very rarely happen.

Pac tells us, though, if there's any woman capable of holding her own in singles matches with men, it's the champ, Charlotte.

"You see it in movies," the former DX member said. "Women are strong now, they beat the s*** out of dudes these days."

Pac, who started his wrestling career in the late '80s, admits that some of the guys he came up with in the industry might not support Charlotte fighting men full-time ... but he's "all for it."

"I know some of my friends might not dig it," the 49-year-old told us. "But, I'm all for it."

As for if he'd get in the ring with her ... the KING of the "Bronco Buster" returned to the squared circle a few months ago and looked damn impressive -- but he said don't expect to see him fight Charlotte any time soon.

A third woman has come forward and accused Trevor Bauer of crossing the line during sex ... claiming the pitcher choked her unconscious and slapped her in the face without consent back in 2013 and 2014.

The accusations were published just hours after MLB handed Bauer a 2-year ban for violating the league's domestic violence and sexual assault policy. The woman claims she spoke with league investigators during its 10-month-long probe.

The woman claims she met Bauer on a dating app in April 2013 ... back when he was a member of Cleveland's minor league team in Columbus.

The woman makes it clear the sex during their relationship was always consensual -- but claims during intercourse, "things happened outside of my consent," according to the Washington Post.

Among the allegations, the woman claims Bauer choked her during sex, which she agreed to "to a certain point." However, she says in ensuing encounters, he grabbed her throat until she passed out, which she says she was against.

She claims Bauer choked her unconscious dozens of times ... and he would only stop if she "got pissed and was like desperate about it" or if she passed out.

The woman says on one of the occasions, after she regained consciousness, Bauer was anally penetrating her without her consent.

The woman says she actually has video of at least one of the alleged choking incidents ... 'cause Bauer allegedly recorded their sexual encounters with a GoPro camera either mounted on a tripod or strapped to his head.

The accuser is represented by high-powered attorney Joe Tacopina, who claims he has seen the video -- "She’s clearly struggling to breathe and tapping his arm to let go, and you see her skin color darkening," the attorney told the Post.

The allegations are similar in nature to that of Bauer's other accusers ... who say their sexual encounters all started consensually, but went to a place that was beyond their approval.

Bauer -- who hasn't pitched since June 2021 -- has vehemently denied any wrongdoing since the first accusations were made public ... and has vowed to appeal his 2-year ban from MLB.

Police and the district attorney investigated claims made by Bauer's first accuser in California ... but officials opted not to file charges. This week, Bauer filed a lawsuit against her, claiming she tried to ruin his career.

Travis Scott has another fellow artist supporting his decision to resume his music career following the Astroworld tragedy that left 10 people dead.

TMZ Hip Hop caught up with Tinashe at LAX, and the R&B starlet feels it's prime time for Cactus Jack's comeback. While she acknowledged the festival was indeed a "sensitive subject," she doesn't feel Travis should be banned from performing ... provided additional security measures are in place.

The singer -- who just fired off the deluxe version of her "333" album -- actually collaborated with Travis on her 2014 debut album "Aquarius" and echoed much of what T-Pain told us earlier this week.

As for the various Astroworld lawsuits still hanging over Travis' head ... both sides have accused each other of "tainting" the jury pool

Attorneys for victims have criticized Travis for his charitable initiative, Project Heal, calling it a thinly-veiled attempt to get into a jury's good graces -- while reps for La Flare claim a new documentary, "Concert Crush: The Travis Scott Festival Tragedy," is a cash grab, and one that could potentially taint a jury.

Morgan Wallen is getting a second chance at showing his talents to an award show crowd -- he's been named as a performer for the Billboard Awards -- his first televised gig since 2020.

Billboard made the announcement Friday, with a statement from the show's production company, saying, "We oppose discrimination, harassment, or racism of any kind.”

They continue, “We believe in treating everyone with dignity and respect. After a thorough review and robust discussions internally and with the artist’s team, in which we found a demonstrated and ongoing commitment to meaningful work and outreach, we extended an invitation to participate in this year’s show.”

Wallen's been shut out of performing at awards shows since we posted a video of him shouting the n-word with a group of friends after a night out in Nashville back in February 2021.

While he's put on some live shows, and was even able to be in the crowd at the Academy of Country Music Awards last month, he hasn't taken the mic.

"Selling Sunset" star Mary Fitzgerald has had it with co-star Christine Quinn's lies and drama, and her COVID cry is the nail in the coffin.

We got Mary outside The Oppenheim Group office Wednesday ... and she's convinced Christine's recent COVID reveal -- which she says caused her to miss the reunion show -- is just a shady way to back out last-minute and avoid facing her fellow castmates.

Mary says the cast tested twice before the Sunday taping ... and according to Mary, Christine came back negative both times. Mind you, the last test was on Friday, but Christine says the next day she tested positive.

While Christine is undeniably an important character on the show, Mary admits it hasn't been pleasant to work with her in the office.

We also got Christine's boss, Jason Oppenheim, outside the office, but mum's the word on his thoughts about the COVID drama.

He wants everyone to be a team player and show up for filming, but he gets the other side of the coin -- Christine's been going through a lot with almost every cast member ganging up on her.

T-Pain says Travis Scott is right to get back to doing what he does best ... and his first headline spot at the Primavera Sound festival is definitely the place to rebrand his career.

We got T-Pain Wednesday at LAX ... and he thinks Travis needed a venue like Primavera to prove himself.

He makes an interesting point ... a time-out for the sake of it isn't particularly useful. As he says, plenty of folks get locked up and when they're released they commit the same crime again.

T-Pain's got no doubt Travis will be taking steps to keep the crowd safe.

The crowd will be a lot bigger than Astroworld -- upwards of 200,000 people have attended the South American festival in the past, while Houston officials estimated 50K went to Travis' fatal concert in November.

Our sources say this gig is just one of many TS has on the horizon and he'll be announcing 3 U.S. festival performances soon.

Tokyo Toni is putting a hard stop to folks who say Blac Chyna is violent ... insisting she's not and never has been.

We caught up with Tokyo Toni, Wednesday at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse and she told us, her daughter isn't a threat to anyone. Toni says Blac Chyna is not that kinda girl. She was quick to add, the Kardashians are the violent ones, saying their show, 'KUWTK,' proves it.

TT tells us ... they're all trying to paint her and her daughter as crazy people, but in reality, they are just standing up for their rights.

Toni might have a hard time convincing some folks because she's had issues of her own.

Remember ... Tokyo was actually banned from the courtroom after firing shots at the Kardashians on Instagram live. She dug herself into a deeper hole after threatening the judge for kicking her out, saying ... "I'm gonna get that judge".

We should note, TT later backtracked and said she was referring to Kris Jenner when she used the word "judge" -- not the actual one in court ... though in context, that makes no sense.

As we reported, Black Chyna is suing the Kardashians for $100 mil ... for allegedly getting her 2017 reality show, with Rob Kardashian, canceled.

Team USA swimming superstar, Caeleb Dressel, was truly down on himself just months before winning 5 gold medals at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo ... revealing the severely harsh criticism he wrote in his practice journals prior to trials.

The 25-year-old Olympic hero opened up about the dark side of his swimming experience on "In Depth With Graham Bensinger" this week ... listing off the negative reactions to workouts he wrote in his notebooks before trials.

"Yeah, F*** me, f***ing terrible. My body is done,'" Caeleb read from his log during the interview. "Oh jeez ... I know I'm laughing a little bit, but when you're writing this, this isn't as a joke. This is good information."

"'F*** me. F*** my body. F*** swimming,'" he continued. "Jeez. Yeah, there's a totally different side of the sport that a lot of people don't see ... I try to be as honest with myself as I can in these books, 'cause these aren't for -- well until now -- these aren't really for anybody else's eyes."

As it turns out, Caeleb has battled panic attacks and depression as a result of his swimming career ... including when he first became prominently known as one of the best in the country during his senior year of high school.

"I didn't want to do anything," Caeleb said. "Wasn't going to school, wasn't swimming. [I] was pretty much just laying in bed for all hours of the day, for a couple months."

Dressel went on to compete in two Olympic games -- racking up 7 golds.

Travis Scott is officially hitting the big stage once again ... headlining his first music festival since the Astroworld tragedy where he will perform in front of more than 100,000 people.

The Primavera Sound festival will span across Brazil, Chile and Argentina and will feature names like Travis, Lorde, Arctic Monkeys and Jack White. It's the festival's first time in South America -- in the past, it's been held in Barcelona -- and upwards of 200,000 people have attended.

Travis will hit the stage in November and will play 3 shows total, in Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Santiago, Chile. Our sources say the festival is just one of many TS has on the horizon for this summer and will be announcing 3 U.S. festival performances soon.

As we've reported, Travis has hit a couple private parties in the last couple months, performing behind a DJ booth ... he's also set to host a club show in Miami in May.

Of course, those gigs will pale in comparison to the Primavera Sound show -- a massive festival -- even bigger than his Astroworld crowd.

Travis Scott is going from dipping his toe in the performance pool to getting in waist deep -- the guy's first public show is booked ... and it's going down in Miami next month.

The rapper is scheduled to host on Saturday, May 7 at hotspot E11EVEN -- where he appears to be the headlining act for Race Week. There's a Formula 1 Grand Prix that'll be going down around the same time ... so it's gonna be popping in and around the city.

According to promotional flyers and E11EVEN's own website ... tickets are on sale now at a price point of $150 to $250, depending on whether you're a man or woman. Ladies get in cheaper, obviously. Page Six was first to notice the event. We have been told that it's almost sold out ... and demand is sky-high.

VIP tables are also available for reservation as well ... and those can go for a pretty penny, reportedly upwards of $100k depending on what's happening. Considering this will be Travis' first foray, musically, before a large crowd ... ya gotta imagine the cost will be higher.

This certainly isn't the first time TS has grabbed a mic since the Astroworld Fest tragedy in November, when 10 people died. He's been dabbling in smaller performances in the months thereafter -- including a limited set at a pre-Oscars party, ditto for a Coachella afterparty.

At both events, there seemed to be some enthusiasm around his presence ... but time will tell if a club like E11EVEN can muster a large crowd. The jury's sorta out on how people feel about him these days.

At first, there was a lot of anger directed at him ... as some felt he continued the show despite seemingly obvious signs folks were in distress -- but in the wake of all that, there's been different evidence suggesting he may have, in fact, been in the dark on the severity.

Still, he's in the middle of several lawsuits that have named him as a defendant ... and that'll take years to work through the court system. In the meantime, he's making a comeback -- or trying to, anyway.

"Selling Sunset" star Christine Quinn missed the reunion show Sunday because she says she had COVID, which makes this photo of her on a film set Tuesday very interesting.

We've obtained a photo of Quinn on her phone, while crew members stand around her to prepare for a shot. What's interesting ... it's 'RHONJ' star Melissa Gorga seated next to her.

Unclear what this gig entails, but her rep told us Monday Christine had to miss the "Selling Sunset" reunion over the weekend after testing positive for COVID on Saturday.

Of course, the CDC recommends ... someone who has tested positive for COVID should isolate for at least 5 days. Quinn's obviously not doing that, and while one of the crew members is masked up, Christine isn't.

If you've followed the most recent season of "Selling Sunset," you know Christine is the show's villain -- so when TMZ broke the story she'd have to miss the reunion because her rep said she had COVID, a ton of the show's fans thought she might've been faking it to avoid confrontation with the other cast members.

At this point, we're hoping she was faking COVID, cuz showing up to work just a few days after a positive test doesn't seem to be a very safe way of doing business.