Controversial S#!T

Elon Musk is nothing if unpredictable, so he was true to form in a stunning announcement ... he's putting the brakes on the Twitter deal, and the reaction is telling.

Elon just said he's putting a temporary hold on his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter, and the stock tanked in pre-market trading -- down 25%. The reaction is interesting ... if the prevailing view was against Elon buying Twitter, you'd think the stock might have gone up, or at least remained stable.

As for why Elon's putting the brakes on the deal ... he says he wants to make sure spam and other bogus accounts represent less than 5% of the 229 million users on the platform.

There are other theories ... this may be his way of pulling out of the deal entirely, but that's typically not the way he rolls. The other play would be to make the folks at Twitter nervous that he's pulling out and then he would swoop back in and offers less than the $44 billion.

Brittney Griner will remain in custody in Russia for at least another month ... a judge just denied her request for house arrest, forcing her to stay in jail for another 30 days.

The 31-year-old WNBA superstar appeared in a Russian courtroom on Friday morning with the hopes of getting out of jail ... but her attorney told the Associated Press that did not happen.

The attorney, Alexander Boikov, did say, though, that because of the short nature of the custody extension ... he did believe a trial in Griner's case might be coming soon.

Griner wore an orange sweatshirt to Friday's hearing, and left the courtroom with a hood up over her head. In photos of her leaving her appearance, you can see she was wearing cuffs on her wrists.

As we reported, Griner has been in custody in Russia since February -- after she allegedly had hash oil in her luggage at an airport.

She's now had her requests for house arrest denied at least two times by judges as her pre-trial detention has dragged on.

United States officials, meanwhile, have classified her as "wrongfully detained" ... and are attempting to negotiate her release.

The NFL omitted Ray Rice's jersey from a viral video that former Houston Texans star Arian Foster posted on Thursday morning.

In Foster's clip, the ex-running back showed off a bevy of signed, game-worn jerseys that he had accumulated throughout his career.

There were some big names in the pile -- Jason Witten, Troy Polamalu, Andrew Luck, Tony Gonzalez and Ray Lewis -- and, at one point, Rice's uniform was revealed too.

However, when the official NFL Twitter account shared Arians' vid, Rice's jersey was edited out of the clip.

Foster noticed the change, and tweeted about it a short time later ... saying, "lmao y'all cut out ray rice."

It's unclear what the league's intentions were with the removal -- it should be pointed out, they also left out a few other jerseys, including former Texans punter Shane Lechler's.

But, it is certainly notable, considering the league's history with Rice. You'll recall, it suspended him indefinitely following his now-infamous elevator attack on his then-fiancee in Atlantic City in 2014, essentially ending the running back's pro football career.

When it comes to the fight over abortion, imagery is all-important, and protesters took that to heart Wednesday night when they wore 'Handmaid's Tale' costumes and took it to the home of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

A small group of pro-choice demonstrators made their way to Falls Church, Virginia to make their feelings known about the SCOTUS draft opinion that would squarely overturn Roe v. Wade.

One of the protesters made a point of distinguishing ACB's choice to give birth to 5 kids from other women, claiming her devout Catholicism skewed the way she looks at the law, saying, "Not everybody wants to have 5 kids, or 4 kids or 1 kid."

There have been other protests at the homes of justices. Demonstrators showed up earlier this week at the homes of Justices Kavanaugh and Alito, as well as Chief Justice Roberts.

It's unclear if the draft opinion -- which has the sign-on of 5 justices -- will be the one that becomes the decision of record, but there's evidence it indeed will be. There has not been a subsequent draft circulated among the justices since the February draft -- this according to Politico -- and that is a strong indication the February draft may be close to the final version.

Madonna's got trees, plants and even bugs crawling out of her private parts in a recent release of digital NFTs ... and while the project has been hit with a ton of criticism, the singer says it's all in the name of art.

Madonna teamed up with artist Beeple for the collection -- depicting a 3D-cartoon version of herself -- and various things, including centipedes and flowers blooming out of her vagina.

The singer says, "I think it's really important that people know that a lot of thought and conversation went into creating these videos."

She further defended the NFT collection by saying she's simply doing what women have done for thousands of years -- give birth -- she's just doing it to nature and art ... and if people don't understand that, so be it.

The project comes just a couple weeks after Madonna posted a series of raunchy photos on Instagram, grabbing her crotch and posing in fishnet leggings.

Ciara and Russell Wilson welcomed a new puppy to the family for Mother's Day, but PETA's taking them to task for buying the pup from a breeder, and not rescuing a pooch from a shelter instead.

PETA believes it's clear -- the couple's new dog, Bronco, is a purebred puppy -- and likely from a breeder where "mother dogs are often locked inside filthy cages and bred over and over until their bodies give out."

The animal rescue org also uses some Ciara song references in calling out Russ, telling us the QB made a "One, Two Step mistake by killing a shelter dog's chances of finding a home."

They continue, "PETA is calling on the couple to Level Up on kindness by adopting a companion for this pup instead of fueling the homeless-animal crisis."

As we've told you, Ci and Russ revealed they welcomed their new doggy to the fam over Mother's Day weekend, naming her Bronco after Russ' new team in Denver. Ciara called the puppy, "the sweetest surprise."

Sarah Silverman has a fascinating take on whether Trump should be allowed back on Twitter -- and it all has to do with what George Washington and co. could or couldn't predict.

We ran into the comedian Wednesday in NYC and asked what she made of Elon Musk essentially saying he's going to bring the ex-Prez back onto the bird app -- once his mega $44-billion deal closes, that is -- and she had a very nuanced answer that's worth hearing.

Check it out ... she says her feelings on this have evolved -- first, it was relief that DT got the boot after Jan. 6 ... but then she started thinking about what free speech is supposed to mean philosophically -- namely, tolerating abhorrent speech you don't agree with.

Sarah seems to have thought maybe Trump should've actually been allowed to stay in light of that -- but upon further reflection ... she suggests banning him might've been best.

Her argument boils down to what our founding fathers envisioned when they were writing the Constitution, and she uses the Second Amendment as a good example of an arguably outdated fundamental right we have that didn't have AR-15s in the minds of the framers when it was drafted.

That same logic, Sarah says, could be applied to social media ... the OGs certainly didn't foresee Twitter or the far-reaching impact it has on the masses.

50 Cent's infamous Instagram trolling is a fully calculated strategy ... so says 'Power Book 2: Ghost' star Gianni Paolo, who broke down the boss man's online tactics on the latest episode of TMZ's 'Verified' Podcast.

Gianni has the ultimate follow-your-dreams story ... which includes ditching a potential professional hockey career to take his shot at making it as an actor.

Smart move that landed him into 50's expansive 'Power' universe (which may or may not live on Starz in the near future).

When asked about 50's IG trolling (which tends to toe every line imaginable), Gianni says he can usually see the promotional storm coming as soon as Fiddy's social media antics begin.

Call it "convenient trolling," if you will, but between 4 'Power' series and the critically acclaimed 'B.M.F.' (which will now feature Mo'Nique) -- 50 knows how to generate an audience.

Gianni admits working on 'Ghost' dominates most of his day and also spilled on earning Mary J. Blige's respect ... and a mortifying first and second meeting with Method Man.

Foot meet mouth.

Golf legend Greg Norman, when confronted about the heinous murder and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 ... said, "we've all made mistakes.".

Norman, a 2x majors winner who spent over 300 weeks as the world's number 1 ranked player in the '80s and '90s, is the CEO of LIV Golf, the new Saudi Arabian-backed golf organization.

GN met with reporters at media day this week and was asked about the killing of the Washington Post journalist at the Saudi Embassy in Istanbul, Turkey.

“Everybody has owned up to it, right? It has been spoken about, from what I’ve read, going on what you guys reported," the 67-year-old said.

"Take ownership, no matter what it is. Look, we’ve all made mistakes and you just want to learn from those mistakes and how you can correct them going forward.”

Of course, there was immediate backlash to the comments ... because that "mistake" was the brutal killing of an innocent man.

Norman also attempted to highlight the good things happening in the middle eastern country.

“This whole thing about Saudi Arabia and Khashoggi and human rights, talk about it, but also talk about the good the country is doing to change its culture," Norman said.

"There’s not many countries that can stand up and be proud of that. They can’t be proud of their past — there’s a lot of countries in this world that have a cross to bear too — but they are looking after the younger generation.”

Selma Blair has struggled her whole life, with pain, alcoholism and now fighting through a battle with MS ... all topics covered in her new memoir.

Blair sat down with Savannah Guthrie Wednesday for an extremely candid interview with "Today." The actor's memoir, 'Mean Baby' talks about her entire life, Blair told Guthrie, "My first [time] drunk [was] when I was 7. I had my first drinks much younger."

Blair says even though she was young, she felt alcohol was a comfort ... and wonders if the physical pains she would feel throughout her life were early signs of MS.

According to "Today," Blair writes in her memoir, "Doctors thought I had leukemia. I didn't, but it was a constant high fever. … The ailments as a kid connected. I do know for sure I had it by the age of 23. It was definitely there for so long.”

The good news ... Blair tells Savannah she hasn't had a drink since a scary incident in 2016 when she lost consciousness on a plane with her 4-year-old son. She's also undergone chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant in an effort to help manage her MS.

Sharon Osbourne is an anti-censorship purist ... because she doesn't want anyone banned from Twitter, and that includes Donald Trump and the Taliban.

We caught up with Sharon Tuesday in Bev Hills outside Neiman Marcus, and she was all about Elon Musk, declaring her love for the rocketman, and amplifying his position that Twitter should be open to all, even if the messaging is abhorrent. The point ... that vibrant discourse is a better way of getting at the truth than censorship.

Sharon's position regarding the Taliban is interesting ... most folks who support free and open Twitter still want to carve out exceptions for calls to violence. The Taliban seems to fall in that category, and there's certainly a good argument that can be made ... Donald Trump may not explicitly call for violence, but the subtext in some of his messages certainly seems to invite it.

The Phoenix Suns are making sure to show support for Brittney Griner for the remainder of their playoff run -- by putting a decal on their court in honor of the WNBA superstar as she remains detained in Russia.

As we previously reported, the Phoenix Mercury center has been detained since February ... after she was accused of having hash oil in her luggage while going through airport security.

Sports, entertainment and political figures have been calling for her release ever since ... with President Joe Biden's administration even claiming Griner is being wrongfully detained in hopes of bringing her home sooner.

The Suns revealed the "BG42" decal ahead of their game against the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday ... saying, "One family. #WeAreBG."

"Honoring Brittney Griner on our court for the remainder of the playoffs. 💜🧡"

The decal is the same one the WNBA debuted recently ... with commissioner Cathy Engelbert promising to keep "Brittney at the forefront of what we do through the game of basketball and in the community."

"We continue to work on bringing Brittney home," Englebert added, "and are appreciative of the support the community has shown BG and her family during this extraordinarily challenging time."

Members of the Delaware State University women's lacrosse team claim they were racially profiled by police during a traffic stop last month ... but law enforcement is insisting that's simply not the case.

The HBCU's lacrosse team was traveling back to campus after a game in Florida on April 20 ... when their bus was pulled over for a minor traffic violation.

The school says the belongings of the student-athletes -- including suitcases located in the luggage racks beneath the bus -- were searched by police and drug-sniffing dogs.

Video footage of the police interaction with everyone on the bus was uploaded to a YouTube channel by Sydney Anderson, a player on the DSU squad.

In addition to the video, Anderson wrote a lengthy piece for the Hornet Newspaper, detailing what she describes as a traumatic experience, explaining she believes cops only did the thorough search because they were black.

DSU's lacrosse coach Pamella Jenkins told Andscape she felt "angry" and "helpless" during the traffic stop because she sees her players as her own children and wants to protect them.

DSU President Tony Allen said in a statement that nothing illegal was discovered during the officers' search ... and that all of the school's coaches and student-athletes comported themselves with dignity throughout a trying and humiliating process.

"I am proud of our student-athletes, their coaches, the athletic department, the leadership and the reporters and staff of the school newspaper. Our mission is a critical one and as much a part of the American story as any."

"Again, I say. We shall not be moved."

Sheriff William Bowman of the Liberty County Police force held a press conference on Tuesday ... where he addressed the incident.

The bus, according to the sheriff, was pulled over for driving in the left lane on the highway ... when any bus or motor coach must drive in the 2 far right lanes.

As for the thorough search, Sherriff Bowman says deputies stopped a bus earlier that day and located contraband on board ... and contends the stop of DSU's bus was not racially motivated based on the information he has available to him.

Blac Chyna thinks the deck was stacked against her in her fierce legal battle with the Kardashians ... she accuses the judge of harboring an extreme bias.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Chyna is accusing Judge Gregory W. Alarcon of showing an "undeniably hostile and extremely biased" attitude against her and her attorney.

Chyna claims the judge's alleged bias worked against her ... specifically in regards to the judge's jury instructions Chyna thinks led to the eventual verdict, which went in the Kardashian's favor.

Remember ... the judge tossed Blac Chyna's mom, Tokyo Toni, outta the courtroom for trashing Kris Jenner and her kids, and TT later appeared to threaten the judge, though she claims it was actually aimed at Kris and not the judge.

Donald Trump might be back in the Twittersphere soon enough -- that is, if Elon Musk's mega deal to buy Twitter closes ... 'cause the guys says 45's ban was BS.

The Tesla chief -- and soon-to-be new Twitter owner -- signaled DT might be back on the bird app during a virtual chat at a car summit ... saying he would reverse the permanent ban if the decision was up to him, and it very well could be in a matter of weeks.

EM called the move a "morally bad decision" in the first place, going on to say he saw it as "foolish in the extreme."

His rationale is interesting ... Elon essentially argued that Trump should be allowed to exist in the de facto town square, rather than allowing him and/or his loyal followers to foment/fester elsewhere -- which is a bit of a different POV than his free speech one.

Elon says, "I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice. So I think this may end up being frankly worse than having a single forum where everyone can debate."

You'll recall ... Twitter gave Trump the boot for good in January 2021, right after the Capitol insurrection, because they claimed his tweets had the potential to incite further violence.

'Percy Jackson' author Rick Riordan is slamming folks who are outraged that a Black actress is playing a character described in the books as white ... calling the backlash racist.

Leah Jeffries was recently cast for the role of Annabeth Chase in the upcoming Disney+ series "Percy Jackson & the Olympians" ... with some fans expressing outrage online because Leah doesn't look the way Rick originally described.

Rick fired back Tuesday in a lengthy blog post directed at those who have a problem with the casting choice ... saying it's a shame he even has to address the issue, because he says the overwhelming response has been positive.

RR says anyone who has an issue with Leah's casting should take it up with him ... and he says negative comments being directed at her online are out of line and need to stop ASAP.

In the movie adaptions of Rick's book, Annabeth is played by white actress Alexandra Daddario.

From the outset of casting for the Disney+ series, Rick says he made it clear he was looking for the best actors to bring to life the personalities of his OG book characters, and physical appearance was secondary.

After a yearlong process, Rick says Leah proved to embody Annabeth Chase ... and he says people are just being racist when they express disappointment, anger and frustration that Leah doesn't look the way they imagined Annabeth.

Rick says the focus on Leah's skin color overlooks her acting chops ... and he says people are judging her based on race without even seeing her play the part.