Controversial S#!T

Ticketmaster is spelling out what went wrong with their Taylor Swift tour sales -- and the justification for the fiasco was basically chalked up to ... a necessary evil to defeat bots.

The Live Nation company posted an explainer Friday night, giving an in-depth breakdown of why so many people had such a hard time buying tickets to TS's 'Eras Tour' during the presale window this week ... and it consisted of both an apology and a defense of the chaos.

For starters, Ticketmaster acknowledges what TayTay said ... that she was told they were anticipating an unprecedented amount of traffic and were prepared. However, TM adds that despite this ... when the digital doors actually opened, their expectations were exceeded.

Ticketmaster posted a graph that shows just how many people (and not-real-people) flooded their site ... even though they had a rigorous registration system in place to make sure real, authenticated fans were able to buy tickets, as opposed to spammers who would otherwise snap them up in bulk and hawk them on the resale market with massive markups.

Regardless of this seemingly airtight system being in place -- consisting of 3.5 million users successfully preregistering/confirming their IDs -- Ticketmaster says that on the day of the sale, even more unregistered fans and bots came flocking in ... partially crashing the site.

To resolve this record amount of traffic while simultaneously taking care of the folks who should've been guaranteed a chance to buy passes ... Ticketmaster says it started staggering queues, the result of which ended with longer wait times and, inevitably, frustrated users.

Ticketmaster says they know this caused confusion -- and in some cases, people to lose their spots outright -- but insists it was the best option under the circumstances. TM also proudly touts the fact 2.4 million tickets were, in fact, ultimately sold to authenticated fans ... and that less than 5% of the tickets sold ended up for resale, a W in the site's book.

Ticketmaster says it regrets the fact some were left empty-handed, but also adds this perspective ... it's unfeasible to please everyone, especially at this level of interest.

TM says, "[B]ased on the volume of traffic to our site, Taylor would need to perform over 900 stadium shows (almost 20x the number of shows she is doing) … that’s a stadium show every single night for the next 2.5 years. While it’s impossible for everyone to get tickets to these shows, we know we can do more to improve ... and that’s what we’re focused on."

Quentin Tarantino says he wishes he would've confronted his longtime collaborator Harvey Weinstein -- especially in the wake of the criminal allegations that have surfaced.

The director was grilled by Chris Wallace on his CNN show Friday night ... getting asked why he didn't do more to protect women in HW's orbit if he was, in fact, aware of the film producer's behavior -- something Tarantino has alluded to in recent years.

QT clarified that while he had heard things about Weinstein ... he insists he was never privy to anything regarding rape or sexual assault -- which, among other things, has been alleged against the ex-movie mogul by a lot of women ... dating back to the '90s.

Tarantino says his understanding of Weinstein's alleged MO was comparable to something from "Mad Men" -- AKA, office bosses chasing their secretaries around the desk and trying to get handsy. This is the characterization Tarantino says was communicated to him back then. He notes, yes, this was still wrong ... but denies knowledge of anything more serious.

Wallace asks if he has any regrets, and Tarantino says he does -- not about working with HW, though, but not confronting him about his supposed playful skirt-chasing. The reason Tarantino says he didn't talk to him about it is because he thought it was pathetic ... and didn't want to approach his friend, who was also kinda his boss, about something so juvenile.

Elon Musk seems to be leaving the fate of Donald Trump's Twitter account up to bird app users ... asking folks to vote on his reinstatement.

Elon posted a Twitter poll Friday on his account, asking users to vote either "Yes" or "No" on reinstating the former president's Twitter page.

Musk first posted the poll then left a reply ... "Vox Populi, Vox Dei" ... a Latin phrase meaning, "the voice of the people is the voice of God."

Elon's poll already has 1.4 million responses and counting, and it's not even been live for an hour. The poll will be up for 24 hours, giving folks until Saturday evening to decide.

As you know, Trump was banned from Twitter by the previous ownership in the wake of the Jan. 6 riot. The former president is also banned from other mainstream social media apps.

Elon's hinted at Trump's return to Twitter since buying the bird app for $44 billion ... but this is the first time he's sought feedback through a Twitter poll.

The World Cup is just a day away, and the biggest sporting event in the world is already mired in controversy -- much stemming from alleged human rights issues -- causing some to boycott the soccer tourney ... something Akon says makes no sense.

TMZ Sports ran into the rap star, a big soccer fan, at LAX on Wednesday -- just four days before the 2022 FIFA World Cup kicks off in Qatar -- and we asked him about fans who say they won't watch because of the controversy surrounding the host country.

"I don't understand the purpose of the boycott, me personally, I think everywhere you go in the world there's different cultures, different way of living, different life standards," Akon explained.

The 5x Grammy nominee went on to say he believes many of his fellow Americans who are calling for a boycott don't actually understand why they're refusing to watch.

"I think when you look at a place like America, we have a tendency of taking certain things for granted, and we got a tendency of following suit of things we don't understand. Instead of taking a trip there to understand the culture, understand what's going on, you're just going to follow suit cause everybody else says there's humanitarian issues."

FYI, Dua Lipa recently quelled speculation she'd perform in Qatar, saying she wouldn't go to the country until they "fulfilled all the human rights pledges it made when it won the right to host the World Cup." Rod Stewart also said he was offered a million dollars to perform, but he refused.

Of course, Qatar, a relatively small peninsular country with a population of under 3 million, has been accused of discriminating against people in the LGBTQ community. There are also reports of migrant workers dying while working under unsafe conditions in an effort to finish the WC facilities in the months before the tourney. Officials have also interfered with the press. These are just a few of the troubling allegations made against Qatar.

But, Akon sees it differently than the boycotters ... it's not that he's saying he agrees with Qatar, he's saying he recognizes that their culture is different.

"I think a lot of that is a cultural issue, a cultural difference. You know when you look at a place like Africa, Middle East, a lot of places, LGBTQ is not really a culture they came up under," Akon says.

"It's not a matter of dislike. It's just a different culture. know what I'm saying? it's just a matter of people better understanding each other's culture, understanding the reasons and the whys."

Akon believes we'd be a lot better off talking to the Qatari people and finding common ground, rather than ignoring them.

"How about going to explain your view from your position? Help them better understand. Know what I mean? Life is about communication. I think the moment people start jumping to conclusions and just take a position before understanding, things are always gonna be complicated."

Maluma isn't exactly kicking off the World Cup on a high note ... a reporter put him on the spot over his decision to perform -- as other artists boycott -- so, he stormed out of the interview.

The "Hawái" singer sat down for an interview Friday, two days before the start of the FIFA World Cup, with Israel's state-owned Kan TV and it quickly got heated when the interviewer asked Maluma about his thoughts on Qatar's human rights violations.

As we reported, Dua Lipa and Shakira both turned down gigs at the World Cup ... citing the country's human rights record.

Maluma teamed up with Nicki Minaj and Lebanese singer Myriam Fares for the official FIFA Fan Festival anthem ... and he was asked if he had a problem with Qatar's reputation.

Maluma dodged the first question with skill, saying he's performing because he enjoys life, music and soccer -- but when pressed for more than that, Maluma stood up, asked someone off camera if he needed to answer at all, then simply stormed off and called the reporter "rude."

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Maluma's performing at the World Cup strictly because, as he said, he loves the sport. We're told he was a soccer player growing up in Colombia and left the sport to become an artist, but it's been always been a dream of his to perform at a World Cup.

What's odd about Maluma's heated interview is ... the network reporter giving him a hard time for, in his words, "whitewashing" Qatar, is actually there in Qatar covering the World Cup and in doing so, publicizing it.

Banksy is going to war with Guess -- accusing the clothing brand of stealing his work -- and now encouraging folks to steal from the retailer's London store.

The famous graffiti artist just put out a call to all shoplifters, encouraging them to visit the Guess retailer on Regent Street in London.

Banksy posted an image of the Guess storefront, and it looks like the retailer has his Flower Thrower graffiti displayed along with clothes bearing some of his famous works.

In his post, Banksy rips into Guess, saying ... "They've helped themselves to my artwork without asking, how can it be wrong for you to do the same to their clothes?"

Guess recently started selling a new collection and the clothing line ads brag about items "with graffiti by Banksy." Guess says the collection is a collab with Brandalised, which Guess describes as "an urban graffiti license whose mission is to offer Banksy fans affordable graffiti collectibles."

Taylor Swift is sorry for her fans who feel they were screwed by Ticketmaster in trying to score tickets for her tour ... blasting the company for failing to deliver on its promise for a smooth rollout.

The singer just broke her silence on the concert ticket disaster, with a lengthy statement on her Instagram Story where she's royally pissed at Ticketmaster ... echoing the same feelings from her legions of fans.

Taylor says she's extremely protective of her fans and adds, "It's really difficult for me to trust an outside entity with these relationships and loyalties, and excruciating for me to just watch mistakes happen with no recourse."

TS also says, "There are a multitude of reasons why people had such a hard time trying to get tickets and I’m trying to figure out how this situation can be improved moving forward."

She's pretty pissed at Ticketmaster, explaining ... "I'm not going to make excuses for anyone because we asked them, multiple times, if they could handle this kind of demand and we were assured they could. It's truly amazing that 2.4 million people got tickets, but it really pisses me off that a lot of them feel like they went through several bear attacks to get them."

As we reported, there were tons of issues and delays with the Ticketmaster presale, and the ticket giant even canceled the public sale, and now the resale market is seeing sky-high price tags.

Taylor ends with a message to the fans who didn't get lucky enough to score tickets ... saying, "My hope is to provide more opportunities for us to all get together and sing these songs. Thank you for wanting to be there. You have no idea how much that means."

Elon Musk will tell ya the reports of Twitter's death are greatly exaggerated -- in fact, although news spread quickly the app's on the verge of shutdown, Elon says it had one of its best days ever.

Thursday night, while #RIPTwitter became the number 1 trending topic in the U.S., the Chief Twit himself tweeted, "We just hit another all-time high in Twitter usage lol ... let that sink in."

That tweet came after hundreds of his employees reportedly quit ... following his demands for people within the company to work "long hours at high intensity" or get booted.

The deadline for jumping ship or staying aboard was reportedly Thursday at 5 PM ... and it looks like a good amount were fine with saying goodbye.

The reported mass jump prompted millions of tweeters to take it as a sign of the end for the bird app ... although the surge to which Elon referred might have a lot to do with people using the "dead" platform to talk about its death.

Pretty damn meta (not you, Zuckerberg).

FYI -- a pretty cold projection popped up on the company's HQ in San Fran Thursday night, during this "all-time high" ... calling Elon a slew of names that just gets more and more brutal.

The judge who presided over Casey Anthony’s murder trial thinks prosecutors made a strong enough case to win a conviction ... but he's giving her lawyers props for their strategy.

Judge Belvin Perry Jr. joined us Thursday on "TMZ Live," and we asked if he was surprised the jury acquitted Casey of murder, manslaughter and child abuse following 2-year-old daughter Caylee's death. Casey was only found guilty of lying to cops.

Perry Jr. says he thought prosecutors presented enough evidence for the jury to convict Casey ... but still, he wasn't shocked when the jury acquitted her, because he's learned there are no locks when it comes to criminal trials.

Judge Perry Jr. is now retired from the bench, and told us a lot of what Casey's saying in a new Peacock documentary is the same "crap" she floated during the trial. Of course, she was acquitted, but Perry says that doesn't mean the jury bought what Casey was saying back then.

Instead, he gives credit to her defense attorneys, Jose Baez and Cheney Mason, who "littered that case with as much reasonable doubt as they possibly could."

Casey didn't take the stand during the trial and is now giving her version of events in an upcoming Peacock documentary -- but the former judge told us there are all sorts of problems with her claims, the new ones and the old ones.

Taylor Swift fans are outraged after waiting hours and shelling out big money just for a shot at getting tickets -- and they've griped enough to spark a new antitrust investigation into Ticketmaster.

Ever since Tuesday, Swifties have been sounding off about the disastrous presale for Taylor's upcoming tour, but Tennessee's attorney general thinks this might go beyond whining Gen Zers ... it could be a crime.

TN AG Jonathan Skrmetti says antitrust violations "could be an issue" for Ticketmaster. He's concerned the company lacks competition ... and with that, customers are left with sky-high prices and a poor experience getting tix.

Skrmetti questions Ticketmaster's lack of preparation -- he says given the company's size, it should've been ready for the "unprecedented demand" from Taylor's legion of fans. The woman commanded the Billboard Hot 100's entire top 10, after all!!!

As we reported ... Ticketmaster was in shambles as fans attempted to get their hands on a ticket to "The Eras Tour." Potential buyers were left in limbo after the website crashed ... and frankly, Ticketmaster's explanation of why things went wrong didn't make it any better.

Skrmetti's concern is Ticketmaster doesn't worry about pissing off fans -- of Taylor or any other artist -- because if they want to see a concert, there's typically no avoiding Ticketmaster.

The A.G.'s office has received a number of complaints from customers who experienced a severe lack of customer support, while others said Ticketmaster told them to wait 5 days for a response.

The good news for Swifties is you can still get Taylor tix, but the bad news is it's probably gonna cost ya a lot more on sites like StubHub.

Candace Cameron Bure says she has love for everybody -- after facing a rash of criticism for comments she made about focusing on "traditional" families on her new network -- but she isn't backing down on her position.

The new chief creative officer at the Great American Family network released a statement Monday, saying in part, "I am a devoted Christian. Which means that I believe that every human being bears the image of God. Because of that, I am called to love all people, and I do. If you know me, you know that I am a person who loves fiercely and indiscriminately."

She continues, "My heart yearns to build bridges and bring people one step closer to God, to love others well, and to simply be a reflection of God’s huge love for all of us."

As we reported, Bure chatted with The WSJ about her new role on the network, explaining they'd work to highlight heterosexual relationships ... unlike The Hallmark Channel. Though she says The WSJ didn't include everything.

Bure states, "I had also expressed in my interview, which was not included, that people of all ethnicities and identities have and will continue to contribute to the network in great ways both in front of and behind the camera, which I encourage and fully support."

She ends her statement by saying, "The God we serve is a wildly creative and loving God.  He didn’t just capture a small part of my heart, He has captured all of my heart. He will be reflected in everything I do and say; in my family, my work and my interactions with people from all walks of life, God’s love and God’s compassion is front and center."

Amber Heard has been treated atrociously by the public -- vilified and harassed -- and it's gotta stop now ... so says Gloria Steinem and more than a hundred others.

The famed feminist and 130 others have signed onto an open letter, condemning "the vilification of Ms. Heard and ongoing online harassment of her and those who have voiced support for her [sic] have been unprecedented in both vitriol and scale."

Steinem and co. go on ... "We condemn the public shaming of Amber Heard and join in support of her. We support the ability of all to report intimate partner and sexual violence free of harassment and intimidation."

Thing is ... the jury in the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard case rejected all of her claims of abuse and, even decided her claims were not only false ... they were malicious.

Nonetheless, Steinem and others challenge the verdict, saying it indicates "a fundamental misunderstanding of intimate partner and sexual violence and how survivors respond to it."

As you know, A.H. was ordered to cough up $10.35 million dollars for her defamatory claims. J.D. was ordered to pay $2 mil for the defamatory claims his lawyer made.

It's undeniable ... the vast majority of the public ended up siding with Depp and many did indeed viciously attack Amber, especially on social media.

Amber is now living abroad with her daughter ... presumably to break free from all the drama and attacks.

California Governor Gavin Newsom's wife testified at Harvey Weinstein's L.A. sexual assault trial Tuesday ... and was STUNNINGLY asked to recreate how she faked an orgasm with the disgraced film producer.

Former actress, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, looked horrified on the stand after Weinstein's defense attorney questioned how she “indicated her pleasure” during what she claims was a 2005 rape by Weinstein at the Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills.

Siebel Newsom fired back, "This is not 'When Harry Met Sally.' I'm not doing that," referencing a famous scene in the 1989 film where Meg Ryan's character faked a loud orgasm in a crowded NYC restaurant. She then broke down in tears, saying, "I was making noises to get him to finish. He had already raped me. … This is so gross. I'm sorry."

Moments earlier, Siebel Newsom testified she had scheduled a business meeting with Weinstein at his hotel room. But, once she arrived there, things quickly turned ugly. She said Weinstein changed out of his suit and into a robe before masturbating in front of her and threatening her.

She claimed Weinstein penetrated her with his finger and then raped her with his "deformed penis." She described his genitalia as "kind of fish-like, the penis — something was distorted in the testicles … Lots of skin, lots of skin down there."

Siebel Newsom is the fourth woman to testify at the trial that Weinstein sexually assaulted her. She said she first met the producer at the Toronto International Film Festival when she was a bit part actress and he was at the height of his career.

Candace Cameron Bure wants to keep things old-fashioned at the new cable TV network she's working at ... which is drawing the ire of the LGBTQ community.

The "Full House" star recently said she'd be focusing on "traditional" families when it comes to future programming at the Great American Family network ... of which she's now the chief creative officer ... this after parting ways with her longtime home at the Hallmark Channel.

What she means by that ... portraying heterosexual relationships, and not same-sex couples. Of course, her remarks are catching a lot of backlash from a number of people and orgs ... perhaps most notably from GLAAD, which famously advocates for LGBTQ interests.

GLAAD slammed Candace, saying ... "It's irresponsible and hurtful for Candace Cameron Bure to use tradition as a guise for exclusion. I'd love to have a conversation with Bure about my wife, our kids, and our family's traditions." They went on to say CCB is out of touch, while calling on GAF stakeholders to take a stand if they cared about equality/representation.

A GLAAD rep adds, "If GAC Family's plan is to intentionally exclude stories about LGBTQ couples, then actors, advertisers, cable and streaming platforms, and production companies should take note and seriously consider whether they want to be associated with a network that holds exclusion as one of its values."

JoJo Siwa -- who's gay, and who also publicly feuded with Candace a few months ago -- also spoke out ... as did Candace's ex-costar Jodie Sweetin, who showed solidarity with JS. Hilarie Burton went so far as to call Candace a "bigot" ...

Mariah Carey won't be getting everything she wants for Christmas this year ... her attempt to trademark the phrase "Queen of Christmas" was just rejected, TMZ has learned.

The U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board denied MC's attempt to trademark "Queen of Christmas" on Tuesday ... along with her attempts to lock down the rights to "Princess Christmas" and "Christmas Princess," according to a release given to TMZ.

As we reported ... Mariah Carey applied for the trademarks back in March of 2021 but quickly faced some backlash.

Despite having some support ... legends like Darlene Love and singer Elizabeth Chan pushed back on MC -- Elizabeth filed an opposition, arguing no one should "monopolize" the word "Christmas."

As for what Mariah wanted to TM for, in her filing she said she planned to use the title for fragrances, lotions, nail polish, jewelry, cups, mugs, chocolate milk, coconut water ... as well as ornaments, toys, dog clothing, masks, lingerie and sweatshirts.

Kodak Black and 21 Savage are setting the stage for either one helluva Verzuz showdown ... or a petty social media beef, with the string of tough talk centering around 21 dismissing Nas as irrelevant.

After taking a break from Instagram, Kodak says 21 made him mad enough to return and address what he deems as disrespect.

21 and Drake just topped the Billboard 200 with their collaborative album "Her Loss" ... selling over 400,000 in the first week, prompting 21 to fire off a snarky tweet questioning rival album sales.

Kodak just dropped his "Kutthroat Bill: Vol. 1" album right before Halloween and seemed to take exception to the tweet ... as he only sold 43K.

On IG, he saluted 21 for his success, but took issues with the album sales. Kodak's view is he's been in and out of prison the last few years, and hasn't had time to generate momentum in the market.

Despite the sales differences, Kodak doesn't think he's being left in the dust and called out Drake and 21 for being 30+ in contrast to his 25 years young and promised to catch up with his next few releases.

Kodak also bigged up Nas for his music and business moves, and questioned 21's sanity ... accusing the Atlanta rapper of straight-up d***-riding Drake to get to the top of the charts.

The way Kodak sees it, hanging with Drake is cool and all but when you're from the trenches ... you sing songs like Nas' "I Can" for inspiration!!!

21 has yet to respond to Kodak since kicking off the Verzuz debate that he could beat everyone in his 2016 Freshman class -- but he did offer some sort of mea culpa after noticing that his Clubhouse comments about Nas had gone viral.

He claimed his comments were taken out of context and he would never disrespect a legend like Nas who made it possible for him to pop s*** in the first place!!!