Controversial S#!T

Tennis officials dropped the ball when they failed to ban Russian players after Putin's military invaded Ukraine last year, so says the world's number 1 ranked player, Iga Swiatek.

"I heard that after World War II, German players were not allowed as well as Japanese and Italian, and I feel like this kind of thing would show the Russian government that maybe it's not worth it," 21-year-old Swiatek told the BBC.

Iga believes WTA and ATP officials displayed a "lack of leadership," turning the tour into a "chaotic place."

"I feel like tennis, from the beginning, could do a bit better in showing everybody that tennis players are against the war."

Now, Swiatek feels it's too late to impose a ban, saying ... "now it would be pretty unfair for Russian and Belarusian players to do that because this decision was supposed to be made a year ago."

FYI, in 2022, Wimbledon banned Russian and Belarusian players from playing in the world's top tennis tourney. However, the All England Club lifted the ban ahead of the 2023 tournament, clearing the way for players like Aryna Sabalenka and Daria Kasatkina to compete.

Swiatek, a 3x majors winner, says she's not necessarily angry at the Russian tour players, and even has a lot of respect for some of them.

"I did shake hands, for example, with Daria Kasatkina. She openly said that she's against the war at the beginning and it would be her dream for the war to finish."

Iga continued ... "I really respect that because I feel it's brave for Russian athletes to say that because their situation is pretty complicated and sometimes it's hard for them to speak out loud about it."

Fernando Tatis Jr.'s first homer of 2023 didn't go as well as he would have liked ... he was booed as he rounded the bases -- and then the pitcher who served it up straight up called him a "cheater."

The San Diego Padres star hit the dinger on Wednesday night while down in the minor leagues as he continues to serve his 80-game ban for his positive PED test last season.

The 24-year-old, playing for the El Paso Chihuahuas against the Sacramento River Cats, smacked the baseball deep over the left field wall ... and seemed rather impressed by the tater.

He watched it fly -- then skipped around the bases ... but there weren't many outside of him at the Northern California ballpark who were thrilled to see it.

Check out video of the blast -- he was booed loudly as he came home ... and then following the game, the S.F. Giants prospect who threw the pitch took to social media to rip the guy.

"**cheater hits a homerun on a rehab assignment during a steroid suspension**," the pitcher, Kade McClure, wrote.

McClure -- a 27-year-old righty who was picked in the sixth round of the 2017 MLB draft -- didn't back down from the comment ... later appearing to prod Padres fans who were in his mentions.

John Leguizamo is again crying foul over "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" -- complaining about the lack of diversity in the cast.

The actor was in NYC Wednesday -- the same day the new animated film hit theaters -- and we got him to sound off on whether he'd changed his opinion from last year ... namely, whether he'd be watching the new adaptation of everyone's favorite video game character.

As it turns out, John hasn't budged on his original position ... dude's definitely not catching it, and he's still pissed there weren't any Latinos to be cast.

In between photos he was taking with fans on the street, John reiterated what he's been going on about since the fall ... basically, he feels like Nintendo and the studio heads behind 'SMBM' took a step backward by getting Chris Pratt and Charlie Day as Mario/Luigi -- neither of whom technically have Italian roots ... unlike their made-up characters.

You'll recall ... Bob Hoskins and John played the roles, respectively, in the live-action version.

JL says he wanted to see a Hispanic actor in the lineup again, and is sour that nobody from Latin America got a shot. It's unclear if John is advocating for true/accurate casting -- for which there's been a big push -- or if he just wants to see more Latin representation.

"Enough is enough."

That's the message Roc Nation is sending Italian soccer fans -- and people across the entire world -- after Inter Milan's Romelu Lukaku was berated by hateful "fans" making monkey noises during the game against Juventus F.C. on Tuesday.

Jay-Z's agency, which reps Lukaku, purchased a full-page advertisement in Italy's daily sports newspaper, La Gazzetta dello Sport, which is headquartered just a few miles from where the racist incident went down at Allianz Stadium in Turin.

"Dear Italy, Do better. Want better. Be better," the letter, translated into English, begins.

"In professional [soccer], Black players have been subjected to hatred during professional [soccer] games. The hatred has displayed itself in the form of monkey chants, racial slurs and banana peels tossed at the best players in the world, as the world watches, as the children watch, as the players' families watch."

"No one has faced any consequences for this heinous behavior. Nothing has changed. No action has been taken."

Of course, as the ad suggests, this isn't the first time a Black player -- and Romelu in particular -- has been forced to endure racist behavior from fans.

29-year-old Lukaku, who was berated on Tuesday after converting a penalty kick against Juventus in the Coppa Italia semifinal match, was targeted by a racist group of fans in 2019.

Back then, Romelu, who again converted on a PK, was subjected to similarly gross behavior after his squad defeated Cagliari.

Roc Nation talks about the power of soccer to unite and then goes on to ask people around the world to take action to stop these ugly acts.

"We call on the worldwide community of sports - players, team owners, artists, brands and all fans - to denounce this racist behavior and hold bigots accountable to a human standard. One which upholds decency, respect and compassion for others."

Jill Biden needs to apologize to the LSU women's hoops team ASAP ... so says Sherri Shepherd, who tells TMZ Sports the first lady should have never invited Iowa to come along with the champion Tigers for a celebration at the White House.

The television personality made her feelings loud and clear to us about the issue while out in New York City this week ... explaining she thinks Biden only handed out the invite in an effort to earn future votes for Joe Biden.

"You never invite the losing team to the White House," Shepherd said after Jill had opened the White House doors to both LSU and Iowa following their championship game on Sunday night.

"I know you want Iowa to vote for your husband, but stop it!" she added. "Stop it, Dr. Biden."

The topic has been extremely polarizing ever since Jill revealed she'd like to host both teams ... with LSU star Angel Reese laughing off the notion -- and even later saying she's now considering not going for a White House celebration over it all.

"I just know if the roles were reversed, it wouldn't be the same," Reese said on 'I Am Athlete.' "If we were to lose, we would not be getting invited to the White House."

Shepherd clearly believes Reese has every right to be peeved ... agreeing with the Tigers forward and saying, "If it was the other way around, it would never be this situation."

Of course, Biden's Press Secretary tried to apologize for FLOTUS following the backlash ...  saying Jill was simply trying to applaud "how far women have advanced in sports since the passing of Title IX" and "the historic game and all women athletes."

For their part, Iowa said it never received a formal invitation from the Bidens ... and its star guard, Caitlin Clark, seemed to say she wouldn't want to go even if the invite had come.

Bobby Lee is defending a controversial story he's repeated over the years about traveling to Tijuana for sex and paying for an underage prostitute -- sordid, for sure, but he says it's also total fiction.

The comedian's recently come under fire on social media due to resurfaced clips of the Tijuana tale ... where the story goes Bobby went to "hooker alley" and picked out a young prostitute who seemed shy.

There are different versions of the story where the prostitute's age differs, including one where Bobby says the prostitute looked like then-13-year-old Natalie Portman in "The Professional" ... but the stories all end with him having sex with the young woman in a cheap hotel room.

Bobby is finally responding to the backlash in the latest episode of his "TigerBelly" podcast ... where he says, "At the end of the day it's not real and I didn't do anything."

The way Bobby explains things ... he first told the joke on "Opie and Anthony," the shock jock radio show from back in the day -- and he says the story was actually a combination of "a couple awful dark jokes."

Bobby understands the current uproar, but he says back when he first told the Tijuana story, "it was encouraged to say crazy stuff without thinking about it" ... and he says "when I listen back to it now it puts a chill down my spine."

Former Nebraska interim head coach Mickey Joseph's assault case was dismissed Wednesday ... after the woman who accused him of strangling her reportedly refused to testify.

The Lancaster County Attorney's Office confirmed the dismissal to TMZ Sports ... explaining the case has now been sealed.

According to the Associated Press, Erica Pruess, a prosecutor in Lancaster County, told a judge that she received an email from the accuser in Joseph's case in February stating she would not testify.

Additionally, Pruess said law enforcement authorities in Arizona, where the woman allegedly lives, tried to serve her a summons requiring her to appear before a judge -- but their attempts were unsuccessful.

55-year-old Joseph was initially arrested for assault by strangulation back in November ... after police responded to his home, where he and his wife, Priscilla Joseph, live, to investigate a domestic dispute.

According to legal documents, Joseph had been embroiled in an argument with a woman who told police Joseph "pushed me on the couch and strangled me."

The woman, who's yet to be identified, told police that Joseph -- who took over the reins for the Cornhuskers after the program fired Scott Frost in Sept. 2022 -- punched her in the face during the alleged assault.

When police interviewed the accuser ... they observed visible injuries and swelling around the woman's left eye.

Nebraska placed Joseph on administrative leave following his arrest ... but the program fired him two weeks later.

Donald Trump just can't get enough of himself -- the guy was listening to his own voice featured on a new rendition of our National Anthem ... sung by the Jan. 6 insurrectionists.

The ex-Prez -- who was just rung up on 34 felony counts in NYC Tuesday -- flew back to Mar-a-Lago following his eventful outing in the Big Apple ... where he fired up his supporters with a speech, and engaged in an odd display.

Check out this video, obtained by TMZ, which we're told was recorded not too long after DT's diatribe from the podium -- where he condemned Manhattan's D.A. Alvin Bragg and others involved in his criminal case.

You can see Trump put his hand over his heart along with the rest of the room as they blast "Justice for All" over the speakers -- a song released by a handful of men currently in prison for their participation in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots ... now known as the J6 Choir.

The song is basically them singing the "Star Spangled Banner" interlaced with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance ... which created the awkward sight of Trump standing at attention as he listens to himself.

Patriotic to some, a threat to democracy for others.

The song was put out into the world back in early March and had success on certain charts, believe it or not.

Donald Trump might have had his worst day ever ... but Stormy Daniels had her best day on a popular pornography website.

The good folks over at Pornhub tell TMZ ... Donald's arrest has been a boom for Stormy's adult videos, with searches for her pornos spiking while Trump was getting booked.

We're told Pornhub users searched "Stormy" more than 650,000 times Tuesday ... it's a staggering figure on its own, but when it's compared to her daily search average over the first three months of the year, it works out to a whopping 32,400% increase.

Seems like there's a lot of interest out there as to why Trump allegedly had an affair with her.

Diving deeper into the numbers ... by 1:00 PM ET, as folks were waiting for Trump's motorcade to arrive at Manhattan Criminal Court, Pornhub says "Stormy" searches were six times their normal level ... which usually isn't peak horny hours.

Trump flew back to Mar-a-Lago on his private jet after his first day in court ... but some folks still have "jail" and "prison" on the brain ... Pornhub says searches with those two keywords this week are more popular than normal.

Trump's accused of paying Stormy $130,000 to shut up about the alleged affair. As for how much Stormy is making off the recent spike in her videos ... Pornhub is mum.

Kelsea Ballerini doesn't regret her groundbreaking performance alongside drag queens on national television, and it definitely wasn't a surprise to showrunners ... TMZ has learned.

Sources with direct knowledge tell us ... the backlash Kelsea's getting for Sunday's CMT Music Awards moment -- having four "RuPaul’s Drag Race" queens come on stage during one of her performances -- is falling on deaf ears ... 'cause she doesn't regret it one bit.

We're told Kelsea fully stands by her decision to feature the drag queens ... which some folks in conservative circles have gone ballistic over -- accusing CMT of going woke.

FWIW, the drag queens' appearance was fully planned. Production sources tell TMZ ... both CMT and CBS were extremely supportive of the cameo and knew about it from the get-go ... we're also told they'd been part of rehearsals since Friday.

One of the drag queens, Manila Luzon, says it was actually Kelsea's idea to involve them -- and she did so cause she's an ally. Manila says the drag queens were super happy with how things went and appreciate the network heads for giving them a platform in front of a new type of audience.

ML adds ... country music is moving forward with the rest of the world. The performance was a celebration of love and a celebration of artistry.

Dana White's adamant Leon Edwards' next fight will be against Colby Covington ... but Jorge Masvidal isn't quite so sure, telling us he believes he can change the UFC honcho's mind with a win over Gilbert Burns, and snatch the fight from "cop-calling charlatan bitch ass Cupcake Covington."

"100% [I can jump Colby]. I feel it in my heart, I see it in my mind," 38-year-old Masvidal told Babcock on the "TMZ Sports" TV show (airs weeknights on FS1).

"UFC, at the end of the day is a pay-per-view selling business, and Colby's bitch ass has never sold over 300,000 pay-per-views except when it was against me. What are him and Leon gonna do?"

31-year-old Edwards defeated Kamaru Usman last month, retaining the welterweight title. Following the fight, White told reporters Covington was next in line, to the chagrin of some fans who were really hoping to see Masvidal vs. Edwards.

Of course, Jorge and Leon have serious beef -- er, chicken -- which came to a head in the UK in 2019, when the two men were involved in a backstage altercation after Edwards yelled something at Masvidal as he was being interviewed backstage after beating Darren Till.

Gamebred didn't take kindly to what Rocky said, so he served him up a "3-piece and a soda."

First, Masvidal has to beat fellow contender, Durinho Burns, the 5th-ranked fighter in the division, at UFC 287 on Saturday ... a fight Jorge believes suits his style.

"In the Gilbert fight, I don't have a standout wrestler conditioning freak like that where he can just continue to go for takedown after takedown. He doesn't have that, he's never shown that," Masvidal said.

"And on the standup, yeah, he throws hard, but he doesn't understand the sweet science. He doesn't understand setups. He doesn't understand distance, timing, fakes, things like that. From a technical standpoint, I think this is a great match for me. I just have to show up, put my hard hat on, put my mouthpiece on, and get to work and just put the holes in this guy's face."

When Jorge and Gilbert step into the Octagon, they'll be doing it at Miami-Dade Arena in Masvidal's hometown of Miami, where Gamebred, just a kid, grew up fighting older and bigger dudes in backyards and in the streets.

Masvidal reps MIA heavy to this day ... and the card is especially important to him because as a kid, he told a friend he'd bring a big UFC card back to South Florida one day, and now he has.

"I looked over to my friend who I was with and I told him 'One day I'll bring a show over here to Miami.' It took 20 years but now we're in this bitch!"

And, Jorge says the city couldn't be happier or more grateful.

The judge warned Donald Trump if he continued attacking individuals and institutions a gag order might be in order ... well Tuesday night, Trump gave that judge the middle finger.

The former President reacted to his historic indictment with a vengeful speech at Mar-a-Lago ... railing on not only the lead prosecutor, Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg, but also the judge who fired off the gag order warning.

Trump took shots at Bragg throughout his address ... calling on Bragg to resign and accusing Bragg of leaking grand jury info. Trump says it's Bragg who should be facing prosecution, not him, and he says the indictment is light on specifics and Bragg has absolutely no case.

As for the judge, Juan Merchan, well, Trump went after him too ... and the judge's family ... something Trump's son did earlier on social media.

Trump called out Merchan as a "Trump-hating judge" who has it out for him ... and he blasted the judge's wife and fam, even going after the judge's daughter for working with the Kamala Harris campaign.

The evening's tone was set from the moment Trump arrived in the room ... walking out to "Rebel Rebel." He shook hands with supporters as he approached the dais, then started venting.

Outside Mar-a-Lago, throngs of Trump fans lined the streets ... waving flags and showing him love. Inside, his fans booed and cheered, depending on the subject.

When Trump wasn't going nuclear on the judge or prosecution, he was patting himself on the back for his time in office and, naturally, dragging Joe Biden.

As you know ... Trump was in New York City earlier Tuesday, showing up at a Manhattan courthouse to turn himself in to the NYPD. He was fingerprinted and ultimately pled not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.

After he was done in court, Trump left in his motorcade for the airport ... hopping in his private jet and flying back down to Florida.

Inter Milan's Romelu Lukaku's representation is demanding an apology and calling for punishment after Juventus fans appeared to hurl racist chants at the star striker during a soccer match on Tuesday.

The alleged incident happened after Lukaku scored a late penalty shot to tie it up at 1-1 against Juventus in the Coppa Italia semi-final at Allianz Stadium in Turin.

While the 29-year-old was celebrating by taunting Juventus fans with a "be quiet" hand gesture -- which got him a second yellow card -- they made "monkey" noises towards Lukaku ... something Romelu's reps claim was happening all match.

The alleged chants were caught on video ... and you can see upset fans making noise toward the field.

Michael Yormark, president of Roc Nation Sports International which represents Lukaku, released a statement ... saying the incident was "beyond despicable and cannot be accepted"

"Romelu scored a penalty late in the game. Before, during, and after the penalty, he was subjected to hostile and disgusting racist abuse. Romelu celebrated in the same manner he has previously celebrated goals."

Yormark adds that Lukaku deserves an apology from Juventus and the league should condemn those who yelled the racist chants.

"The Italian authorities must use this opportunity to tackle racism, rather than punish the victim of the abuse. I am certain that the footballing world shares the same sentiment."

Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder is saying thanks, but no thanks to Jill Biden welcoming the Hawkeyes to the White House ... saying LSU should be the only team visiting because they're the champs.

Bluder dropped the friendly RSVP to Biden's suggestion on Tuesday ... tweeting, "I gratefully acknowledge the First Lady’s sentiments, but a day at the White House should belong solely to the champion, LSU and Coach Mulkey."

The 3-time Big Ten Coach of the Year then flipped the script ... saying the Bidens should jump on Air Force One and visit them instead!!!

"We would welcome the First Lady and President to come to Iowa’s 'House' – Carver Hawkeye Arena — any time!"

Of course, FLOTUS's proposal caused a lot of commotion since the whole point of teams visiting the WH is that they're the winners.

Biden's Press Secretary later clarified her words ... saying FLOTUS made the suggestion to admire "how far women have advanced in sports since the passing of Title IX."

LSU's Angel Reese wasn't buying the explanation ... and believes her team wouldn't be receiving the same treatment if they lost to Iowa.

"I just know if the roles were reversed, it wouldn't be the same," Reese said on I Am Athlete. "If we were to lose, we would not be getting invited to the White House."

The star forward is unsure if she'll go to the White House to celebrate LSU women's first-ever title ... but President Joe Biden says he looks forward to meeting them and UConn, who won the men's NCAA championship on Monday.

NLE Choppa's "Slut Me Out (Remix)" hasn't even dropped yet, but it's already pissing off some people in the industry ... due to what they see as blatant misogyny.

The Memphis rapper teased the visual for his updated track on Monday, which raised plenty of eyebrows -- it shows him dog-walking his female costars Sukihana and "Pound Town" rookie rapper Sexxy Red by their colorful weaves.

Sukihana's rap career revolves around XXX tropes and Sexxy Red has been going viral for her song's "my booty-hole brown" lyric ... so yeah, NLE's casting for the video was, arguably, spot-on.

However, Lil Mama disapproved of what she witnessed ... only for Sukihana to get wind of the since-deleted comments, and quickly dragged the "Lip Gloss" rapper for her infamous Jay-Z stage crash of 2009.

An unbothered Lil Mama responded to Suki with an eloquent tongue-lashing -- explaining she feels Black women like Suki uphold negative sexual stereotypes, despite history proving it's the wrong route to go.

TMZ Hip Hop spoke to NLE about the track, and he claimed it was an empowerment anthem ... but good luck convincing folks of that, now that the video clip is out.

Stormy Daniels is just one slice of the pie for Donald Trump's alleged hush money payments ... according to the 34-count indictment, which Manhattan D.A. Alvin Bragg just unsealed.

As expected, the indictment details the $130,000 Trump allegedly paid Daniels in exchange for her silence about what she describes as their affair. Trump has denied the affair, but according to the docs Trump's former attorney, Michael Cohen, negotiated the amount with Daniels' lawyer, and then he wired the money from a shell company to Stormy's lawyer on October 26, 2016.

The D.A. says Trump directed Cohen to delay making the payment as long as possible, in hopes they could wait until after the election and then stiff her.

The indictment also raises what the D.A. calls Trump's "catch-and-kill" scheme with AMI, the National Enquirer's parent company. That alleged scheme involves a $150,000 payment to a second woman.

Although, the docs don't mention the woman's name ... it's been widely reported AMI paid that amount to silence Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal, who also claimed she and Trump had an affair.

According to the docs, Trump and Cohen discussed reimbursing AMI -- again, a shell company was created on Sept. 30, 2016, and prosecutors alleged Trump and AMI agreed he would pay $125K. However, that deal was never consummated ... AMI told Cohen the deal was off.

Lastly, the indictment alleges a $30,000 payment was made from AMI to former Trump Tower doorman who claimed to have information about a child Trump fathered out of wedlock. AMI later found out the story wasn't true, and wanted to release the doorman from the NDA he'd signed ... but prosecutors allege Cohen advised them to keep it in place until after the election.

That's it ... those three incidents are the meat of the D.A.'s case against Trump. The 34 counts are related to smaller payments made by the Trump Organization and Trump personally to reimburse Cohen -- however, the D.A. says they were characterized as legal services under a retainer agreement with Cohen.

According to the D.A. that's the felony falsifying of business records .... and Trump's alleged motive was preventing the release of damaging stories, and covering up his involvement in doing so.

One more thing ... according to the docs, after Trump won the 2016 election, prosecutors say Trump invited AMI CEO David Pecker to the Inauguration, and then, in the summer of 2017, he was invited to dinner at the White House to thank him for his help.

After Tuesday's arraignment, Trump hightailed it for his jet at LaGuardia Airport and flew back to Mar-a-Lago. His attorney Joe Tacopina spoke outside the courthouse, and blasted D.A. Bragg's indictment as a big nothing sandwich.

Prosecutors say Cohen pleaded guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence. As you know, he served more than a year in federal prison, and another 18 months on home confinement.