Controversial S#!T

Sorry boxing fans, there will be no Terence Crawford vs. Canelo Alvarez super fight ... 'cause Bud tells TMZ Sports he has absolutely zero interest in fighting his fellow boxing superstar!

In the wake of his dominating performance against Errol Spence, which Bud ended with a 9th-round TKO, the boxing world has been salivating over a potential future scrap between Crawford and Alvarez.

So, we caught up with 40-0 (31 KO) Terence, and asked him ... do you want Alvarez?

"No, not at all," Bud flat out told us. "Canelo really don't interest me because of the size factor."

Bud's got a point. While both men are about 5'8", Crawford's a 147 lb. welterweight. It's true, Alvarez used to fight in the weight class, but it's been years since he's been that light. Canelo, who has bounced around divisions over the last few years, is currently fighting in the 168 lb. super middleweight weight class.

Speaking of Saul moving around ... even Bud joked that it's hard to keep track of where he is, saying, "You don't know what weight [Canelo's] fighting at when he fighting."

Even though it won't be Canelo, that doesn't mean there aren't big fights on the horizon for the welterweight king ... including a possible rematch with Errol. Though, it's clear Bud prefers another bout over running it back with ES.

"That's my obligation in the contract and I gotta honor that if that's the next move for me and my career," Crawford said of the rematch clause.

Jermell Charlo is also very much in the mix.

"I would definitely choose Jermell Charlo. It's a meaningful fight," Crawford said. "It's more history. It's more on the table."

Regardless of who it is ... fans would be wise to appreciate the undefeated boxer while he's still kickin' ass, because the soon-to-be 36-year-old says he won't be around for too much longer.

The Church of Scientology is clapping back at former member Leah Remini, dragging her for a lawsuit against them -- something the Church claims is total BS.

In an intense statement issued to TMZ from the church Thursday, they call the actress an "anti-free speech bigot." The church says Leah's "a horrible person and toxic to so many who have the misfortune to come in contact with her."

The church even compares her to "an anti-Semite complaining about the Jewish Anti-Defamation League for exposing the anti-Semite's bigotry and propaganda."

It claims Leah's been making a fortune on her "obsession" to take Scientology down since publicly leaving the religion in 2013 ... pointing towards her recent lawsuit by adding, "If Remini can no longer get a job, she has nobody to blame but herself."

The church says it's "not intimidated by Remini's latest act of blatant harassment and attempt to prevent truthful free speech. If Remini does not believe in free speech, then she should consider emigrating to Russia."

LL Cool J is sick of hearing how rap is both a "young man's game" and comparable to sports ... setting the record straight on how he feels hip hop culture should thrive.

The legendary rapper appeared on SiriusXM’s "Sway In The Morning" Thursday to promote his new tour, the 50th anniversary of hip hop, and he closed the interview with his first-ever freestyle on the celebrated radio show. ... supplying a dizzying array of rhymes.

LL rocked the mic for nearly two minutes, causing all Sway's Universe cohosts to go wild as Tracy G proclaimed LL shut down their freestyle segment for the rest of the year.

Earlier in the interview, LL expressed his disappointment with older rappers being rubbed out of the culture, much like he did when he took DJ Akademiks to task last year.

LL admits he's a fan of songs from the likes of Lil Baby, Lil Durk and DaBaby but says his reason for creating his "Rock The Bells" platform was so he didn't have to pretend like he's not older than he is.

The 55-year-old MC also laid into the rap debates that liken the genre to sports and says rappers only flirt with retirement like pro athletes over insecurities of becoming obsolete ... a position LL says he's allergic to!!!

A woman in blackface showed up at a Target store ... that's outrageous enough, but wait till you hear how she went off the rails.

Ersilia Campbell sauntered into a Target in the Aurora area of Colorado and beelined it for a store employee -- demanding to know where to find the Pride section. The employee explained Pride month was over, and she then suggested the LGBTQ community had hijacked the American flag with the Pride flag.

The employee was clearly taken aback ... Campbell said what she was doing was no different from Lester Holt dressing up for Halloween as Susan Boyle, a white woman.

Her work wasn't done. Campbell also went to a Starbucks, with Trump stickers emblazoned on her shirt as she groused she was fired from the post office.

We did some digging, and found Ersilia apparently got the axe from the P.O. back in February, but she must've caused a similar stink there, because a trespassing notice was posted Tuesday alerting employees to call the Postal Inspection Service if she showed up again.

She ranted against her former coworkers online, calling them "some of the loneliest, miserable, trashiest, lazy people in my life."

Maybe she needs to look in a mirror.

Lizzo makes it clear her backup dancers will face repercussions if they don't do what she asks, even if that means getting freaky at a live sex show ... at least, that's what 2 of the women suing her are claiming.

The singer's former backup dancers, Arianna Davis, and Crystal Williams, joined us Wednesday on "TMZ Live" and told us about their experiences working under Lizzo.

Arianna and Crystal accused Lizzo of coercing backup dancers to participate in nude cabaret shows ... and they say there's an unspoken feeling among the group of having to bend to Lizzo's demands or be fired if they don't play ball.

As they allege in the lawsuit, sometimes that means eating bananas out of sex performers' vaginas in Amsterdam -- and they told us dancers who went along with Lizzo's idea of fun were rewarded with lavish private jet trips to tropical locations.

On the flip side, they claim dancers who didn't feel comfortable doing everything Lizzo wanted would be threatened with termination.

As for why they're no longer working with Lizzo -- Crystal says she was accused of drinking before performances, and Arianna claims Lizzo body-shamed her for gaining weight ... and she claims Lizzo used an admission of an eating disorder to justify firing her.

Lizzo has yet to comment publicly, or respond to the lawsuit in court ... but her accusers have a lot to say here.

Lizzo kept an eye on the famed banana sex show in Amsterdam for years ... sharing her desires way before being sued for allegedly pressuring backup dancers to get in on the act.

Here's the deal ... Lizzo talked about wanting to go to a specific live sex show in the city's infamous Red Light District during a 2019 interview with an Amsterdam radio station ... the same show she's now being sued over.

In her interview with 3FM DJ Frank van der Lende, Lizzo reveals her love for live sex shows in Amsterdam ... and she asks the hosts about the banana sex show, where patrons eat bananas out of sex performers' vaginas.

Lizzo excitedly talks about her desire to find out where the banana show happens ... explaining, "That's what I want to do, I need my potassium if you know what I'm saying. My puss-tassium."

The radio hosts tell Lizzo the place she's looking for is Bananenbar ... a venue that's mentioned several times in the lawsuit she's now facing.

As we reported ... Lizzo is being sued by 3 of her former backup dancers, who say they were sexually denigrated by Lizzo while on the job.

In the suit, the dancers claim during a February 2023 tour stop in Amsterdam, Lizzo took them to Bananenbar and pressured them to interact with the sex performers.

The dancers claim "Lizzo began inviting cast members to take turns touching the nude performers, catching dildos launched from the performers' vaginas, and eating bananas protruding from the performers' vaginas."

It's unclear if the alleged incident was Lizzo's first time at Bananenbar ... but she's clearly had the banana sex show on her mind since 2019 at least.

Leah Remini is being stalked and harassed by the Church of Scientology as part of a coordinated campaign to destroy her life because she left the religion ... this according to a new lawsuit.

The actress just filed suit against the Church of Scientology and its leader, David Miscavige, and she says Scientology is dead set on making her life a living hell now that she's no longer a part of the church.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Leah claims Scientology is stalking her and invading her privacy because the church is determined to silence her and others who are critical of the religion.

Leah claims the alleged abuse coming her way is part of a broader policy and practice of intimidation within the Church of Scientology ... which she says dates all the way back to founder L. Ron Hubbard.

In her suit, Leah says Scientology has been attacking her with systematic and coordinated campaigns of harassment ever since she renounced the religion ... and she claims the retaliation tactics are ramping up in order to damage her Hollywood and business careers by tarnishing her reputation.

Leah says she was a Scientologist for nearly 40 years before leaving ... and in the decade since she left, she's been the victim of "intentional malicious and fraudulent rumors" via hundreds of social media accounts controlled by Scientology, which she says exist solely to intimidate and spread misinformation.

For example, Leah claims Scientology enlisted dozens of members to videotape messages falsely accusing her of being abusive and a racist and uploading them to web domains using her name.

She says she first became aware she was being followed by private investigators hired by Scientology in 2015, when she was promoting a memoir she wrote about Scientology's alleged abusive conduct ... and she says she hired private security as a result.

Leah also claims Scientology had members send threatening letters to news outlets who were promoting her book ... and she says the church created websites to smear A&E after her documentary series on Scientology.

In the docs, Leah claims the alleged stalking and harassment is causing her to lose personal relationships, business deals and other opportunities ... and she's going after the church for damages for what she says is "enormous economic and psychological harm."

Lizzo isn't sitting at Beyoncé's table right now in the wake of claims made against her by a few former backup dancers -- at least that's how it seems after this apparent Bey sting.

The singer was doing a show in Boston Tuesday -- as part of her "Renaissance" tour -- and during her performance of "Break My Soul (The Queens Remix)" ... Beyoncé noticeably failed to mention Lizzo's name in the lyrics, despite having done so repeatedly in the past.

If you're unfamiliar, Lizzo is actually written into the remix -- meaning her name is supposed to appear in the song naturally, so the fact Bey switched it up live is telling.

The name-drop happens in verse 3, where Beyoncé is listing a bunch of trailblazing women -- which normally includes Lizzo as well -- but on this particular outing ... Bey omitted her and instead chose to mention Erykah Badu 4 different times (more on this later).

Of course, to some ... it felt like, perhaps, Beyoncé had caught wind of the lawsuit filed against Lizzo Tuesday -- which had some pretty scandalous accusations in it, like the notion that she allegedly coerced her backup dancers to participate in nude cabaret shows ... not to mention allegedly badgering/body-shaming one of the dancers over a weight issue.

The internet certainly chatted about it yesterday, and now with this ... some are assuming Beyoncé did as well, and possibly made a decision to leave her off her 'BMS' list.

Now, there's another explanation for this would-be snub. As we reported ... there's bad blood between Erykah and Beyoncé right now. The former called out the latter for ripping off her fashion sense ... this 'cause Bey's worn similar 'fits onstage that echo EB's style.

It was a pretty public call-out ... and you could interpret Beyoncé's move as a response to Erykah stirring the pot. Eye of the beholder, we suppose ... but a choice was certainly made.

Method Man won't be walking anyone's runway anytime soon, but his "Power Book II: Ghost" castmate LaToya Tonodeo thinks the rap legend should embrace his newfound status as a Hollywood heartthrob!!!

TMZ Hip Hop linked with LaToya at LAX on Tuesday who told us she's happy Meth is getting looked at in a different light, but understands as a woman what it's like to be treated like a piece of meat and wanting to shy away from being propped up in the public eye.

The Wu-Tang Clan rapper was recently profiled for "Men's Health" magazine and he totally railed against being called a sex symbol. His reasons were pretty simple: he doesn't think he's doing anything special to provoke such a title ... save for working out 500-lb dumbbells on occasion.

He also shared how his nutrition routines, something LaToya credits him for sharing with her on the 'Power' set ... educating her about proper dieting and protein shakes in her own fitness journey.

LaToya says as long as fans and admirers respect Meth's boundaries, all should end well.

Donald Trump has another criminal case on his hands -- another grand jury has indicted him, this time for attempting to undermine the 2020 election with his actions on, before and after January 6, 2021.

The ex-President's been hit with 4 new counts -- conspiracy to defraud the U.S., conspiracy to obstruct and official proceeding, obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding and conspiracy against rights (to vote).

Trump took to Truth Social to beat the feds to the punch, announcing he would be indicted before the feds could drop the bombshell. Trump wrote, "I hear that Deranged (Special Counsel) Jack Smith, in order to interfere with the Presidential Election of 2024, will be putting out yet another Fake Indictment of your favorite President, me, at 5:00 P.M."

He adds, "Why didn’t they do this 2.5 years ago? Why did they wait so long? Because they wanted to put it right in the middle of my campaign. Prosecutorial Misconduct!"

Remember, Trump has two other criminal cases that are currently pending -- one pertains to his alleged hush money payment to Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election, and another is tied to his classified documents scandal post-presidency down in Florida.

In both instances, Trump has pleaded not guilty. Ya gotta assume, he'll do the same here.

Trump was impeached over his role in the Jan. 6 riot -- but was ultimately acquitted in Congress when the proceedings reached the Senate. He very memorably encouraged protesters that day to head on over to the Capitol, and was slow to tell them to stand down.

Interestingly, Trump's been full steam ahead on the campaign regardless of his legal woes -- he continues to hold rallies, including one this past weekend, as the 2024 election nears.

Trump has been summoned to appear in federal court Thursday in D.C. to face the new charges.

Stephen Amell is explaining why he supports his union, SAG-AFTRA, but doesn't support leadership's decision to strike ... he believes that's not the only way to hammer out a good deal.

The "Arrow" star joined us Tuesday on "TMZ Live," and shared his thought process behind opposing the strikes in Hollywood, and admitted he's walking a fine line between supporting his union and wanting to work.

Stephen says SAG-AFTRA absolutely should fight for a better contract for its members ... but instead of marching in picket lines outside studios, he recommends getting back to the table to negotiate with the studios.

While Stephen's been one of the only actors to speak out against the strike, he tells us dozens of his colleagues are privately reaching out to him ... and he says his fellow actors agree with his strike outlook, even if the outside noise is against him.

Stephen's also caught the attention of SAG leadership ... and he said he's meeting with them later on Tuesday. He told us his goal for the meeting is to show union leaders he supports them while also offering up alternatives to striking.

Gunna's likely come to terms with the fact he's gonna have to deal with trolls ... but one brazen rap fan attempted to push the YSL rapper's limits by calling him a rat to his face.

The fan shamelessly posted footage of himself catching Gunna and his entourage exiting a building and loudly referring to Gunna as a "rat." Gunna's security guard clearly overheard the man's trolling and stepped to him, asking him to repeat the phrase.

Apparently intimidated, the troll left "rat" out of his next statement.

Gunna, who's on probation after accepting a plea deal chose to walk on by the spectacle and the video ended ... presumably without bashing the guy's face in.

Lizzo is a nightmare to work for behind the scenes -- at least according to 3 of her former backup dancers, who are suing for what they claim were awful conditions on the job.

The singer is named as a defendant in a new lawsuit that was filed by the 3 women who say they danced for Lizzo and her touring company between 2021 and spring 2023 -- when they claim they were either unjustly fired or forced to resign due to unbearable circumstances.

In the docs, obtained by TMZ ... Arianna Davis, Crystal Williams and Noelle Rodriguez say they made it into Lizzo's orbit through her Amazon reality show 'Watch Out for the Big Grrrls' -- and, after making the cut, they allege they were subjected to a number of CA workplace violations ... several of which amounted to sexual harassment, false imprisonment and interference with prospective economic advantage ... among other claims.

The accusations are being hurled in a few different directions -- including some aimed at members of Lizzo's management team, but as it pertains to her specifically ... she's being accused by these women of basically holding them hostage in a number of situations.

Specifically, the women cite 2 different instances while on the road with her in Europe earlier this year. They claim she subjected them to attend nude shows in Amsterdam and Paris, to the clear discomfort of her employees.

During the Amsterdam outing, they claim Lizzo goaded her dancers to touch the nude performers onstage and interact with them in very vulgar and explicit ways. The dancers claim they felt they had to do this in order to maintain their jobs.

Another claim against Lizzo ... her alleged badgering of these women over alleged poor performance and accusations of drinking on the job, which they say led to her constantly threatening them and their positions on her squad. The dancers even claim Lizzo made them reaudition for their spots in a multi-hour rehearsal that sounds brutal -- one dancer claims she was forced to pee her pants right there onstage out of fear of taking a break.

One dancer also claims Lizzo was privy to an eating disorder she had, and exploited that when she felt this dancer wasn't up to snuff ... allegedly forcing her to talk about it.

On top of all that, these dancers claim they were constantly being stiffed on the money front -- as well as having to constantly turn down other dancing gigs during pauses on tour. They're suing for major damages.

Blueface's competence as a parent is being questioned once again ... the "Thotiana" rapper went on IG Live with his son Javaughn, and befuddled the poor kid by quizzing him about his sexuality.

While holding his daughter in his lap, Blueface was fielding questions from fans and decided to rehash the subject and, without warning, asked Javaughn if he was gay.

The kid quickly replied no, but also admitted he had no idea what his dad was yapping about.

When Javaughn tried to move on to a discussion that interested him more, Blueface refused to let it go ... in spite of his GF Jaidyn Alexis yelling for him to stop off-screen.

Blueface bluntly told his son if he ended up being gay he'd be disappointed but would still love him.

Blueface just grilled his son on this topic a few weeks ago ... while his house was full of strippers, at that.

In-fighting at Warner Bros. has the studio officially apologizing to its WB counterparts in Japan, who are outraged about what they see as an insensitive Barbenheimer meme on the U.S. "Barbie" Twitter account.

So, here's the deal ... "Barbie" is a WB movie, and the film's official U.S. Twitter account replied to some fan-created fun art of Margot Robbie (as Barbie) riding Cillian Murphy's shoulder (as Oppenheimer) with an explosion and fire in the background.

It's a Barbenheimer gag obviously, and seemingly innocent on its own ... that is, until the U.S. "Barbie" Twitter account chimed in with the comment, "It's going to be a summer to remember," adding some cutesy emojis to boot.

That didn't sit well with folks in WB's Japanese arm -- the official Japanese "Barbie" Twitter account blasted its parent company for co-signing on the joking atomic bomb imagery.

It wrote, "We consider it extremely regrettable that the official account of the American headquarters for the movie ‘Barbie’ reacted to the social media postings of ‘Barbenheimer’ fans. We take this situation very seriously. We are asking the U.S. headquarters to take appropriate action. We apologize to those who were offended by this series of inconsiderate reactions. Warner Bros Japan."

Yep, that's a big yikes. 😬

So, in response to that public call-out, Warner issued its mea culpa -- "Warner Brothers regrets its recent insensitive social media engagement. The studio offers a sincere apology."

BTW, Twitter/X itself didn't find the imagery very amusing, because the company actually slapped a fact check Twitter note underneath -- mentioning the hundreds of thousands of Japanese deaths that resulted from the U.S.'s decision to drop bombs during WWII.

There's been a lot of chatter about "Oppenheimer" and its handling of the depiction of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki bombings -- namely, the fact the movie doesn't show it whatsoever. Some feel like the film glossed over the impact of the bombings ... and have found it insensitive to the countless lives lost in Japan.

That appears to be the position of Japan as a nation, too ... because it has yet to set a release date for the film within its borders.

Stephen Amell's clarifying some of his comments, telling us some of what he said was taken out of context. Stephen says he absolutely supports his union, but doesn't like the act of striking.

He continues, "What I said: "I think that it is a reductive negotiating tactic and I find the entire thing incredibly frustrating." Telling us, "In full context: I’m an actor and I was speaking extemporaneously for over an hour. I emote, but I certainly don’t think these issues are simple. Our leadership has an incredibly complicated job, and I am grateful for all that they do. Despite some of my terrible early acting work, I assure you, I’m not a robot. From an intellectual perspective, I understand why we are striking, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t emotionally frustrating on many levels for all involved."

He was not plugging his "Heelz" show this weekend, despite online reports.

Stephen Amell is a bit of a walking contradiction -- on the one hand, he says he backs his union amid the ongoing strike, but on the other ... he doesn't approve of them actually striking.

The "Arrow" star made the controversial comments during a recent promotional appearance in North Carolina, where he was plugging a new season of his Starz show 'Heels' ... and breaking with SAG-AFTRA's strike protocol in doing so.

Actors aren't supposed to be promoting projects during the strike, but there was Stephen plugging away, and not holding back his opinion on the work stoppage ... calling it unproductive and unnecessary.

Take a listen for yourself ... his disdain for how SAG is handling things is clear, although he does say he supports them as an org. What he doesn't condone is its decision to shut down the industry to get what they want.

He calls it a "reductive negotiating tactic" ... but doesn't really elaborate much more beyond that. Amell also said he found the entire ordeal incredibly frustrating and myopic.

Of course, his remarks here are not sitting well with other actors in the biz ... and Amell is getting dragged on social media right now as a would-be traitor and scab. A lot of folks are pointing out his sentiment doesn't actually make sense -- arguing it's all or nothing.

Amell appears to have responded ... taking to IG to shout out everyone who came to see him, and promising to keep going during a workout. Seems he's telegraphing something.