Controversial S#!T

Figuring out what to wear to a concert will take a backseat to your COVID-19 status when tours resume in 2021 -- Ticketmaster's exploring a safety plan to help welcome fans back.

The ticket sales company is reportedly in the early stages of developing a plan that event operators can use as a safety measure to mitigate the spread of the virus. One path TM is actively exploring and working to develop ... is a framework for syncing with third party healthcare providers to link COVID vaccine status and/or test results to fans' digital tickets for event entry. It's ultimately up to event organizers to figure out ways to safely bring back fans to live events ... and this is one idea Ticketmaster's spitballing.

The proposed plan was reported by Billboard, and comes on the heels of pharmaceutical giant Pfizer announcing its coronavirus vaccine showing a 90% efficacy rate. That's giving concert venues and artists hope the industry can mount a comeback.

Ticketmaster would work with third-party health apps and independent labs, and says data sent to them will be done so in a secure, encrypted way. Ticketmaster would NOT have access to concertgoers' medical records.

Welcome to the new normal.

Dylan Groenewegen -- a pro cyclist from the Netherlands -- was just hit with a 9-month ban for causing the horrific crash that left his rival in a coma.

The incident took place back in August ... 27-year-old Groenewegen squeezed fellow Dutch cyclist Fabio Jakobsen into a wall while on a finishing spring during the Tour of Poland -- causing Jakobsen to flip over some signage and crash face-first into a solid barrier.

Jakobsen sustained major injuries in the wreck -- including "severe" wounds to his face -- and was placed in a medically-induced coma to help his recovery.

Jakobsen also underwent reconstructive surgery on his face and jaw, according to the AP.

Now, the International Cycling Union has dished out punishment -- banning Groenewegen from competition for 9 months ... meaning he won't be able to race again until May 7.

Groenewegen issued a statement through his reps saying, "The crash in the first stage of the Tour of Poland will forever be a black page in my career."

Alex Cora is apologizing for his role in the Houston Astros cheating scandal -- and admitting he "deserved" the punishment he received from Major League Baseball.

45-year-old Cora was a bench coach for the 'Stros during the 2017 season -- and parlayed his success into a better job, manager of the Boston Red Sox.

Of course, an MLB investigation found Cora and several others used technology to steal pitching signs from other teams -- which ultimately gave an advantage to Houston's hitters. Cora has previously said he was not the "sole mastermind" but he's clearly accepting some of the blame.

After MLB's investigation, Cora was slapped with a 1-year suspension and the Red Sox parted ways with him.

But, now that the ban is up, the Sox have hired him back -- and he broke his silence about the situation Tuesday during a press conference.

"I deserved what happened this year," Cora told reporters about his suspension ... "It's something that I'm not proud of."

"We went through the whole process with the Commissioner's Office and the Dept. of Investigations, at the end, I got my penalty and I served it."

Cora apologized to the Red Sox for putting them in a tough spot after they hired him -- saying he understands it made the organization look bad.

"As a leader, as a person that enjoys the game -- I put this organization in a tough spot and I'm sorry."

Cora says he doesn't want to exploit his 2nd chance "to make it seem like it's a great comeback story."

Instead, Cora says he wants other people to learn from his mistakes so they don't go down the same road.

"This situation is part of who I am for the rest of my career. As a man, I have to deal with it. I don’t want people to make it seem like it's a great comeback story."

He added, "I know there’s a lot of people that I disappointed and for that I’m sorry … I'm still Alex, I made a mistake."

"You can go down to practice and hit each other and be in close contact -- but you have to have plexiglass in between you and the guy next to you in the locker room?"

That's Aaron Rodgers pointing out some apparent "double standards" in the NFL's COVID protocol -- and asking the question, "Are we doing all this based on science?"

The Green Bay Packers QB got very candid about the league's coronavirus plan during an appearance this week on "The Pat McAfee Show" ... explaining why he thinks some of the rules are more about optics than safety.

"I just think there’s some double standards," Rodgers said.

"You can dap up a guy after the game, but you can’t eat at the same lunch table as a teammate? You can go down to practice and hit each other and be in close contact, but you have to have plexiglass in between you and the guy next to you in the locker room?"

"I just think some of those things to me just don’t really add up. Like I understand what we’re tryin' to do, we’re trying to get every game in and stay healthy. But, I think just some of those things, ... I just think that some things make sense and then some things don’t make a lot of sense."

Rodgers says he also thinks it's weird that players can't talk to opponents after a game -- despite incredibly close contact during the 4 quarters of action.

"There’s spit and sweat and all this stuff and we hit and we're tackling -- and we can't go and talk to somebody who we know on another team?"

A key piece of evidence the Trump campaign was counting on to prove voter fraud in the election just crumbled ... because the witness is recanting.

A USPS worker who recently claimed he'd overheard a supervisor in Erie, PA tell workers to backdate ballots that arrived after Nov. 3 is now taking it all back, saying he made up the whole thing ... this according to the Washington Post.

The guy's name is Richard Hopkins, and just last week many in the GOP, and beyond, were citing him as a whistleblower. He eventually signed an affidavit about his claim, which is at the crux of much of what Trump's camp has hoisted up as evidence of voter fraud in PA.

Welp, as of Tuesday WaPo says the guy copped to lying during a committee hearing with U.S. lawmakers. The House Oversight Committee tweeted the huge development ... noting it's unclear why he lied in the first place.

Keep in mind, Hopkins' false testimony set off a massive chain of events ... including some of the lawsuits Trump's brought forward, and Attorney General William Barr giving the Dept. of Justice the green light to probe any credible claims of voting irregularities.

All that ... for a lie.

We should note, the Erie Postmaster -- Rob Weisenbach -- flat-out denied the claim early, said Hopkins was full of it, and denied any backdating of ballots at his location whatsoever. He suggested Hopkins was disgruntled, as he'd recently been disciplined many times.

Hopkins' false tale isn't dying easily, though, because ... well it's 2020.

The far-right org Project Veritas claims to have recordings of the guy being intimidated by investigators into taking back his story. We'll see if that comes out, but for now President Trump's voting fraud smoking gun seems to be firing blanks.

The only officer to be charged in the Breonna Taylor case is just now accused of sexual assault -- something the alleged victim claims his bosses knew about, but did nothing to correct.

Margo Borders is suing Brett Hankison, claiming he sexually assaulted her in 2018 after a night out at a bar where he worked security. She says she was drunk around closing time, and Hankison offered her a ride home.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Borders alleges Hankison invited himself into her home and plopped down on the couch, while she went into her bedroom to change.

Borders says she passed out, but claims Hankison came into her room, got naked and sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious. When she finally woke up, she claims she screamed for him to get off her, and Hankison grabbed his uniform and left.

The next day, Borders claims Hankison contacted her, insisting they'd engaged in consensual relations. She also claims more than 10 other anonymous women have come forward to make statements about Hankison's alleged misconduct with them.

She's also suing several of his co-workers and supervisors -- on the police force and at the bar -- claiming they were aware of his alleged abuse but never took action to stop it.

It doesn't sound like Borders herself filed a police report, but she claims several of the other women made police reports that never got pursued.

As you know, Hankison was charged with wanton endangerment in the Breonna Taylor case ... for allegedly shooting into a neighboring apartment, but not for shooting and killing Breonna.

He's pled not guilty, and has been fired from LMPD.

President Trump has the right to exhaust every avenue to determine if there was voter fraud in the election, but if nothing turns up, he should exit stage left ... so says the Texas GOP chairman.

Allen West joined "TMZ Live" on Tuesday and said people are getting way ahead of themselves by declaring Joe Biden the President-elect ... not while ballots are still being counted -- or recounted -- in George, Arizona and North Carolina.

West, a former U.S. Congressman and retired Lt. Col., added the voter fraud allegations in Pennsylvania -- so far, unfounded -- also have to play out in court. While West is throwing his support behind team Trump and the audit of ballots, he makes it crystal clear -- if it's ruled a fair and legal election ... Trump has to abide by that.

Obamacare was on the line Tuesday before the U.S. Supreme Court .... and not only does it seem the justices are inclined to do away with part or all of it -- although there seems to be a good chance the case will be thrown out on technical legal grounds -- there was also talk about another looming issue ... whether the federal government could impose a mandatory mask requirement.

Oral arguments kicked off Tuesday on the issue of whether the ACA's individual mandate is constitutional anymore since a Republican-held Congress removed the tax penalty in 2017. The justices had said previously that the law was grounded in Congress's ability to tax citizens, but now that there's no longer a tax penalty, some of the justices felt there was no longer a legal basis for the law. The Trump administration wants the whole law 86'd, but others say the justices could declare just the mandatory health insurance provision unconstitutional and save the rest of the ACA.

As the groundwork for that was being laid out at the beginning of the hearing, Justice Clarence Thomas raised an illuminating comparison ... asking if a proposed national mask mandate could, for instance, be challenged if there's no real threat of enforcement.

He seemed to be spit-balling, but the fact he chose to hurl that wad specifically in this context was telling, especially since Joe Biden said he would roll out a national mandate.

Back to the ACA ... Justices Kavanaugh and Alito -- both of whom tend to have strict interpretations of the constitution -- appeared to signal they thought removing the mandate and leaving the rest of law in place was something that could feasibly work.

Alito, for example, compared the mandate to a crucial part of a plane that engineers thought, at first, was necessary to fly. But, if that part gets removed once it's in the air, and if the plane continues to fly ... he asked why is it necessary to take the whole thing down? It was pretty insightful -- but time will tell if or how they actually rule on the subject.

One person who was relatively muted throughout Tuesday's proceedings -- and who didn't really show her cards much at all -- was Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the newbie of the group, and the one who could well be the deciding vote to strike the ACA down, or uphold it.

Her questions were brief, and were mostly buried in legalese ... it was hard to pick up what, if anything, she was signaling on how she felt about the merits of the case.

As this case plays out over the next few months, Justice Thomas' question of masks might be setting up another showdown over the legality of mandated mask-wearing ... something we'll definitely keep an eye out for.

"I think he has lost his marbles"

That's Tyson Fury shooting down Deontay Wilder's claim that he CHEATED during the Feb. rematch ... saying Wilder just can't accept that he got his ass kicked.

Two weeks ago, Wilder didn't mince words -- accusing Tyson Fury of hiding weights in his gloves to increase the impact of his punches during their Feb. 22 fight.

"I highly believe you put something hard in your glove," Wilder said on video ... "Something the shape and size of an egg weight."

Wilder believes the foreign object caused his face to "swell up in the shape of an egg weight and it left a dent in my face as well."

A boxer accusing another boxer of loading up his gloves is a major allegation -- especially with no real proof.

But now, Fury is firing back ... claiming it's just another pathetic excuse from Wilder, who already tried to name the loss on his pre-fight costume, among other things.

"First of all it was the suit, then it was the bicep injury, then his trainer was on our team, then the referee was against him, then I had weights in my gloves," Fury told TalkSport.

"Now someone has spiked his water ... it’s one of those things, isn’t it?"

Fury is also addressing Wilder's claim that he's refusing to take a 3rd fight -- staying, it's Deontay who's pushing the dates.

"The original date was July 18," Fury said ... "That didn’t happen because he had an injury so it got put back 3 months to October. Then that didn’t happen because they were trying to get a venue."

President Trump's eldest son has his tinfoil hat on Monday morning -- he thinks the promising COVID vaccine news coming out right after the election is more than coincidence ... he's insinuating the drug company held its findings back till after the election so Trump wouldn't get a bounce and possibly win as a result.

Donald Trump Jr.'s response to Pfizer developing a coronavirus vaccine that may be more than 90 percent effective ... "Nothing nefarious about the timing of this at all right?"

The President repeatedly claimed during the lead up to the election that a vaccine would be announced before voting day. On top of that, Trump touted Pfizer as a company with great promise in finding a vaccine. So his son is suggesting the findings were available but held back.

For his part, President Trump took a different approach to Pfizer's vaccine results by tweeting -- in all caps -- "STOCK MARKET UP BIG, VACCINE COMING SOON. REPORT 90% EFFECTIVE. SUCH GREAT NEWS!"

President-elect Biden says he was informed of the vaccine development Sunday night and says, "I congratulate the brilliant women and men who helped produce this breakthrough and to give us such cause for hope."

How'd J.R. Smith celebrate Joe Biden's victory?

He drove around bumping "F*** Donald Trump" and flipping off MAGA supporters.

So yeah, just as you'd expect ...

The L.A. Lakers star hit the streets (of what appear to be Beverly Hills) on Sunday -- where he blasted the YG song from his BMW, while leaning out of his window and shooting the bird at all of the pro-Trump protesters he saw.

Smith loved every second of it -- and was smiling and laughing while trolling Team MAGA.

Of course, Smith is the latest in a long line of NBA players relishing Biden's victory ... his teammate, LeBron James, has been rejoicing on social media for days -- even waving goodbye to Trump in one tweet.

Trump and the NBA haven't seen eye-to-eye in a long time ... coaches such as Steve Kerr and Gregg Popovich have RIPPED him consistently over the past 4 years.

The president, meanwhile, has been critical of players for kneeling during the anthem in the Orlando bubble this summer ... and he's consistently talked about the league's reportedly low TV ratings.

In fact, at a rally just a few days before his election loss ... Trump got a crowd to chant "LeBron James sucks" after he voiced his displeasure with the Lakers star and the NBA.

Morgan Wallen's pissed Joe Biden supporters can pack in together to fill the streets in celebration during the pandemic, yet he can't perform concerts.

The country music star posted a video showing the massive group of people outside the White House celebrating President-elect Biden's victory ... with zero social distancing.

Wallen wrote "Time to start booking shows" which was shortly followed by "The hypocrisy is unreal." His beef?

It's clear he feels there's a double standard ... given he lost his 'SNL' gig last month after he was seen partying irresponsibly in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, yet Biden supporters have no problem gathering in large crowds to celebrate.

As we reported ... Wallen was seen at a bar taking shots and kissing women and at a house party. He wasn't wearing a mask, much less social distancing. At the time, Wallen admitted his actions were "short-sighted" and he seemed contrite about losing his opportunity.

But now ... Wallen's fuming he got canceled for the exact same thing Biden supporters did over the weekend. He wrote, "If it's OK for us to party in the streets with no 'social distancing' then we can book shows right now." Morgan points out ... his band and crew have families to feed, which they can't do without touring.

It's pretty incredible that Alec Baldwin's Donald Trump character is not really a caricature ... because he's really like that.

Trump flew off the Twitter handle again, lashing out at voting officials in big cities, saying, "We believe these people are thieves. The big city machines are corrupt. This was a stolen election."

Trump tweeted this before heading out for his second day of golfing in a row.

Trump goes on to quote a British pollster, whom he says also called it a stolen election, adding, "it's impossible to imagine that Biden outran Obama in some of these states." Of course, a pollster from Great Britain doesn't know the mechanics of vote processing in America.

As you know by now, Trump has offered no concrete evidence of fraud and has been booted out of court. True enough ... he could probably get this before the U.S. Supreme Court, but even with the addition of Amy Coney Barrett, it's highly unlikely the Court will overturn election results. Above all else, the SCOTUS cares about its legitimacy, and by siding with Trump on flimsy to no evidence, the justices know it would result in an uprising and almost certainly court-packing.

And, there's this ... Trump has a voter fraud hotline which has been inundated with prank calls from Biden supporters. The Biden folks would call in, laughing and gloating over Trump's loss ... this according to ABC News.

Britney Spears might want her father, Jamie Spears, out of the business of managing her conservatorship — but he says there wouldn't be much of a business without him in charge the last 12 years.

Jamie has filed new court docs in Britney’s conservatorship case, firing back at Britney's attorney, Sam Ingham, for recently asking a judge to kick Jamie out of his role as co-conservator of the estate. He makes numerous points for why this would be a bad idea.

For one, Jamie says he's doing everything he's supposed to be doing managing the estate  -- and that includes keeping it thriving and bridging the gap on any hiccups that could cost his daughter a fortune, including making sure a biz manager's in place.

Case in point ... Jamie says he has years-long record of managing her business affairs and assets incredibly well, and that he actually pulled her out of significant debt and looming lawsuits when he took over and got the estate to its current status of being worth around $60 million.

Jamie claims that financial ruin was avoided on his watch -- and that there's no substantive reason to ask that he be removed now. As for getting a new business manager in place after Britney's old managing entity, Tristar, recently exited the role ... Jamie says, technically, he and the other folks helping manage the estate aren't obligated to give Ingham any notice.

With that said, he explains why they departed -- which he says wasn't sudden at all, but gracious and well-planned. Basically, Jamie says a person named Lou Taylor -- who was a key player in managing Britney's business affairs -- was getting major death threats.

As such, he and the team started looking for a replacement -- for Taylor's sake -- and found someone they liked in Michael Kane. You’ll recall, this is the guy Ingham mentioned in his docs, complaining that his hiring didn’t give Britney any chance to explore alternatives.

It was the best of times for Joe Biden supporters, and the worst of times for Donald Trump supporters -- the latter of whom are taking to the streets to protest, as their counterparts celebrate.

While millions of people who voted for President-Elect Biden are in utter jubilation this weekend, the folks who voted for Trump are none too pleased ... and it's painting a clear picture of how divided America is today.

Take, for example, what's happening right now in front of the Arizona State Capitol in Phoenix where hundreds (if not thousands) of Trump supporters are packed in and seemingly furious at the notion he's lost.

You can see the flags out, the Uncle Sam hats on ... and the anger seeping through their pores as many chanted "U.S.A." Several Trumpers are also marching right now in protest, including in places like Austin, TX, Lansing, MI, St. Paul, MN, and elsewhere ... with many of these demonstrations taking on the moniker of "Stop the Steal," something Trump himself called for on Twitter.

So far, it looks like a lot of these protests are remaining mostly peaceful -- despite reports of counter-protesters coming out to face-off with them in some parts of the country.

With that said, we've seen photos of some folks bringing out weapons in open carry states, and of course ... cops are out and about too, standing by for any action that might pop off.

The demonstrations and celebrations perfectly illustrate just how hard the work of unification will be for the Biden administration.

For now, tensions are high and people remained riled up on both sides ... which might continue as President Trump digs in his heels for a legal war against the election results.

President Trump remains defiant, and is vowing to wage legal war against the election results that have made Joe Biden the nation's President-Elect.

Trump's legal team, including Rudy Giuliani held a news conference at Four Seasons Total Landscaping in Philadelphia Saturday morning ... just moments after Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris became the projected winners of the election.

Giuliani focused on the mail-in ballots in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and repeated Trump's allegations of fraud connected to them. His main beef is Team Trump was allegedly not allowed to see any of the mail-in ballots or verify their legitimacy.

Rudy says the problem wasn't only in Philadelphia, but also in Pittsburgh ... where he claims 300,000 ballots went completely unchecked by Republicans who had a court order allowing them to observe the count.

He admits they were given access, but as you've heard for a few days now ... team Trump claims they weren't allowed to get close enough to properly observe.