Controversial S#!T

BJ Penn knows what he wants to do with his life post-fighting career ... run the state of Hawaii, 'cause the UFC legend announced he's running for governor of The Aloha State!!!

42-year-old Penn -- a UFC Hall of Famer -- threw his hat in the proverbial ring (Octagon?) this week, and even laid out several policies he would immediately overturn.

"As soon as I step into Hawaii's Governor office I will remove all new federal and state mandates that have been hurting our economy, residents, and 'ohana," BJ wrote.

"We will get the best doctors, medicines, therapies, and health care the world has to offer to fight this pandemic and always keep Hawaii among the safest and healthiest states in the union."

Penn -- who last fought in the UFC in 2019 -- also vowed to ax the policy mandating people traveling to the state must be vaxxed, writing ... "We will get rid of all vaccine passports. Hawaii will be vaccinated with Aloha and unvaccinated with Aloha policy for everyone."

On masks? Similar deal.

"Same with the masks 😷. We will follow the constitution to the tee 👌. I am not here to fit in with the other politicians, I am here to get our freedoms back!"

Of course, BJ's had several run-ins with the law over the last few years ... but the MMA great isn't hiding from his past, addressing it head-on.

"I've made a lot of mistakes in my life but I would never run from a fight, or sell out my people."

Democrat, David Ige, is the current sitting gov of Hawaii. His term ends late next year.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen just told a room full of lawmakers Mark Zuckerberg's company is just like Big Tobacco ... and she wants government oversight.

Frances is testifying before Congress Tuesday and she just ripped into her former employer ... saying FB deepens divides, destabilized democracies and makes young girls and women feel bad about their bodies.

A former product manager at Facebook, Frances says FB is shaping people's perception of the world by manipulating what folks see on their feeds ... calling the influence FB wields "frightening."

As we first told you ... Frances is being hailed as a "patriot" by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who told us Haugen is saving our democracy with her "60 Minutes" interview and testimony before Congress.

Jaguars owner Shad Khan is clearly furious with Urban Meyer for his bar antics over the weekend ... calling the head coach's actions "inexcusable."

Just 1 day after Meyer apologized after video surfaced of him dancing with a woman -- who wasn't his wife -- Khan laid into the team's headman, essentially saying the coach is now on thin ice.

"What I will say is his conduct last weekend was inexcusable," Khan said, adding he did have a meeting with Meyer over it all.

"I appreciate Urban's remorse, which I believe is sincere. Now, he must regain our trust and respect."

Footage captured a blonde woman grinding on Meyer at an Ohio bar over the weekend ... and Meyer told reporters Monday he was sorry for it all.

In his talk with media members, the 57-year-old said he was "stupid" to put himself in that situation.

"I should not have myself in that kind of position," said Meyer, who's been married to his wife, Shelley, since 1986.

Khan added in his statement Tuesday he's "confident" Meyer will now learn and rebound from the situation.

Sarah Silverman is tired of non-Jews playing Jews on camera -- be it on TV or in film -- and says amid all the cries for representation in casting ... the Jewish people are left out, and the anti-Semitism points directly at Hollywood.

The comedian usually jokes around, but there's no laughing matter about this ... according to her. Sarah, who's Jewish, says Hollywood has long been in the practice of putting gentiles (non-Jewish people) into roles for Jewish folks -- especially those whose "Jewishness" are a big part of their identity.

Take Joan Rivers, for example, whom Sarah notes is set to be portrayed by Catholic-raised Kathryn Hahn in an upcoming limited series. There are way more instances of this, though.

SS points to Rachel Brosnahan playing Mrs. Maisel (who's Jewish), Tracey Ullman as Betty Friedan, Felicity Jones as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Margo Martindale as Bella Abzug.

Along with a lot of these portrayals, Sarah says anti-Semitic tropes and stereotypes are often played up as well on camera ... including what she describes as prosthetics to make someone's nose bigger, a heavy New York accent with Yiddish undertones and beyond.

Andrew Wiggins is making it clear -- he did NOT want to take the COVID vaccine ... telling media members Monday he felt like the NBA and the government "forced" him into getting the shots.

"The only options were to get vaccinated or not play in the NBA," Wiggins said. "It was a tough decision. Hopefully, it works out in the long run and in 10 years I'm still healthy."

The Golden State Warriors forward had fought tooth and nail to avoid getting the jab ... even at one point applying for a religious exemption with the NBA.

But, that was denied ... and with health officials in the Bay Area requiring anyone 12 or older to be fully vaxxed to attend indoor events -- Wiggins said he felt like he had no other choice but to take the vaccine.

"It's not something I wanted to do," Wiggins said after Golden State's preseason game Monday night. "But I was kind of forced to."

He added, "I guess to do certain stuff -- to work and all that -- I guess you don't own your body. That's what it comes down to. You want to work in society today, then I guess they make the rules on what goes in your body and what you do."

Despite getting the vax ... Wiggins told reporters he's hopeful others don't feel as much pressure as he did to take the shots.

"Hopefully there's a lot of people out there that are stronger than me and keep fighting and stand for what they believe," Wiggins said, "and hopefully it works out for them."

Cleveland fans looking to honor the team's history will be able to get their hands on old merchandise AND help out a good cause at the same time -- 'cause TMZ Sports has learned the Guardians will continue to roll out Indians merch ... with proceeds going to charity.

Cleveland played its last game as the Indians on Sunday ... with the organization officially rolling out its new branding as the "Guardians" at the conclusion of the 2021 season.

We're told the Indians brand will not vanish forever, however -- fans will be able to get as many t-shirts, jerseys and other memorabilia sporting the old nickname as they please ... and our sources tell us the team plans to donate those items' proceeds to charity.

FYI -- Cleveland elected to do this in the past after retiring "Chief Wahoo" in 2018 ... by keeping items with the mascot on shelves and writing a check to Native American organizations.

Our sources say the team is hoping to help a similar cause this time around with Indians gear ... but nothing is set in stone just yet.

As for the Guardians, the team introduced the new look with a video narrated by Tom Hanks back in July ... showing off new jerseys, logos and font stylization.

Elizabeth Warren says the Facebook employee who blew the lid on how they allegedly put profits over accuracy says she shouldn't be called a whistleblower ... but a patriot.

The U.S. Senator was on Capitol Hill Monday, where we got a chance to ask what she made of Frances Haugen's appearance on '60 Minutes' ... on which she made some bombshell claims against her former employer, for whom she worked up until earlier this year.

ICYMI ... Haugen alleged FB honchos have opted, of late, to highlight divisive -- and oftentimes erroneous -- posts and/or content on the platform ... killing their news filtering process in place for the election, and helping fuel the Jan. 6 insurrection with inaction.

Like we said, heavy-hitting stuff ... to which Sen. Warren says, good for her -- and also, THANK YOU.

Check out how she characterizes Haugen coming forward ... she uses the word "democracy" and says the woman is actually working to preserve our system of government by getting the word out on how this mega social media company is allegedly operating behind the scenes.

A lot of people are singing Haugen's praises right about now -- especially as she's set to testify on this exact issue in front of Congress in the not too distant future.

Of course, we also had to ask the Senator about this weird mass outage that unfolded Monday -- literally on the heels of Haugen speaking out ... which had FB, Instagram, What's App and a ton of other services down. People were slowly able to access their accounts after 6 hours.

Britney Spears' bedroom was secretly bugged, and a former security employee claims the idea was hatched by a woman named Robin Greenhill, but Robin had no interest in answering the allegation.

Greenhill said nothing to a photog at LAX Monday, where she was asked about the claim in the latest New York Times documentary, in which Alex Vlasov claimed Robin, who was a member of Britney's management team, came up with the idea of mirroring Britney's iPhone to monitor her messages and calls.

Robin works for the Tri Star Sports & Entertainment Group, which denied the allegation.

Sources with direct knowledge of the conservatorship tell TMZ ... Robin was the key person who managed Britney day-to-day, and often allegedly blocked Britney from spending her money, even for relatively inexpensive items.  Some people involved in Britney's life/business say Robin had an iron grip on Britney, making onerous decisions that blocked her from vacations and various purchases.

Robin worked for Lou Taylor, who is a honcho at Tri Star whom Jamie Spears would often call "the smartest person in any room." We're told Jamie delegated a lot of day-to-day decisions to Taylor, who then delegated to Greenhill. We're told Jamie wouldn't hear criticism of the way Taylor or Greenhill were managing Britney ... what they said goes.

George Floyd's brother says he's open to meeting the man who threw paint onto a bust of George in NYC ... so they can leave the hate behind, heal, and move forward.

Terrence Floyd tells TMZ ... seeing George's statue vandalized tells him there's still people out there with hate in their hearts, and it's holding back society.

George's brother says he wants the vandal to get what he deserves ... but he also wants a chance to sit down with the guy and hash things out.

As we reported ... NYPD released surveillance video they say shows the suspect throwing paint onto the bust in NYC's Union Square, and the perp is in the hate crime unit's crosshairs.

Terrence tells us his team did some reflecting on why George's statue, unveiled over the weekend by his We are Floyd org in partnership with Confront Art, was the only one vandalized ... and says the only way to move forward is through love, unity and healing, not more hate.

Ben Simmons just can't catch a break.

The NBA star is now the butt of another joke ... with the guy who famously caught an alligator in his trash can taking a major shot at him on local news, saying he's way more clutch under pressure!!

Remember -- 26-year-old Eugene Bozzi out of Florida went viral when he captured an alligator with an open trash container. It was equally scary and super badass.

CBS Philly caught up with Bozzi -- who is originally from Philadelphia -- to ask him about how the whole ordeal went down ... and his recounter started off totally tame, before getting savage.

"Imma be honest, I didn’t think," Bozzi said. "My father instincts kicked in."

"I just jumped into action and I said, 'You know what? I’m not gon' be Ben Simmons, Imma go capture this basket.'"

HAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Of course, Bozzi is referencing the infamous play in the Eastern Conference semifinals, where Simmons opted to pass up a wide open layup against the Atlanta Hawks ... and while guard Trae Young was in the picture, no one actually thinks he would have made a difference.

"Let’s bring her up here and look at her ass."

That's what former President Donald Trump told staffers as he summoned a "young, highly attractive" aide to his private office on Air Force One ... this according to a new book.

Stephanie Grisham -- the former White House press secretary under Trump famous for holding zero press briefings -- makes the claims in her book due out Tuesday, saying she tried to keep Trump away from the press wrangler he allegedly took a liking to.

TMZ's obtained an excerpt from the book -- titled "I'll Take Your Questions Now: What I Saw in the Trump White House" -- in which Grisham says Trump was ogling the young woman from the day he first laid eyes on her.

In fact, Grisham writes ... "I began to notice that he was taking an unusual interest in a young, highly attractive press wrangler on my team ... What I do know is that he behaved inappropriately. And, since the woman worked for me, I tried to protect her and keep his unusual interest in her under wraps."

Grisham says Trump often asked her about the woman, and when he wanted the aide to see him on Air Force One, Grisham made sure they weren't left alone because, "the whole thing never felt quite right."

Things allegedly got weird on one trip Grisham missed ... she claims Trump asked how the woman was doing before instructing his staff to bring her to his office cabin so he could get a look at her butt ... so Grisham tried keeping the aide off future trips.

Grisham says she doesn't know if anything happened between Trump and the woman, but she writes that she came close to telling Melania about her husband's alleged behavior before ultimately being "too chickens***."

The damage inflicted on the George Floyd bust in Union Square is already well on its way to being repaired -- and it's all thanks to some community members who stepped up, and who might continue stepping up to prevent this going forward.

Lindsay Eshelman -- co-founder of Confront Art, who teamed up with George's brother, Terrence, and his org We Are Floyd to produce the statues -- tells TMZ ... she and her team showed up shortly after news broke that the bust was vandalized, but were pleasantly surprised to see there were already at least 5 individuals working to clean up the mess.

We're told these folks are simply activists/art lovers -- and included one tourist who just showed up to help. One of the other good Samaritans was Eric Garner's son, Eric Jr., whom we're told formed a close bond with Terrence through this entire ordeal. Lindsay and co. also chipped in ... running out to get supplies to restore the statue's bronze shine.

As for what to expect from here ... Eshelman tells us she and Confront Art are trying organize a watch group to look after the statue, otherwise known as "keepers" -- as there are 30 days left in the installation, and they're worried this might happen again.

The NYPD has apparently told them they're on their own in this regard, 'cause the police force won't step up security or patrols. We're told CA has a 7 AM to midnight shift in mind, to help keep things kosher after the park closes there.

The man who threw paint onto a bust of George Floyd in NYC is now in the crosshairs of a hate crime unit ... and can be seen clear as day on camera doing the deed.

The NYPD's Crime Stoppers division released surveillance video they say depicts the suspect -- a guy with a light complexion, medium build ... and who was wearing a green jacket, shorts and a hat of some sort, and who cruised by nonchalantly before vandalizing the statue.

Just as we told you before ... he's seen clear as day hanging out near the John Lewis statue in Union Square, shuffling about and looking around -- before he busts out what seems to be a small paint can, hopping on his skateboard and heading for the bronze Floyd effigy.

Sure enough, there are some people around who get a good look at him doing it ... but no one really springs into action. It all happens so fast -- the man is gone in a flash.

We're told the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force is investigating this ... for obvious reasons. So far, the alleged perp hasn't been captured -- but cops are asking for tips or any help.

This weekend's paint job actually served as the second act of vandalism since the statue was first unveiled earlier this summer in Brooklyn ... where it was also defaced, with none other than white supremacy logos and signage. And now, at its new, home ... something similar.

Enes Kanter is making it clear, he's pissed over LeBron James' COVID vaccine stance ... saying this weekend he thinks the Lakers star should be urging everyone to get the shots.

"When I heard it," Kanter said during a television interview with CNN, "I was very disappointed, and it’s ridiculous."

James told reporters last week he would NOT try to convince anyone to get the vax -- despite receiving it himself -- saying, "That's not my job."

Kanter, who started 35 games for the Portland Trailblazers last season, disagreed -- explaining he thinks it's obviously Bron's duty.

"LeBron James, he's one of the faces of the league," Kanter said, "and he should be the first one to go out there and say, 'Listen, everyone. I got the vaccine, and I'm encouraging everyone, my community, everyone, basketball fans, non-basketball fans and sports fans are just going out there and get this vaccine, so we can save other lives.'"

Kanter added, "When I heard that, I just couldn't believe it. But, I hope he can educate himself about this vaccination and inspire and encourage other people around him."

For his part, LeBron said he felt uncomfortable urging others to get the jab because he felt he shouldn't "get involved in what other people should do for their bodies and their livelihoods."

Lizzo's pissed a bunch of people off again, but this time it's because of her connection to someone some people don't like much ... Chris Brown.

The "Truth Hurts" singer's taking heat for a video that circulated on social media over the weekend, in which she approaches CB backstage at a concert and fangirls out asking him for a photo.

Lizzo calls Brown "my favorite person in the whole f***ing world."

As you know ... Breezy's a controversial figure in the music biz with a problematic past, beginning in 2009 when he beat up his then-girlfriend, Rihanna.

Since then he's had numerous legal issues and alleged violent incidents, and as recently as 2019 he was arrested in Paris on rape and drug charges.

With all that in mind ... Lizzo fans aren't down with her getting giddy over a meeting with Breezy backstage during a stop on the Millennium Tour, and they let her know about it on Twitter ... with many saying she's better than this.

This wouldn't be the first time Lizzo's riled up folks online for one reason or another though. About a month ago she stirred the pot by dubbing Janet Jackson the "Queen of Pop," and before that she was unjustly the target of trolling ... which got so bad that Facebook started deleting hateful accounts.

We broke it all down on TMZ's new podcast.

Akon doesn't regret saying the rich and famous go through more issues than poor people, a comment for which he got significant pushback ... he says he knows what he's talking about.

We got Akon at LAX and asked if he wanted to walk back the controversial remark he shared with us last month. No dice! Instead, Akon doubled down, and explained he was speaking based on his own rags to riches story.

He says he knows what he said pissed off some people, but adds he's not backing down from his stance, because, personally ... he was actually happier before he had money.

The whole controversy started in the wake of Michael K. Williams' death ... with Akon telling us the actor's drug overdose was the latest example of a "façade of success" that often sends celebs into a tailspin.

Akon says he's just speaking from personal experience ... but there is one thing he's sorry about.

Emily Ratajkowski claims Robin Thicke grabbed her breasts during the filming of the "Blurred Lines" music video ... an allegation she's speaking about publicly for the first time in a new book.

According to the Sunday Times -- which says it obtained an early excerpt of Ratajkowski's "My Body" -- the supermodel claims it happened on set for the 2013 vid, which featured Ratajkowski topless through most of the video.

Ratajkowski reportedly describes it like this ... "Suddenly, out of nowhere, I felt the coolness and foreignness of a stranger's hands cupping my bare breasts from behind. I instinctively moved away, looking back at Robin Thicke."

ER goes on to say that while she enjoyed most of the shoot, she claims Robin started to get out of hand, which made her think he was drunk.

When the alleged groping happened ... Emily says the video's director, Diane Martel, apparently shouted at him, asking him what the hell he was doing, if she was OK and wrapping production right then and there. Martel confirmed the account to the Times.

Ratajkowski says she felt shame wash over her and feels she didn't handle the alleged situation as well as she could have. Martel also says Robin apologized afterward, and speculated he wouldn't have done it if he was sober.