Interview

"Last of Us" actor Storm Reid isn't letting a bunch of anti-LGBTQ+ internet trolls rain on her parade, telling us no matter how much they bash the show's inclusive episodes ... she knows it's important to tell those stories.

We caught up with the talented young actress Friday at LAX. If you missed it, she had a guest role on episode 7 of the insanely popular HBO series where she played Riley, the best friend and love interest of the show's star Ellie ... played by Bella Ramsey.

Of course, the episode received a ton of praise, but there were also lots of people who thought it was unnecessary for "Last of Us" to include a lesbian plot.

Storm says not only are the stories told on "Last of Us" very real, but they're also purposeful ... and she's choosing to ignore the folks who can't see that.

Those naysayers flocked to the show's public forums to leave negative reviews, and even went so far as to rank it as one of "the worst" episodes of the season. Perhaps not shockingly, they also hated the third episode, which featured two gay characters.

BTW ... Storm says if there's ever an opportunity for Riley to come back for season two, she's 100% in for an encore!

Tyra Banks is hanging up her ballroom outfits, and slipping into serious business attire ... she's calling it quits at "Dancing with the Stars" to pursue her passion as an entrepreneur.

We got the supermodel Thursday on her way out of Whole Foods in Santa Monica when she dropped the bombshell about ending her time at 'DWTS' -- the show she's hosted since 2020.

TB recently launched her SMiZE & Dream ice cream internationally, but now she's focused on bringing it to the U.S. soon -- she says her heart and her soul are in business, and had some proof in her shopping cart.

She showed us the goods she just bought to do some taste testing for future ice cream flavors. Like the woman said, she's dead serious about research and development!

Of course, Tyra's been a fixture on TV for years, from "America's Next Top Model" to "The Tyra Banks Show" and more. She says she'll work on TV in the future, but it'll be more on the side of producing, not hosting.

Furman shocked the world and busted a ton of brackets with its huge win over four-seed Virginia in the first round of the NCAA tournament ... and the school's best player ever couldn't be happier!!

TMZ Sports spoke with Paladins legend Frank Selvy about No. 13 Furman advancing to the second round of the tourney on Thursday ... and he says the victory was "the best win all-time at Furman."

Furman sealed the win over the Cavaliers after intercepting a pass with just seconds to go ... and JP Pegues pulled up from three to give the Paladins the 68-67 win -- the program's first tourney victory in nearly 50 years.

"We all went crazy over that because we thought we lost," the former No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick added.

Of course, Selvy famously scored 100 points in a game in 1954 ... which remains a single-game record to this day.

He says Pegues' game-winner brought back memories of his historic night.

"It reminded me of my 100-point shot when I made it from midcourt with time running out, with a couple people guarding me. I threw it up from midcourt, and it went in for the 100 points."

Selvy had a ton of praise for Paladins coach Bob Richey ... saying, "He knows more about basketball than any coach I’ve ever seen. The formations and the executions of plays and everything, great guy."

Selvy says he hasn't spoken to the team ... but if he had the chance??

"I would just tell them how proud I was of them and keep it going."

Kane -- AKA Mayor Glenn Jacobs -- tells TMZ Sports he's focused on running his county right now ... but the WWE legend didn't rule out the possibility of holding other political offices in the future, saying he'd entertain the idea when the time is right.

We recently talked to Jacobs -- currently in his second term as the mayor of Knox County, TN -- and asked the WWE Hall of Famer whether he has ambitions of ascending the political ladder, and running for higher office like U.S. senator or governor.

"I don't know," Glenn said. "I'm just trying to do the best job I can as mayor right now. We'll leave that until the time comes."

Jacobs -- who's been a WWE Superstar since 1995 -- told us he's content in his current role, and wants people to remember him for the difference he's made in their lives through his policies and advocacy.

"What I want is pretty simple," Jacobs said. "People to understand that I cared about my community and wanted to do what I could to make it a better place. As mayor, you don't do that yourself, but what you can do is kind of lay out a vision and get people to the table and somewhat lead the way."

Glenn was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021, and says he didn't enter politics for personal gain, but rather to make Knox County "even better than it already is."

MMA fans are clamoring for a Jon Jones vs. Francis Ngannou megafight ... but Dana White says there's nothing to see there, 'cause the new heavyweight champ would've demolished "The Predator" much like he did Ciryl Gane last weekend!

The UFC president joined Babcock on the TMZ Sports TV show (airs weeknights on FS1) ... when White was asked if he could foresee any situation where he'd welcome Ngannou back to the UFC and make the Francis-Jon fight.

"I'm not interested," Dana said.

"I tried to make that fight for two years. He didn't want the fight. Know what I mean? He didn't want the fight, and he left here without even having another deal in place. And, I know how the boxing world is, it's crazy, but Francis didn't want to [fight Jones]."

Don't be too disappointed ... White says Francis almost certainly would've been easy work for the G.O.A.T.

"Let me tell you what, I think, a lot of other people feel this way, I think that's exactly the way the fight would've gone if [Ngannou] was in there, too."

Of course, Jon made Ciryl look like light work at UFC 285 ... taking him down and forcing a tap out in a shade over 2 minutes.

Dana, using some MMA math, explained why Ngannou wouldn't have stood much of a chance.

"[Francis] and Ciryl had a five-round war, and if Ciryl doesn't go for that submission, Ciryl probably wins that fight. At the end of the 5th round there."

FYI, Ngannou won their UFC 270 scrap in January 2022 by unanimous decision, but it was a very close fight.

Dana then answered the original question -- can you see yourself making JJ vs. FN?

"No."

We also talked to White about the next big heavyweight matchup, Stipe Miocic vs. Jones. There's talk the fight will go down at UFC 290 on July 8 during International Fight Week, but Dana says nothing's set in stone, and there's not much time to get a deal done.

Dana also said he wouldn't be surprised if this is 35-year-old Jones' last fight.

"I wouldn't be shocked either if he fights Stipe and then retires."

We also talked to Dana about his upcoming Power Slap 1 event, going down Saturday night in Las Vegas. The card features four title fights ... including the two top-ranked heavyweights in the world.

White says he sees parallels between Power Slap/slap fighting and the UFC in its early days, when MMA was viewed as being brutal and too violent.

Dana also broke some news about the future of "Power Slap: Road To The Title," announcing they've signed a two-year deal. White says the next season will take place in Dubai.

N.O.R.E.'s attempt to squash the beef between Fat Joe and ex-Terror Squad rapper Cuban Link resulted in Remy Ma laughing so hard, they had to scrub the entire scene from a "Drink Champs" episode!!!

The DC crew huddled up on a recent interview to discuss their decisions not to interview Cuban, Jae Hood and Reek Da Villain due to their long-running conflicts with Joe, The LOX and Busta Rhymes, respectively ... and Remy, being the 1st Lady of TS herself, confirmed that the beef was forever up!!!

In 2021, Cuban Link falsely accused Joe of snitching, which reignited their beef that's been festering since the mid-'00s, causing N.O.R.E. to speak out and admit he had no intentions of interviewing any artist who's against his friends.

N.O.R.E. also addressed his former Def Jam labelmate Keith Murray's recent claims that he was snubbed in person at the last Rock The Bells Festival.

According to N.O.R.E.'s recollection, he was running about 30 deep (thanks to Capone and Tragedy Khadafi's entourages) and didn't want to add to any confusion.

Who's the greatest MMA fighter ever??

Demetrious Johnson, who's absolutely in the conversation, says it's an impossible question to answer because "we've all done amazing things in this sport of mixed martial arts." But, forced to answer, Mighty Mouse says it's the newly crowned heavyweight champ Jon Jones ... following his dismantling of Ciryl Gane at UFC 285.

"I've had the longest consecutive title defense, and I've also had 14 world title fight wins. I believe he's at 15 [straight] now. You look at GSP. I think he took four years off and he fought in 2013 against Johny Hendricks. Then he came back in 2017 and beat Michael Bisping, who was a champion. You look at Anderson Silva, we've all done amazing things in mixed martial arts."

The former longtime UFC champ turned ONE Championship champ told us he "always felt" Jon was the G.O.A.T., and actually believes he could've beaten 247 lb. Gane without gaining any weight.

"Jon Jones, what he did to Gane Saturday night, I mean, he took him down and choked him out. I truly believe he could've done that at 205 [lbs.]"

"The one thing that separates those guys from me, those guys have gone up and competed and won a world championship in a different weight class, where I haven't.

"Henry Cejudo's done it, Jon's done it, Randy Couture's done it, the list just goes on and on of all the guys who have done it, and that's one thing I haven't done."

Fighters like Couture, Georges St-Pierre, and Khabib have all retired, so they're done adding to their resumes. But, Mighty Mouse isn't. He's still very much fighting with ONE, and he's got a big fight coming up.

DJ's fighting Adriano Moraes on May 5 ... one of the best ONE matchups. The guys have fought twice previously, with each man winning once.

Cher and Alexander Edwards are getting involved with each other's kids ... another sign the singer and her music executive fiancé are serious about their relationship.

We got Alexander at Il Pastaio in Beverly Hills on Wednesday and he told our photog Cher's sons, Chaz Bono and Elijah Blue Allman, are "my guys."

Alexander has a son of his own with Amber Rose ... and when we asked him how Cher gets along with little Slash, he told us Cher's "amazing."

Remember ... Cher and AE have a 40-year age gap and they've only been together a few months ... so getting involved with the children is another big step. Cher's sons are older than Alexander, after all.

AE gave Cher a huge diamond ring over the holidays, and she told paps back in January the engagement was going along well.

There's no word on a wedding date and our photog prodded AE for info ... but it sounds like their sons are the priority, at least for now.

He landed Barack Obama ... now, Eli Manning has his sights set on his next dream "ManningCast" guests -- Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David!!

TMZ Sports played a pivotal role (or so we tell ourselves) in helping Peyton and Eli book the former president on their alternative broadcast of "Monday Night Football" last season ... with the older bro joking Eli's interview with us back in February 2022 is what helped seal the deal.

Considering our influence, Babcock and Lucas gave Eli the opportunity to shoot his shot for his next dream guests on the ESPN2 show ... and he's got some big names in mind.

"I think now, I'm a big 'Seinfeld' fan, so I think a Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David ... something in that realm would be pretty cool," Eli told the TMZ Sports TV show (airs on FS1) at his Easter event with The Children's Place.

The pairing would be pretty great ... considering Jerry is a big Giants fan, and Larry is known as a diehard Jets backer. There are also reports the "Seinfeld" creator played a role in getting Obama to appear on the "ManningCast" last year ... so maybe it's time for him to do it as well.

Eli admits he never thought he'd be able to land a former president ... adding, "I'd never imagine when I retired from playing football I'd ever interview Barack Obama for a segment while watching a football game at the same time. That kind of blew my mind."

"I thought I'd just say something outrageous, it would never happen. I could just keep saying the answer for years to come. Obviously, I can't do that now."

Jake Paul says his fight with Tommy Fury was soiled from the start -- The Problem Child just revealed he had a wet dream before his loss to TNT ... which wasted all the testosterone he was building up for weeks.

Jake went into perhaps too much detail on his brother Logan's "Impaulsive" podcast this week ... when he admitted his, umm, "release" pissed him off to the point where it may have factored into how he performed in the ring.

Logan -- who says he experienced the same problem prior to his fight against KSI -- explained the reasoning behind the practice ... saying Jake was "building his batch" so he could rack up so much testosterone, he'd turn into an "angry f***ing fighter."

Only problem is -- Jake had a lil accident just hours before the fight ... wasting two weeks of holding it all in.

Jake described how he felt right after he realized what happened ... saying, "I f***ed myself -- literally -- over."

"I literally woke up in a panic, like, 'F***. F***, f***, f***, f***.'"

Jake isn't blaming his whole loss on the wet dream, though ... saying, "I think it's one of many reasons."

Logan sympathizes with Jake ... saying, "I remember when it happened to me, mentally, I was kinda destroyed a little bit."

"You had just done this thing that isn't easy for three weeks to a month, holding your batch in ... it's not easy. And then, on the day of the f***ing fight, all your progress is destroyed. You're back to zero."

"And, it isn't a little release, either, by the way. It's like ... it's a lot, dude."

Of course, Jake lost to Tommy via split decision in Saudi Arabia ... and if there's a rematch, he's gotta be hoping he can hold it in next time.

Mercedes Mone is putting the wrestling world on NOTICE ... telling TMZ Sports she'll fight any wrestler, anywhere, anytime -- saying, "I turn down to nobody."

We spoke to Mercedes -- formerly known as Sasha Banks in the WWE -- after she captured the IWGP championship in her New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) debut last month ... and she was hyped about performing in front of her family and friends.

"It was a moment I'm always going to remember," Mone said. "It's probably my second favorite moment of my career thus far and that's saying a lot because I've done so much in professional wrestling."

Mercedes said competing in front of a sold-out crowd at the San Jose Civic Center in California -- close to where she grew up -- was special ... adding working with her opponent, Kairi, who she defeated to become champ, was an incredible experience.

Mone told us now that she's the IWGP champ, she's got big plans. In addition to showing off her gold on red carpets, she also called out Japanese pro wrestler AZM ahead of her scheduled appearance at Sakura Genesis in Tokyo on April 8.

"I wanna see who's ready for Mercedes Mone," the champ said. "I'm always here for the check. I'm always here for the bag and whoever has the biggest bag is where I'm gonna go."

Michael B. Jordan and Jonathan Majors are two peas in a pod -- so much so, in fact, they say they wanna follow in the footsteps of two other legends ... Bob and Al.

The actors sat down with NYT to talk about their new movie, "Creed III," which is out in theaters and, so far, cleaning up nicely -- both in terms of box office and critic reviews. Not just that, but their dynamic/explosive chemistry on-screen is the talk of the town right now.

In the Q&A, JM and MBJ are very complimentary of each other. At one point, the interviewer asks whose opinion they value the most when it comes to 'Creed.' Majors says he only really cared what Mike thought ... which prompts the interviewer to ask the next logical question.

NYT says, "The way you two talk about each other, it sounds like this is the first of many collaborations to come," to which MBJ says ... "It is. We plan on it." Then, the haymaker ... Majors follows up and says, "De Niro and Pacino."

To that, Mike says this ... "We’re excited about that, and I have those conversations with him. Acting is such a solo journey, where you’re fighting for your place on that call sheet for such a long time. So when you’ve got somebody that doesn’t care as much about that stuff, it’s like, 'Let’s go. How much damage can we do together?' Majors responds, "All of it."

In other words, they're ready to paint the town red with more movies, it seems -- and it also sounds like both Mike and Jon fancy themselves as good as two acting greats ... but the internet doesn't necessarily agree, both in the duo comparison and the one-on-one résumés.

Fact is, Al and Bob were only in a small handful of movies together -- "Heat" and "Godfather Pt. 2" being the most famous, before "The Irishman" came around -- and each of them had stellar catalogs of critically-acclaimed flicks under their belt well before they ever collab'd.

So, the juxtaposition doesn't quite make sense there. But, more importantly, some feel like they're jumping the gun ... as neither JM or MBJ have been in enough movies to warrant such lofty esteem. Even in terms of chops, there's questions ... on Mike's end, specifically.

While just about everyone's stoked at the notion that these two studs are planning on working together more -- seeing how they are great in "Creed III," by all accounts -- the way it's coming out is getting a little side-eye. Just a smidge, though ... mostly by film snobs.

Who's the greatest UFC fighter ever?? It's one of the most hotly contested debates amongst MMA fans, and now Dana White's weighing in!

Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre, Khabib Nurmagomedov and Jon Jones are the names most often thrown out there (there's also Demetrious Johnson, Amanda Nunes, and a few others) ... and each one can surely stake their claim as the best.

But, with Jones about to return to the Octagon (first time in 1,121 days) against a bonafide beast in Ciryl Gane (11-1 pro record), and going up to heavyweight from the light heavyweight division which he dominated for a decade, Dana told Babcock on the TMZ Sports TV show (airs weekdays on FS1) earlier in the week that Bones is one win away from being the 🐐.

"There will be no arguments over who the G.O.A.T. is if he beats Ciryl Gane on Saturday," White said.

As for the other fighters ... they're all inactive in the UFC.

Silva is the former middleweight champion. He defeated everyone from Chael Sonnen, Vitor Belfort, Forrest Griffin, Dan Henderson, Rich Franklin and so many more. He held the UFC title for longer than anyone in the history of the promotion ... 2,457 days, defending his belt successfully 10 times.

GSP, a former 2x welterweight and 1x middleweight champ, had a professional record of 26-2, only losing to Matt Serra (2007) and Matt Hughes (2004). St-Pierre beat the likes of Michael Bisping, Johnny Hendricks, Nick Diaz, Jake Shields, Carlos Condit, Dan Hardy, B.J. Penn and just about every other fighter of his generation.

Khabib is the only of the fighters in the G.O.A.T. conversation to go undefeated, retiring with a 29-0 record. Nurmagomedov defeated Justin Gaethje, Dustin Poirier, Edson Barboza, Michael Johnson, Rafael dos Anjos and Conor McGregor.

There's much more with Dana ... we talked to the UFC honcho about everything from Valentina Shevchenko's resume, to 3x NCAA wrestling champ Bo Nickal's UFC debut.

All trash talk aside (and there's been a good deal of it), Ciryl Gane says he's a competitor and that's why he's so amped for his fight against the "G.O.A.T." Jon Jones.

"I love this sport. Yes, it's my job, but first I'm a competitor, When I lost my fight against Francis [Ngannou], I was really not happy," 32-year-old Gane told Babcock on the TMZ Sports TV show (airs weeknights on FS1), adding, "So yes, I'm gonna test myself with the G.O.A.T., and this is a pleasure for me."

"When you have a fight and you don't have any challenge, that's not exciting. Today I have a big challenge so I'm really excited about that."

Gane, 11-1, is coming off a KO victory over Tai Tuivasa in September, and will now fight 35-year-old Jones at UFC 285 this weekend. It'll be Jon's first fight in the heavyweight division, and his first time in an Octagon for a sanctioned fight in over 3 years (he last fought/beat Dominick Reyes on Feb. 8, 2020, at UFC 247).

We've seen Jon fight in a cage 28 times as a professional, but never as a man this big ... so we asked Ciryl how he believes the added weight will affect Jones.

"I think [Jon's] gonna be less faster than before. He's really normal. When my weight was around [220 to 231 lbs.], I was a little bit faster. So yes, for sure, 100% he's gonna be a little bit less but for a heavyweight, he's gonna have speed."

Jon's been critical of Ciryl's resume in the Octagon ... going at everything from the quality of his opponents to his wrestling ability. We asked Gane if he was bothered by Jones' comments.

"No [laughs]. No matter what he say, I'm not really on the game. I know there's guys sometimes that wanna get in your head but for me, it's not personal. I'm gonna do my performance. I'm gonna do my job, I'm gonna do my sport."

Francis Ngannou has a boxing legend giving him at least a chance in a fight against Tyson Fury ... with Mike Tyson telling TMZ Sports believes "anything is possible" if the two heavyweights face off in an epic matchup.

Ngannou, who recently became a combat free agent after spending more than 8 years with UFC, told us last month he's been in contact with Fury's camp about making a fight happen with the Gypsy King.

Of course, Ngannou is one of the hardest-hitting fighters in the game, but it would be his first professional boxing fight ... and going up against Fury would be a huge task for anyone, let alone a rookie pugilist.

Tyson showed a bit of optimism for The Predator when we caught up with him in LA ... giving us a simple, yet hopeful response to his chances in the ring.

Fury might already have his next opponent lined up with Oleksandr Usyk, but it's clear both sides are serious about putting ink to paper sometime soon.

Josh Murray has high hopes for a new 'Bachelor' spinoff about senior citizens finding love ... and he laid out some compelling reasons why the show might be better with older folks.

We got the 'Bachelorette' and "Bachelor in Paradise" alum at LAX, where gave us an insider's perspective on the upcoming series, "The Golden Bachelor".

ICYMI, "The Bachelor" producer, Mike Fleiss recently announced the new series is in the works, and that, naturally, created a lot of curiosity within Bachelor nation.

Josh tells us he's all in for the new show because, in his words ... old people need loving too, and there's a better chance they'll find it on a reality show than younger people.

Josh's prediction is the series will be a lot more genuine as older bachelors and bachelorettes won't be out for fame or money ... and will actually sign up just to find love.

He also thinks the hometown visit episodes would get a fun new twist -- instead of meeting parents, suitors can get the stamp of approval from kids or even grandkids!

And, don't get him started on the fantasy suites episode -- he's envisioning a stash of little blue pills.😂