Movies

Harvey Weinstein's appealing his rape and sexual abuse conviction in New York, and has a laundry list of reasons why he believes he got a raw deal.

According to new legal docs ... Weinstein claims he was deprived of a fair and impartial jury trial, which resulted in guilty verdicts and a sentence of 23 years in prison.

Weinstein's team claims the jury was influenced by sensational, prejudiced media coverage, special interest groups and the public's "magnified moral outrage over claimed sexual misbehavior of powerful men."

Weinstein's appeal highlights several points his legal team brought up during his trial, including the allegation one of the jurors lied about writing a book focused on older men preying on younger women.

In addition, Weinstein claims the jury was permitted to hear allegations of prior bad acts and uncharged crimes ... which he argues is a major error that deprived him of his right to a fair trial.

Weinstein also claims he was barred from presenting a defense against the prosecution's expert witness, and even alleges the judge showed his own bias when he harshly admonished Weinstein for using his cell phone in court.

Finally, Weinstein slams the trial court for allegedly influencing the jury's decision by essentially letting the prosecution put Mr. Weinstein’s entire life on trial instead of just focusing on the charged offenses.

LisaRaye McCoy is clarifying what she said about the Buffalo radio host who compared Black women to "toast," saying she is NOT defending the guy -- but simply pointing out ... yeah, he can have an opinion on the subject.

We got the actress Sunday at LAX and asked if she was standing in support of broadcaster Rob Lederman -- this after seemingly coming to his defense last week on her show, 'Cocktails with Queens,' with co-hosts Claudia Jordan, Syleena Johnson and Vivica A. Fox.

ICYMI ... LisaRaye didn't appear all that bothered by what Lederman had actually expressed at its core -- namely, that he prefers lighter-skinned Black women over darker-skinned ones.

The other women took issue, saying there was colorism at play with that type of thinking ... but LisaRaye is standing firm, even now ... the dude has a right to express what he likes, even if he's white. She notes his word choice was awful and demeaning, but when you drill down to the core ... she doesn't find it all that triggering.

LisaRaye says the reason some could've been more offended than others might have to with the climate we're in, and the fact people are way more sensitive these days.

BTW, she flatly denies being a colorist herself -- telling us she's got family members who are darker-skinned. That said, our camera guy asked her a provocative question ... and that would be, does colorism lend itself to racism by default?

Bruce Lee's family LOVES that Steph Curry rocked a special pair of sneakers to honor the legend during Sunday's game ... especially since he's going to auction them off for a good cause.

The Golden State Warriors superstar teamed up with the Bruce Lee Foundation to create a custom pair of Curry 8s with Lee's image hand-painted on each shoe.

One image is a solo shot of Lee. The other image is based off a photograph of Bruce with his wife and children.

Steph wanted to show solidarity to the Asian community in light of the recent wave of anti-Asian hate crimes -- so proceeds from the upcoming auction will go toward the families of the 8 people killed in the recent attack on Asian-run spas.

Bruce's daughter, Shannon Lee, who runs the Bruce Lee Foundation, praised Curry in a statement.

"I think Stephen’s gesture is a beautiful example of allyship and solidarity in action," Shannon Lee said.

"I am honored he would choose my father and my family as the symbol for the idea that we are all one family, as my father said, and therefore must all stand for one another."

After Sunday's game, Curry also talked about the collaboration and why it's so important to him.

Gloria Henry -- most famous for playing the mom character on the old 'Dennis the Menace' show -- has died.

The veteran actress passed away Saturday, just one day after her 98th birthday ... this according to her daughter, Erin Ellwood, who broke the sad news on Instagram. After posting some celebratory shots of her mother's milestone year, she said she'd died the next day.

Erin threw up a photo of her mom posing at the Colette Miller angel wings mural in Hollywood, writing ... "She’s flying now, free of her body. She left on a countdown 4 3 2 1 @ 3:40pm. She was such an incredible woman in so many ways. This last year with her has been beautiful and heartbreaking. Thank you all for following me and supporting me on this journey - this beautiful land mine. Goodbye Momma, I love your guts forever ❤️"

On Friday, Erin posted a sweet birthday card Gloria was sent from cartoonist Marcus Hamilton -- the guy famous for those Dennis the Menace cartoons that have appeared in newspapers for years now. He customized it for her, thanking for being the best "mom" Dennis could ask for. Erin says it made Gloria's day to see it.

Of course, Gloria played Alice Mitchell -- the titular character's mom -- on the CBS black and white sitcom for all four seasons from 1959 through 1963, having starred in 146 episodes. She was the epitome of the white picket fence parent ... often playing peacemaker with her rambunctious boy and his nemesis/neighbor, Mr. Wilson.

While she's perhaps best-known from 'DTM' ... Gloria had a long-running career in TV and film that dates back to the '40s, when she starred in B-films like "Adventures in Silverado," "The Arkansas Swing," "Johnny Alegro" and many others.

She made a splash in the '50s as Michelle Malone in 'The Files of Jeffrey Jones' ... and went on to have supporting roles in 'Mr. & Mrs. North,' 'My Little Margie,' 'Perry Mason,' 'Broken Arrow,' 'The Farmer's Daughter,' 'The Brady Brides,' 'Simon & Simon,' 'Silver Spoons,' 'Dallas' and countless other famous series. All in all, Gloria has 65 acting credits to her name.

She'll always be remembered as Dennis' sweet maternal presence though. Gloria was 98.

While Pepe Le Pew's "rape-y" behavior was apparently deemed too problematic to include him in the 'Space Jam' sequel, a group of actual onscreen rapists is set to cameo.

The first official trailer for "Space Jam: A New Legacy" dropped this weekend -- and it shows LeBron James descending not just into the Looney Tunes world for a do-or-die basketball game ... but in a world full of classic movie characters, hand-drawn or otherwise.

In the new teaser, you see LeBron and co. on a basketball court in a stadium-like setting -- which is full of real-life human cameos from the likes of Damian Lillard, Anthony Davis, Klay Thompson and Diana Taurasi, but there's also pantheon greats from the cinematic universe sprinkled throughout ... like 'Batman' characters, 'Mad Max' characters, 'Scooby Doo' characters, 'GOT' characters ... and strangely, "A Clockwork Orange" characters too.

Yes, we're talking Alex and his gang of Droogs -- famous for their all-white outfits and their bowler hats. And, even more famous (or infamous) is their brutal rape scene in the 1971 Kubrick film, which is depicted in graphic detail ... and definitely NOT family-friendly by any stretch.

A lot of people quickly noticed the Droogs' presence ... and questioned why they were even in the film at all, considering the nature of their scripted backstory. There doesn't seem to be much of an explanation at this point, other than 'Space Jam' cramming as many memorable movie characters into the plot as possible ... "Ready Player One" style.

Of course, the inclusion of the Droogs makes ya wonder ... if they're in, why is Pepe out?

You'll recall ... Pepe's grabby approach toward Penelope Pussycat was recently put under a microscope and was even likened to perpetuating rape culture, which drew mixed reactions. Interestingly enough, it was reported that Pepe ended up getting axed from the new 'Space Jam' script entirely after some consideration. It's unclear if the "rape" criticism had anything to do with it directly ... but it seems likely WB execs might've already been thinking that.

Titus Welliver can roar off into the sunset in the saddle of his motorcycle as the dust settles in his divorce -- and his ex-wife will be galloping away ... TMZ has learned.

The 'Bosch' star just finalized his divorce from Josepha Theodora Stemkens -- to whom he'd been married to since 2014 -- and the judge has now signed off on exactly who gets what in the division of their assets.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Titus gets to keep some property in Connecticut, some bank accounts, residuals and royalties from his TV and movie work. Now for the fun stuff -- he's taking some sweet rides for a cruise around ... including a Mini Cooper and a 2014 Harley Davidson.

As for Josepha ... she was also left with a pretty nice whip -- a 2017 Range Rover, and some equine mobility too. She's getting their 6 horses, named Kimba, Kid, Chief‚ Aslan, Jackson and Little Martha Grace.

She's also keeping her businesses and personal accounts, plus jewelry and furniture that's already in her possession.

Titus was also ordered to pay Josepha around $27k a month until the end of 2021, in addition to a lump sum of $50k to equalize the property split. The couple also came to terms on child custody -- Titus has a 14-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, and Josepha legally adopted her during their marriage.

Margaret Cho says she's afraid to leave the safety of her own home as an Asian-American woman ... telling us, "outside it's cloudy with a chance of racism."

Despite that humorous phrasing, the comedian made it clear her fear is very real when she joined us Friday on "TMZ Live." She says the rise in hate crimes against Asian-Americans has her feeling like there's a target on her.

Margaret says it's a really scary time in America, and she's especially rattled by the attacks on older Asian-American women.

While Margaret felt empowered by the Asian grandmother in San Francisco who fought off an alleged attacker last month with a piece of wood ... she says it was still a traumatizing moment for the Asian community, and yet another example of why she feels safer at home.

It's pretty shocking to hear an Emmy and five-time Grammy-nominated comedian/actress say she's afraid of becoming a hate crime victim, but Margaret says that's where we are today in this country ... and it's time for an awakening.

Bam Margera insists he tried everything he could to appease "Jackass 4" producers and stay on the project, but claims what they wanted almost killed him ... and he has no choice but to take legal action now.

The 'Jackass' star was out in Hollywood Thursday when we talked to him about getting kicked off "Jackass 4" after another stint in rehab ... one he says made his life much worse.

Bam claims Johnny Knoxville and others had strict terms for him, including a 90-day rehab stay for alcohol and Adderall. The problem, according to Bam, is he came out with a laundry list of 18 different pills the rehab folks wanted him to take. You gotta watch ... he actually names them all, and believes that's what led to his suicidal thoughts.

On top of that, he accuses Johnny -- or as he sarcastically called him, "Dr. Knoxville" -- of ordering him to stay off 2 drugs his own doctors had prescribed for him.

Ultimately, Bam says all those pills rehab put him on left him feeling like he was gonna die from an overdose or suicide ... which made a huge payday for 'Jackass' totally meaningless.

He's blaming producers for the whole situation, calling their treatment "torture" ... and he's very upset that something he's wanted to do for 10 years to honor his late friend, Ryan Dunn, has come to this.

We broke the story ... Margera got booted from the upcoming 'Jackass' film in February for not abiding by contractual conditions related to his addiction issues. Bam suggests to us that it was due to his continued use of Adderall.

His firing came shortly after Bam's troubling online rant in which he called for a boycott of "Jackass 4" and talked about suicidal thoughts.

Sharon Stone claims her manager back in the day told her she wasn't sexy enough to get hired in Hollywood, then 6 weeks later ... she was cast to play one of the sexiest characters ever.

The actress says before she landed her famous role in "Basic Instinct," she was pretty shy and introverted. Stone claims this prompted her manager to tell her she wasn't "f**kable."

It's all detailed in her new autobiography, "The Beauty of Living Twice," and Sharon goes on to say her acting coach also badgered her to loosen up, asking ... "If you keep leaving your sexuality at the door, how do you expect to play anyone at all?"

She says 6 weeks after that, she was cast to star alongside Michael Douglas in the 1992 erotic thriller. Guess the acting coach did the job.

As we reported ... Stone previously revealed she was tricked into performing her notorious no-underwear scene in the movie by members of the production team.

Here it is ... Aaron Rodgers and Shailene Woodley in the same place at the same time, for the first time since they got engaged -- which might be what they were celebrating down in Mexico.

The happy couple was on the tarmac Monday in Costa Careyes ... moments before boarding a private jet. The Green Bay Packers QB and "Big Little Lies" star were with a group of friends getting ready for takeoff. It's unclear if they're continuing the vacay somewhere else or heading home.

We know what fans desperately wanna see -- Shailene's engagement ring, so here's the best we can do. Even zooming in, it's hard to tell if she's wearing one on that left hand.

We do know the ring exists, but up to this point, the only time we've seen it was when Shailene was on the 'Tonight Show' in February, talking to Jimmy Fallon about the engagement.

Still, looks like they enjoyed the warmer weather down south after they were together earlier this month in freezing Montreal ... where Shailene was shooting the cop thriller "Misanthrope" and sending Aaron out to walk her dog.

As we reported ... Aaron announced his engagement to Shailene back in February after winning the NFL's MVP award for the 2020 season, and he's since gushed about their relationship and set his sights on having a kid with her.

Pittsburgh born producer Shane Black is a big name in the movie industry as a writer and director with a long list of action movie credits ... but Black's on-screen role that he's best known for as the young glasses-wearing cadet Hawkins -- who is quickly killed by the unknown alien creature -- in the classic 1987 action film "Predator."

Shane was joined on the gun-toting jungle film by epic actors including Carl Weathers as the indestructible, Dillon, Jesse Ventura as the man with a minigun, Blain ... and of course Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Vietnam vet, Dutch.

Houston Tumlin -- the kid who played Ricky Bobby's son in 'Talladega Nights' -- grew up to proudly serve his country, but sadly suffered from PTSD and depression as a result, which led to his suicide ... his mother tells TMZ.

Michelle Tumlin tells us ... her son honorably served in the U.S. Army for nearly 6 years, earning many accolades as an E-4 specialist in the 101st Airborne Division.

Houston's awards include the Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal and Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, but Michelle says he was most proud of earning his Air Assault wings.

Michelle says, "Houston received a different set of wings" this week, and while the family is hurting from the loss, she says they want to stress to anyone who is suffering to reach out and get help.

She says ... "Houston Lee Tumlin was so much more than a child actor from 'Talladega Nights.' My beautiful boy brought joy to everyone he encountered and made them feel special. Houston fought his battle for years, and we will continue to fight for him."

We're told Houston will have a full military funeral, and his family marched in an event over the weekend in Helena, Alabama to raise awareness for veteran suicide and PTSD support.

We broke the story ... Houston died by suicide Tuesday at his home in Pelham.

Along with his military service, he was best known for playing the foul-mouthed Walker Bobby, the eldest son of Will Ferrell's character, in the 2006 comedy, "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby."

Houston was 28.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris had glowing things to say about the NAACP's contribution to America -- especially in the year of the pandemic -- as they kicked off the NAACP Image Awards.

The Prez and the Veep recorded their praise for the org at The White House for Saturday's event. Biden made it clear ... the NAACP has been a key player, if not THE key player, in the advancement of equality for more than 100 years.

Harris then talked about the contributions Black entertainers have made to the arts, but also to advance social justice in America. She talked about the advancements but then acknowledged a lot more has to happen to achieve true equality.

Chadwick Boseman won the Outstanding Actor Award posthumously for "Ma Rainey's Black Bottom." As we reported, Boseman died at 43 after fighting colon cancer for more than 4 years ... a condition he kept from the public until the end,

Harvey Weinstein had his scrotum pierced as a woman attempted to defend herself during an alleged sexual assault he committed -- this according to a new lawsuit.

The woman's name is Hayley Gripp, and she's just the latest Weinstein accuser to file suit against the disgraced movie producer ... who's now in prison. She claims Weinstein sexually assaulted her in 2012, with the assistance of an unnamed female associate.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Gripp claims she was approached by this anonymous Weinstein associate while she was waiting for a casting call at the Beverly Hilton hotel. She says the two of them got to talking about her career aspirations, as well as her Tourette syndrome.

Gripp claims the woman said she wanted to introduce her to a big producer who was in the building, whom she allegedly said would love to talk more about her journey. Gripp -- who says she was just 19 at the time -- explains she was hesitant but eventually agreed.

That's when she says she met HW, whom she says she didn't know of at the time ... and who apparently intro'd himself as Dom, she alleges. Gripp claims she was served wine and before she knew it ... she says she blacked out, only to awake with Weinstein on her.

Gripp says she started to flailing her arms, and broke one of her acrylic nails on the coffee table she claims he had her pinned on. She claims she was able to stab HW with her broken nail on the bottom of his scrotum, and broke free from his clutches ... making a run for it.

She alleges the woman who initially lured her up there was outside "standing guard" and proceeded to tell her this was on her due to her syndrome and that she better shut her trap, because no one would believe her ... so claims Gripp.

Prince William is the hottest bald guy on this planet -- so concludes a new study that ranked where he lands on Google searches ... but the internet doesn't seem to be buying it.

A cosmetic surgery company named Longevita apparently did this "research" -- basically checking to see how many times certain bald male celebs were searched for in Google along with the term "sexy" -- and lo and behold, they say the Duke of Cambridge came out ahead.

Unclear what the parameters were for this deep dive of scalps -- like dates or times for which they searched -- but Longevita claims Billy here had been called "sexy" in blog and website descriptions around 17.6 million times ... again no other context beyond that.

As for who his runner-ups were ... Longevita says Mike Tyson came in second at 8.8 million search results (uhh, okay), Jason Statham 3rd at 7.4m (hmm), Pitbull 4th at 5.4m (really??), MJ 5th at 5.3m (fair enough) ... and other guys that followed included Floyd Mayweather, John Travolta, Bruce Willis, Dwyane Johnson and Vin Diesel -- in that order.

Safe to say ... Twitter had A LOT to say about this, especially on behalf of "Criminal Minds" star Shemar Moore -- who was noticeably left off the list entirely. In tweeters' collective minds, that itself was a slap to the face. One user wrote, "Did Shemar Moore f***** die?"

Not only did some folks feel Shemar was totally snubbed -- did Longevita even search for him, we wonder -- but many more are outraged that The Rock or Vin Diesel aren't higher on the list ... as they're iconic for their hot bald looks.

Appears the (British) people have spoken -- we should note, Longevita is a UK-based company. Anyway ... move over, fellas, 'cause here comes cue ball Royalty.

Jessica Walter, known for her Emmy-nominated "Arrested Development" role and whose acting career spanned 6 decades, has died.

The actress died in her sleep at her NYC home Wednesday ... according to her daughter, who did not announce the cause of her death.

Jessica's best known, and beloved, for playing the devious alcoholic socialite Lucille Bluth on 'Arrested.' She appeared in all 84 episodes during the series, from 2003 to 2019, and was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series in 2005.

She won an Emmy in 1975 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series as the title character of the NBC miniseries, "Amy Prentiss." Jessica also got Emmy noms for roles on "Trapper John, M.D." and "The Streets of San Francisco."

True film aficionados will remember her role in Clint Eastwood's directorial debut in "Play Misty for Me." New school fans will recognize her voice as Malory Archer on the hit FX animated series "Archer."

Jessica is survived by her daughter, Brooke Bowman ... the Senior VP for programming at FOX Entertainment who said, "It is with a heavy heart that I confirm the passing of my beloved mom Jessica. A working actor for over six decades, her greatest pleasure was bringing joy to others through her storytelling both on screen and off."

Bowman added, "While her legacy will live on through her body of work, she will also be remembered by many for her wit, class and overall joie de vivre."

The family's asking that, in lieu of flowers, donations are made to Guide Dogs for the Blind.

RIP