Reality TV

Cast members from MTV's new reality show, "Siesta Key," say they're getting death threats over a controversial video of a shark being dragged by fishermen ... and they've called cops for protection.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... police in the FL town where "Siesta Key" is shot were contacted by some of the cast members about online threats, some deadly in nature. The threats all center around the viral video of the heinous shark incident -- the show's star, Alex Kompothecras, bragged he knows the guys responsible.

Alex is reportedly one of the cast members who got death threats. Thing is ... we're told police did not consider the online threats substantial enough to warrant arrests.

However, a premiere party Monday night for the "Siesta Key" debut was canceled for safety concerns. There's now an online push to boycott the show.

"Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta" star Karen King went full denial in a video rant claiming she never missed a car payment, and reassuring her haters ... she is NOT on crack.

Karen went off following her Monday arrest in Atlanta for allegedly skipping car payments on her Maserati. TMZ broke the story ... Karen was in court for a separate case but was taken away by deputies when the clerk announced the outstanding warrant for the car issues.

Karen says it's BS, has some words for TMZ and most importantly ... breaks down her mug shot style.

Rachel Lindsay finally called out "Bachelorette" contestant Lee Garrett for racist and misogynistic tweets he put out before his time on the show ... and he owned up to it.

Rachel confronted Lee on Monday night's "Men Tell All" episode before next week's finale, and she got to address what a lot of the country has already taken notice of in recent weeks ... that Lee has had some pretty controversial thoughts on Twitter.

One specific tweet that had everyone fired up was posted by Lee last summer which read ... "What's the difference between the NAACP and the KKK? One has a sense of shame to cover their racist ass faces."

Luckily, the meeting ended peacefully -- with Rachel saying she hoped this experience would better Lee as a person.

As for him ... he apologized to Rachel and the rest of the guys, and got some love in return.

Cynthia Bailey and NeNe Leakes are not down with fake news, and they think that's what Kim Zolciak's pushing when it comes to her beef with Kenya Moore.

We got the 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' duo at LAX ... and our photog peppered them about what really happened to make Kim charge at Kenya while shooting last week.

You'll recall Kim went nuclear ... thinking Kenya brought up Kim's "injured son" during some intense trash talking. So, was Kim justified? Well, there's Cynthia and NeNe's version of events. And then there's Kim's.

Anyone smell another Kim rant coming?

3:13 PM PT -- Law enforcement sources tell TMZ Karen was released on a $500 bond. Also ... we're told the repo man never got a hold of that Maserati.

"Love and Hip Hop: Atlanta" star Karen King walked into court to deal with 1 case this week, but never left ... 'cause she was arrested for an entirely different one on the spot.

Law enforcement sources tell us Karen was in court Monday to deal with her pending identity fraud case when she was taken into custody. We're told deputies hauled her off when the court clerk announced there was an outstanding warrant for her arrest ... for allegedly skipping car payments on a Maserati.

As we reported ... Karen stands accused of skipping months of payments on the Maserati she bought in 2014, which led to a judge signing off on the warrant back in October. She'd been MIA ever since.

No word yet if the repo man got his hands on the whip.

Turns out controversial "Bachelor In Paradise" star DeMario Jackson may not be done with reality TV -- TMZ has learned producers are seriously considering him for a "Dancing With the Stars" slot.

Sources close to production tell us the show reached out to DeMario's publicist weeks ago, which explains why he was already fully campaigning to be in the ballroom when we asked about it last week.

We're told nothing's signed ... they're still negotiating, but hard to imagine a scenario where DeMario doesn't take this opportunity.

DeMario didn't return to the 'BiP' set in Mexico following the oral sex controversy with Corinne Olympios that shut down production, but he will be on the reunion episode.

Drita D'Avanzo thinks the landlord trying to remove a mural of her late "Mob Wives" friend and co-star Angela Raiola from his building is BS -- literally -- 'cause it's a hit with tourists.

Drita tells us the excuse the landlord's offering of the Big Ang tribute being "offensive" doesn't hold water ... since she has folks from all over the globe tell her otherwise everyday.

She gets pretty emotional talking about the mural -- which is in jeopardy of being removed entirely. It's been almost 18 months since Big Ang died from cancer, but Drita still gets choked up talking about her.

Still, Drita admits saving the mural will be an uphill battle. The guy owns the place, after all.

Clippers rookie and SEC hoops star Sindarius Thornwell had a seriously funny run-in with cops in South Carolina -- but he's probably not laughing about the fact it ended up on live TV!

It all went down Friday night on the A&E show "Live PD" ... when police pulled over Sindarius' gf for speeding. Apparently, she was chasing him at the time, and Sindarius -- rocking a Clippers t-shirt -- stopped too when she got pulled over.

The hysterical part came when the officer recognized Sindarius -- he was SEC player of the year for the Gamecocks, after all. The cop said, "I know you from somewhere. Where you work at?"

ST's response ... "I don't got a job."

Why so shy? Well, Sindarius juuust signed his rookie contract on Thursday, and probably didn't want to rock the boat. He even tried to hide his Clippers tee from the cop.

To be clear -- cops had no issue with Sindarius, just his gf ... who apparently was riding around with all HIS stuff in the car.

The hair salon co-owned by Caroline Manzo's daughter narrowly escaped going up in flames when an electrical fire broke out in the basement ... TMZ has learned.

Lauren Manzo's Westchester, NY branch of Full Blown -- co-owned with her pal, Lia Cagliostro -- filled with heavy black smoke last weekend while customers were mid-styling. Lia tells us the only warning they had was flickering lights. She thought it was just a blown fuse, but then everything went dark in the smoke cloud.

Firefighters battled for hours, and everyone got out safely. The salon itself wasn't as lucky -- even though firefighters beat back flames, there was severe water damage from fire hoses. Lia says they had to trash all their hairdryers, brushes and clips ... which reeked of smoke.

The building still doesn't have power, and will need rewiring, but they're planning to reopen next week.

Chumlee's done partying his ass off ... in one spot anyway -- the infamous Vegas home where cops once found guns and weed is on the market.

The "Pawn Stars" cast member listed his 5 bedroom, 6 bathroom pad for a whopping $1,849,900. It's a sweet deal if he gets his asking price -- he bought it 5 years ago for $1.1 mil.

The 6,206 square foot pad has a pool, spa and guest house. It's really a bachelor's paradise where Chumlee famously partied hard ... until cops searched the house in March 2016 and found more than 120 grams of weed and 12 guns. He eventually got off with 3 years probation.

Kyle Gluhm from Realty ONE Group is listing the home, which includes the "Chum Chum" room ... stripper pole included. Strippers NOT included, we're guessing.

5:45 PM PT -- Sources close to the production of "Life of Kylie" tell TMZ the lip design in question was independently created by a third party, and Kylie herself had nothing to do with the process.

Kylie Jenner is the Robin Thicke of bleeding lip art ... and one artist is so fed up with KJ's "inspired by" argument that she's taking Jenner to court.

Sara Pope -- an experienced painter whose work has been featured in L.A., Japan, the UK and NYC art galleries -- says Kylie copied her "Temptation Neon" logo and used it to promote a new reality show.

In the docs, obtained by TMZ, Sara says she created her most famous piece of art in 2015 -- a bright, glossy set of lips in a "lip bite" pose. She says Kylie made her own eerily similar graphic, plastered it on social media and used it to promote "Life of Kylie."

Sara says Kylie's got a history of lifting other people's work ... pointing to the infamous Notorious B.I.G./Tupac Shakur t-shirt fiasco and yet another lip artist. She's suing Kylie and NBC Universal ... E!'s parent company.

We've reached out to Kylie's camp and E! ... so far no word back.

Tempers are flaring on the set of 'Little Women: Couples Retreat' after a white cast member called a black cast member a "monkey ass."

TMZ got this clip of Lifetime's "Little Women: LA" spin-off where Lila is basically asking to get dropped ... by repeatedly hurling the racial slur against Tonya Banks.

Rachel Lindsay might be falling head over heels for contestant Bryan Abasolo on "The Bachelorette" ... but her family sure ain't.

Rachel brought her remaining 3 suitors to meet her fam on Monday's episode, but when it came to Bryan ... mom and co. were quick to call out his glib answers and arguably premature proclamation of love.

It's a pretty awkward interaction -- they grill him with fairly reasonable questions ... and the dude just folds, even excusing himself from the table (and the interview).

Robby Hayes and Amanda Stanton are now a thing, thanks to "Bachelor in Paradise." Oh, and ... spoiler alert.

Amanda and Robby were hand-in-hand for a weekend stroll in WeHo. We're not judging, but seems like they're already coordinating their wardrobes (Ok, we're judging).

They were both down in Mexico shooting the upcoming 'BiP' season ... and maybe the third time will be the charm for Amanda. She finished fourth on Ben Higgins' 'Bachelor' season, and was briefly engaged to Josh Murray before calling it off in December 2016.

Robby was the runner-up on JoJo Fletcher's season.

If at first you don't succeed ... get recast!

Kim Zolciak raged out on Kenya Moore because she thought Kenya said something about her son, who was horribly injured by a dog bite -- and it took several cast members to hold her back.

Multiple 'RHOA' production sources tell us Kim went all Mama Bear while they were shooting over the weekend at a home in Atlanta. We're told Kenya and Kim were throwing shade as soon as they saw each other -- but when things got personal, it got out of hand.

Kim made comments about Kenya's new marriage being fake ... and Kenya fired back that Kim had pimped out her daughter to get John Legend tickets. Everyone we spoke to agrees to that much, but here's where it gets messy.

We're told Kim thinks Kenya said the Legend tix were for "your injured son." Others in the house say they never heard Kenya say the son part. Doesn't matter ... Kim was convinced and lost it ... rushing at Kenya, knocking over and breaking glasses on the way.

Cast members and production staff grabbed Kim and calmed the situation. We're told Kim immediately bounced, and is genuinely pissed -- not just "for the show" drama ... like last season.

The memory of "Mob Wives" star Big Ang lives on in mural form on the side of her sister's boutique, but it's in danger of being washed away ... TMZ has learned.

Big Ang's sister, Janine, tells us she got permission for the hand-drawn mural from the landlord of the Staten Island building last year ... shortly after Ang died. She says the tribute was well-received in the neighborhood, until a few weeks ago ... when her landlord said it had to go.

She says the landlord claimed people find it offensive, but she has no idea why and hasn't gotten more of an explanation. She says the landlord wants the mural removed before the new school year, and she'll be devastated if that happens.

She's started a petition for the community to show love for her sister and the mural.