TV

Gina Rodriguez comfort level with using the n-word is on display in a resurfaced clip -- and while it's a scripted sketch, it supports the notion Gina, and others, feel like she gets a pass.

The video which is just now going viral, for obvious reasons, is from over 7 years ago ... and shows Gina in a scene with 2 black men. Speaking to them like a coach, she says, "You heard me, take a lap, n***a."

The scene is from a YouTube skit for "Northside Comedy," and was shot long before her career started taking off as the lead in "Jane the Virgin."

Some folks online are pissed at Gina because the clip -- now deleted from the 'Northside' YouTube page -- surfaced on the heels of her using the n-word while singing a Fugees song on social media.

She apologized twice for using the term while singing along to Lauryn Hill.

TMZ broke the story ... Boyz II Men singer Shawn Stockman says he has no problem with Gina saying 'n***a' because her parents are Puerto Rican. Shawn says he considers Latinos to be black.

Gina herself has said her father identifies as Afro-Latino ... still, she's taking tons of flak online, and this newly-surfaced clip is adding fuel to that fire.

The home of Ron Ely, who played Tarzan on TV, is a crime scene after his wife was murdered there ... and police shot and killed the suspect, who might be related to the actor.

Santa Barbara Sheriff's deputies responded Tuesday night to a domestic disturbance at Ron's Hope Ranch property, and found an elderly woman dead inside with stab wounds. TMZ has obtained police dispatch audio where a first responder describes an "elderly gentleman" on scene saying his son was somehow involved in the incident.

Law enforcement sources tell us the victim is Ron's wife of 35 years, Valerie Lundeen.

Felicity Huffman won't even spend a full two weeks behind bars despite her 14-day prison sentence ... TMZ has learned.

Felicity will only spend 13 days behind bars. That's because when she was initially arrested at her home, taken in and booked, that counts as one day toward completing her sentence ... even though she was only in custody for a few hours.

So, she entered FCI Dublin Tuesday, October 15, and Federal Bureau of Prisons officials tell us she'll be out October 27. Do the math, and use your hands if you must -- 13 days.

Pete Buttigieg is nipping at the heels of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren when it comes to campaign donations -- thanks, in no small part, to Mayor Pete's strong celebrity backing.

We combed through 2019 Federal Election Commission filings to find which celebs keep cutting checks for Pete, Bernie and Liz ... and Buttigieg has the upper hand.

Alyssa Milano is leading the way for Mayor Pete after throwing down $3,050 this past quarter ... while Michael J. Fox, Jennifer Garner and David Hyde Pierce all plunked down $2,800.

Zachary Woods is right behind with his $2,500 donation ... and Pete got $1,500 from both Anthony Rapp and Emmy Rossum, plus $1,000 each from Ben Platt, George Takei and Christine Taylor.

Josh Holloway's wife, Yessica, chipped in $3,000 ... while Thomas Lennon contributed a little under $900, Cherry Jones and Meredith Baker added $200 and Harvey Fierstein gave $100.

A$AP Rocky says he's a sex addict ... and has been since junior high school. Those are his exact words.

The rapper opened up to NYC host and Power 105.1 DJ Angie Martinez on her show, "Untold Stories of Hip Hop," and revealed the bombshell. It's no secret A$AP's been obsessed with orgies for a long time. He talks about it a lot, but this is the first time he's gone so far to say he's addicted.

In this preview clip, Rocky says he was always a horny kid. Angie presses him, pointing out there's a difference between being horny and being a sex addict. A$AP doubled down with his sex addiction diagnosis -- although it's unclear if that info came from a trained professional. Therapist, that is.

Jennifer Aniston just joined the world of Instagram by reminding everyone some of her best friends are their "Friends." Translation: First class clout chasing!

Jen created her first account Tuesday morning on the social media platform, and her first post was a pic of herself hanging out with Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry.

It's unclear where or when the photo was taken, but Aniston was on Howard Stern's show last week and mentioned that she and her former costars were able to grab dinner together recently ... so it might be from that outing.

Jen captioned her pic, "And now we're Instagram FRIENDS too. HI INSTAGRAM."

Netflix and "When They See Us" creator Ava Duvernay are being sued over the police interrogation technique depicted in the film because its creator claims the movie got his method all wrong.

A former cop named John Reid claims in his lawsuit ... the Emmy-winning film defamed him by saying his method was used to squeeze statements out of the Central Park 5 suspects.

In particular, he points out a scene from episode 4 where a detective and someone from the D.A.'s Office are discussing the interrogation of the suspects. The prosecution staffer says to the detective, "You squeezed statements out of them after 42 hours of questioning and coercing, without food, bathroom breaks, withholding parental supervision. The Reid Technique has been universally rejected. That's truth to you."

In the lawsuit, Reid says the technique he created specifically does not teach withholding parental supervision, denying interview subjects any of their rights or making threats of physical harm. He claims it specifically calls for extra caution when interviewing minors.

In the docs, obtained by TMZ, Reid questions Duvernay saying, "We did our research" before making the film by inviting law enforcement personnel to discuss the case. Reid claims if that were true -- Ava would have learned his technique disavows the type of things depicted in the movie.

Alex Trebek is clearly having some difficulties taking the reigns of "Jeopardy!" as he undergoes a second round of chemo for pancreatic cancer, but it is full steam ahead and there are no signs Alex is throwing in the towel.

Trebek's recent interview with Canadian TV fueled speculation his days as the host of the iconic game show may be numbered. He said chemo has caused mouth sores to erupt, making it difficult to speak. Alex has said repeatedly, if his ability to host the show diminishes, he will step down, but we're told that's NOT on the horizon.

"Jeopardy!" production sources tell us the show is taped 2.5 months in advance, and as of now, they have shows well into December. So, if Alex is under the weather and misses a few tapings, it won't send the show into freefall.

Lilly Ghalichi might not be heading to split city with her husband after all -- either that, or they just play nice around their daughter ... VERY nice.

The former "Shahs of Sunset" star and Dara Mir -- her estranged hubby who filed for divorce from her in August -- threw their daughter, Alara, a lavish party for her first birthday Sunday ... and really seemed to have a good time together.

In photos from the 1-year-old's "Glam Carnival" -- obtained by TMZ -- Lilly and Dara look ecstatic celebrating their girl, and were spotted sharing a passionate kiss.

Joe Giudice is bailing from the U.S., because we've learned he's on a flight to Italy -- TODAY!!!

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Joe got what he wished for -- a ticket to Rome that leaves the mainland tonight while he awaits the decision on remaining in the United States. BTW ... he's flying economy.

TMZ broke the story ... Joe wants to return to his native land so he can get work and send money back to the States to support his wife, Teresa Giudice, and their 4 daughters ... all of whom live in New Jersey.

Aaron Carter can't take direction well ... or so it seems, after losing his cool with paps.

The singer made an appearance at the "Marriage Boot Camp: Family Edition" premiere party Thursday night at the Mondrian Hotel in WeHo where things quickly went from 0 to 100. Aaron had just arrived, flashed a smile and then flipped the double bird to photogs.

It's unclear what paps wanted him to do -- maybe not flip them off -- but as you can see from the video ... Aaron didn't like it and chastised paps, "You don't tell me what to do. I tell you guys what to do." Aaron then walked away and gave paps a death stare.

Bill Cosby should have been ambushed by 27 women, who accused him of sexual assault, with "small, very sharp knives" during a 2015 TV interview ... according to one of the lawyers on the case.

The Montgomery County D.A.'s Office just released -- under court order -- emails regarding Cosby, and in one exchange from October 2015, obtained by TMZ, prosecutor Stewart Ryan responds to an article link sent by Deputy District Attorney Thomas McGoldrick about NBC's "Dateline" airing a joint interview with the 27 alleged victims.

Ryan replies with a joke about setting the disgraced TV dad up "To Catch a Predator"-style ... by inviting him to the interview, ambushing him and allowing the women to interview him.

McGoldrick takes it a step further, though ... by suggesting Cosby's accusers be allowed to "interview" him with knives.

Kenya Moore's returning for the upcoming season of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta," but it seems the war with her nemesis has fired up again ... even though Kenya says she comes in peace.

Moore was at Sally Beauty in Atlanta Wednesday for the launch of her haircare line, when we asked her about her issues with NeNe Leakes ... and she didn't hold back.

Kenya tells us her former friend has shown her true colors over time, but says she doesn't understand why NeNe's so intimidated by her.

She goes on to call Leakes a bully who's treated all of her 'RHOA' costars terribly, and according to Kenya ... NeNe has "very few friends" left because of it.

Spoiler alert ... Luke Perry's character just got a touching sendoff on the new season of "Riverdale" ... with the TV show bidding farewell following the actor's death.

The hit CW series said goodbye to Luke's character, Fred Andrews, during Wednesday's season premiere ... killing off Fred 5 minutes into the new season, and then giving him an emotional funeral.

KJ Apa's character, Archie, is sitting in Pop's having breakfast when he gets a phone call before dropping his phone and falling to his knees. In the next scene, Archie is at home when a cop tells him Fred was driving home to Riverdale when he died in a hit and run.

Evelyn Lozada has beelined it to court asking for a restraining order against "Basketball Wives" costar OG Chijindu.

Evelyn's filed legal docs asking for a temporary restraining order against OG in light of all their beef over the last few months. A judge has yet to rule on Evelyn's request for a restraining order. Evelyn's been down this road before back in September ... following a meltdown on the show's reunion.

As we first reported ... Evelyn sued OG claiming she's called her a racist bigot on social media ever since Evelyn posted a cryptic message back in September.

You know Marvel's "X-Men" as defenders of justice, but a TV show -- in Hungary of all places -- claims Wolverine and co. are guilty of stealing the theme song to their hit cartoon.

A guy named Zoltan Krisko is suing every media giant you can imagine -- Marvel, Disney, FOX, Apple, Amazon and more -- claiming the TV execs behind the animated series from the '90s jacked the intro music from an even older show ... called "Linda."

Bear with us ... "Linda" aired in Hungary from 1984 to 1991, and according to a lawsuit filed by Krisko it was a hit cop comedy/thriller. Hey, genres are different over there.

Anyway, Krisko says he manages the estate of a Hungarian composer named Gyorgy Vukan, who created and copyrighted the "Linda" theme song in 1983. Krisko says it sounds exactly like the tune the "X-Men" cartoon used years later.