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China's Internet crackdown on memes comparing President Xi Jinping to Winnie the Pooh is a major overreaction not worthy of even a bother ... according to the guy who gives Pooh a voice.

Jim Cummings -- the voice of Pooh since the '80s -- told us China and Prez Xi are taking the comparison all wrong, because it's actually a good thing.

The memes started with a side-by-side image of Pooh and Tigger with a 2013 pic of Xi and President Obama -- and took off from there. Well, up until the government started blocking the images on all public sites and forums.

Jim, who also voices Tigger, advises a smackerel of Pooh's favorite food to calm the sitch -- but with nearly 1.5 billion people ... might take more than that.

9:15 AM PT -- Ed reactivated his account. Looks like he's starting fresh by deleting tweets all the way back to April 3, 2015 and only with about 8k followers.

Ed Sheeran got beat like Ramsay Bolton in the Battle of the Bastards -- enough "Game of Thrones" fans lit him up for his singing cameo that he's bowed out of the Twittersphere.

Ed deleted his 19.6 million-strong account Monday night after haters bombarded him with criticism for the very brief scene -- which many thought was too real for the fantasy world of 'GoT.'

Ed did say he'd be quitting Twitter about a month ago, but the timing is still a little suspect. His other social media pages are intact.

Important note for the haters ... his performance couldn't have been that bad since Sunday's season 7 premiere broke HBO's viewership record ... up 27% from last year's premiere.

Here's what you need to know about this video ...

Howie Mandel and Larry David both have a "thing" when it comes to shaking hands.

Howie's got mysophobia and won't do it because of the germs. Larry's not a huge fan of handshaking either.

So, when they were leaving Craig's the other day after a meal with Doc Rivers, the group was discussing the proper way to say goodbye ... shake or no shake?

Ed Sheeran didn't stray far from his lane for his "Game of Thrones" debut, but not everyone is convinced he deserves two thumbs up for the performance.

Sheeran's brief appearance on the show is now one of the most talked about things about Sunday night's season 7 premiere. The reviews are mixed ... which is weird since he had a trivial role and stuck mostly to singing ... by a campfire, while eating rabbit.

Word of Sheeran's cameo role came out back in March -- and the show's had a bunch of other musicians on it like Coldplay's Will Champion and Snow Patrol's Gary Lightbody. So, maybe expectations were just too high.

9:21 AM -- Ryan just tweeted the injury is the result of a freak accident, NOT an injury he suffered doing a stunt or anywhere near the set of "Shooter."

Ryan Phillippe's learning the hard way ... breaking a leg as an actor ain't always a good thing.

The "Shooter" star is laid up in a hospital bed with his right leg bandaged up -- also looks like he has a cast around his ankle. It's unclear what he broke, but based on the hardware fixed on the leg ... we're guessing there was some surgery involved.

No word if it's a work related injury, but Ryan captioned the pic, "I'm going to be ok and I appreciate your concern." A few hours later he changed his tune a bit, tweeting, "this sucks."

Here's "Game of Thrones" star Alfie Allen -- aka Theon Greyjoy -- rockin' a NY Jets hat in L.A. this week.

When pressed about his favorite player on the Jets, Allen didn't know a damn thing about the NFL team and instead jokingly named soccer legend Thierry Henry.

There's only one explanation -- George R.R. Martin, the mad genius behind 'GOT.'

Martin's a huuuuge NY Jets fan -- die-hard -- and often blogs about how his team drives him absolutely crazy.

So, here's the theory: Allen's going Green to kiss Martin's ass so he won't kill off his character ... because as EVERYONE knows -- no one is safe on that show.

John Bernecker died when a planned fall on the set of "The Walking Dead" went horribly wrong, but there are conflicting accounts as to who, if anyone, is to blame ... TMZ has learned.

Here's what we know ... John and another actor, Austin Amelio, were shooting a scene on a balcony, and the script called for John to plummet 22 feet to the ground. According to police, there was a safety cushion in place below the balcony. Assistant director Matthew Goodwin told cops he missed the cushion "just by inches."

According to Goodwin ... John didn't appear to get good separation from the balcony when he started falling, and even "attempted to abort the fall by grabbing onto the railing with both hands." He told cops John's momentum slammed him into the bottom of the balcony and then he released his hands and fell ... landing on his head and neck ... right next to the cushion.

Production staff placed cardboard next to the safety cushion to cover the blood left after John's fall.

John's girlfriend, Jennifer Cocker -- who is a stuntwoman herself, but was not on set -- tells TMZ she's extremely upset with the production, saying, "Sets need to be safer. There has to be a prerequisite not to put a super professional stuntman with an inexperienced actor who doesn't know what he's doing."

Other stunt people we spoke to tell us there was a very experienced and respected stunt coordinator for the scene and it was completely safe. According to the cops ... John even gave a thumbs-up to signal he was ready to begin filming.

Amelio told cops he and Bernecker chatted before the scene and John said he'd never done a stunt fall from that height. He also said John "seemed a little nervous."

John Bernecker, a 'Walking Dead' stuntman has died ... TMZ has learned.

As we reported, Bernecker fell off a 25 foot high balcony Wednesday afternoon on the set of the show. He was airlifted to Atlanta Medical Center where he was placed on a ventilator.

The Medical Examiner tells us the 33-year-old died in the hospital Thursday evening. He was surrounded by friends and family, including his girlfriend who is a stuntwoman on the show when a ventilator was turned off. A source tells us earlier the swelling in his brain seemed to go down at one point on Thursday, but then it swelled back up again.

John had been on the ventilator since Wednesday, and the ME's Office tells us his date of death is that day ... July 12. The cause of death is accidental blunt force trauma.

The accident occurred at Raleigh Studio in Georgia and AMC shut down production shortly after the fall.

John put in nearly 10 years of stunt work in Hollywood and had most recently worked on huge movies like "Black Panther," "The Fate of the Furious," and "Logan."

Does Ryan Lochte think Michael Phelps will win his race against a great white shark??

"HELL NO."

The 12-time Olympic medalist was leaving the Treats Party at the Dream Hotel with his Playboy model fiancee, Kayla Rae Reid ... when he told us his Team USA bud is no match for White Death.

Phelps is attempting the 100-meter open-water race as part of Discovery Channel's "Shark Week" next week ... but Lochte says even the GOAT will sink against his non-human opponent.

We also congratulated the new father on the birth of his son, Caiden ... and Lochte tells us he's "so f**kin' happy" to be a dad.

The 'Walking Dead' stuntman who fell about 25 feet off a balcony was bleeding from his head and nose after the impact ... this according to the 911 call.

TMZ has obtained the audio ... and the caller, an assistant director on set, says in the audio they need an ambulance ASAP after John Bernecker fell Wednesday afternoon. The caller told dispatch John's breathing heavily and they can't tell if he landed on his back or head ... but said, "his neck is in the position where he landed."

John was described as "barely conscious" at the time of the call. The caller did not say if they were shooting a scene at the time but AMC said it's temporarily shutting down production.

Billy Bush is still unemployed, despite stories he's got a new TV gig.

There's a report out Billy is set to anchor a new Fox syndicated show, "Top 30," which debuts this Fall.

We checked with Fox, and they told us unequivocally, Billy's not the host ... "positively."

Fox hasn't picked the host yet, but we're told it will not be Billy Bush.

We know there was a meeting between Billy and his people and the Fox folks, but nothing came of it.

A 'Walking Dead' stuntman fell more than 20 feet onto a concrete floor ... suffering a serious head injury that sent him to the hospital.

John Bernecker was reportedly on set Wednesday in Georgia when the accident happened. It's unclear how he fell or if he was in the middle of shooting a scene -- but he had to be airlifted to Atlanta Medical Center where he's in ICU.

His girlfriend posted a Facebook message, saying ... "John deserves to be seen by every neorusurgeon and doctor there is until one of them sees the life we all know he has in him and bring him back to us... THIS ISNT FAIR."

John -- who specializes in high falls -- has also worked on "24: Legacy" and 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay.'

The wife of "Glee" star Dot Jones needs life-saving surgery after suffering a stroke she was lucky to survive.

We've learned the scary episode went down July 4 when Dot and her wife, Bridgette -- along with their daughter -- were home getting ready to go to a Dodgers game. Bridgette suddenly lost feeling in her face, and fell to the floor. They immediately called 911.

Paramedics transported Bridgette to a hospital ... which, fortunately, specializes in treating strokes and heart disease. Doctors found out 44-year-old Bridgette has a heart defect called patent foramen ovale -- or a hole in the heart -- which triggered the stroke.

Bridgette returned home Friday, but she has to have surgery in a few weeks to close the hole. Doctors expect her to make a full recovery.

Peyton Manning says he was pressured to REJECT President Donald Trump's invitation to golf with him last month ... but #18 didn't listen ... saying turning down the POTUS would be "un-American."

The NFL legend appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and said he happened to be in D.C. back in June when he got a call from the White House asking him to join Trump for golf.

"I gotta tell ya Jimmy, I had a lot of people telling me not to do it," Manning said.

"I think it would have been almost un-American to have said 'No.'"

Manning said Trump was a gracious host and they had fun golfing together.

When asked if Trump cheated -- as Samuel L. Jackson has previously alleged -- Peyton shot that down too and said he counted Donald's strokes.

The alleged Amelia Earhart photo featured in a new documentary about her disappearance does NOT solve the mystery ... because the pic was taken before she crashed, according to history buffs.

"Amelia Earhart: The Lost Evidence" claimed to have a photo, taken in the Marshall Islands, which showed Amelia sitting on a dock, possibly being held captive. There's a huge problem with that theory though ... according to 2 Japanese history bloggers ... who say they've found the photo in a book published 2 years before Amelia vanished.

Amelia crashed in 1937, but the exact image is clearly seen in a book in Japan's National Library -- a book which reportedly came out in 1935.

As we first told you ... another Earhart search expert had shot major holes in the photo theory.

The documentary aired last week on History Channel ... and the network's tweeted it's investigating the new info from Japan.

"America's Got Talent" contestant Dr. Brandon Rogers was a gem of a talent before his tragic death ... as you can see in his audition episode, which just aired.

Dr. Rogers' family wanted the audition to run, showing the young doc humbly taking the stage only to wow the crowd and all 4 judges with a fantastic cover of Stevie Wonders' "Ribbon In The Sky."

He gets a standing O from the judges -- even Simon Cowell.

We broke the story ... Rogers was killed in a car accident last month after his friend fell asleep at the wheel and veered off the road.