Viral

Transgender model Isis King is taking a strong stance in support of 'Survivor' contestant Zeke Smith after his televised outing, because she went through the same thing on "America's Next Top Model."

Isis was the first transgender contestant on 'ANTM' in 2008. She was outed on TV, and some rival models refused to acknowledge her transition. Tyra later funded her reassignment surgery.

Isis says Jeff Varner put unfair pressure on Zeke, especially because his being trans had NOTHING to do with winning or losing 'Survivor.'

She did say there's ONE situation where it's relevant, and we highly doubt it applies to tribal council.

Rosa Parks changed the course of American history while Dr. David Dao MIGHT change United Airlines' policy, so it's insulting to compare them at all ... so says Rosa's niece.

Urana McCauley tells TMZ what happened to Dao on the United flight is wrong and unfortunate, but it's by no means even remotely close to what her aunt endured as a civil rights pioneer.

Dao's attorney raised a lot of eyebrows Thursday when he quoted a supporter who called Dao the "modern day Asian" version of Parks.

The analogy bombed at the news conference, and ditto with Urana ... who makes a compelling case here for it to NEVER happen again.

Dr. David Dao's attorney dared to go there ... bringing up a comparison of Dao's brutal removal from a United flight to the plight of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks.

It happened during the nearly hour long news conference in Chicago -- Tom Demetrio mentioned an email from a Dao supporter, who suggested the doctor is the "modern day Asian" version of the great Rosa Parks.

Now, Demetrio was quick to distance himself from that remark, but still -- there's clearly a reason he mentioned it in the first place.

The question ... did it backfire?

United passenger David Dao is pulling out the heavy artillery Thursday as his lawyers and daughter get in front of reporters, and there's a likelihood they will announce a lawsuit against United and the city of Chicago.

Dao's daughter will speak to reporters at 10 AM CT, along with Dao's lawyers. One lawyer is especially significant -- Tom Demetrio, a renowned aviation lawyer who has handled scores of personal injury cases related to airline mishaps.

Demetrio -- the former Prez of the Chicago Bar Ass'n -- filed legal docs Wednesday, asking a judge to order United to retain all videos, cockpit voice recordings, passenger and crew lists, incident reports, police documents related to the incident, and personnel files for the officers involved in removing Dao.

The documents are a prelude to a lawsuit, and it's virtually certain the 2 law firms Dao hired were retained to go after United and the city, which operates the Chicago Dept. of Aviation.

We're told a lawsuit is certain, unless United and the City of Chicago ante up a big check, but that's unlikely.

The guy who created Wall Street's "Charging Bull" says the neighboring "Fearless Girl" statue is screwing with his art, and he's demanding NYC pay him for his trouble.

Sculptor Arturo Di Modica is really pissed about the location of "Fearless Girl" and fired off a pretty threatening letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio. In the letter, obtained by TMZ, he says he was never consulted about the new art piece, despite the fact it's clearly capitalizing on its proximity to the 'Bull.'

He believes she was made out of bronze to make her seem like she's packaged with the 'Bull.' Arturo's not down with that because he says it now seems like his 'Bull' is attacking a child.

Furthermore, Arturo notes the people behind 'FG' know they're taking advantage of his art piece because their original promotion said where she was placed "made her impossible to ignore."

He wants her immediately moved and he wants the city to pay him an undetermined amount in damages. Arturo says he wants to settle this amicably, but we smell lawsuit.

As for Bill de Blasio -- he's making it clear he stands behind "Fearless Girl." And that's no bull.

David Dao is making his first legal move against United ... demanding the airline preserve all evidence related to his bloody incident.

TMZ has learned the doctor's lawyers filed documents in a Chicago court demanding United preserve all surveillance video on board the flight, the cockpit voice recording, the passenger list, the crew list and all incident reports United prepared.

Dao and his attorneys also want all police documents relating to the incident, United protocols regarding removing passengers and personnel files of the officers who dragged Dao.

This is clearly a prelude to the lawsuit he said he'd file against the airline ... and now, most likely, the city of Chicago too.

2:00 PM PT -- Chicago Dept. of Aviation has placed 2 more officers on administrative leave until further notice as part of its ongoing review of the Dao incident. One had already been suspended.

Charlie Murphy's legacy of being a seriously funny guy is being remembered in all sorts of ways by his friends including Chris Rock, Gabrielle Union, MC Hammer and many more ...

United flight attendants are shocked David Dao was brutalized and bloodied because police could have prevented any injury if they had a clue about the plane they boarded.

We spoke to several United employees who say the officers should have known the armrests on those seats are movable. Remember, Dao's head slammed into the armrest, causing at least some of his injuries.

The flight attendants point out the cops could have effortlessly lifted the armrest before forcibly removing Dao ... who appeared to get hung up on the middle seat armrests before hitting the one on the aisle.

The employees we spoke to made it clear they believe Dao should've been removed, but they're fuming at how it was handled.

United's CEO says they're reviewing its procedures in these situations, but flight attendants think it's the police who need more training.

The United passenger who was bloodied and dragged off a jet by cops dared the officers to drag him off the plane and take him to jail.

David Dao was confronted by officers at O'Hare Airport when he refused to get off the plane. You hear him say, "I won't go. I'm physician, have to work tomorrow, 8 o'clock."

United's CEO, Oscar Munoz, is promising cops will never board another one of his flights to remove a booked passenger again.

Munoz also apologized again to Dr. David Dao, his family and all passengers who witnessed the now infamous dragging of Dao. During his 'GMA' interview ... he added the airline would be looking into policy changes ... including the forceful removal of passengers.

He's clearly aware of the social media backlash over his initial use of "re-accommodate" to describe the incident, and made an effort to explain the poor choice of words.

"Black-ish" star Deon Cole has the Midas touch -- he just flew on United from Chicago and lived to talk laugh about it.

The actor was out in Bev Hills Tuesday when our photog asked about United's epic fail.

Deon confessed he had just flown from Chi-town to L.A. and the experience was "stressful as hell."

Matt Stout -- a 12-year poker pro with over $1.4 million in WSOP earnings -- got his butt kicked once by the passenger who was savagely yanked off the United Airlines flight.

Stout tells TMZ he was in a poker tourney with Dr. David Dao in 2009, and both made the final table ... but Dao got there with a crazy, fearless style. Stout says he lost most of his chips to Dao when they were down to 3 players at the table ... which kept Stout from winning the tourney.

Dao finished second and won more than $117k.

Stout remembers Dao as a quiet guy who kept to himself -- despite his maverick style of playing -- which made the video of the United Airlines incident way more shocking to him.

United Airlines' CEO is taking a much more apologetic stance about the doctor who was forcibly dragged off a United plane, and promising to make big changes.

Oscar Munoz issued a statement saying ... "The truly horrific event that occurred on this flight has elicited many responses from all of us: outrage, anger, disappointment. I share all of those sentiments, and one above all: my deepest apologies for what happened." He extended the apology to Dr. David Dao and all passengers on the Sunday flight.

Munoz went on to say United takes full responsibility for the incident, and promises to look into better methods to deal with anything like this in the future.

On Monday, as the backlash against United was building, Munoz emailed all employees to say he fully stood behind the crew members' actions in dealing with Dao.

His tone's changed now, saying ... "It's never too late to do the right thing" and "we are going to fix what's broken so this never happens again." Interestingly, he says they'll review polices on incentivizing volunteers in overbooking situations.

Translation: Offering more money could be an easier way to diffuse these matters.

United Airlines is taking a nosedive on Wall Street -- and could lose more than $800 million today -- on the heels of David Dao getting bloodied and dragged off a United flight.

United's shares were down as much as 4% Tuesday morning, which -- if it continues -- can wipe about $830 million off the company's market cap. Other airlines' stock values are down as well, but United is down almost 3 times more.

Hard not to connect the plummet with public outrage over cops forcibly dragging Dao Sunday off the United jet in Chicago.

The airline's CEO is standing behind the flight's crew members who called airport police to remove Dao.

Anyone who thought Ludacris was trying to pull a fast one with some super obvious CGI abs in his new video just doesn't know him very well ... according to Luda himself.

We got the rapper Monday night leaving Catch, and our camera guy asks what basically everyone was thinking yesterday when his "Vitamin D" vid dropped ... what's up with those fake ass abs, though?

Ludacris ends the speculation with a reminder of another famous music video he did where he rocked some enhanced body parts. Get back to us when it clicks.

The officer who forcibly removed the United Airlines passenger Sunday night at O'Hare International has just been placed on leave pending an investigation.

The Chicago Department of Aviation said Monday that "the incident on United flight 3411 was not in accordance with our standard operating procedure and the actions of the aviation security officer are obviously not condoned by the Department."

It's unclear which officer the CDA is referring to ... but videos from multiple witnesses on the plane show a man in plain clothes violently grabbing the passenger and dragging him down the aisle ... as 2 uniformed officers follow behind.

Chicago PD said the man started yelling before Aviation Officers tried to forcibly remove him.