Viral

A cyclist riding in New Orleans got hit by a stray bullet from a shooting nearby ... and the whole thing was caught on video.

Christopher Weiss was cruising along with his cycling club in NOLA, when all of a sudden he shrieked in pain and had to pull over. As it turns out ... he'd been shot.

One of his fellow riders caught the entire encounter on their mounted bike camera, as another attended to his wound. It's pretty crazy -- you can see the exact moment he was hit ... even though you don't hear gunfire.

McKayla Maroney says the racy video of her dancing around in some thong underwear was NOT hacked -- it was meant to be posted and she's damn proud of it.

The video first surfaced on her Instagram page on Saturday -- and people went crazy thinking the 21-year-old Olympic gymnast may have been hacked.

But Maroney -- an aspiring pop singer -- says she absolutely meant to post the footage ... saying, "I didn't get hacked. unfollow if u need to. all love."

JetBlue gave a family the ole heave ho off a flight after a dispute with flight attendants over birthday cake ... that left 2 little kids in tears.

The Burke family was flying out of JFK Airport to Las Vegas earlier this month when things got heated. According to Cameron Burke -- who shot video of the incident -- he and his family had the cake as carry-on. It was special ordered to celebrate his wife's 40th.

The Burkes say a flight attendant first argued with them over whether to place it in overhead or under the seat ... and then another attendant arrived and said it couldn't be on board at all. Cameron says that 2nd attendant, the "mean" one told him he was being "non-compliant" when he attempted to calm things down.

He admits he asked her, "Have you been drinking?" -- because he felt she was being erratic and irrational about a cake. In the video, you can see the Burke kids getting upset ... especially when police showed up.

Officers escorted the Burkes, who went peacefully, off the plane. A JetBlue spokesman told ABC7 -- which first reported the story -- the Burkes were yelling and cursing at the crew, and disruptive.

Cameron denies that, and says he's already talking to attorneys about filing a lawsuit.

Sean Spicer came back in a big way on 'Saturday Night Live' -- taking the podium to explain why Trump fired James Comey ... and to lock lips with his boss.

Melissa McCarthy returned for her 5th SNL hosting gig, and ripped off one of her funniest Spicer skits to date -- unleashing on the media over Comey's firing, and taking the famous mobile podium on a road trip to find out if he's getting canned.

The teen who scored a year's worth of free Wendy's chicken nuggets is getting advice on how to handle his new celeb status, and all those free nuggs!

Carter Wilkerson was on "TMZ Live" talking about the success of his #nuggsforcarter campaign and revealed his game plan now that Wendy's is hooking him up for his viral tweet. Then Harvey hooked him up with a better plan ... he thinks, at least.

The 16-year-old seemed open to the advice, but following through won't be easy -- not with all those vouchers burning a hole in his pocket.

Spirit Airlines shoulda seen it coming -- a group of angry passengers escalated their rage into a full-on brawl that included cops following the airline's cancellation of 11 flights at a Florida airport.

The incident went down Monday at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport where a damn near riot unfolded after passengers started yelling and pounding on the counter.

Attempts by security to calm the masses failed before cops stepped in ... only for cops to then get dragged into the melee. At least 3 people were reportedly arrested.

Spirit -- which also had 26 flights delayed -- is in the middle of a union dispute with the Airline Pilots Association and its pilots, who refused to fly out of protest.

A spokesman for Spirit tells us, "We are shocked and saddened to see the videos of what took place at Ft. Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport. This is a result of unlawful labor activity by some Spirit pilots designed to disrupt Spirit operations for our customers, by canceling multiple flights across our network."

Wendy's just rewarded the teen who tried to score a year's worth of chicken nuggets -- even though he fell more than 14 million shy of the restaurant's Twitter demands.

We ain't hating, since Carter Wilkinson DID beat out Ellen DeGeneres for most retweets in history -- 3,433,823 with his #nuggsforcarter campaign. Ellen previously had the record for her Oscars selfie.

Getting that record was good enough for Wendy's which said Tuesday morning it's hooking up Carter with a year's supply of free nuggs. Dude got a certificate and vouchers to make it official.

Carter started his quest last month when he tweeted Wendy's asking how many retweets he needed to score the deal. Wendy's said 18 million.

He got a nice discount.

11:05 AM PT -- TMZ has confirmed 2 more people have received funds from Nicki, with one payment being for $800. Everyone else waiting for theirs ... sit tight.

Nicki Minaj didn't just talk the talk (or tweet the tweet) -- TMZ has learned the rapper ALREADY started transferring thousands of dollars to college students who asked for her financial help on Twitter.

The story is great ... a fan sent Nicki a meme Saturday night on Twitter jokingly asking if she would fork over a check to cover some college fees.

Nicki replied, "Show me straight A's that I can verify w/ur school and I'll pay it. Who wants to join THAT contest?!?! Dead serious. Shld I set it up?"

As you can imagine, Nicki's timeline BLEW UP with requests from students -- and Nicki responded to more than a dozen offering to hook 'em up.

Some people asked for help with student loans costing thousands of dollars ... others asked for less in tuition fees, books and other school supplies. Nicki was pretty thorough in her questioning why these folks really needed the money.

We checked in with some of the lucky beneficiaries who told us Nicki has already started to send the money. She asked for bank info through the DMs, and one person we spoke with said he already got $500 from Minaj.

By the way, Nicki says she might open up the vault again in a month or 2 ... so, get those report cards ready!

"Veep" star Tony Hale, who plays Julia Louis-Dreyfus' bag man, Gary, is both worried and elated someone almost laughed himself to death watching the show.

Tony was out in Bev Hills Friday after news surfaced an Australian politician laughed so hard at an episode of "Veep," he almost died choking on a piece of sushi and then hit his head on a coffee table.

Tony also has a strong opinion on the better Veep for whom to work ... Mike Pence or Selina Meyer.

Edward Crawford, Jr., the man whose image became the defining moment in the Ferguson protests, is dead.

Crawford was found with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, and police are trying to determine if it was accidental or suicide.

Crawford's dad told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, "I don't believe it was a suicide," adding cops are being "hush-hush" about the investigation.

The photo symbolized the tensions between police and protester in the wake of Michael Brown's death. Cops hurled a tear gas canister at protesters ... Crawford picked it up and hurled it back.

Crawford was 27 and the father of 4 children.

President Trump didn't shy away from gloating after the House passed the GOP's new health care bill -- and, in fact, decided it was the perfect time to point out ... he's the president.

Yeah, it was kinda weird when Trump said, "I'm the president. Can ya believe it?" It might have been a rhetorical question, but we're guessing it had most of his critics shouting at their TVs.

Trump's braggadocious point -- Look at me, and look at what I've accomplished already.

WORST. WEDDING. EVER?

Or maybe just most memorable ... after the minister barfed in the middle of the couple saying their "I dos." It's unclear when or where the nuptials went down, but this video is making the rounds right now.

The bride's in the middle of reciting her vows to her groom when, out of nowhere, the minister upchucks. She was at least quick enough to turn away from the happy couple.

Bride's reaction makes the whole video though ... barely skipped a beat.

Danielle Bregoli is going after Walmart for ripping off her catchphrase, and plastering it all over its merchandise without paying her a cent.

The "Cash Me Outside" girl's legal team -- yes, she has one -- fired a letter off to the retail giant demanding it pull all 15 articles of clothing -- including tees, tank tops and hoodies -- from its online store in the next 5 days.

If Walmart fails to do so, Danielle's team says it can expect to catch a lawsuit.

Danielle's lawyers also want to know how much dough Walmart's already made off the apparel -- presumably to get a cut. They're serious about protecting her slogan ... which, believe it or not, just earned her an MTV Movie Award nom in the "Trending" category.

A Walmart rep says they haven't seen Danielle's letter yet, but it takes her claim seriously and will investigate.

Blink-182 guitarist Matt Skiba feels good about his band's decision to bail on the Fyre Festival, but horrible for the people who got stuck.

Matt was at LAX Monday ... he's no Nostradamus but says the band had a sinking feeling Fyre was bad news ... but it was still painful to watch the festival unravel.

Jimmy Kimmel was on the verge of tears during his opening monologue Monday as he described the terrifying experience immediately after the birth of his son ... who needed life-saving heart surgery.

Jimmy's son, Billy, was born a little over a week ago and seemed fine at first ... but hours later was diagnosed with a heart condition that required open heart surgery.

The comedian says Billy's pulmonary valve was completely blocked, and he also had a hole in the wall between the left and right sides of his heart. His first open heart surgery was apparently a success ... but Jimmy says he'll have to have more operations in the future.

It's a pretty emotional clip ... grab the tissues.

The people who are bellyaching about the Fyre Festival may be inciting civil unrest and even riots, and if they don't stop grousing they're gonna be in big trouble ... so threaten the festival's lawyers.

Attorneys for Fyre have fired off a cease and desist letter to at least one of the people who flew to the Bahamas for the festival. The person complained on social media ... communications on the island were non-existent and there was nothing but disaster relief tents that were on the verge of blowing over.

The lawyers said the statements were untrue and what's worse, could "incite violence, rioting or civil unrest."

And there was this warning ... "If someone innocent does get hurt as a result [of your postings] Fyre Festival will hold you accountable and responsible," adding, "Inciting violence crosses the line."

The letter makes a demand ... take the posts down -- or else.