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Darnella Frazier, the teenager whose video of George Floyd being killed went viral, has been left shaken by a death at the hands of police once more -- but this time, it's personal.

The teen's uncle -- 40-year-old Leneal Frazier -- was struck in his car by an oncoming Minneapolis Police squad car early Tuesday morning as the cops were pursuing an armed robbery suspect ... an impact that ended up killing him, and seriously hurting the officer.

Leneal was not involved in the chase whatsoever -- he was simply making his way to his girlfriend's house through what some are saying was a residential area. According to reports, the cop car changed lanes heading northbound, hitting Leneal at an intersection.

Darnella's mother confirmed to local media that it was her brother who was killed -- and Darnella herself took to FB to share the tragic news with a devastating post.

She writes, "I honestly can’t believe I’m making this post right now...I’m so hurt...nothing feels real. I woke up to the most horrible news. MINNEAPOLIS police Killed my uncle MY uncle... Another black man lost his life in the hands of the police! I asked my mom several times “he died??”. I couldn’t accept what I was hearing and still can’t."

Darnella went on to describe how she was still processing Leneal's death, and how she was filled with sadness, adding this as well ... "Minneapolis police has cost my whole family a big loss...today has been a day full of heartbreak and sadness ... It’s not fair how the police can just go around killing people." She's also angrily questioning why cops were engaged in a high speed chase on residential roads.

Of course, Darnella's famous for being one of the few who recorded Floyd's murder under Derek Chauvin's knee last May. Her now-viral video was central to Chauvin's conviction, and also earned her several commendations, including one from the Pulitzer folks.

As we've reported ... observing Floyd's death emotionally scarred Darnella, so losing her uncle in another police-involved incident seems like textbook PTSD.

T.J. Newman wrote her first book about a thrilling flight from Los Angeles to New York, but her journey to get the novel published was a turbulent ride ... full of rejection.

The flight attendant turned author joined us on "TMZ Live" Tuesday and shared the personal battles that went into getting her novel off the ground. "Falling" is about an airline pilot whose family is kidnapped right before he takes off -- and if that sounds like a movie, Hollywood thinks the same thing.

There was a bidding war for movie rights, even before the book was released.

T.J. says she wrote more than 30 drafts, and was rejected a whopping 41 times before finally finding an agent to help get her debut published.

Well, it finally dropped today after what T.J. describes as a long and hard road where she didn't know what she was doing ... and naturally she's feeling grateful and overjoyed.

Rachel Nichols has been AXED from covering the NBA Finals ... with the ESPN reporter losing her sideline gig following her controversial comments regarding Maria Taylor.

Nichols sparked outrage after leaked audio from 2020 went public over the weekend ... when she claimed the decision to have Taylor host Finals coverage was due to ESPN "feeling pressure" about adding more diversity among on-air talent.

In the audio -- which was leaked by an ESPN employee to the New York Times -- Nichols is heard saying, "If you need to give [Taylor] more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity -- which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it -- like, go for it."

"Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away."

While Nichols apologized for her comments and praised Taylor on Monday, ESPN has decided to keep her on the bench for the 2021 Finals between the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns.

The network announced rising star Malika Andrews -- who's been an NBA insider since 2018 -- will take over the mic starting Tuesday night ... saying, "We believe this is the best decision for all concerned in order to keep the focus on the NBA Finals."

It's unclear if the move is permanent, but ESPN says Nichols will continue to host "The Jump."

How's Joey Chestnut recovering from his 76-hot dog, 22,800-calorie 4th Of July feast???

MIXED GREENS AND VEGETABLES, BABY!!!

TMZ Sports got the planet's greatest eater out in NYC just one day after he put away a world-record number of wieners ... and he told us the key to recovery from here is simply salads and greens.

"I'm still bloated," the 37-year-old legend said. "If I start sweating, I'll smell like meat. But I go in knowing that it's going to take a couple days to recover."

"As soon as I can, I'm going to start eating a salad, greens and high fiber."

It's a miracle Chestnut can even consider eating again at this point ... 'cause the dude consumed about two weeks worth of food in 10 minutes at the annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on Sunday.

In total, Chestnut plowed through 1,368 grams of fat, 1,824 grams of carbs and 836 grams of protein.

Chestnut obviously didn't feel wonderful -- at least physically -- outside of his hotel Monday ... and because of it, he seemed to hint that an ending to his eating career could be on the horizon.

"I tried pushing a little bit harder but I'll tell you what, last year I felt I recovered a little bit quicker," Chestnut said. "This year, I'm getting older and I don't know how much more I can push it while I'm getting older."

"It's like anybody. You have to be aware of your body.”

That said, Chestnut added, "As long as it’s still fun and as long as I’m healthy, I’ll be doing it. I hope I can keep making gains, but it’s going to get harder and harder. I can see that coming."

Claudia Conway's breathing a sigh of relief, and it sounds like her mom, Kellyanne Conway, is too -- the update on their relationship status is they're a-ok ... but probably still complicated.

The teen daughter of Trump's former advisor -- not to mention a rising TikTok star in her own right -- took to her fave platform to give her followers the lowdown on where things stood between dear old mom and her. As you know, they've had a tumultuous relationship over the past year and change.

Check it out ... CC says they're getting better with one another, explaining they've both gotten help they each needed, and are working through their differences. It's actually super encouraging to hear -- seems like the mother-daughter duo have had some solid heart-to-hearts of late.

Claudia also provides a bit of context on Kellyanne herself -- without getting into the nitty-gritty -- about stuff she herself has been through in her own life ... something her daughter appears to appreciate now, and which could possibly explain some of their blow-ups.

Their rocky run-ins are well documented. Between Kellyanne appearing to snatch Claudia's phone away mid-sentence (and subsequently grounding her from electronics) last October to the even more shouting matches Claudia captured in January ... it's been a wild ride.

The latter situation sparked a brief criminal investigation into what was going in the household, but nothing serious ever came of it. They did seem to make a bit of peace when Claudia auditioned for and actually competed for a bit on 'American Idol' -- and Kellyanne appeared on the show to support her.

A man unleashed a racist diatribe against a Black neighbor -- and even invited protesters to his front door ... but he might not have expected them to show up in droves, especially when he was being hauled off to jail.

Check out this wild encounter that was captured in Mount Laurel, NJ Friday, which led to an even crazier follow-up Monday ... when scores of people landed on this guy's driveway to decry a rant he'd gone on days earlier, who let him know what they thought of his venomous words.

The perp has reportedly been identified as Edward Cagney Mathews ... and he now faces criminal charges for a heated confrontation he had with one of his Black community members -- including alleged harassment and bias intimidation, over which the cops arrested him.

As for the initial face-off itself ... it's truly something to behold (in a bad way, we mean). Mathews hurls just about every epithet he can at the Black neighbor, including multiple uses of the n-word, "monkey" ... and even questions whether the man knows America's laws, saying "this isn't Africa" ... seemingly mocking what he perceived as a foreign accent.

It's unclear what exactly this was all over -- but in any case, you can tell Mathews took things way too far in what might amount to one of the most bigoted moments we've seen in a while. Even when what appears to be a security guard (or possibly even a cop) shows up to calm things down, he ratchets up the tension again ... demanding the guard put the "n******" in their place.

He told the person filming exactly where he lived, and encouraged people to show to find out "what (he's) about" ... and sure enough, they came rolling deep -- apparently protesting him for the past couple days ... to the point cops had to come escort Mathews away in custody.

That didn't stop people from unloading, though ... and we mean that literally. They chucked water bottles, garbage and debris at both Mathews and the police as they got into the squad car and drove away.

Paul Rudd once gave Seth Rogen a massage -- which might sound goofy ... but there's a twist that makes it all the more hilarious, the details of which Seth shared to much fanfare.

The actor/director dished on the hilarious story out of nowhere Monday on Twitter, telling the tale of the time his good pal, Paul, cloaked himself as a masseuse at a parlor Seth was at ... which he didn't really realize until well into the back rub.

In Seth's own words, he writes ... "Once I was in the spa in a hotel in Vegas getting a massage. When I finished I turned over and to my shock Paul Rudd was massaging me."

He goes on to give the nitty gritty of how the heck PR might've been able to sneak his way into such a scenario, adding ... "He saw me go in and convinced the masseuse to let him take over, thinking I'd notice immediately. I didn't, and Paul did the entire rest of it."

If that sounds like something Paul Rudd would do in a movie, turns out ... it's actually a stunt he'd pull in real-life as well. As the internet has pointed out, it's very on brand for him (and maybe for Seth too).

Of course, it'd be remiss of us not to mention that these two guys have some famous history with massage/beauty parlors ... perhaps most notably from "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" -- when they watched Steve Carell get his chest hair waxed off, a majority of which was real.

Hollywood heavyweights rolled through en masse for a 4th of July bash in the Hamptons -- courtesy of Michael Rubin -- and it was a who's who of fame ... and dancing.

The 76ers team owner hosted what might perhaps be the bash of the year Sunday -- a "White Party," where folks are encouraged to dress in all white, and rage til the early morn'. That's exactly what his guests did ... and they didn't pass up the dance floor either.

Check out these pics of the festivities, including who swung by for a good time -- A-listers like Jay-Z, Beyonce, Meek Mill, Travis Scott, James Harden, Yo Gotti, Jon Bon Jovi, J Balvin, Winnie Harlow, Bobby Shmurda and more showed face ... the latter of whom, our sources tell us, talked possibly collab'ing with Mr. Balvin. More to come on that soon, we're sure ...

The entertainment was top-notch, too ... we're told Meg Thee Stallion got on stage in an area of the property that was converted to a club -- plus, Lil Baby and Tinashe grabbed a hold of the mic as well. Even Cactus Jack got in on the fun ... DJ'ing for a bit and then doing an impromptu performance of "The Scotts" with Kid Cudi, who also attended.

And yes, like we mentioned ... these stars were showing off their moves, including JT from the City Girls and her boo, Lil Uzi Vert, who led the charge with a dance-off. Peep this.

LUV went straight up into break-dancing mode ... and the dude can get down! JT was filming him as he did his thing -- and safe to say, those watching were in awe at what they were seeing. Not only is he a good musician, but the guy can break it down like it's nobody's business.

Speaking of dancing ... TikTok star Charli D'Amelio was getting her groove on as well. JT filmed a clip of the 17-year-old grinding with her girlfriends, and she event twerked a bit too.

We don't know if we should crown this guy Dad of the Year, or Gutsiest Dad of the Year ... because he could easily fall into both for this incredible feat with his kid and a baseball.

Check out this insane clip of what seems to be a relatively new father holding his child at the Arizona Diamondbacks game Sunday, where they were in Phoenix facing the visiting SF Giants. Of course, when you go to a live game ... ya gotta look out for those foul balls.

They can come at you fast when coming off a player's bat at the plate ... and that's exactly what happened here for this fella. His instinct was ... catch the damn thing, barehand!

Watch for yourself -- he literally releases the baby that he's holding in his left hand/arm to reach up and snag the ball midair (which he successfully does) ... and an instant later, he swings his arm back down to catch the falling kid (again, he pulls it off somehow).

BTW, we forgot to mention ... Papa Bear here was also carrying a beer in his free hand -- so it's literally like a circus stunt. He spilled a little while making the amazing catch(es), but the suds stayed mostly intact. As freaked as people were, they were equally impressed.

Stephen Dorff came out swinging against Marvel and its latest big screen offering, "Black Widow," as well as its lead star in Scarlett Johansson ... for whom he says he feels sorry.

The veteran actor straight-up bashed ScarJo's newest flick in an interview with the U.K.'s Independent outlet ... saying, in part, "I still hunt out the good shit because I don't want to be in Black Widow. It looks like garbage to me. It looks like a bad video game. I'm embarrassed for those people. I'm embarrassed for Scarlett!" Tell us how you really feel!

Steve went on to add this for good measure ... "I'm sure she got paid five, seven million bucks, but I'm embarrassed for her. I don't want to be in those movies. I really don't. I'll find that kid director that's gonna be the next [Stanley] Kubrick and I'll act for him instead."

SD continued on with his diatribe, expanding the scope to include the film industry at large -- which he characterized as a "big game show" -- but his main gripe seems to be with what he considers selling out to the big studios ... and maintaining some sense of artistic integrity.

That's interesting coming from Steve ... seeing how he's been in superhero movies himself -- including a Marvel fan fave, 'Blade' -- but also another superhero film that many considered "garbage" ... his 2015 appearance in "American Hero," which was like a farce of the genre.

One could argue -- as many online are right now -- that Stephen's other film credits aren't necessarily Kubrick-esque either. He's been in a bunch of films that some might consider bullish and not-that-artsy (aka, B-films) ... including "Felon," "Carjacked" and lots of others.

The remaining section of the collapsed condo building in Florida has been demolished ... it went exactly according to plan and could actually help in the rescue/recovery effort.

Explosives were detonated in the middle of the night Sunday ... bringing down the remaining structure of the tower. Authorities made the move to get ahead of a looming tropical storm, which could have caused the structure to fall to the ground ... severely hampering the search.

Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett warned extreme winds could have destabilized what remained of the Champlain Tower South, endangering search crews.

Residents in nearby buildings were urged to stay inside and close all windows to prevent debris and dust from coming in.

The demolition could actually assist in the search efforts ... rescuers are now able to access the underground garage, which had not been accessible before.

So far, 24 bodies have been found ... 121 people are still unaccounted for, but it's been 11 days since the collapse and after the first few hours no one has been pulled out alive.

Search teams resume their work Monday

Miley Cyrus gave a solo performance in Vegas for the 4th, but she also joined a chorus ... as in the "Free Britney" chorus.

Miley hit the stage for the opening of Resorts World ... as she sang her biggest hit, "Party in the U.S.A." ... she added the Britney Spears chant -- "Free Britney!"

She sang, "The taxi man turned on the radio, he turned to me and said, 'Free Britney, Free Britney!"

The song has lyrics about Jay-Z and Britney ... Miley said, "We love JAY-Z, but we got to free this bitch. It's stressing me the f*** out!"

This isn't the first time Miley's supported Britney. During a performance on the NFL's TikTok Tailgate Super Bowl Pregame show, she screamed out, "We love Britney." She did something similar during a 2019 Memphis concert when she repeated the refrain, "Free Britney."

Mark Zuckerberg looks like a modern-day George Washington crossing the Delaware River -- but instead of sneaking across on a boat, he's tearing through on an e-surfboard.

The Facebook honcho posted an Independence Day tribute ... and it's patriotic enough, we suppose. The dude's riding one of those eFoil electric boards that basically lets you coast along the top of any body of water. He's super into it ... has tons of videos of him on one.

This time, he looks to be in Lake Tahoe -- where he owns a massive compound, right on the shore -- and as he maintained his balance going at a good speed, he was carrying an American flag with him.

He also overlayed his clip with John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" -- which is a great tune, and definitely screams 'Merica ... but doesn't really quite fit for this setting, at least in our minds. Maybe the Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA" would be more appropriate???

At any rate, you can definitely see the historical note he was going for here ... and we'll give him this, it's a cool idea. Twitter, of course, isn't really having it right now -- people on there are making tons of jokes at Mark's expense ... not to mention all the other tech billionaires having a ball with their cool toys lately. People really don't like the uber-rich these days. 😅

New Orleans will have fireworks once again this year -- this after almost having to scrap the show because of a lack of dough ... and it's all thanks to Will Smith, who threw down big time.

The actor -- who's filming his latest movie, "Emancipation," down in NOLA right now -- caught wind of the city planning on skipping this year's big firework show due to a lack of funding ... and, of course, they had to refrain from last year's show as well -- due to COVID.

He wasn't about to let that happen though, it seems ... the dude ponied up a whopping a $100,000 -- with the help of his company, Westbrook -- to help pay for the fireworks and for the festivities to carry on as originally planned -- which will come to fruition later tonight.

So, basically ... he's the local hero for this 4th of July, and the gesture didn't go unnoticed. He got tons of thanks from city officials, as well as locals who are more than happy to have their firework display back. The big boom will go down over the Mississippi River at 9 PM ET.

BTW, this movie that Will's working on right now sounds like classic Oscar bait. It tells the story of a slave named Peter on a Louisiana plantation, who escapes and ends up fighting for the Union in the Civil War. It's based on a true story too -- you've probably seen the photo.

"Peter" is also known as Gordon ... and he's the slave who posed for that iconic photo, showing off the whipping scars on his back -- which shed a light on the brutality of slavery.

Rachel Nichols -- a star anchor for ESPN, covering all things NBA -- was caught on camera last year talking to LeBron James' publicist about how to prevent a fellow female anchor, who's Black, from taking over her job during the Finals ... and the fallout seems devastating.

The New York Times published a bombshell report Sunday, detailing the drama at the sports network over the past year and change ... this after a video of Nichols talking to Adam Mendelsohn was secretly recorded by an ESPN employee, leaked ... and spread like wildfire.

Nichols was working/filming from a hotel room last May just as the NBA Playoffs were getting underway (due to the pandemic) and it appears she left her camera on somehow, and the thing was still recording when she had this chat with Mendelsohn ... with the feed going back to the ESPN studio, where somebody captured the damning words exchanged.

In the first snippet posted by the Times, you can hear Nichols venting to Mendelsohn -- who's a PR/comms wiz -- about how ESPN had approached her with the idea of doing sideline reporting during the Finals that year, as opposed to hosting -- a task Nichols has shared on and off lately with Maria Taylor, another rising star ... who's African-American.

Check out the convo ... Nichols basically says she declined ESPN's offer, because she knew it would make way for Maria to handle hosting duties full-time, essentially pushing Nichols out of the picture ... something she was clearly not down for, as she wanted to maintain her gig.

Nichols goes on to say of Maria shortly thereafter ... "If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity -- which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it -- like, go for it." She adds, "Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away."

In a 2nd audio snipped ... Mendelsohn is heard giving advice to Nichols about how she could frame the dynamic of ESPN pitting two females against each other in order to gain leverage, even if it would potentially be at Maria's expense. He also had some interesting thoughts on #MeToo and BLM, saying he had "nothing left" and was exhausted ... in what sounds like what he (and perhaps Nichols) considered phony pandering/appeasing at the executive level.

After this video/audio was spread around among ESPN workers internally, it eventually reached the higher ranks ... and the NYT reports the network has been in damage control mode ever since, with fears that Nichols might sue -- and that Taylor might leave entirely.

Bill Cosby has weighed in on the drama over his one-time costar, Phylicia Rashad, and her new bosses at Howard University ... agreeing that if they can her, they gotta refund him.

The freshly-released Cosby tweeted about the fallout from Phylicia's controversial comments last week -- in which she ecstatically celebrated Bill's conviction being overturned, calling it "justice" -- and he did so by simply concurring with another person's POV on the sitch.

Singer/actress Stephanie Mills actually spilled on how she felt about it, writing ... "I love you @phyliciarashad ❤️❤️❤️. If it’s true that Howard University wants to terminate her Position  because they feel her comments about Mr. Cosby were insensitive, then they should give back the millions of dollars that he donated to the university."

Cosby responded to that quite simply, writing ... "Thank you @iamstephaniemills your voice has always been powerful!" So, in other words, he seems to be fully in her corner on that.

A quick note ... it's not entirely clear how much, if any, dough Cosby has given Howard -- there doesn't seem to be any hard numbers on a donation. That doesn't mean he hasn't chipped in though -- and we know he's been generous when donating to HBCUs.

He famously gave Spelman College $20 million in 1998 -- also, he's an honorary degree holder at Howard. So, it's not outside the realm of possibility he's lined their pockets before.

The funny thing about Bill rushing to Phylicia's defense here ... we're almost certain she doesn't want it -- at least not publicly anyway. She low-key put this matter to bed this past week ... removing her "FINALLY" tweet, and even apologizing to the Howard student body.

So, BC reopening the scab like this probably isn't doing her any favors. If anything, she probably doesn't want Bill's name and Howard brought up in the same sentence around her at all. BTW ... it doesn't look like Howard will fire PR ... they admonished her and that's it.