You Might Want to Rethink

Ted Ginn Jr. tells TMZ Sports if he wasn't so damn good at football ... he'd be an Olympic track athlete with a gold medal already on his resume -- saying he's beaten Usain Bolt before!

The new Chicago Bear spoke with us this week about his track past ... and says he had straight-up OLYMPIC speed in high school and college!!!

In fact, Ginn Jr. says he not only clocked a 4.22 40-yard dash back then ... he claims to have beaten track legends like Bolt, Jason Richardson and Kerron Clement as well!!

"I ran against Usain Bolt -- I got him when we was in the 12th grade," Ginn Jr. says. "All of the top guys that have won the Olympics between 2004 'til now, I basically had a chance to race them guys in high school."

Ginn tells us if he hadn't turned into a monster wideout at Ohio State and stuck with track instead ... he'd "for sure" have a gold medal by now.

As for his football future ... 35-year-old Ginn doesn't seem like a guy slowing down anytime soon there -- he spoke with us about his expectations for the Bears in 2020, and dude's clearly fired up for Chicago!

The U.S. Mint's decision to put the American Samoan fruit bat on the back of 2020 quarters probably seemed perfectly innocent ... pre-coronavirus, but now it's kinda creepy.

Here's the deal ... the 2020 quarter, which was put into circulation in February, honors America's Pacific Island territory, and features a cheerful-looking mama fruit bat and her pup hanging upside down.

The National Park of American Samoa is home to the species ... hence the currency shout-out. Only problem is we're all a bit freaked out about bats, considering one widely held scientific belief that the virus jumped to humans from bats sold in Wuhan's wet markets.

Before its release, the U.S. Mint said ... "The image evokes the remarkable care and energy that this species puts into their offspring. The design is intended to promote awareness to the species’ threatened status due to habitat loss and commercial hunting."

Blah, blah, blah ... y'know everyone just see bats and thinks pandemic.

The odd timing of the bat quarter's release is already fueling the conspiracy theory that the government plotted the COVID-19 outbreak.

For those who choose to believe that keep this piece of scientific fact in mind -- the Samoan fruit bats live far, far away from Wuhan's wet markets.

Carole Baskin wants to be a cool cat and kitten herself, so she submitted a clip for Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande's new music vid ... but she didn't make the final cut.

Here's the deal ... Justin and Ariana have a new music video for their quarantine-themed song, "Stuck With U," dropping tonight, and they've been asking for fan submissions to be included in the vid.

Carole and her husband sent one in, dancing to the tune with their cat and wearing animal print robes. Justin shared it on social media to promote his video, but that's as far as she's getting.

Sources close to JB tell TMZ ... Justin and Ariana will NOT be using Carole's submission in the final cut.

Carole Baskin tells TMZ ... some of Justin's friends asked if they would submit a clip for the music video, so she and Howard dressed up in their old Fur Ball gala outfits and filmed a dance with their cat, Pearlie.

Missing the final cut is news to Carole ... she says they weren't told one way or another if they made the cut, but she's happy Justin shared it with his followers and she hopes "it doesn't attract too many of the haters who have been bashing us since being misled by 'Tiger King.'"

Ariana perhaps summed up the whole thing best ... "for the record, I did not allow or approve this clip to be in the actual video. but. nonetheless. it exists and that's ..... unique."

Okay, so maybe murder hornets aren't THAT dangerous ... or maybe it's praying mantises we should truly be worried about. Either way -- nature is damn scary!!!

Here's video of an apparent Asian giant hornet (aka murder hornet) going head-to-head with a mantis and losing its head ... as the greenish-brown beast quickly strikes, kills and starts chomping away.

The years-old video has resurfaced online on the heels of the alarming news that deadly "murder hornets" have arrived in the U.S. and were first spotted in Washington state this past fall.

As we reported ... these giant Asian hornets are a threat to the bee population, as they tear up entire colonies by decapitating them and feeding the bodies to their young. Oh, and this is what one of them did to a mouse.

They also can kill humans with their venom -- reportedly up to 50 people a year die from their stings -- so it's easy to understand why folks are freaking out about them ... even if the executioner wasp is more dangerous.

Little did we know, we just need to sic praying mantises on their asses.

Elon Musk and Grimes can call their newborn baby son whatever they want, but on his birth certificate, X Æ A-12 is a no-go ... TMZ has learned.

According to a supervisor at the Department of Public Health Vital Records Office in Los Angeles -- where the baby is believed to have been born -- it is against California law to include numbers or symbols in a name.

The law states names must only include the 26 letters of the English alphabet ... obviously, the name Musk and Grimes are claiming for their boy does not meet that criteria.

As we reported ... the Tesla honcho revealed the news of the baby's birth and photos via a series of Twitter replies Monday, along with the odd name choice.

Grimes later explained the name was inspired by the A-12 plane -- a precursor to the couple's favorite aircraft, which was a CIA spy plane used during the Cold War -- among other interesting things.

That might all be moot now, though, as the kid's legal name will have to be something else ... unless they just shorten it to A for Archangel, or go with "metal rat."

Ya never know with these 2.

Joe Exotic woulda loved to see this ... his beloved zoo is packed to the gills, as hundreds flocked to his old stomping grounds for the first time since 'Tiger King' dropped.

A huge crowd was on hand this weekend at the zoo once owned by Joe ... it's now called Tiger King Park, and it's finally cashing in on Joe's Netflix notoriety and recent injection of fame.

There was a long line to get inside the zoo in Wynnewood, OK after it reopened under new CDC social distancing and sanitation protocols. The zoo had been shuttered by coronavirus restrictions and seems like people were ready to pounce when it opened back up.

Folks who were there tell us people and families came from all over the country to see what the hype was about ... and there were hundreds of new visitors.

Once inside the zoo, formerly known as G.W. Exotic Animal Park, most folks seemed to cast social distancing rules to the wayside ... face coverings were few and far between, and people crammed together to see the big attractions -- lions and tigers.

As you can see ... Tiger cub petting was in full effect, and people sat shoulder-to-shoulder as they patiently waited for a chance to play with the cubs and meet zookeeper Erik Cowie.

While Joe's no doubt the reason the zoo is buzzing again coming off his 'Tiger King' fame ... the long lines and crowds lined the pockets of the new owner and Joe's former business partner, Jeff Lowe.

Jeff and his wife, Lauren, greeted people as they walked around, and fans also got a chance to meet alleged hitman Allen Glover, the star witness at Joe's trial.

Sorry, Carol Baskin ... people still wanna see Joe's tigers.

Taco expert Danny Trejo is going OFF on Adam Jones for slathering his Cinco De Mayo treats in ketchup ... telling TMZ Sports that's THE WORST condiment a person can add to a taco!!

"You can do taco-anything," Trejo says, "but not ketchup!"

Jones -- a 5-time MLB All-Star -- posted a pic of his ground beef-ketchup delight on Tuesday ... celebrating the fifth of May while defending his choices for taco toppings.

"It’s my plate," Jones said. "I eat them how I want to. Ain’t a specific way. So gracias."

But, the owner of Trejo's Tacos -- a SUPER-popular taco joint in L.A. -- tells us Jones is dead wrong for putting Heinz anywhere near the tortillas!!

"The reality is that you can put anything on a taco," Trejo says, "but ketchup goes on a hot dog!"

In fact, Trejo says he's so appalled by the move ... if he saw the food crime go down in real life -- he'd buy the person's dinner just to make sure no ketchup touched the tacos!!

Video of a Los Angeles police officer throwing haymakers, repeatedly hitting a man in the head and body is sparking backlash and launching an internal investigation.

The brutal footage is from an arrest last month in the Boyle Heights neighborhood in L.A., and you can see the officer landing at least 9 punches to the back of the suspect's head while shouting expletives. The suspect cowers and asks, "What is wrong with you?"

The video, shot on April 27, starts with 2 officers detaining the man on a sidewalk outside a church. The male officer ordered the suspect to stop fighting, the suspect says he's not fighting -- and doesn't appear to be in the video.

Then the male officer unloaded the barrage of punches and profanities. Eventually, the female officer appears to put her hand on her partner's arm, seemingly urging him to stop.

The LAPD says officers were responding to a trespassing call.

In a statement, the LAPD says it's aware of "disturbing video" capturing the incident, which it describes as a "physical altercation" between the suspect and arresting officer. Cops say the suspect suffered cuts to his head and face, but refused medical attention, while the male officer sustained a hand injury.

The suspect and officer have not been identified, and cops say the man was released from custody pending further investigation.

DaBaby can't keep his hands to himself ... IF you believe a driver who claims the rapper attacked him when an argument quickly turned physical.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... the driver got a call to pick up DaBaby in Vegas back in November, and the rapper and some friends hopped into his Mercedes Sprinter van. We're told after a few stops, DB and his friends sparked a joint and the driver told them that's a no-no.

Cops say the rapper and his friends started cursing out the driver and threatened him. When they got to the Hard Rock Hotel, the driver told his passengers it was time to pay up. The driver claims DB punched him in the back of the head and said, "You ain't the boss."

Our law enforcement sources say one of the suspects said, "You're lucky you're not in my city because I would have killed you cracker motherf***er." We're told DB and co. got their bags, but not before someone allegedly said they "would have left him (the driver) dead on the road."

We're told there's now an active arrest warrant to bring in DaBaby for misdemeanor battery.

As we've reported ... DaBaby's had his share of trouble recently. Back in December, he was caught on video assaulting a hotel worker in Beverly Hills. DB defended his actions saying the worker was harassing him while he was in the company of his young daughter.

There was also a woman he allegedly slapped during a concert in Tampa. He apologized ... but for her, it rang hollow.

We've reached out to DaBaby for comment, so far ... no word back.

Kim Jong-un might not be alive after all and instead has a convincing body double -- so says one former member of parliament ... who appears to be pushing actual fake news.

Louise Mensch -- who used to serve in the UK government as a conservative a while back -- sent the body double theories into hyper-drive on Friday after she posted a would-be, side-by-side comparison that she claimed proved the guy who took that factory tour in Pyongyang last week wasn't actually KJU -- but another person entirely posing as him.

She pointed out the different brow, and other facial features ... but much of her claim was on the teeth themselves. In her photo, they certainly do look different. The problem ... her photo of Kim at the fertilizer plant isn't authentic and is almost certainly a doctored image.

We know this because we downloaded the high-res image itself and zoomed in with our own gear -- and it does NOT show what this woman's pic depicts ... namely, mangled and mashed up teeth that are vastly different from Kim's famous Bugs Bunny-like chompers.

As you can tell in an actually zoomed-in photo, those two long incisors are the same here ... it definitely looks like Kim -- and not whoever that other guy is up there in Louise's comparison.

That said, we still don't know when these photos were actually taken -- and it's hard to take government-run media there at their word that he's a perfect picture of health ... especially after international reports pegged him as either dead, brain dead or on his death bed.

We'll keep an eye out for Kim ... real or otherwise.

May the 4th be with you quickly turned into may the Lethbridge, Alberta police force have mercy on you ... when cops took down a Stormtrooper for including a toy blaster in her cosplay.

The crazy scene went down Monday in the Canadian province where a bar employee -- at the Coco Vanilla Galactic Cantina, no less -- was roughed up by cops. Someone reported seeing her with a firearm, and things quickly went south when officers surrounded her.

The video starts out calmly enough, with a man recording the bar employee -- who was out in costume for a company parking lot shindig in honor of 'Star Wars' day -- and joking around with her and asking her to do some Stormtrooper moves. She's half into it ... whatevs.

The crazy part happened moments later, when Lethbridge PD swarmed the scene with guns drawn ... shouting at the Stormtrooper and demanding she drop her weapon. She did, almost immediately.

What happened next is up for debate. Cops say the woman didn't follow their orders by getting down to the ground right away, but she and her boss argue she couldn't because of the damn suit (hard to bend in that thing) -- which she apparently tried relaying to the police on the spot. Eventually, she was able to get down.

The woman claims cops roughed her up as they put cuffs on her, allegedly shoving her face into the ground and making her nose bleed. Once all the commotion settled down, the cops eventually realized there was no threat -- and cut the gal loose without charging her.

She and her co-workers are pissed -- but cops say they were just responding to reports of someone with a firearm and were only doing their jobs.

Ketchup on tacos ... psycho move or delicious topping?!?!

Former MLB star Adam Jones is clearly all for it ... 'cause the dude loaded up his Cinco De Mayo tacos with the red stuff -- and had no shame about it!!!

Jones posted the pic Tuesday ... showing off some soft shell delight smothered in Heinz magic.

The problem??? Some people think that's a borderline criminal offense ... and the 34-year-old even got hate in the comments over it!!

"I know that’s not ketchup on your taco...." one fan wrote. "Your SD card’s gonna get pulled if so...."

But Jones, a San Diego native, was having none of the ketchup slanders ... firing back at the haters, saying, "you can’t ever pull my SD card. It’s my plate. I eat them how I want to. Ain’t a specific way. So gracias."

It all begs the question ... is ketchup on a taco fair or foul!?

The facts: There's ground beef, lettuce and cheese on a taco -- coincidentally, all the same ingredients on a burger that no one would have an issue putting ketchup on!!

"Ask a silly question" ... is what Kristin Cavallari and Jay Cutler are clearly thinking in this video, which proves the writing was on the wall a couple months before they announced their divorce.

TMZ obtained this clip of the now-estranged couple at an event back in February, where they were doing a meet and greet with fans in Chicago at Kristin's Uncommon James store.

At one point, a woman who said she was newly engaged asked for advice about being newlyweds and marriage. Kristin quickly blurted out a very telling answer ... "Don't do it."

Everyone had a laugh about it -- including Jay who seems very uncomfortable sitting right next to Kristin -- but it sure seems like she was being honest, based on what we now know.

Not too long after this she and Jay officially called it quits, with him filing for divorce -- but Kristin's since said in her divorce papers ... they were close to pulling the plug late last year. They made one last-ditch effort that went south in March. The split has been anything but civil.

As we reported ... Kristin accused Jay of "marital misconduct," which we found out pertained to them not agreeing on child custody. They're also at odds about a living situation right now, as Kristin wants money freed up to buy a new place of her own.

Her fans can't say she's not honest.

Cosmetic surgery is back in full swing wherever this woman -- who, shocker, goes by "Real-Life Barbie" -- got a serious balloon job done on her lips!!!

The patient is 22-year-old Andrea Ivanova from Bulgaria, and just try to look at her kisser. Painful, right? That's because she just got her 20th round of lip filler injections, and despite the fact they look like they're about to pop ... Andrea wants her lips even bigger.

Clearly, she's digging the work docs did for her ... as you can see in a video she posted of the aftermath. BTW, she's become a mouth breather ... the center of Andrea's lips can't even touch anymore

Of any future lip injections, Andrea says ... "My doctor said he will do more injections for me, but said I have to wait for at least two months," going on to explain that she while she loves her permanent duck face -- she admits it's been difficult to eat properly. You don't say!

She goes on to say, "I think my lips are lovely, I love them. I am not sure if they are the biggest lips in the world but they are one of the biggest, I think."

What's even crazier about this is what Andrea used to look like before all the work. Completely different person, and pretty normal ... relatively speaking.

There's probably a lesson here ... and whatever it is, we're thinking Andrea hasn't learned it yet.