You Might Want to Rethink

Bill Maher made an incredibly strong case Friday night that Hollywood is ruining itself by pigeonholing actors into narrow lanes based on their heritage, sexual orientation, identity, etc.

The "Real Time" host made his case and, frankly, you gotta listen to it because it cuts to the core ... that casting directors now take their cues from the casting cops.

He lays out his case, beginning with John Leguizamo, who was incredulous James Franco was picked to play Fidel Castro, saying "No more appropriation Hollywood ... Boycott! This f'd up."  Bill noted John, a Columbian actor, ain't Venetian but he played one ... nor is he a little French man nor an Italian plumber ... but yeah, he played them too.

As he says, "People become actors so they can spend their lives not being who they are."

He notes Sean Penn snagged an Oscar for playing gay activist Harvey Milk ... that was once considered courageous ... now it's the opposite.

Eddie Redmayne played a transgender woman, but he now calls that a mistake. Bill asks if the logical conclusion to that is transgender people can only play transgender people, yet that's clearly not something they would want.

Ditto straight people playing gay people ... something Tom Hanks says he now regrets. So can gay people play a straight romantic role? The idea is to get rid of the prejudice, not the roles, and for that allies are necessary.

On on the subject of Hanks ... should he have played Forrest Gump, who was mentally challenged?

Megan Thee Stallion has finally responded to Dwyane Johnson’s animalistic desires … rather mildly we might add … probably because she has a boyfriend who’s watching things really closely.

Meg was a guest on SiriusXM to promote her new — and controversial — “Traumazine” album when she reacted to The Rock wishing to be her “pet” as promoting his “DC League of Super-Pets” film with Kevin Hart.

An overly astonished Meg appeared to hear the Rock’s statements for the first time … which is kinda crazy, considering her boyfriend Pardison Fountaine nearly had a cow over the comment earlier in the week.

Meg said the moment solidified her celebrity but didn’t take the megastar actor up on his offer all the same.

In a comment-and-delete scenario on Instagram, Pardison admitted his joke about The Rock’s wife using food seasoning didn’t land the way he hoped and offered up an explanation.

The “Traumazine” drama didn’t end there, however. Ahead of the album’s release, Megan’s now former label head Carl Crawford aired out her manager T. Farris to close the curtain on their relationship with a bang.

Washington Commanders president Jason Wright just went OFF on a reporter over an interview the guy did with Carson Wentz ... calling it and the media member a "pompous, unprofessional mess."

"I recognize you have made a living on childlike provocation," Wright said in a scathing statement aimed at the reporter, "but it needs to be called out. Don't expect special access and good luck building rapport with the guys."

Wright's anger stems from a chat that 7News D.C.'s Scott Abraham had with Wentz earlier this week.

In the talk with the Commanders' quarterback, Abraham pointed out a lot of Wentz's flaws -- and then said during the sit-down "Philly didn't want you" and "Indy didn't want you."

Wentz didn't appear too bothered by the comments and questions -- answering them the best he could -- but Wright was obviously enraged.

"It's not that the guys can't take criticism," the 40-year-old said. "Just be a journalist and follow standard practices. Others have found a way to do both."

Wright went on to praise Wentz for demonstrating "grace & class" during the interview.

Wentz -- who is playing for his third team in the last three years -- is expected to be Washington's starting quarterback this season.

Yasiel Puig is clearly hoping he hasn't taken his last at-bat in the Major Leagues ... the former Dodgers superstar tells TMZ Sports he'd still like to return to the MLB following his current stint in Korea.

The 31-year-old, who hasn't played in an MLB game since suiting up for Cleveland in 2019, says he's very happy with how things are going in the KBO League -- but he said, candidly, "It's better to be in Los Angeles or in MLB."

Puig, though, knows he has to prove some things in Korea before he can get another look with an MLB team -- and he seems determined to make that happen.

"God put me in this spot to do the best I can to show people that I've changed from five or six years ago," the outfielder said.

Puig has been playing for the Kiwoom Heroes this season after signing with the team as a free agent this offseason, and he's been doing well, hitting .259 with 13 home runs in 85 games.

But, Puig admits some of his old issues are still cropping up on the diamond -- and he's trying his best to eliminate those so he can eventually get back in an MLB team's uniform.

Puig said if it takes another year in the KBO to ultimately show he deserves another shot in The Show -- he'd do it, telling us he's very grateful for the time he's had so far in Korea.

Rep. Eric Swalwell got a vile, hateful, racist, homophobic voicemail from a Trump supporter who advocated the beheading of him, his wife and kids.

The voicemail embodies the violence being advocated by some people on the far right who have advocated violence and even civil war in the wake of the raid on Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home this week.

The caller is straight-up racist when he drops Vice President Kamala Harris' name, and it's hard to even describe the vitriol toward numerous other Democrats, including the President and the Speaker of the House.

The San Francisco Congressman posted the voicemail on his Twitter account, saying, "LISTEN to this death threat against my children. Since the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, Trump, McCarthy and MAGA Republicans are stoking violent rhetoric against lawmakers and law enforcement. Someone is going to get killed."

Bizarre scene in the Pirates game on Tuesday night -- a player's phone spilled out of his pocket while he was sliding into a bag ... and his manager was pissed about it!

Pittsburgh second baseman Rodolfo Castro committed the blunder in the fourth inning of the Buccos' tilt with the Diamondbacks ... when he went head first into third base.

As the 23-year-old was reaching the bag safely, his iPhone flew from his back pocket ... and hit the base at the same time as he did.

Castro -- who was just called up from the Minor Leagues for Tuesday night's game -- was initially oblivious to it all, but had to pick it up after an ump pointed out to him that it was on the ground. He then handed it over to his third base coach, who didn't appear pleased.

Following the game, which the Pirates ended up losing, manager Derek Shelton was clearly not thrilled with Castro either ... telling media members, "This was just a kid who made a mistake. It’s just one of those things we move forward from and tell him, 'You can’t do that.'"

Castro, meanwhile, said afterward he felt "horrible" about the incident ... and added that it was completely unintentional.

Of course, outside of the unprofessional look of having a phone out during the middle of playing in an MLB game ... the league has become highly sensitive to technology use in the field of play (thanks, Astros).

"This is gonna be a billion-dollar company. I know it. I feel it."

That's Jake Paul proclaiming his new company, "Betr" -- aiming to not just turn the betting world on its head, but also sports media -- will one day be worth at least 10 figures.

TMZ Sports talked to the 25-year-old Problem Child and his partner Joey Levy ... who broke down the new venture.

"We announce our new company Betr which has two parts. One is sports betting and online casino and the other is a media content factory. We plan on taking over the sports world and changing it forever. Bringing new sports content," Jake told us.

Levy says Betr will focus on so-called "micro bets" ... which allows bettors to put money down on wagers during a game.

"We kind of view micro betting as the TikTok-ification of sports betting, and kind of like the final level of introducing instant gratification to the sports betting experience."

(Instead of betting on the Yankees to beat the Red Sox ... think putting money down on whether Gerrit Cole's next pitch is a strike.)

That's half of the new biz. The other part is Jake's show.

"We already got some big guests lined up for the next couple of weeks. Anyone from the heavyweight champions of the world in boxing to rappers. I'm bringing everyone on the show to talk about sports," Paul told us.

"I don't wanna do the long drawn-out sports show. I want it to be quick, easily digestible, you know, 20, 30, 40 minutes, and just fun. A fun sports show."

And, Paul says his show will be very different than any sports show that's existed in the past.

"These sports show hosts are stuck in their set, they can't get drunk and talk about sports, they can't curse even. How you supposed to talk sports without cursing? So that's where we're really changing the game."

The company has already raised $50 million ... with investments from some big celebs like Travis Scott and Ezekiel Elliott.

As an independent artist, Russ is always looking to maximize his results … including spending a whopping $1 million on his feature record with Ed Sheeran!!!

Russ released the video to his “Are You Entertained” collaboration with Ed back in July … and hopped on TikTok on Tuesday to break down a little Music Industry 101.

For Russ, the decision to drop big money into the song’s promotion was simple, Ed Sheeran is the biggest artist in the world, towering over The Weeknd, Justin Bieber and Harry Styles for most Spotify listeners at over 81 million a month!

But Russ says money still doesn’t equal hit records … claiming some of his platinum records had $0 financial backing while he wasted money on others.

For Russ' $1M, he says it put $300K into the music video shot in London while the other $700K went into Spotify, radio and other social media campaigns.

The video is doing well, at 17 million views on YouTube, and Russ says the pairing was organic -- having casually met Ed at a restaurant in London before becoming fast friends.

Last time we spoke to Russ, he was adamant about how artists should bank on themselves and should cut record labels out of their career equation.

Nelly and Ashanti appear to be putting a little salt in the wound that Irv Gotti is still dealing with upon learning they were dating way back when -- but it might just be a coincidence.

Here's the deal ... the Murder Inc honcho was N.O.R.E.'s latest guest on "Drink Champs," which just dropped. In preview clips of the episode, Irv could be heard recounting a lot of Ashanti stories -- including how he found out she had gotten involved with Nelly.

Unclear what year this was, but IG says he was watching an NBA game when he saw the two artists walk out and perform together -- which left him stunned at the time, as he himself was apparently romantically linked to her too around the same time. Sounds like he still has some sour grapes over it ... and about his complicated relationship with Ashanti in general.

More on that in a bit ... but first, fast-forward to Friday night -- where Nelly, Ja Rule, Ma$e, Ashanti, Lil Jon and others were headlining the "My 2000s Playlist" concert in Oakland.

Now, they were already on the bill, which was established well before the new "Drink Champs" episode -- but people still lost it on social media when they saw that Nelly actually brought out Ashanti during his set ... this after hers had concluded a few hours earlier.

Some are speculating this might've been a petty play at Irv's expense ... which may be true, especially when you hear Nelly's final joke about "floor seats" at the next NBA game.

Folks can make of this what they will, we suppose, but the timing of it is certainly not lost on people ... even though it may have just came together timing-wise by mere chance.

James Franco has been cast as Fidel Castro, something John Leguizamo says is an outrage ... but the film's producer's punching back, albeit with an explanation that's a bit confusing.

The news was announced this week that JF would be playing the late Cuban dictator, who came to power in the '50s and ushered in Communism. It sounds like James is going to portray a somewhat younger Castro ... and, of course, it's gotten some double takes.

Leguizamo was perhaps one of the most vocal critics, writing ... "How is this still going on? How is Hollywood excluding us but stealing our narratives as well? No more appropriation Hollywood and streamers! Boycott! This F'd up!"

He adds, "Plus seriously difficult story to tell without aggrandizement which would b wrong! I don’t got a prob with Franco but he ain’t Latino!"

So John's beef seems to be with the fact that a dramatized film about Castro can't help but humanize him, which he thinks is wrong considering FC's notoriously harsh regime ... but more importantly, James is a white dude. So the casting is already off to bad start, per JL.

Welp, he's just plain wrong on this one ... so says a producer of the film, John Martinez O'Felan, who tells THR that John's missing the big picture. What that larger point is, though, doesn't really come through all that well in JMOF's explanation, to be frank.

He says, "A guy like John Leguizamo has historically been looked up to by Hispanics as one of America's earliest actors of Latin descent since the 90s and I've always admired him as a fellow underdog. But his comments are culturally uneducated and a blind attack with zero substance related to this project."

O'Felan goes on to say ... "The reality of the ignorance piece falls within his statement suggesting his personal view on being 'Latino,' because a land mass or living area does not determine a person’s blood history or genetics."

He continues by saying Jon's words are "a great talking point because they represent the same confusion and identity crisis in Hollywood right now within the Hispanic community in America who are arguing that we should only identify as Latin, which is mostly because of the falsehoods being spread by the actors who are supposed to be representing us, but instead create division amongst their own people." Uhhh, what???

Yeah, it's a word salad of a response -- but from what we can gather ... he just doesn't have an issue with James being white, maybe 'cause Castro had Spanish roots. It opens a can of worms on whether Latinos can be considered white racially ... and yes, they technically can.

And for those pissed about the inauthentic casting here, that argument is sorta deflated now with the casting of Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe, another iconic historical figure, but on the American side. ADA still maintains traces of her Spanish accent in her performance.

"Have you ever seen a fat 90-year-old?" That's the question Bill Maher asked in a diatribe about obesity in America ... which he says is a full-blown catastrophe that is wrongly being embraced by America.

The "Real Time" host has talked about it before, but he really leaned in Friday night, scoffing at a USA Today story that said, "Scientists haven't yet figured out how to solve obesity." Bill was beside himself, saying it's about as obvious as the nose on your face.

He railed on body positivity, saying there's a movement in America to rewrite science to fit ideology, adding "fat is now celebrated."

He quotes a New York Times article, which says "Poor diet is the leading cause of mortality in the U.S." So, Bill says, anyone who embraces obesity has blood on their hands.

He was incredulous that Adele was dragged for losing weight ... which he says is just crazy.

As he puts it ... "Healthy at any weight is an unchallenged lie."

Just to be clear ... Anchorage PD frowns upon cops joking and taking selfies with potentially impaired drivers who flash a "white privilege" card -- instead of a driver's license -- as identification.

Yeah, this is actually a thing that happened. The dept just announced its findings after investigating the July incident where officers pulled over Mimi Israelah at 3:30 AM for weaving. She recorded video, which she posted but since deleted, showing officers Nicholas Bowe and Charles Worland laughing as she presented the novelty I.D. card.

One of the cops said it was "hilarious." Many people online had a much different reaction when Israelah's video went viral -- they were outraged and called on law enforcement in the Alaskan city to do something.

For the record, the cops said Israelah showed no signs of impairment, and they didn't give her a ticket -- but lots of folks thought they just let her off because they loved her gag.

If nothing else she could've been cited for not having a license on her while driving.

On Thursday, Deputy Chief Sean Case said, "We recognize that the [Facebook] post, what was contained in that post, caused a bit of a public uproar, and there were a lot of people that saw that and did not like that post."

While the 2 officers were found to have violated department policy, Anchorage PD wouldn't go further into specifics ... nor would they say what punishment, if any, they're facing.

Former Patriots O-lineman Rich Ohrnberger was so afraid of being cut by Bill Belichick ... he intentionally rear-ended a van while on his way to practice after running late to a team meeting!!

Ohrnberger -- a fourth-round pick in the 2009 NFL draft -- made the confession Thursday on the "The Hartman And Rich O Show" ... saying he purposely got into a fender bender so he wouldn't have to face the wrath of the future Hall of Fame head coach.

"I was driving a Chevy Tahoe, and it says I'm late already," Ohrnberger recalled, continuing, "Or, I'm gonna be. I'm like 5 minutes to being officially late, and I've got a 15-minute drive ahead of me."

Rich -- who only spent two seasons with New England -- said he was terrified of what the notoriously strict coach might do.

"I had this sinking feeling in my stomach," and the entire time, he kept thinking to himself, "I'm gonna get cut."

Ohrnberger said he noticed a beat-up van and came up with the idea that if he got into an accident, that would be the perfect excuse for why he was late for the team meeting.

"And I'm cruising down this slight sloping hill that brings you to the first traffic light," Ohrnberger said, "that I have to turn right to get to the stadium for the morning meeting."

"I see a church van in front of me that's all dinged up, and it's got the black smoke coming out of the exhaust pipe, and I'm just like, 'I'm gonna hit this car.'"

Ohrnberger said he figured it's better to deal with the consequences of the collision -- banging up his car, etc. -- than dealing with Bill scolding him for being tardy.

Little did Rich know ... the church van he hit had an elderly man inside, but luckily, the old guy didn't sustain any injuries during the minor collision, and his van was okay, too.

Royals pitcher Amir Garrett lost his cool during a game Tuesday night -- throwing his drink on a fan who he says had been heckling him.

The shocking incident happened at some point during K.C.'s 9-2 loss to the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field in Chicago ... when Garrett had clearly heard enough from a fan who he claims chirped him on his way into the dugout.

Video shows as Garrett was heading down the steps to take a seat on his team's bench -- he stopped to engage in an argument with a man in a gray T-shirt.

Suddenly, Garrett reared back and tossed what appeared to be water on the fan -- hitting a young kid with the liquid nearby as well.

Following the game, the 30-year-old reliever explained the interaction on his Twitter page ... saying the fan had "disrespected" him.

"Listen the disrespect is insane in these parks," Garrett said. "I really wish I could go to someone’s work and run my mouth. These are grown men talking slick. How miserable do you have to be with your own life?"

A person claiming to be the fan on Twitter said the altercation happened because he told Garrett that he "stunk" and that another player was better than him.

No word on if either Garrett or the fan will be punished ... the Royals and White Sox have yet to comment publicly on the incident.

Jon Stewart's passionate pleas for Congress -- especially GOP Senators -- did not fall on deaf ears ... as the Senate reversed field and resoundingly passed a bill to help veterans exposed to burn pits.

The former 'Daily Show' host turned up the heat on Republicans like Senators Ted Cruz and Pat Toomey after the PACT Act was shot down in the Senate last week ... and it looks like Jon's strategy paid off.

Last week's 55-42 defeat of the legislation suddenly became an 86-11 victory Tuesday when the bill was put to a new vote. The GOP tried to pass amendments to address what they claim was a "budget gimmick" Democrats cooked into the bill, but those efforts failed.

Despite that, the Republicans flipped and voted in favor of the PACT Act -- designed to expand healthcare coverage for veterans exposed to burn pits and other toxins during their service.

Remember ... Jon put GOP leadership on blast after last week's defeat, calling Sen. Toomey "a "f***ing coward."

Toomey and other GOP Senators, like Cruz, said they voted against the bill because they claimed it would create $400 billion in unrelated spending.

Sen. Cruz tried blaming the Democrats when we got him after the "no" vote ... and our clip lit another fire under Stewart.

It didn't take long for him to respond, calling BS on Cruz's claims.

Jon also got into a heated shouting match over the bill Monday just outside Capitol Hill, squaring off with media personality and conservative commentator Jack Posobiec.

Right before all this, Jon was being floated as a serious presidential nominee in 2024 ... an idea JS continues to shoot down -- but it's hard to argue his impassioned, vocal pressure didn't play a role in the Senate turnaround.

Alpine reserve driver Oscar Piastri is calling B.S. on his own team ... saying he will NOT be taking Fernando Alonso's seat next season -- just hours after the organization initially announced the move.

The 21-year-old Australian prodigy went to social media on Tuesday to address Alpine's statement ... saying it's not true and he did not sign off on it.

"I understand that, without my agreement, Alpine F1 have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am driving for them next year," Piastri said on Instagram.

"This is wrong and I have not signed a contract with Alpine for 2023. I will not be driving for Alpine next year."

The denial comes after Alonso's shocking exit from Alpine for Aston Martin next season ... and amid rumblings of McLaren's interest in bringing Piastri in.

Alpine's original statement read ... "BWT Alpine F1 Team confirms 21-year-old reserve driver Oscar Piastri as Esteban Ocon’s teammate starting from 2023."

"In line with the commitments made by the team to the young Australian, Oscar will be promoted to race driver and step in Fernando Alonso’s seat from next year onwards."