You Might Want to Rethink

Lance Armstrong wants to have his say on the transgender sports debate -- and he's partnering with Caitlyn Jenner to do it ... but people online are telling him to shut it.

The former champion cyclist -- whose accolades were, by and large, rescinded after he was found to have been doping through a decent amount of his career -- teased a new project he appears to have in the works ... one in which he's getting into the polarizing topic.

His key subject, it seems, is going to be Caitlyn ... who's been very outspoken on having trans women competing in women's sports, and who's obviously transgender herself.

Right off the bat, LA's tone to this whole thing has turned people off. He writes, "Have we really come to a time and place where spirited debate is not only frowned upon but feared? Where people’s greatest concern is being fired, shamed, or canceled? As someone all too familiar with this phenomenon, I feel I'm uniquely positioned to have these conversations."

He followed up with more tweets, sorta answering his own Q ... and plugging this new series he's got coming out. One tweet that's got a lot of reaction reads, "Is there, not a world in which one can be supportive of the transgender community and curious about the fairness of Trans athletes in sport yet not be labeled a transphobe or a bigot as we ask questions?

He continues, "Do we yet know the answers? And do we even want to know the answers?"

Now, Lance is trending on the Bird app ... for all the wrong reasons. You can hop into the trend to see what people are saying for yourself -- but it essentially boils down to ... dude, you're the last person who should be commenting on fairness in sports. Like, c'mon.

Of course, they're referring to his PED scandal in the early 2010s ... which he denied for a long time -- but ultimately confessed to. As most of us know, a majority of his titles between '99 and 2005 were stripped ... and his legacy as an inspirational winner was dinged.

Taylor Swift did something super interesting during her performance Saturday night in Minneapolis ... she urged fans to lay off one of her exes.

Taylor has one song which is a surprise to her fans each night at her "Eras" concerts, and Saturday's was "Dear John"-- a biting song about ex-flame John Mayer.

Taylor clearly had bad feelings about John when she wrote the tune, but on Saturday her tune changed. She told the crowd, "I'm 33 years old. I don't care about anything that happened to me when I was 19. I'm not putting this album out so you can go on the internet and defend me against someone you think I wrote a song about someone 14 million years ago."

Taylor explained she was re-recording "Speak Now" which includes "Dear John" because she wants to own her own music, but she clearly says she's not interested in trashing him.

Lana Del Rey royally pissed off her fans in jolly old England over the weekend, because she showed up late for her music set, told concert goers she was gonna have to rush through her set, her mic was cut off and she was eventually escorted away by security.

The video shows how ridiculous she was ... she was one of the headliners at the Glastonbury Music Festival where tens of thousands of fans paid good money to enjoy music, and here was Lana ... 30 minutes late and up against a midnight curfew.

When she came out, her excuse was shocking ... "I was so f**king late that I am about to rush this set today if they cut power. I'm super f**king sorry, my hair takes so long to do!"

Well, she performed and Glastonbury was true to form ... after 15 minutes, when the clock struck 12, her mic was cut.

Lana then decided to do an end run and have the crowd sing her music, which they obligingly did -- to her song, "Video Games," -- and then security stepped in and gently escorted her away.

She tried to thank people in the front row, but people were clearly pissed. You hear lots of boos, and rightly so.

Matty Healy was called out in a big way this weekend ... getting dragged across the coals by none other than one of his fellow labelmates, who put him on blast at Glastonbury.

Singer Rina Sawayama didn't mention Matty by name Saturday during her set, but there's simply no question who she was referring to as she was leading up to her song, 'STFU.'

Before going in on the first verse, she said ... "I wrote this because I was sick & tired of these micro-aggressions. This goes out to a white man that watches Ghetto Gaggers & mocks Asian people on a podcast. He also owns my masters! I've had enough!"

The crowd started losing it ... and Rina then launched into a passionate performance.

Of course, people on Twitter were even more turned up ... not only is she trending right now, but Matty is as well -- and people are giving her kudos for calling out what many have labeled problematic behavior of his for a good while, especially as it pertains to race.

The reference to "ghetto gaggers" comes from a podcast Matty appeared on earlier this year -- where he cracked jokes about watching the porn site .. which many considered insensitive.

Not just that ... but he was also yukking it up with the podcast hosts as they mocked Asian accents, all while disparaging Ice Spice. Matty was laughing along to the whole thing -- and he's been getting called out for that as well ... especially amid his romance with Taylor Swift.

Many of Taylor's fans didn't approve of her relationship with him ... and were calling on her to dump the dude. Big picture, the feeling was that he wasn't good for her squeaky clean brand.

As we reported ... the two of them broke up last month after about a month and change of seeing each other. We'd also heard the podcast controversy didn't play a factor in the split.

TS is still touring and getting on with things, and ditto for Matty -- who's been performing with his band, The 1975. All the backlash he'd been facing up until that point had mostly fizzled out -- that is, until Rina here brought it back up again ... in passionate terms, no less.

As for her claim about him owning her masters -- it's unclear what she's getting at. Yes, The 1975 was also signed to her label, Dirty Hit, but there's no indication, publicly at least, that Matty's a label head there. Perhaps Rina's aware of something the rest of us aren't.

Jim Jones has words for Pusha T after the dude dissed him on Pharrell's high-fashion runway last week -- and it sounds like things are getting personal ... and possibly even ugly.

A new clip of what appears to be JJ's response to PT leaked online this week ... it's a brief snippet of Jim dropping bars, and perhaps even shooting a video. Like we said, it's just a small sample of the overall track -- but on its face, he's getting in the mud to fire back.

Check it out yourself ... Jim references/makes fun of Push's collaboration with McDonald's while going on to slam his last album, "It's Almost Dry," by essentially calling it trash.

He then mentions Clipse -- Pusha's rap group with his brother, No Malice -- and has this to say ... "Trying to bring the Clipse back // Talking ‘bout your brother, what happened to that boy? // It looking like they be selling crack to that boy."

Yeah, on its face ... Jim is accusing Malice of once being a drug user. Him and Push have made a name for themselves by rapping about selling drugs -- but Jim's suggesting at least one of them did more than that. Considering Malice has, by and large, left rap behind ... ya gotta imagine his brother is gonna take this one to heart, and most likely respond with more venom.

Now, as for how all this started ... it dates back to April, when Jim hopped on a podcast and said Pusha T shouldn't be considered a Top 50 rapper of all time -- pooh-poohing his music.

During Pharrell's debut LV men's line in Paris this past week ... Push and Malice dropped a new Clipse track, and many considered his bars aimed at Jim directly -- presumably in response to what Jim had said in the spring.

James Cameron is going to catch a lot of heat for this ... he just blamed the Titanic-bound submersible tragedy on the captain, callously comparing it to the famous shipwreck.

The "Titanic" director shared his hot take on the submersible's deadly implosion, which killed all 5 people onboard, with ABC ... and it's shocking to hear.

James says ... "I'm struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field."

In short, James is blaming the tragedy on OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush .. who piloted the Titan submersible on the ill-fated mission.

James is considered a bit of an expert in this field ... in addition to winning Oscars for "Titanic," he also made 33 dives to the bottom of the Atlantic to see the shipwreck up close.

Some folks are critical of OceanGate and Stockton for exploring 2.5 miles below the surface in a tiny submersible navigated with consumer product parts, and James seems to be in that camp.

Travis Kelce says Ja'Marr Chase gave the Kansas City Chiefs some prime bulletin board material after dissing Patrick Mahomes last week ... warning the Bengals receiver he better back up his words on the field -- or it's gonna get ugly.

Remember, the former LSU star sparked some drama over his "Pat who??" comments when he was asked about the best player in the NFL ... to which Mahomes responded with a pic wearing his Super Bowl rings, saying, "That's who."

Kelce addressed the beef on his "New Heights" podcast with his brother, Jason, this week ... saying, "I thought it was a little bold. The guy is a two-time league MVP, two-time Super Bowl MVP."

"It is what it is, dog. Who doesn't love some good locker room banter, man?" he added. "Shoutout to Ja'Marr Chase for holding it down for his QB, but don't you ever disrespect Pat Mahomes, now."

"If you wanna talk your s***, talk your s***, pimp. You just better back it up."

Unfortunately, the Chiefs will have to wait until New Year's Eve to get revenge on Chase and the Bengals in an AFC Championship Game rematch ... but we're sure the guys in K.C. aren't going to forget about his words anytime soon.

DaBaby is frowning on the flying phone assault Bebe Rexha just suffered ... and yet found a way to turn the topic into a plug for his new song. We can't front, it was pretty damn clever.

TMZ Hip Hop chopped it up with the Diamond-selling rapper out in Bev Hills in the wake of Bebe’s comeback show following a fan hurling a phone, leaving her with stitches and a black eye.

DaBaby says it hurt his soul to hear about that kinda fan foul play.

He's no stranger to fan-on-artist violence himself ... he once had a shoe flung at him during Rolling Loud, but is now advocating for peace. Ya gotta see how he made a quick pivot from discussing onstage violence to his new 3-song EP “Call Da Fireman."

DaBaby suggests fans should never throw their phones, and instead offers a better alternative -- which is using them to push play on his project!!!

It's not exactly a cry for justice for Bebe, but it's a fact streaming music won’t leave anyone injured ... so, overall definitely a better option for phone usage.

On the justice tip, though, Nicolas Malvagna is facing felony assault charges. TMZ broke the story, his attorney says Malvagna never intended to harm Bebe when he threw his phone at her, and he was just hoping she'd use it to snap a selfie.

Penny Hardaway has been suspended for the first three games of the Memphis Tigers' upcoming basketball season after the NCAA says the head coach violated recruiting rules.

The NCAA says the violations happened when Hardaway and a Tigers assistant coach each made an in-home visit with a recruit -- a junior in high school -- during the 2021-2022 academic year.

"NCAA rules, as adopted by members, require any in-person contacts with recruits during the fall months of their junior year of high school to be made at the prospects' schools, not in their homes. As a result, these visits violated recruiting rules," the NCAA said on Wednesday.

"Due to his personal involvement in the violations, failure to monitor his staff's violations, and his failure to consult with the Memphis compliance department before making an in-home visit, the head coach also violated head coach responsibility rules."

The first visit was made by an assistant coach, and then two weeks later by Penny, who was hired as Memphis HC in 2018.

The Division I Committee on Infractions panel announced the three-game suspension, bluntly saying, "Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse."

Of course, this isn't Hardaway's first recruiting scandal ... the 51-year-old former NBA star was accused of giving then-prospect James Wiseman over $11k in 2017.

On the heels of the Bebe Rexha incident ... another performer, Ava Max, is feeling the brunt of an overzealous fan -- and this time the guy jumped right onstage with her.

The singer was doing her thing during a live show Tuesday night in L.A., when all of a sudden some clown rushed the stage and swiped at her, making contact with her forehead.

You can see he manages to slap her, even as security was dragging him off the stage -- and while Ava played it off well in the moment, she later explained she suffered an injury ... a scratch to her eye.

Of course, this follows the much uglier incident in NYC with Bebe -- where she took a harder hit from a tossed phone ... and ended up with a black eye and stitches.

That perpetrator was arrested and criminally charged -- and, for what it's worth, he's apologized.

Cardi B is going off on the stepson of the British billionaire aboard the Titanic submersible, saying he pulled a wildly inappropriate move by going to a live show amid the drama.

The rapper sounded off on Brian Szasz for recently going to a Blink-182 concert in San Diego -- something he proudly touted and defended online, but Cardi sees it the way many others online have ... which is to say, that's messed up dude.

Of course, she says it the way only Cardi can ... asking the rhetorical question she figures Brian might have asked himself before deciding to go see Tom DeLonge and co. in the middle of a family crisis -- uh, should I really be doing this???

According to her, the answer is obviously no ... as she believes the dude oughta be at home crying and saying his prayers for his stepfather -- who, by most experts' accounts, has a slim chance at survival with less than 24 hours left of oxygen in the deep-sea vessel.

As we've reported ... Hamish Harding is one of the 5 people inside OceanGate's Titan. Brian acknowledged the family link online -- and then proceeded to let the world know he was ready to rock with Blink-182, arguing his family would want him to enjoy himself.

While he certainly seemed comfortable with the excursion, a lot of folks in the Twitter-verse were giving him an earful ... and calling him out for what they perceived as insensitivity.

And, of course, there were even some callous jokes cracked that Brian might be stoked to know he's got a fortune of inheritance coming his way soon.

As for CB, she's got a unique final takeaway.

In a nutshell, better to be poor and loved, than uber-rich and seemingly uncared for ... so sayeth, Cardi.

Originally Published -- 6:42 AM PT

Bebe Rexha's alleged attacker wasn't trying to hurt her with his phone throw -- but rather, just attempting to get her to use his phone personally for some snapshot fun ... so says his attorney.

Todd A Spodek, a lawyer for Nicolas Malvagna, tells TMZ ... "As a fan, Mr. Malvagna's sole intention was to have Ms. Rexha take photos with his phone, and return it as a keepsake. It was never his intention to injure Ms. Rehxa."

Spodek says Nicolas deeply regrets his actions Sunday night ... and hopes Bebe has a speedy recovery.

Of course, this new explanation seems to contradict what the Manhattan D.A.'s Office claims a witness told them Malvagna said after the incident, allegedly claiming he just wanted to see if he could hit her, thinking it'd be funny.

We should note ... in the video, there's no indication whatsoever that Bebe was even aware of Nicolas in the crowd -- let alone his supposed desire to have her use his phone.

As we reported, BR was in the middle of performing when the phone was flung at her from the crowd, striking her in the face and sending her to the ground in serious pain.

Zion Williamson can breathe a sigh of relief for now -- his alleged former fling just had her Twitter account suspended after threatening to release a sex tape involving the NBA star.

As we previously reported, an adult model named Moriah Mills has gone scorched earth on the New Orleans Pelicans forward ever since he revealed he was having a baby with his girlfriend earlier this month ... claiming she, too, was in an intimate relationship with him at the same time -- and she was blindsided by the news.

Moriah aired out her frustrations with the 22-year-old on social media ... spilling tea about alleged wire transfers and moving plans ... as well as some other REALLY X-rated claims.

The whole Twitter spat lasted two weeks before Elon Musk's company pulled the plug on Tuesday ... with her page that sports more than a million followers getting scrubbed from the platform.

Moriah previously claimed Zion was begging her to stop posting ... which she didn't until she literally could not anymore.

"Good Times" star and "America's Dad" John Amos doesn't want any of the money his daughter crowdfunded on his behalf ... and now her GoFundMe has been taken down.

John's daughter, Shannon Amos, had been seeking donations for medical bills and attorney fees in the name of her famous father, who she claims is fighting for his life in a hospital after falling victim to elder abuse and possible financial crimes ... all of which John has called total BS.

As we reported, Shannon started a GoFundMe with a $500,000 goal earlier this month, but it's now been wiped from the internet ... and a spokesperson for GoFundMe tells us it's because John declined the funds.

A rep for GoFundMe tells TMZ ... "Ensuring that donors’ intentions are honored is our top priority. However, upon being informed that Mr. Amos wished to decline the funds raised on his behalf, the GoFundMe was put under review by our Trust & Safety team and then removed from our platform."

Shannon's GoFundMe reportedly brought in $13,000 from 300 people before being shuttered ... and the rep says the money is being refunded to donors.

Adele is raking in millions during her Las Vegas residency ... but she's not just growing her wealth in Sin City, she's also developed a nasty fungal skin infection.

Chatting with her fans at her show over the weekend, Adele got super personal -- telling everyone she'd recently been diagnosed with a case of good ole fashioned jock itch.

The way Adele explains it -- she wears Spanx during her shows to make sure all of her costumes fit -- combine that with the hot lights, and it's a recipe for sweat soup. The singer says she noticed the condition developing ... and was officially diagnosed with jock itch by her doctor.

In a hilariously-candid moment, she talked about her treatment for the condition, saying, "So it looks like I am an athlete basically, so I have to squirt it on myself. I don't know why the f**k I just told you that!"

Henry Cavill was nowhere to be seen in the new 'Flash' movie -- a strategic move courtesy of James Gunn and co. -- but strangely ... Ben Affleck and Gal Gadot got the green light.

THR dropped this news, reporting on what went into the final cameo that teased a new Batman. According to them, there were a lot of moving pieces/re-shoots that went on right down to the wire ... with the final scene being reshot in January to include the character people see at the end as the "new Bruce Wayne." Spoiler ... it ain't BA or Michael Keaton.

Apparently, the ending underwent 3 different iterations before landing on what people saw in theaters. First -- when Warner Bros. was still part of AT&T -- the final scene was going to feature Ezra Miller's Barry Allen seeing Keaton's Batman and Sasha Calle's Supergirl.

After WB merged with Discovery, however, a couple of new lieutenants tweaked that a bit ... to include Cavill's Superman and Gadot's Wonder Woman -- in addition to Keaton and Calle.

This 2nd iteration came together when WB still thought Cavill had a shot of reprising the iconic role -- which was spearheaded and somewhat cemented by The Rock/'Black Adam' last year -- but got completely undone when Gunn came onboard as the new DC chief.

When Gunn was hired, THR says he completely scrapped the new ending which featured Gadot, Cavill, Keaton and Calle -- and, instead, opted to insert a former Batman actor as a little nod to the canon ... George Clooney.

The reported rationale for this is that Gunn and co-DC chief Peter Safran didn't wanna give fans of the Snyder-verse any false hope about these characters returning in their new revamped universe ... so they got rid of the two cameos at the end and went another way.

Here's what's strange about this ... while Gunn and Safran might've nixed Gadot from the final scene -- they still allowed her to make a cameo earlier in the movie. And ditto for Affleck, obviously, as it'd been well-known for quite a while that he'd be in this flick.

So what we're getting at is this ... it appears there was selective casting for 'The Flash.' Gunn and Safran were ultimately cool with Gadot and Affleck getting some screentime (if not for the last time) but for whatever reason ... they don't seem to have been okay with HC getting a final bow as the Man of Steel. This looks to be backed by their huge about-face with him.

Now, the question ... what might Gunn and Safran have against Cavill, who really appears to have been screwed out of the DCEU in this transition? In reality, probably nothing, but what's become evident in the past few months is that Gunn has his sights on a new Supes.

The new DC head has already said he's starting his new universe with 'Superman: Legacy' ... and due to that, it tracks that he'd wanna lose any trace of Cavill's Superman as soon as possible. In fact, if he'd been hired pre-'Black Adam' -- you could argue he likely would've nixed that whole post-credit cameo ... which, in the end, amounted to just fan service.