You Might Want to Rethink

Longtime 'Bachelor' host Chris Harrison is done with the popular reality TV dating franchise ... months after he sparked controversy by defending one of its contestants for her allegedly racist past.

After a 19-year run, Harrison will reportedly receive a massive payout to step away and keep quiet about his departure.

News of Harrison's permanent exit -- first reported by Deadline -- comes hours after the premiere of the 17th season of "The Bachelorette" hosted by Tayshia Adams and Kaitlyn Bristowe ... and just days after it was announced that David Spade and others would be guest hosting this summer's season of "Bachelor in Paradise."

Of course, Chris first stepped away from his 'Bachelor' duties indefinitely back in February, after he got immediate backlash for defending Rachael Kirkconnell's alleged racist past.

Many believed Harrison was dismissive and excusing of the racist behavior alleged against Rachael -- who was one of the final few women vying for Matt James' heart on the most recent 'Bachelor' season -- when he was interviewed by former 'Bachelorette' Rachel Lindsay.

After Chris's initial apology wasn't very well received, he issued a more heartfelt one, then later did it in person on 'GMA' ... and said he was committed to change.

Despite that, it seems he never made it back in the good graces of Bachelor Nation ... and Harrison reportedly reached a confidential settlement with network honchos late Monday night to say farewell.

Margot Robbie and her hubby are building a beachfront home smack in the middle of a homeless encampment that has overrun the area ... but they are undeterred.

The Aussie actress and her mister, Tom Ackerley, are knee-deep in construction at their Venice Beach house ... which is chock-full of dirt, debris and Caterpillar machinery all about the grounds.

The 2-story property -- a double lot no less -- when completed will be worth upwards of $15 million ... a stone's throw away from the famed and touristy Venice boardwalk.

Lately, it's been looking a lot less touristy because of the homeless crisis in the area ... as tent cities piled up along the walkway for miles during the past year-plus of the pandemic. It's so bad it's become a humanitarian crisis, and there's also been an alarming crime surge that goes along with it.

No matter for Margot and Tom ... because they seem dead-set on finishing what they started there and moving right on in.

Kid Rock dropped a homophobic slur like it was nothing while rocking the mic at a bar in Tennessee, and ranting about people recording him with their phones.

Seems the singer wasn't feeling the fact audience members had whipped out their iPhone cameras Saturday night when he took the stage at FishLipz Bar & Grill in Smithville, TN. He looked directly into one phone and barked, "F**k your iPhone, yeah!"

Kid then hurled the slur as he screamed, "You f**king f*****s with your iPhones out!!!" He also mocked fans recording him by pointing directly at his crotch, and telling them to post his junk.

We're told security at the joint was going around telling people to put down their phones ... but Kid Rock decided to take matters into his own hands.

Apparently, he hasn't been paying attention to concert crowds for the last 10 years or so -- 'cause it ain't like smartphones just came out. Of course, Kid's got a habit of blurting out whatever he's feeling while onstage.

Donald Trump thinks Bitcoin is modern-day fool's gold -- calling it bad for the dollar, which is seriously making him sound like a boomer stuck in the 20th century.

The ex-Prez went on "FOX Business" early Monday morning to talk stocks, the market, the economy ... and for relevance sake, crypto too -- which always comes back to Bitcoin, the proverbial king of them all.

It's not regal to Trump, though ... just a royal pain in the ass.

He told host Stuart Varney he considers Bitcoin a good old-fashioned scam ... noting that when he was eyeballing it himself, it was as low as $6,000 a pop. It's a helluva lot higher than that now, sitting around $36k for one Bitcoin -- and recently got as high as $61k.

Don's not the only one doubting Bitcoin -- and, more importantly, its reliability -- but his rationale is quite strange. Watch ... he chalks his hesitancy up to America First, or the dollar first, rather.

DT says Bitcoin is just another currency competing against the dollar, and that he wants traditional greenbacks to be king in the world of commerce. So, in other words, he's looking at Bitcoin like a foreign enemy -- quite on brand.

The rich thing here is that Bitcoin's charge against the dollar is classic capitalism ... something Trump himself advocates for, not just as a businessman, but as a Republican.

Former USMNT star Oguchi Onyewu was forced to issue an apology Sunday night ... after he threatened to choke his female co-host live on air.

The mea culpa all went down during the CBS Sports broadcast of the USMNT vs. Mexico game in Denver ... minutes after Onyewu got verbally aggressive with Mexican soccer star Janelly Farias.

"I will come across this desk and choke you," Onyewu said as part of a segment with his co-host.

Oguchi appeared to be joking, he let out a laugh while unleashing the comment, but still, the remark was immediately criticized on social media.

In fact, the backlash grew so loud, later in the broadcast, Onyewu felt the need to apologize on air.

"Early in the show, you know, throughout our banter back and forth, I got carried away for sure," Onyewu said. "And I said a stupid thing that should've never come out of my mouth."

The 39-year-old continued, "And I am deeply sorry for it and I apologize to you and I hope that you can forgive me and don't take any offense to it. So, I just really want to sincerely apologize for what I said."

Ground control to Major Jeff ... you sure you really want to do this, sir???

Jeff Bezos says he's heading to space as part of the first crewed flight on a rocket ship made by his aerospace company, Blue Origin. The Amazon CEO will be joined on the crew by his younger brother, Mark, who he calls his best friend.

Bezos says he's dreamed of traveling to space ever since he was 5 years old, and he's going to turn that dream into reality on July 20 in a rocket ship called New Shepard.

The plan is for Jeff and Mark to join the auction winner for a seat on the 6-seat capsule and go on an 11-minute journey in the 59-foot rocket that will reach more than 60 miles above Earth.

As of now, the highest bid for a spot on New Shepard is approaching $3 million.

Bezos -- the world's richest person with a net worth of $187 billion -- will be the first among the billionaires with a space company to actually take a ride aboard the technology he's spent a fortune developing.

Elon Musk's SpaceX is doing some incredible things, but so far he's not announced any plans to travel to space himself. Richard Branson has said he will board Virgin Galactic's rocket-powered plane ... but that's not scheduled until later this year.

So, Jeff's going first, and it must be said -- this is an incredibly dangerous adventure and for someone with so much to lose, it'll be interesting to see how he prepares for it ... physically, mentally and, of course, financial planning.

A Texas mom's social experiment ended up with her facing criminal charges after she successfully infiltrated a middle school disguised as her 13-year-old daughter.

The lady's name is Casey Garcia ... a 30-year-old who's got a 7th grader attending Garcia-Enriquez Middle School near El Paso ... whose security process she wanted to test by going "undercover" as a student ... just to see how far she could get without being caught.

Garcia recorded her experience and posted the footage on YouTube, TikTok and other social media platforms -- which have taken off and gone viral. It's pretty crazy ... she does a full incognito attempt, undergoing a makeup routine and a wardrobe change to pull it off.

Sure enough, she does kinda resemble a middle schooler -- granted, the face mask she had to wear certainly helped. Still, she made it through about 85% of the school day undetected.

Garcia is seen walking through the halls, interacting with faculty, sitting in class listening to lectures, and even eating lunch at one point ... and no one seems to notice she's an adult. Eventually, the jig was up ... somebody called her out and reported her to the principal.

She went willingly -- and even though she seemed to think it was NBD ... the administration thought differently, getting the police involved who busted her for falsifying records and for trespassing. The incident happened Tuesday, but she wasn't booked until this past Friday.

Again, the whole point of doing this was to show that the school was a little too lax when it came to vetting students ... especially as kids start heading back to campus in person.

Of course, people were concerned Garcia could get in so easily ... which could pose bigger problems if it was someone who meant to do harm. The superintendent reportedly sent a note to parents saying they were reviewing and revamping their security measures.

If this sounds like something straight out of a movie, that's because it kinda is. Drew Barrymore did something similar in "Never Been Kissed" -- except that was high school.

Pamela Anderson's sex tape scandal with ex-hubby Tommy Lee is getting resurrected for the small screen ... something another ex of hers, Chuck Zito, is calling ... no bueno.

We ran into the actor and celeb boxing trainer -- who dated PA back in the 2000s -- and just had to ask about this new Hulu miniseries that's in the works ... in which Lily James and Sebastian Stan are portraying Pam and Tommy during their early years as a married couple.

More specifically, the series will focus on the period of their marriage when their infamous sex tape was stolen and peddled on the black market ... something they say they never saw a penny for, at first.

According to Chuck ... Hulu's probably doing wrong by Pam in revisiting a chapter that's more than 20 years old by now, and suggests making an entire show around those events is in bad taste -- especially if the couple themselves haven't signed off (which they haven't).

He makes the point that the whole saga is ancient history -- adding Pam probably doesn't care very much about it ... even joking that she seems more interested in rings these days. Oof ...

Of course, some of her closest friends are taking a stronger stance ... including Courtney Love, who claims the show is making Pam relive the trauma she went through ... going on to say the tape "destroyed" Pam's life, and calling the show exploitative and disgusting.

A woman who dined at a fast-food restaurant says when she ordered some fried chicken, the restaurant threw in the towel.

Alique Perez posted photos and video -- from Jollibee restaurant in the Philippines -- of the "meal" she got ... and it's just gross.

She wrote, "Just something that frustrated me this late. We had Jollibee delivered via grab. Ordered chicken for my son, while I was trying to get him a bite, I found it super hard to even slice. Tried opening it up with my hands and to my surprise a deep fried towel."

She asked the right question ... "How the hell do you get the towel in the batter and even fry it!?!?"

For its part, the restaurant seems to be taking it seriously, saying it closed down the location for 3 days to “thoroughly review its compliance with procedures and retrain its store team.”

It then tried delivering a testimonial ... “Jollibee has carefully developed and complied with food preparation systems to ensure that we deliver excellent quality products and customer satisfaction. We will continue to endeavor to deliver on the high standards we have set for ourselves and franchisees,”

Billy Baldwin isn't sweating Gavin Newsom's refusal to fully reopen CA -- saying vaccine rates need to go up ... and that, eventually, we'll all have to play ball to get back to normal.

We talked to the actor Saturday in Bev Hills, where our photog asked what he made of Gov. Newsom's apparent backtracking on his June 15 date ... which is when he was supposed to lift all COVID restrictions, but clarified he wouldn't lift the state of emergency just yet.

Many are taking that as Newsom going back on his word -- but according to Billy ... it probably won't make a big difference in the short term. He says people are already out and about, and things are looking a lot like they used to now more than ever.

He also makes this point ... if ya want things to truly get back to normal faster than Newsom's timeline, the only way to do it is to get vaccinated ASAP -- there's no other way around it. He makes an even better point about holdouts and what lies ahead. Watch.

BB clearly doesn't get the outrage over requiring vaccines, when we have a long history of doing exactly that in schools and elsewhere for kids. So, in his mind, one more can't hurt.

Elon Musk appears to be in the crosshairs of a notorious group of hackers who are responsible for some of the biggest digital breaches/leaks in modern history.

The Tesla CEO is the subject of a new video posted by Anonymous -- a coalition of self-described freedom fighters who use the "V for Vendetta" Guy Fawkes mask as their logo ... and who've caused a lot of grief for different orgs over the years, including Scientology, PayPal and others.

In their latest offering ... they're going after Elon, claiming the power he wields over cryptocurrency markets -- and the cavalier way he wields it -- has gone far enough ... especially as it pertains to Bitcoin, which has reacted wildly to Elon's words of late.

Anonymous claims that even though Elon has positioned himself as concerned about the environment with Tesla's pivot away from Bitcoin, he doesn't practice what he preaches within the company itself -- hurling many allegations against him and Tesla's practices at large.

Anonymous goes on to take even more shots at Elon personally ... saying he suffers from a superiority/savior complex -- noting he once dubbed himself the "Emperor of Mars" -- and that he's actually hurting working-class people and their prospects by his constant crypto trolling.

There's a lot to unpack here ... but the bottom line is, Anonymous seems to think Elon isn't a friend to the common man -- something they consider themselves to be -- and because of that ... they seem to be issuing a warning. As to what that is ... it remains to be seen.

Anonymous has famously disrupted computer systems from large corporations, as well as municipalities -- especially following police-involved deaths like Michael Brown and, recently, George Floyd, whom they vowed to avenge by "exposing" MPD's alleged misdeeds. They've also been involved with spurring noteworthy social movements like Occupy Wall Street ... not to mention partaking in high-profile leaks, especially surrounding Jeffrey Epstein.

Katt Williams has a challenge for all comedians who are griping about the state of comedy in 2021 because of so-called "cancel culture" ... do better, be better and be funnier.

The legendary comic dished his thoughts on the much-discussed topic with Joe Budden, and he basically suggested that the outrage over society and audiences in 2021 being too woke or sensitive for comedy to function properly (or as it has in the past) is mostly bologna.

Check it out for yourself ... 'cause he gives a pretty nuanced breakdown of what he thinks people are actually mad about -- namely, that comedians are being forced to evolve with the times.

Katt says that certain words and/or subjects are being rightly called out as inappropriate or off-limits -- and he explains that, in most cases, that's probably fine ... because the point of comedy isn't to offend, but to entertain the most number of people possible.

He also notes all that's happened over the years and with the advent of social media is that more people have been allowed to join the conversation ... and as a result, can speak up on things they might've always found objectionable -- whereas, before, they had no platform.

It's a pretty fascinating take ... which actually mirrors what Seth Rogen said on this not too long ago to The Independent -- when he said, yeah ... some jokes have aged poorly, and rather than be mad at being called out about it, he said just own and adapt accordingly.

Of course, not everyone agrees with Katt and Seth when it comes to this. Many comedians have railed on what they consider overly-sensitive tastes these days ... including one Billy Crystal, who recently called comedy today a "minefield" that he doesn't recognize anymore.

Bill Maher murdered last night with a hilarious take on the latest Jan 6 conspiracy theory ... that the insurrectionists were actually Democrats dressed up as Trump supporters to make the Prez look bad.

The "Real Time" host barely held it together with his show-and-tell ... beginning with a well-worn MAGA hat, followed by a MAGA hat with enhancements!

Bill just lost it with the meth teeth ... but there was more -- so much more, ending with the ladies getting some bling that might send shivers down the spine of the former VEEP.

It was hysterical ... Bill says the getup was courtesy of George Soros's home costume dept. As for who worked the sweatshop -- well, Bill and Tim Robbins, of course.

Then there was a book, instructing rebellious Dems on how to purchase a fake flag or 2.

Maybe the best ... the cleverly misspelled sign falsely ID'ing the rioters.

In all seriousness, 73% of Republicans actually believe this ... that what you saw on TV was a frame job by left-wingers. And, of course, they all think the election was rigged.

LeBron James getting smashed by the Phoenix Suns does NOT affect his legacy ... so says Ohio governor John Kasich, who tells TMZ Sports the Lakers star is still "the king."

Kasich was candid with our photog out in Beverly Hills on Friday afternoon ... explaining this week's Lakers playoff exit means NOTHING for Bron.

"He's the greatest, you know," Kasich said. "He's the king."

Kasich went on to say the first-round bouncing doesn't affect James' claim to "G.O.A.T." status over Michael Jordan either.

In fact, Kasich tells us LeBron's window for winning titles is still WIDE open!

"He's not done yet," the 69-year-old politician said. "Nope, not yet."

As for what needs to change next year ... Kasich stated the obvious -- Anthony Davis needs to get healthy, and the Lakers need to get those two more help.

Zayn Malik got into a heated confrontation with a man outside a Manhattan bar in which a homophobic slur got thrown around ... and Zayn ended up shirtless.

Sources close to the situation tell TMZ ... Zayn was smoking a cig outside Amsterdam Billiards Club in the East Village after 2 AM when a group of guys came out of Little Sister Lounge next door and an altercation ensued.

We're told the guy in the video going after Zayn tried to pick a fight ... and tempers were definitely flaring, as you can see.

In any event, the guy lunged at the former One Direction star, and allegedly called Zayn the homophobic f-word ... and Zayn hurled back some insults.

Though the argument came very close to a physical confrontation, we're told no punches were ever thrown and police were not involved.

The former NASA astronaut commanding the first civilian crew to the International Space Station is feeling good about the so-called space tourists, because they're handling zero gravity better than him!!!

Michael Lopez-Alegria, the decorated astronaut with 2 NASA records for spacewalks, joined us on "TMZ Live" Friday to tell us how he and his 3 crew members handled their first weightless training flight.

It's pretty funny ... Michael says he was the one who felt the worst, while the philanthropists and entrepreneurs had a blast doing somersaults and backflips while they were experiencing zero gravity.

Larry Connor, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe are the 3 men who've dropped $55 million each to punch their tickets to the ISS and, so far, they're making their commander proud.

Axiom's Ax-1 mission -- the first private mission to the ISS -- blasts off in January with Michael at the controls. He admits he'll have a "tough needle to thread" during the 10-day mission with space newbies ... since he's their commander, but also ... kinda their tour guide in orbit.

It's a new challenge, for sure ... even for a guy who's logged more spacewalks than anyone else in history.