You Might Want to Rethink

A golf fan was booted from the Scottish Open on Friday ... after he stole Rory McIlroy's club straight out of the star's bag and began playing with it on a tee box.

The bizarre scene was captured on video ... and you can see in the footage, as Rory was gearing up to hit a tee shot on hole #10 at The Renaissance Club in North Berwick -- a fan casually walked up to the 32-year-old's bag and rummaged through it.

The guy initially tried to pull out Rory's driver ... but when it got stuck, he went back into the bag and snagged one of McIlroy's irons.

The man then began lining up as if he were going to swing ... all while Rory, Jon Rahm and their caddies looked on with perplexed expressions on their faces.

Eventually, event officials got the guy to give back the club ... but he still tried to walk off with Rory's famous dog headcover.

Security, though, was able to wrestle it away from the man ... before booting him from the area.

"Let me put it this way: you could smell the reason why he did what he did," Rahm said of the incident afterward, according to The Scotsman. "He was clearly not sober. I'm going to say it was vodka. I'm no expert, but he had a long night for sure."

Rahm added, "He probably thought it was a fun idea. And, to be fair, it was quite funny."

An event official said police are now investigating the incident.

Kim Kardashian now has legal protection against the man who allegedly showed up to her home on multiple occasions and sent a package containing Plan B and a diamond ring ... thanks to a restraining order.

KK filed docs Wednesday against Nicholas Costanza, whom she claims is the person who disturbingly shipped Plan B pills and an engagement ring to her home earlier this month ... a package that was intercepted by Kim's security team.

In her filing -- from attorney Shawn Holley -- Kim says Costanza has shown up to her property a handful of times this year ... including once in February, and then again in late May. She claims he sprung up at her gated community, telling guards he was there to pick her up for dinner on one occasion.

On top of the alleged behavior ... Kim says Costanza's been obsessing over her online as well -- posting a bogus marriage cert and other bizarre messages, alluding to her waiting for her "knight in shining armor" (which he clarified as himself).

A judge agreed with Kim's concerns and granted the temporary order ... Costanza will have to stay at least 100 yards away and refrain from contact.

This ain't the first alleged stalker who's been trying to get at her either -- remember, she filed for and received a separate restraining order against another man who said he was just dying to get into her pad.

Carnell Davis -- a freshman wide receiver on the Rutgers football team -- was reportedly knocked out by a violent punch in a street fight ... and the whole incident was apparently caught on video.

It's unclear where and when the altercation took place ... but The Press of Atlantic City reports the 6-foot-1, 175-pound wideout is the shirtless man wearing blue shorts in the footage that was posted on social media this week.

In the clip, you can see the man purported to be Davis, get into a tiff with another shirtless male in a red hat apparently over comments about Davis' mother.

The man in the blue shorts can be heard on the footage saying, "you were just talking about you were going to f*** my mom" -- before the two squared up to fight.

Eventually, the man in the red hat tagged the other male in the chin with a right hook ... sending him crashing to the ground.

It's unknown if Davis suffered any severe injuries ... a spokesperson for the Rutgers football team issued a short statement to The Press of Atlantic City, only saying the freshman is currently at home "recovering."

"Our main concern is Carnell’s health and well-being," the spokesperson said. "He is home with his family and continues to make progress in his recovery."

"We look forward to getting him back on campus soon."

We've reached out to both Rutgers and law enforcement for further comment, but so far, no word back yet.

Davis -- who played his senior season of H.S. football at Eau Gallie in Florida in 2020 -- signed on to play for Rutgers in Dec. 2020 and enrolled in the school just weeks later.

He was a touted H.S. recruit -- piling up offers from 24 schools, including Auburn, before landing with the Scarlet Knights.

The police officer who allegedly deleted a witness video -- while his body cam was rolling, no less -- is now facing a lawsuit over the incident.

The Philly cop -- ID'd in the suit as Officer Burnett -- just got slapped with a lawsuit by Jacob Giddings ... the guy who claims his footage was scrubbed back in March while Burnett was trying to take him into custody on an arrest warrant.

According to the suit, obtained by TMZ, Giddings says he was pumping gas when Burnett ran his tags, identifying Giddings as someone who had a warrant out for his arrest. While Giddings was in his vehicle, he says Burnett approached him from outside ... asking him to step out of the vehicle without an explanation.

Things allegedly escalated from there. Giddings claims Burnett began trying to forcibly remove him from the car. BTW, Giddings says he had begun recording with his phone at this point ... feeling uneasy about the whole thing.

After a lot of tussling -- and the arrival of a 2nd officer -- Giddings says he surrendered, and was cuffed and put into the back of a squad car.

Giddings says Burnett then proceeded to search his car and found the phone that had been recording. Giddings makes a bombshell claim -- he says Burnett ran over his phone, with Giddings' own vehicle, in an attempt to destroy the evidence!

Giddings claims that after realizing the phone was STILL recording and not destroyed at all, Burnett then took it upon himself to delete the video -- only to play dumb when asked by Giddings if it was still on there. He's suing for assault, battery, excessive force and illegal search and seizure.

Of course, Giddings says Burnett's own body-cam was rolling during what Giddings says was the moment he tried getting rid of evidence ... and Giddings insists it's the smoking gun that proves his case.

Swae Lee's jumping the gun with a COVID prognosis for the country ... proclaiming, during an indoor concert, the pandemic is effectively dunzo, but he might wanna slow his roll.

The Rae Sremmurd rapper was performing at Vendome Nightclub in Miami Monday night when he took a brief pause to celebrate what he perceives as the coronavirus being "officially over."

His rationale seems to be ... everyone is "outside" (of the home) and close together again, so there's no danger -- but the audience didn't appear to be fully buying what he was selling. Watch for yourself ... major mixed reactions.

Of course ... he oughta be cautious despite declining rates compared to, say, last year. Florida COVID cases are somewhat on the rise again with the Delta variant going around ... reports say they're actually #5 across the nation with the quickest spread of the virus.

Ever the showman, Swae didn't linger on the topic for too long -- pivoting to a performance of his and his brother's hit, "Black Beatles," and the crowd unanimously loved that.

In his defense ... while COVID-19 cases spiked around 42% just last week, vaccinated folks are largely not needing hospitalization. In other words, science is working.

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."

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.

Rachel Nichols has apologized to fellow ESPN colleague, Maria Taylor, on national television -- this after a bombshell NYT report -- and ex-NBA stars Kendrick Perkins and Richard Jefferson were there to add their two cents.

The veteran NBA anchor took a moment Monday on "The Jump" to address the Times' story from this weekend -- which shed light on drama at the sports network over the past year ... this following recorded controversial remarks Rachel made surrounding Maria, who's Black.

Right off the bat, RN acknowledged she didn't like that she'd become the story ... but owned up to it nonetheless, saying she was deeply sorry to anyone she let down with her comments, especially Maria. Rachel added she was grateful to be part of the ESPN team.

Perk and Rich took it from there ... with the former chiming in first, thanking Rachel for taking responsibility for her actions, and relaying to the audience that he knew her heart -- while also pointing out he'd always felt comfortable in her presence. He also shouted out Maria, whom he said was deserving of every opportunity that came her way ... and that he hoped they could all support each other going forward. RJ echoed those sentiments as well.

He ended on a somewhat sobering note though, saying he, Rachel and others at ESPN have had hard convos of late in regards to this ... and that they'll continue to have hard convos. Rachel thanked them for their POVs, and they continued on with NBA Finals coverage.

The response comes on the heels of surfaced audio, which depicts Rachel having a candid conversation with LeBron James' PR advisor, Adam Mendelsohn, last year during the playoffs ... during which Rachel expressed frustration that ESPN was looking to have Maria share hosting duties with her during the Finals -- something Rachel likened to a "diversity" move.

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.

Robert Irwin, the son of the late Steve Irwin, did something that lots of folks might find bone-chilling ... he swam with a giant sea creature that looks like a stingray.

Robert was celebrating Discovery's "Shark Week" when he made the dive. As you know, Steve died in 2006 after being stung in the chest by a stingray off the Great Barrier Reef.

The 17-year-old was undaunted, saying, "I get the honour of kicking off shark week on @discovery in the USA with ‘Crikey! It’s Shark Week’🦈 For the first leg of this epic adventure, I’ll travel to the spectacular Great Barrier Reef as a warm up before I go face to face with great white sharks at the Neptune Islands. From night diving with sharks on the hunt, to getting one-on-one with massive manta rays, it was a great way to start this expedition!"

Robert was fearless, extending his hand in front of the massive manta ray.

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. 😅

Matthew McConaughey seems awfully gubernatorial for his 4th of July message to America -- but his message also sounds pretty damn appealing ... let's unite, and maybe sing about it.

The actor -- and rumored Texas Governor hopeful -- just posted a video addressed to these United States ... and it's chock-full of that classic MMC charm, but underneath all the charisma and showmanship, Matt's actually got a great sentiment he's trying to impart.

Check it out ... the guy's talking all about how we, as a country, need to constantly be reminded that we're striving toward an ideal, and that we should be working toward that in harmony with one another. He even suggests what sounds like a new national anthem.

Of course, the backdrop of his remarks here is a lot of renewed chatter on what America means today ... and for whom. Consider Macy Gray's call for a revamped flag, and more recently ... when Olympic hammer thrower Gwen Berry turned her back on the flag/anthem.

In Matt's eyes ... those feelings are not something to shy away from, but to embrace -- and work to get better for everyone's sake. He acknowledges we should be attempting to be as inclusive in our individual pursuits ... because it really benefits everyone, and reminds us -- we're Americans, united as one. We know ... it's got politico prose written all over it.

Speaking of that ... Matt has slipped in favorability of late in a hypothetical run between himself and incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott (a Republican) -- but not by much, just 1 point.

He's still doing a heck of a lot better than actual politicians who are rumored/already set to run as well ... including Beto O'Rourke and Don Huffines. So, all things considered -- he's being eyed as the favorite to go head to head with Abbott.

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.

Fireworks got started early in Maryland this weekend -- a good chunk of their stash went up in flames (and booms) well before the sun went down ... right at ground level, no less.

A truck carrying a crap ton of fireworks in Ocean City accidentally detonated Sunday AM, freaking out bystanders who were in the area ... but ultimately serving as an early indicator of what was to come. Seriously, it was like a full-blown firework show right there on the sand.

Of the mishap, the Ocean City Fire Dept. says ... "There was an unintentional discharge of fireworks that were being set up on the beach for the Town’s fireworks show." They added, "During the unintentional discharge, employees of the fireworks company received minor injuries and refused transport to the hospital by Ocean City Paramedics."

Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt ... but this could have turned ugly fast. In fact, it's eerily similar to another detonation gone wrong right here in L.A. from last week -- when the LAPD's bomb squad tried safely disposing of thousands of pounds of illegal fireworks they'd confiscated ... but ended up sending shockwaves through a southside neighborhood instead.