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Leonardo DiCaprio wanted to help Pete Buttigieg with his delivery ahead of a debate during his 2020 presidential campaign ... but the offer fell through Pete's hands!

Lis Smith, political strategist and former senior communications director for Buttigieg's 2020 presidential campaign, tells TMZ ... Leo offered a private coaching session with Pete ahead of a nationally televised debate, but Buttigieg's pop culture knowledge was lacking and he didn't recognize what he had in front of him.

We're told Leo extended the offer back in October 2019, during a swanky private fundraiser for Pete at a Los Angeles mansion, which was crawling with some of Hollywood's biggest stars ... including Paris Hilton, Ashton Kutcher, Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom.

It's funny ... Lis says Pete appreciated the Hollywood support, and the millions of dollars in donations that came pouring into his campaign, but he was never one to closely follow pop culture and barely recognized the celebs.

While we're told most celebs, like Paris, just took selfies with Pete and exchanged pleasantries, Leo went a step further ... giving Buttigieg the ultimate offer during a convo in one of the mansion's back rooms.

Leo's pitch went like this ... he would help Pete with his speaking style and coach him up on the best way to deliver his talking points at the upcoming debate.

Obviously, Leo's played all kinds of roles in Hollywood ... though he's not especially known for being spontaneous ... remember, Leo's never even hosted 'SNL,' but he's still talented as hell.

Lis says she was ecstatic when Pete told her about Leo's offer, but when she asked if he got DiCaprio's digits, Buttigieg said he didn't. Lis says she was beside herself, but chalked it up to Pete not fully grasping the significance of Leo's offer ... because he's not a big pop culture guy.

Ultimately, Pete handled the debate well without Leo's help ... with Lis calling it a turning point in Pete's campaign, sending him toward the top of the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire.

Lis spills more political tea in her upcoming book, "Any Given Tuesday: A Political Love Story" ... but this Buttigieg nugget isn't in the copy.

Kanye West's left his mark on a ton of industries -- shoes, clothing and even stem players -- and now he's laying the groundwork for what could be a retail store for all his wares.

Ye and his legal team recently filed to trademark "YZYSPLY" for retail stores, online ordering services and online retail store services. Fans might already be familiar with Yeezy Supply, a website Kanye has used to sell limited-release shoes or clothing in the past -- but the new trademark suggests he's going bigger ... possibly opening brick-and-mortar stores.

Kanye's latest filing, obtained by TMZ, includes just about every clothing item you can wear -- G-strings, shirts, socks, hats, visors and tennis wear -- and leaves plenty of creative room for "accessories" headwear and footwear.

Of course, he's already got a deal in place with GAP, and they recently dropped their first release of mostly black items ... including his now-famous full-face masks.

This black bear's got no problem getting up close and personal with humans -- it was chilling at a bus stop where an unlucky woman encountered the animal while waiting for her ride.

The incident went down in British Columbia and was uploaded to TikTok with a caption that jokingly reads, "Did someone lose their dog?"

The bear goes right up to the clearly frightened woman sitting on the bench, checking her out and sniffing her belongings as she tries to keep calm -- before shifting its attention to a nearby trash can.

The person behind the camera offers up some sage advice to the woman during the ordeal, saying "Um, I would just, like, chill."

The original uploader says the safest option when encountering a black bear is to be gentle and make some noise so it doesn't feel threatened.

The comments on the video might be missing the vital safety tips, however ... with one saying "My toxic trait is that I would have pet it thinking it was a good boy."

Seattle officials are revealing how a baggage handler was able to steal an Alaska Airlines plane off the tarmac and takeoff ... before dying in a fiery crash.

The Port of Seattle just released the CCTV footage of 29-year-old Richard Russell towing the Alaska Airlines' Q400 Turboprop into position back in 2018 at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport -- oddly no one on the tarmac took notice.

Russell worked at the airport, and other footage shows him calmly walking through security a few hours before he gained access to the plane. He didn't raise any red flags, most likely because he was an employee. Eerily, though, he was wearing a t-shirt that read "The Sky's No Limit."

Shortly after taxiing the plane and taking off, Russell crashed into a remote island in Puget Sound -- not far from the airport -- and a bystander recorded the aftermath, showing billows of smoke after his crash. The FBI eventually ruled the incident a suicide.

A conversation between Russell and air traffic control, first released by The Seattle Times, reveals he wasn't well-versed in the specifics of flying -- they ask him about his altitude and position, which he calls "mumbo jumbo."

"See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" is a motto NBA star Terry Rozier will clearly never forget ... 'cause he just got it permanently put on his back in the form of a 3-foot tattoo.

TMZ Sports has learned ... the Charlotte Hornets guard wanted the 'Three Wise Monkeys' who symbolize the motto inked on him this month, so he hit up his go-to artist, Mike Miller.

The two linked up in Miami over the Fourth of July weekend, and Miller went to work ... tatting Rozier's back for a total of 15 hours over a three-day span.

The piece came out awesome -- and massive -- and Miller says it's not even done yet ... telling us it's going to require two more sessions to finish.

In between the back piece, Miller -- the co-owner of Green Light Tattoos and Art Gallery -- also added a tat to Rozier's wrist.

"He just let me freestyle my own art of his forearm," Miller tells us ... saying the piece represents "freedom of expression."

Lil Rel Howery thinks race is coming into play all too often when cops are on duty, and there's been way too much visual evidence of it lately across the country -- but he adds there are ways to reduce the carnage.

We got Lil Rel at The Ivy, where he talked about Black people getting gunned down for minor offenses, if any ... while white suspects like Robert Crimo III get taken into custody, as Crimo did after opening fire on the Highland Park 4th of July parade, leaving 7 people dead.

The Chicago native says the death of Jayland Walker was nothing short of brutal ... and he doesn't get why the unarmed kid was shot 60 times, while mass shooters at churches and protests get taken alive -- seemingly referring to Dylann Roof and Kyle Rittenhouse.

He says a big part of the problem is how easy it is to get a gun nowadays, and if it's gonna get better ... gun laws gotta get stricter.

You've heard the age-old advice of not going and chasing waterfalls, but avalanches might need to be added to the mix -- or at the very least, get out of their way if you can.

A British guy named Harry Shimmin posted this wild footage taken Friday out in Kyrgyzstan, where he says he was on a guided tour with 8 others through the Tian Shan Mountains ... at one point through which the group reached the highest point possible by hiking.

That's when an avalanche from a nearby peak started to unfold, barreling down on Harry -- who had separated from the group a bit to take photos on his own. As he looks on at the snow, which seems to be quite some distance away, he quickly realizes it's coming closer.

Soon, the reality sets in ... that he's about to be buried by this thing if he doesn't take cover. Acting as a bit of a daredevil, Shimmin waits 'til the very last second to do exactly that.

HS explains that he knew he'd be alright all along -- as he was right by a ridge where he could duck under when the snow came over him -- but admits ... it was risky business.

Los Angeles native and actor Wesley Jonathan was 23 years old when he was cast as Gary Thorpe -- the blunt guy who gives his friends harsh advice but is an overall loyal friend -- in the 2002-2006 sitcom series 'What I like About You.'

Wesley was cast alongside Jennie Garth as the detail-oriented and organized older sister, Valerie Tyler, Amanda Bynes as the confident girl with a know-it-all personality, Holly Tyler, Leslie Grossman as the superficial gal trying to impress her boss, Lauren and Nick Zano as the laidback bike messenger, Vince.

The newest 'Thor' movie crushed it at the box office this weekend -- but as far as how people actually feel about it ... well, it seems much of the internet thought it was trash.

The numbers are in, and per estimates ... "Thor: Love and Thunder" raked in a whopping $143 million domestically, landing as one of the highest-grossing openings in the MCU. That's all fine and good for Disney, we're sure, but general reactions to the film aren't great.

For starters, critics gave it a relatively low score -- just 68% on RT -- which is a drastic drop  compared to other Marvel movies, historically ... most have held up much better over the years under professional scrutiny, but that's not the case with 'L&T.'

Not only were the pros unimpressed ... it sounds like "Film Twitter," as it were, also found the movie to be absurdly bad -- especially compared to other 'Thor' entries. Sooo, what's their beef exactly??? It ain't hard to tell ... people seem to have found it to be juvenile.

Scroll through some of the "Thor" trends and you'll see -- it's either folks crapping on the movie, or a bunch of others piling on those same people while trying to defend 'Love and Thunder,' with their argument being ... it's a freaking comedy, turn off your brains and enjoy!

That might be true, but it looks like a good majority aren't thrilled with the direction 'Thor' is going under the watch of Taika Waititi -- who helmed the last beloved installment, "Ragnarok," and who apparently did more of the same in this new one ... perhaps too much.

Many say 'Love and Thunder' relies too heavily on gags and punchlines rather than savor in the heavy stuff -- and some feel like the character/franchise has jumped the shark.

There's also people saying Christian Bale's bad guy character, Gorr, doesn't get enough screen time -- nor does Natalie Portman, it seems, based on some of these recaps. In short, there's a good handful of viewers who felt the movie was all over the place and uneven.

The Rotten Tomatoes audience score is at just 81%, which might sound okay for a regular movie -- but for Marvel, that's fairly awful. To be honest, we haven't seen it yet ... so it's difficult to say if there's any validity to all this criticism -- or if it's overblown/exaggerated.

Vince Staples left people with a philosophical take on gift-giving that's now resurfacing and making folks think ... yeah, the guy has a point -- it's kinda the opposite of selfless.

The Long Beach rapper was a guest on "360 with Speedy Morman" on Complex back in April to plug his new album, 'Ramona Park Broke My Heart,' and during the discussion ... they landed on the subject of presents, something VS apparently does NOT like to partake in.

Watch ... he tells the host that he doesn't like gifts -- giving or receiving them, apparently. He explains that, in his mind, the act itself is usually more so about the person actually giving the gift than it is about the one getting it ... counterintuitive to the concept itself.

Vince's answer is illuminating when asked why he's not a gift-giver ... "Because gifts aren't selfless. Like, if somebody gives you a gift, right, they want you to like it because it's really about them -- it's not about you. They want to feel like they did something right for you."

He adds ... "If somebody gave you a gift and you were like, 'Alright, fasho, thanks,' they gonna be mad." Vince says the gift-giver is often seeking reassurance they're a good person.

As this clip gets picked up anew this weekend, the jokes are flying ... some at Vince's expense, and some just at the general scenario of reacting negatively to gifts -- which is pretty funny. Vince himself caught wind of all the chatter, and thinks it's not that deep.

Meanwhile, what Vince apparently wants to talk about at length is which R&B female icons were likely the best fighters -- a topic for which he actually hosted a Twitter space convo.

San Francisco has a new District Attorney that's promising to clean up the city in terms of drug use and drug crimes -- a problem crystalized with a new viral video that's unsettling.

Check out this clip that was shot and posted this week by an SF resident named Ricci Wynne ... who filmed himself getting off at a bus stop near downtown SF -- around Mission St. and 8th St. -- while a ton of school kids were also disembarking at the same time.

The reason many found this disturbing ... a massive crowd had formed at this particular stop, a majority of whom have been labeled as alleged drug users or homeless. Wynne took in the scene ... and it's not pretty. You can see some of the children wading through what some might characterize as a dangerous area. And yet, they act like it's normal.

Wynne, meanwhile, is sending the kids off with good luck messages ... telling them to be safe, using a juxtaposition to show what sort of environment they're forced to navigate.

He later did an interview with a local CBS news station to explain why he recorded this ... saying he felt anger that the local leaders there have allowed things to get this bad.

Speaking of those leaders, the recently-recalled DA Chesa Boudin has now been replaced by a woman named Brooke Jenkins ... who's touted herself as tough on crime, and who vowed during her introduction ceremony last week to end open-air drug markets with ferocity.

During her speech, she appeared to address this exact incident, saying the city's kids shouldn't have to endure this out in the open. So, a new philosophy change, it seems.

Florence Pugh is firing back at people who opined on what they thought of her body -- specifically, her breasts -- when she bared it all in a see-through dress this weekend.

The actress was in Rome Friday for a Valentino Haute Couture fashion show, where she donned a pink getup on the red carpet that was about as sheer as it gets ... especially upstairs. Indeed, her chest was on full display -- and FP decided to go braless for the night.

It turned heads in the moment, no doubt, but it also apparently got a major reaction online ... especially from men, who Florence is now putting on blast for what she says were chauvinistic and disgusting comments -- some of which sound like frat boy talk.

Florence took to IG Sunday with three BTS photos of herself in the gown, and added a lengthy caption. She says she knew what she was doing and that the dress would get a reaction of some sort -- but that she didn't care, and wasn't nervous about it at all.

Then, she adds ... "What's been interesting to watch and witness is just how easy it is for men to totally destroy a woman's body, publicly, proudly, for everyone to see. You even do it with your job titles and work emails in your bio?"

FP continues, "It isn't the first time and certainly won't be the last time a woman will hear what's wrong with her body by a crowd of strangers, what's worrying is just how vulgar some of you men can be. Thankfully, I've come to terms with the intricacies of my body that make me, me. I'm happy with all of the 'flaws' that I couldn't bear to look at when I was 14."

Some of the vulgar words used, apparently, had to do with guys telling her/rhetorically asking her if she was embarrassed by her "tiny t***" or by the fact she was so "flat-chested."

To that, Florence asks ... why are you so afraid/bothered by breasts??? She goes on to describe that she grew up in a household of women who owned every curve of their bodies, and that she feels the same now ... taking pride in flaunting conventional beauty standards.

As more overzealous fans get handsy with rappers, the more consequences they face -- just ask this poor guy, who got ejected off stage through the force of Lil Baby's burly bodyguard.

The Atlanta MC was performing in Switzerland this week -- at the Openair Frauenfeld Festival, no less -- when at one point during his set ... some bloke crashed the performance and seemingly tried making contact with LB by rushing him.

You can see Lil Baby bracing for the dude, putting his arm out in what looks to be a deterrent move -- this while he was mid-rap -- but luckily ... security swooped right in the nick of time, and did so with some oomph.

As you can see, a guard bodied the intruder ... and sent him hurdling toward the front row barricade -- which he eventually slammed up against only to be left flailing on the ground.

Unclear what ended up happening to this man ... we imagine he was taken to a hospital, but may have also gotten rung up for the stunt. Interestingly enough, this isn't the first crazy encounter with a brave spectator. Roddy Ricch went through something similar this week.

That's not all ... even Cardi B had to unload on someone from the crowd who made contact during a performance of hers as well. In that instance, she handled the grabber herself.

All this going-up-on-stage-and-attacking-performers has been happening a lot more lately ... or at least we seem to be seeing it a lot more, anyway.

The documentary about Donald Trump that Congress subpoenaed has finally aired -- but there doesn't seem to be too much hard-hitting evidence that wasn't already known.

Filmmaker Alex Holder's 3-part movie, "Unprecedented," debuted publicly on Discovery+ Sunday ... but from the reviews recapping what was actually shown as it relates to Jan. 6 -- it sounds like no smoking gun exists in the footage, or at least in what Holder put out.

Congress seized 11 hours worth of film -- and also had AH testify behind closed doors as well -- but ya gotta figure anything truly damning would've been included in the final cut ... and so far, it doesn't seem like Trump said or did anything we haven't heard before.

Several outlets which have watched the doc have done thorough recaps, and as far as Jan. 6 is concerned -- it appears Holder only got Trump/his family on camera after the fact.

None of his kids opted to discuss it, but DT himself reportedly said this in the movie ... "Well it was a sad day, but it was a day where there was great anger in our country."

He adds, "People went to Washington primarily because they were angry with an election that they think was rigged. A very small portion, as you know, went down to the Capitol, and then a very small portion of them went in. But I will tell you they were angry from the standpoint of what happened in the election because they're smart and they see and they saw what happened. And I believe that that was a big part of what happened on Jan. 6th."

Aside from that, there doesn't appear to be much else about Trump's mindset during the actual day itself ... but frankly, everyone has seen what he said publicly that day -- and there's also been testimony during these hearings that have shed some damaging light.

What Holder did make good on was his promise to us that his doc would expose that Trump's campaign laid the groundwork for this whole mess right on election night ... when they started rolling out an insidious strategy to try and keep Trump in office, at any cost.

Crazy scene on a Spirit Airlines flight -- the jet catches fire, passengers see and smell smoke and start heading for the exits ... until calm and collected flight attendants tell 'em, "Please remain seated."

The airliner landed Sunday morning at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and a fire started around the landing gear. As you can imagine, once some passengers noticed ... panic set in, and they jumped up to evacuate -- but the crew immediately turned them back.

Multiple flight attendants were on the PA system telling the passengers to get back in their seats, and leave the aisles clear. They said there was no need for evacuation at this time.

Easy for them to say, and they would certainly know better -- but you totally get why the passengers wanted to bolt.

As they say during those safety demonstrations -- while most of us are furiously sending last-second texts instead of paying attention -- always follow crew instructions.

In this case, the Spirit flight attendants were able to maintain calm, and everyone got off the plane safely once it was towed to a gate.

Not sure the Supreme Court saw this one coming -- Brandy Bottone, who is pregnant, is using the controversial overturn of Roe v. Wade to fight a traffic ticket in Texas ... and her case could set precedent.

Brandy says she was 34 weeks pregnant when she got pulled over in Dallas County for driving solo in the HOV lane. She says she told the cop her unborn fetus was her passenger -- and she cited the SCOTUS decision as she stated her case.

Brandy says, "I pointed to my stomach and said, 'My baby girl is right here. She is a person.'"

She told the cop she didn't want to get political, but the Supreme Court decision -- which leaves it up to states to establish abortion laws -- means that in Texas, her fetus is a person.

The cop didn't buy it, and wrote her a $275 ticket, but Brandy says she plans to fight this one in court. She says Texas law deems "an unborn child at every stage of gestation from fertilization to birth" to be an individual.

Brandy says the cop told her the HOV rules refer to "2 persons outside of the body."

We'll find out when she goes to court July 20. She says, "This has my blood boiling. How could this be fair? According to the new law, this is a life. I know this may fall on deaf ears, but as a woman, this was shocking."