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We've all been there ... pulling up to McDonald's for a McFlurry late at night only to discover the machine is broken -- AGAIN. Enter the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC is looking into the case of those pesky machines, and why they constantly go down.

The problem has been the butt of late-night jokes. Wendy's and Jack in the Box have even targeted Mickey Dees on social media. The problem's been so persistent ... there's a website dubbed McBroken ... which tracks ice cream machine outages across the country.

The problem? McDonald's ice cream machines are overly complicated to operate and incredibly difficult to clean ... often making them susceptible to breaking down. According to the Wall Street Journal ... the machines require a nightly automated heat-cleaning cycle that can last up to 4 hours to get rid of the bacteria.

And, when the cleaning cycle fails, the machines become useless until a repairman comes along. That takes time, and sometimes employees take matters into their own hands.

But, the FTC's apparently had enough ... it sent a letter to franchisees earlier this summer. In the letter, obtained by the WSJ, the agency wants to know how McDonald's reviews suppliers and equipment, including the ice cream machines.

Colton Underwood appears to have ventured into the dating waters after coming out as gay ... and the water is fine.

The former 'Bachelor' has been in Hawaii at the Four Seasons in Maui with a mystery man -- enjoying the beach and packing on the PDA -- and TMZ's solved the mystery ... Colton's new beau is Jordan C. Brown.

Jordan is very involved in politics, having worked on John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004 and also advising on Barack Obama's campaigns in both 2008 and 2012 ... helping fundraise. He also worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.

It's unclear how long the 2 have been hanging out, but we know they were both part of a group including Colton's pal, Olympian Gus Kenworthy, that took a trip to Provincetown, MA back in June ... though they weren't photographed together.

The photos tell the story. Colton looks relaxed and happy, so it seems he's finding his way.

Lanny Cordola is on a life-saving mission to help some of his young female guitar students left behind in Afghanistan ... and the stakes are life and death.

The legendary rocker talked to us on "TMZ Live" Wednesday about his efforts of late to help 12 girls -- not to mention their families and loved ones -- flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan ... which is even more difficult now that the U.S. is completely gone.

These are pupils of his, BTW -- ones who were part of his Miraculous Love Kids foundation -- an org. he started to help teach music to children in war-torn parts of the world.

As you can imagine -- and as Lanny tells us plainly here -- the situation is dire ... and these girls are in hiding at the moment as they try and flee the country with the help of LC and others working behind the scenes, and across the border in Pakistan -- where he is now.

Lanny tells us the Taliban has destroyed a facility they used in Afghanistan to teach/play music -- blowing out the windows of the building and clearing the place out. They're not too fond of those types of teachings, especially if females are involved.

That's not deterring Larry though, who's determined to bring the rescue mission to a close -- and it sounds like that might happen any day now ... following some recent failed attempts. FYI ... there's another celeb who's been involved with the MLK music program -- and Lanny says he's donated generously in the past to make these girls feel like true rock stars.

Speaking of donations ... the rock community appears to be rallying around Lanny's cause here. Tom Morello of RATM asked for donations to miraculouslovekids.org to help fund what Lanny's trying to do here -- and it sounds like they could still use the help, even now.

Simone Biles has proven yet again that her G.O.A.T. status extends far off the gymnastics floor ... 'cause she just helped gift her Olympics teammate Suni Lee's father with a new wheelchair -- and the amazing gesture was all captured on video.

24-year-old Biles surprised Suni's dad, John, on the "Today" show on Wednesday with the present ... revealing a new, state-of-art electronic ride with a sweet video message.

"Hi, Mr. Lee, it's Simone," Biles told John before showing him the present. "I love your daughter, Suni, so much and I know how much she loves you."

"You have done so much for her so I reached out to my friends at the 'Today' show to see if we could do something special for you. Hope you like it!"

John -- who was paralyzed from the chest down in 2019 after falling off a ladder -- was thrilled with the gift ... shouting, "Oh, wow!" when he first put his eyes on it.

The new wheels are a significant upgrade from John's manually operated wheelchair ... with the "Today" show saying the souped-up ride will eventually be custom-fitted for all his needs.

John said the new chair with make his and his family's life much easier ... adding, "This is amazing. Thank you, guys!"

Kourtney Kardashian is not letting Scott Disick rain on her PDA parade with Travis Barker ... because the couple took their traveling PDA show to the French Mouse House.

The lovebirds are in France after making out in pretty much every nook and cranny of Italy, and this time they're cuddling and kissing at Disneyland Paris.

Kourt and Trav traded a gondola ride in Venice for a boat ride on "It's a Small World" ... but there was one constant ... lots of smooching.

Kourtney got the full Disney experience too ... wearing some Minnie Mouse ears.

The Disneyland trip comes on the heels of a romantic trek through Italy, which seems to have gotten to Kourt's ex.

As we reported ... Scott shaded Kourtney over her Italian PDA in a DM exchange with her other ex, Younes Bendjima, but YB wasn't having it, and neither was Kourt.

She seemed to fire back at Scott on social media, with all signs pointing to her saying he treated her badly when they were together.

The Beverly Hills police are being sued over allegations it targeted almost nothing but black people on Rodeo Drive to arrest ... in some cases, for minor infractions.

Renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump claims in a new lawsuit ... the City of Beverly Hills created a police task force to patrol the famed street for violations of law, and the result was 106 arrests ... and 105 of those taken into custody were black.  The one remaining arrestee was Latino. BTW, Crump says the Latino could have easily been mistaken as black.

The 2 named plaintiffs in the lawsuit -- Jasmine Williams and Khalil White -- say they were visiting Bev Hills a year ago and riding scooters on the sidewalk, when they were stopped by Bev Hills cops. They were handcuffed and taken into custody.  According to the suit, prosecutors dropped the case.

The lawsuit claims examples of other "crimes" for which people were arrested included roller skating, jaywalking and traffic infractions in Beverly Hills.

The lawsuit references another incident last October involving Salehe Bembury -- VP of Sneakers and Men's Footwear at Versace -- who claimed he was detained for jaywalking.

According to the suit, BHPD Captain Scott Dowling, who is also named as a defendant, directed officers "to seize, interrogate, use force, falsely arrest, and maliciously prosecute any African-Americans who traveled on Rodeo Drive" with the sole purpose of "keep[ing] out African-Americans, who were deemed as 'criminals.".

We've reached out to the Beverly Hills PD for comment, so far no word back.

We're about to find out if Olivia Jade's a real dancer ... she's joining the star-studded cast of "Dancing with the Stars."

The daughter of Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli will be back into the public eye in a big way for season 30 of the popular celebrity dance competition. We were outside the rehearsal studio Tuesday and got a woman in a visor -- who looked like Olivia -- being escorted inside.

Though the official cast will not be announced until next week, we've confirmed the woman in the visor was, in fact, Olivia. It appears her partner will be Val Chmerkovskiy.

Jade -- who was a big YouTube star well before she got embroiled in the college admissions controversy -- will join the likes of JoJo Siwa, Kenya Moore, Olympic gymnast Suni Lee and many more celebs on the upcoming season.

JoJo's making history as the first contestant to be part of a same-sex pairing, which she tells us will give her a leg up on the competition. We're almost certain her partner will be Jenna Johnson.

The family of Elijah McClain -- the unarmed Black man killed in Colorado 2 years ago during a run-in with cops -- feel they just got a measure of justice, because those involved in his death have just been indicted.

Colorado AG, Phil Weiser, announced the 32-charge indictment Wednesday against 5 people tied to McClain's 2019 detainment and subsequent medical transport -- slapping 3 Aurora PD cops (2 current, 1 former) and two Aurora Fire medics with two counts each ... manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Two of those officers -- Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt -- face additional charges ... 2nd-degree assault with the intent to cause bodily injury. The indictment comes after Weiser was tapped as a special prosecutor to investigate ... this following massive public outrage.

Weiser says he handed over his findings to a grand jury this past January -- and now, some 8 months later, it seems they've found sufficient evidence to bring these folks to trial.

You might recall ... McClain was walking home on August 24, 2019 when he was stopped by the three officers mentioned, who apparently accosted him because he seemed "suspicious" -- which one of the cops can be heard saying in since-released body cam footage.

Before long, things escalated ... and the cops had McClain in a carotid hold, among others for quite a while. He passed out during the struggle -- and the medics are alleged to have administered a lethal dose of ketamine, which prosecutors believe kill him.

The incident occurred well before George Floyd's case gripped the nation last year -- but was among the many high profile stories that led to mass protests for Black Lives Matter.

A woman tried pulling a fast one by allegedly passing off a phony vaccine card to get around Hawaii's strict COVID protocol -- but she got caught red-handed ... thanks to a major typo.

24-year-old Chloe Mrozak of Illinois was arrested and booked last week for presenting fraudulent vaccination documents during a trip to the islands. She was actually successful in getting there with what cops call a bogus vax card.

Officials caught on to her, though, in part because she apparently misspelled Moderna ... writing in "Maderna" instead, not once but TWICE! Her card suggested she'd gotten the jabs in Delaware -- courtesy of a health org called the NRA. So yeah, the jig was up pretty fast.

Special agents coordinated to catch Mrozak on her way back to the mainland ... and sure enough, on August 28, they tracked her down at the airport in Honolulu, and took her in. Reports say officials found no evidence she'd actually been inoculated.

As for why she mighta gone to these lengths -- the operating theory is that she didn't wanna deal with Hawaii's mandatory 10-day quarantine rule for the unvaccinated.

If Kourtney Kardashian is not dragging Scott Disick over the coals, she's sure making it seem that way, because everything about her post early Wednesday morning points to her ex.

Kourtney posted this image ... 2 people locked in a kiss, with the caption ... "Relax ... This is going to hurt FOREVER" -- followed by, "HOW TO GET OVER SOMEONE who treated you BADLY."

It's more than a coincidence ... the kiss mimics Kourtney/Travis's passionate kiss on a boat in Italy -- a kiss that triggered Scott.

As we reported, Scott saw the pic and sent a DM to Kourtney's other ex, Younes Bendjima, shading Kourtney for the PDA display. Younes wasn't having it, and apparently nor was Kourtney.

It's puzzling ... when Kourtney and Scott split it seemed amicable, and they appear to be co-parenting without big problems. There was a time when Scott was off the rails and Kourtney was concerned about him being around their 3 kids, but that seemed to be in the rearview.

As for Kourtney and Travis, they've left Italy for Paris, where they spent Tuesday at Disneyland.

Abortion rights are now squarely on the chopping block after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the country from going into effect.

The Texas law prohibits abortions after the 6th week of pregnancy. As you know, many/most women don't even know they're pregnant during the first 6 weeks. What's more, if an abortion is performed after the 6th week, any citizen in the country -- not just Texas, but the entire country -- can sue anyone who helps facilitate the abortion for $10,000 plus attorney's fees.

That means someone could sue not only the clinic, but the Uber driver who took the woman to the facility, a friend who made a call to the clinic on the woman's behalf, a counselor who advised the woman, the spouse of the woman, etc.

The Supreme Court was asked to put the law on ice Tuesday night, before it went into effect at midnight, but SCOTUS was silent ... and in this case, silence speaks volumes. If the justices didn't feel this law squarely violated Roe vs. Wade, it's a loud, screaming signal about their feelings toward Roe.

There are 5 justices -- and possibly 6 -- who have strongly indicated they would be inclined to overturning Roe, and they will have a shot at that soon, because a Mississippi anti-abortion law is a direct challenge to the 1973 precedent that gives women the right to an abortion.

Jeremy Piven is on deck, waiting for another at-bat to reprisie his role for a potential 'Entourage' reboot -- which, BTW, would be way different in 2021 ... as would his character.

We got the HBO vet Tuesday leaving a café in L.A., where we were able to shoot the breeze with him for a bit about all this chatter on possibly resurrecting his old fan fave show ... which none other than creator Doug Ellin seemed really interested in just last week.

Ditto for JP here -- who tells us he is, indeed, fully onboard like Doug told us last time -- and the same seems to go for his costars, including Adrian Grenier and co. So, with that in mind -- we had to ask ... is he pulling strings and twisting arms to make it happen BTS???

Check out the clip ... doesn't sound like Jeremy is part of the "full-court press" that may need to happen to get this revival off the ground -- but the dude's ready to hop on set again at the drop of a dime, it seems ... and pick up where Ari Gold left off all those years ago.

Speaking of Ari -- the powerhouse, tantrum-inclined agent who repped Vince on the series -- we asked Jeremy about what the man might look like in 2021 ... and if the show would explore that, considering the cataclysmic shift in Hollywood culture over the past decade.

Madonna has gone back in time ... for a sexy video shoot in the middle of Times Square.

The Material Girl looked like a version of her former self on the set of what we're told is a spot for the upcoming MTV Video Music Awards ... featuring a NYC taxi cab right out of the '80s.

Madonna arrived at Times Square at 3 AM for the shoot with her much-younger boyfriend, professional dancer Ahlamalik Williams, along with her entourage.

As you can see ... Madonna was rocking a platinum blonde wig, trench coat and high heels for the gig, in which she throws some cash in the cabbie's face and walks away with that classic swagger of hers.

We're told it was raining on and off so Madge had to take some breaks to stay dry, and the shoot wrapped up at 6 AM.

A gay couple in Nashville was told they couldn't get married at the venue they wanted because of their sexual orientation, and the venue's owner certainly had an awkward way of turning them down.

Mike Gill tells us he recently got in touch with Jackie Daniel, who owns Barn in the Bend. Mike tells us he and his partner, Coty, thought the spot would be perfect, but it didn't take long for things between him and Jackie in email exchanges to get weird.

Mike says at some point, Jackie apparently figured out he was going to be marrying another man. She sent Mike an email, but it clearly stated the opposite of what she actually wanted to say -- It read, "We offer same sex marriage ceremonies only."

Jackie apparently figured out her mistake and fired off another email about an hour later with a different signature, saying, "We do not offer same sex marriage ceremonies."

Mike told Jackie he'd let everyone in the area know that BITB was bigoted, but Jackie let him know her decision was based on her religious beliefs, saying, "I wish you the best in life and the best future in all that you do."

While Mike and Coty are pissed -- they may be fighting an uphill battle. You'll recall the U.S. Supreme Court ruled it was permissible for a baker to refuse to decorate a cake for a gay couple based on religious convictions. That case isn't the same as Mike and Coty's, and it's unclear how SCOTUS would rule.

As for Mike and Coty, they tell us they don't want anything from Jackie and BITB -- just to make it known gay couples aren't welcome at the venue -- and are working to lock down a more inclusive spot.

Hall of Fame wrestler Rikishi says his niece was tragically murdered in a shooting earlier this summer ... and now, he's pleading with the public for help in finding who did it.

Rikishi re-posted a flier Tuesday from the San Francisco Police Department ... which he says spells out the horrific details of his niece's death on July 30.

In the bulletin, cops say they responded to a report of a shooting at around 6:45 PM ... and learned a 45-year-old woman and a 16-year-old girl had been shot.

Police say the 45-year-old was treated for her injuries and is expected to survive ... though they say, tragically, the 16-year-old died from her wounds.

Rikishi says the 16-year-old is his niece, Jaedah Tofaeono, and he pleaded with the public to "PLEASE HELP FIND THESE MOTHERF*****S."

"Need your help," Rikishi added. "They murdered my niece In the BAY AREA 16yrs old ... Check it .. Spread the word."

The SFPD says it's offering a $50K reward for "information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the suspect(s) responsible for the murder."

Amy Winehouse's dad believes the production company planning to make a biopic about his late daughter is playing a losing game ... because it's "100 percent not allowed."

Mitch Winehouse, Amy's father and administrator of her estate, tells TMZ ... there's no way the recently announced project with Halcyon Studios can go forward, because the estate already has its own plans for a biopic and owns all the rights.

Mitch says Halcyon -- which is producing the film after it optioned Daphne Barak’s 2010 book, "Saving Amy" -- has not reached out to him, nor has it reached out to her record label, Universal, to use any of her music.

Amy's dad claims Halcyon needs permission from the estate to make a biopic because it controls her image -- and definitely hasn't gotten it -- and that Barak needs to do the same and has also failed.

For her part, Barak says the project is not a biopic, but rather her story with her footage featuring herself with Amy and Bill Gunasti. She claims ... "I have all of the releases and legal agreements needed. Just like the NFTs being marketed on OG2D, this material is also all legally my property to sell."

Mitch certainly seems to disagree, and tells us this isn't the first time something like this has happened -- where people and production companies try to use Amy's image in various projects ... but the estate has denied it.

Meanwhile, Mitch says there's an authorized biopic in the works with a large production company in the UK along with Universal ... with plans to begin filming next year.

As for taking legal action against Halcyon or Barak ... Mitch doesn't think it will get to that point. He says, "They can't be that stupid. Everyone knows proper licenses must be granted."