Celebrity Feuds

The director who seemingly got busted for trash-talking actor Lukas Gage's apartment on a Zoom call says he's not going to apologize for it ... because important context is missing.

Tristram Shapeero -- a British TV director best known for directing episodes of "Community," "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" and "Veep" -- is the guy on the other end of Gage's instantly infamous online audition.

Shapeero -- who apparently thought he was muted -- is heard saying, "These poor people live in these tiny apartments," referring to where Lukas was staying ... and goes on to criticize his TV before he realizes Lukas can hear him.

The director is now suggesting he wasn't talking smack and won't say sorry ... but does claim a statement will be coming out on the matter. Funny thing is, Shapeero said sorry multiple times to Lukas on the call when he was busted, and even added that he was mortified.

The actor -- known for roles on "American Vandal" and "Euphoria" -- posted the clip saying ... "psa: if youre a sh*t talking director make sure to mute ur mic on zoom mtgings."

The incident led to an outpouring of support in Hollywood for Gage, but the director seems to think it was all overblown.

Taylor Swift's ongoing beef with Scooter Braun over the sale of her masters was front-and-center at the AMAs -- and so were a whole lot of other memorable moments.

The pop star won the award for Artist of the Year Sunday night at the half-virtual/half-live event at the Microsoft Theater in L.A. ... and T-Swift accepted from a recording studio and dropped big news.

In addition to thanking fans for their support over the years, especially in 2020, Taylor noted she wasn't in L.A. for the AMAs -- like some artists were -- because she's busy re-recording her old hits.

Of course, it's just another reminder that she's sticking to her word amid the bitter feud with Scooter -- whom she claims wouldn't even entertain selling her back her masters without her signing an NDA first promising not to bash him in public.

She didn't mention Scooter's name Sunday night, but the shot was clear.

Anyway, there were other cool moments that struck a chord too -- such as The Weeknd's bruising performance above the L.A. River. He never referenced his full-face bandages, but seems like a spinoff from that nose bandage look from last year.

J Lo also had a bootylicious showstopper with Maluma ... Harry Styles and BTS took home some honors, and Megan Fox presenting her BF, MGK, live on camera. It was a lot to take in, to say the least.

"I think we know how it would turn out, to be honest."

That's LaMelo Ball trying REALLY hard not to piss off his father or his new boss Friday when asked who would win in 1-on-1 ... LaVar Ball or Michael Jordan!?!?!

The answer is obvious to most people ... but LaVar has been talking A TON of trash for years about how he would crush MJ if they ever squared up on the court.

And, now that Melo was drafted by MJ's Charlotte Hornets this week -- reporters asked the 19-year-old Friday straight-up ... who ya got?!

"I don’t think it's gonna happen," Melo said at first ... before adding, "And then, I think we know how it would turn out, to be honest."

Melo then explained his dilemma ... "I mean it is my pops and my boss ... so I’m on both sides now."

TRANSLATION -- MJ WOULD BEAT THAT ASS AND EVERYONE KNOWS IT!!

Look, LaVar has been making the "I'd destroy MJ" claims for years -- saying Jordan is simply "too little" to compete with him.

MJ famously fired back -- saying, "I don't think he could beat me if I was one-legged."

LaVar then told TMZ Sports, "I could beat him with 1 hand tied behind my back with some glasses on with one eye lens out with some flips flops on in the rain."

Barack Obama's new memoir is flying off the shelves -- even more than Michelle's record-setting book in 2018 -- but he says he's not rubbing it in ... and she's fine with his success for her own reasons.

This came after the former President burned the outgoing prez, Donald Trump, during his interview on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" Jimmy teed him up by asking Obama if he decided "A Promised Land" should be more than 700 pages long so Trump would never read it.

Obama quipped ... it wouldn't need to be nearly that long.

Regarding his book sales -- it reportedly sold more than 800,000 copies its first day, which is about 75k more than Michelle's -- he seems pleased to have bragging rights.

As for the book itself, 44 tells Jimmy he didn't set out for it to be so long, but there ended up being so many topics he wanted to address during his presidency ... many of which are relevant right now.

For instance ... Barack's book explains how during the Osama Bin Laden raid, he was also having to deal with the birther conspiracy theories fueled by Trump.

He tells Jimmy ... "We are planning this huge, risky, difficult operation that involves all the power and technology and skill and courage of the U.S. military and, at the same time, I'm dealing with a guy who's saying I wasn't born where I was born." Obama adds ... "It gives you an example of the weirdness of modern politics."

The setting for Gucci Mane and Jeezy's highly-anticipated Verzuz battle is fit for a king ... and strippers, 'cause it's going down at a famous ATL strip club.

TMZ's obtained behind-the-scene video and pics inside Thursday's face-off going down at the world-famous club, Magic City. It's unclear if a red carpet will be rolled out for the MCs but they're definitely getting the royal treatment ... with 2 thrones for them to sit and spit lyrics.

The crew worked hard to turn the strip joint into an awesome set for the season 2 kickoff of Verzuz ... which streams live Thursday at 8 PM ET on Apple Music and on Apple Music's official Instagram account on Instagram Live.

We're told the guest list is pretty star-studded ... with T.I., Rick Ross, Migos, Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys among the celebs expected to attend.

There's always concern for security and our production sources tell us that base is definitely covered. We're told the Nation of Islam will be there for protection. As for Atlanta PD ... we're told the dept. is aware of the event ... adding that Magic City's an area where it commonly has additional patrols.

As we reported ... Gucci already drew first blood when he openly touted the fact he killed one of Jeezy's best friends. Remember, Gucci posted a meme earlier this week mocking the shooting of Jeezy's former labelmate, Pookie Loc in the 2000s. Pookie allegedly attempted to break into Gucci's home, and Gucci fired in self-defense.

Gucci's joked about the fatal shooting before. It'll be interesting to see how it all plays out when they finally face off on camera together. It's gonna be 🔥.

Ask ... and you shall receive!

It appears Logan Paul is getting his wish to fight Floyd Mayweather -- because the boxing legend seemingly accepted the offer and wants to get it on ASAP.

As we previously reported, Mayweather was approached with a deal to fight the YouTube superstar in the past few months -- but things have escalated recently.

In fact, 25-year-old Logan publicly called out the 43-year-old legend over the weekend -- saying, "If I caught Floyd with one punch -- one punch -- I would snap this f**ker in half."

Paul added, "If I caught Floyd in a real fight, street fight, whoop his ass! No question."

Well, Floyd got the message loud and clear and finally replied on Wednesday night.

"These YouTube girls better find some Barbie dolls to play with 'cause I’m not the one for the kid games," Mayweather tweeted while promising to beat Paul's ass like he did Conor McGregor.

"3 years ago a fighter from the UFC said my name and I had to put a muzzle on that bitch. [Logan Paul] can get the same treatment before I go conquer Japan again."

Mayweather recently announced an exhibition match in Japan in Feb. 2021 -- the opponent is yet to be named.

So, when would Paul and Mayweather actually scrap?

We're told Paul has been training and could go at any time. Mayweather famously trains like a maniac -- he won't need much time either.

In other words, this could come together FAST.

Tory Lanez's legal team is back in court after he was charged for shooting Megan Thee Stallion, and just entered his plea ... not guilty.

Tory's attorney, Shawn Holley, appeared on his behalf Wednesday in L.A. County court to enter the plea in the case. Tory's yet to go to court himself -- his last appearance was over the phone.

As we've reported ... the L.A. County D.A.'s Office hit him with 1 count of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, and 1 count of carrying a loaded, unregistered firearm in a vehicle. The D.A. also alleges TL inflicted great bodily injury on MTS.

Tory's already posted $190,000 bond and been ordered to stay away from Megan ... and he's defended himself on social media by saying the charges are not a conviction.

The rapper/singer faces up to 22 years and 8 months in prison, if convicted.

There's already been tons of drama surrounding the case ... with Megan claiming in a recent interview that Tory offered her money in exchange for her silence after he allegedly shot her in the foot. Tory's attorney has denied the accusation.

Megan also flat-out accused Tory of shooting her and then Tory dropped a new album seemingly professing his innocence, denying he shot her and suggesting she's a liar.

During Wednesday's hearing, the state said it's trying to decide whether they should go after Tory for possibly violating the protective order with his social media posts and song lyrics.

Gucci Mane is poking the bear before he meets said bear in a music battle -- openly touting the fact he killed one of Jeezy's friends ahead of their Verzuz showdown.

Gucci posted a meme Tuesday night mocking his shooting of Jeezy's former labelmate, Pookie Loc, in the 2000s. That was after Pookie allegedly attempted to break into Gucci's home, and Gucci fired in self-defense.

The meme depicts a guy jumping at someone in a courtroom, with a caption that jokingly tries to guess what Gucci might tell Jeezy in their Verzuz match later this week ... and how Jeezy might respond.

The line reads, "go dig ya partna up n**** I bet he can't say s***." Gucci reposted that, and added his own laughing face emojis.

GM's joked about the fatal shooting before, but what makes this latest jab even more relevant is ... he and Jeezy will be on camera together Thursday as they play their hits on Verzuz.

Jeezy hasn't directly responded to Gucci's barbs, but he seems eager to face the man himself ... as he's called him out since it was confirmed Gucci would be replacing T.I. in the Verzuz battle -- which is what everyone wanted in the first place.

We should note, Gucci and Jeezy are NOT friendly by any stretch of the imagination -- aside from Gucci killing Pookie Loc, they have other industry issues that have fueled their beef for years.

One last thing about the shooting -- Gucci was initially charged with murder over Pookie's death, but the charges were dropped ... as the state said there was insufficient evidence to prosecute.

Elon Musk was spectacularly triumphant Sunday over the historic SpaceX launch, but that didn't stop critics from slapping a 2020 label on him -- "Space Karen," and it all has to do with coronavirus.

Dr. Emma Bell tore into Musk after he groused that his COVID tests were, as he put it, "extremely bogus." As we reported, Elon wrote Friday, "Something extremely bogus is going on. Was tested for covid four times today. Two tests came back negative, two came back positive. Same machine, same test, same nurse."

That criticism didn't sit well with Dr. Bell -- who by the way, is a PhD -- who said, Rapid antigen tests trade sensitivity for speed. They return a result in [less than] 30 minutes, but can only detect COVID-19 when you're absolutely riddled with it. What's bogus is that Space Karen didn't read up on the test before complaining to his millions of followers."

Thing is ... Elon's right about the accuracy of the test -- it's dicey. Apparently, Dr. Bell thinks Elon's creating doubt over testing, which is a bad thing. On the other hand, it's Elon's opinion the test is bogus because he says it lacks reliability.

President Trump has surfaced with great news -- the whole country will be getting the COVID-19 vaccine next spring, unless you live in NY ... where all you're getting is screwed by the Trump v. Cuomo war.

The President made his first public remarks since the election, Friday at the White House ... and proudly announced Operation Warp Speed is ready to distribute Pfizer's vaccine as soon as it gets FDA approval. He's projecting delivery will begin in April.

Great news, right? Well, POTUS also served up a side dish of petty with the vaccine. He said NY state will NOT be getting the vaccine because Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he doesn't want it.

Trump was referring to comments the Gov. has made about not trusting a vaccine if the Trump administration rushes its approval. Well, The Prez is taking him at his word, and went on to rip Cuomo for his COVID-19 response in the Empire State.

The good news for NYers is there's still time for both men to squash the beef, and Trump did say everything could change if Cuomo calls and asks for the vaccine. Translation: Kiss the ring, then you'll get the meds.

However, the Governor's Office tells TMZ, "Trump has failed with his pandemic response, lied to the Americans about how bad it was when he knew otherwise & was fired by voters for his incompetence. Governor Cuomo is fighting to ensure the communities hit hardest by COVID get the vaccine."

Doesn't sound like an attempt to make peace.

The wild card, of course, is President-elect Joe Biden, who it appears WILL be in the Oval Office come April -- so, maybe Cuomo doesn't see a need to bow to Trump.

While Trump did not take any questions from reporters, he did make one reference to the election, saying, "This administration will not be going to a lockdown. Who knows which administration it will be ... I guess time will tell."

It's the closest he's come to acknowledging defeat, but still ... NOT a concession speech.

Larsa Pippen says her falling out with Kim Kardashian and her sisters was at the behest of Kanye West ... who she believes has brainwashed all of them.

Larsa opened up about her relationship with Kim on the "Hollywood Raw Podcast," saying the rift began earlier this year because Kanye didn't trust anyone with Kim ... which led to Larsa and Kim unfollowing each other on social media.

Larsa believes Kanye then got Kourtney and Khloe to turn on her too by making her out to be a bad seed ... even though she says she had nothing but love for all of them.

Larsa says she and Kanye never had any serious altercations either ... but she mentions an alleged incident between Travis Scott and her that could have set off Kanye.

She also claims Kanye used to call her a lot to vent about stuff ... but she eventually got tired of it and blocked his number. Larsa says Kanye didn't like that either.

Luke Bryan just took the Georgia-Florida rivalry to a whole 'nother level ... the country music superstar is now using Tim Tebow's Heisman Trophy to cast a curse on the Gators!!!

Bryan -- a BIG Georgia fan -- revealed Thursday he and his wife won the rights to the trophy for 6 months at a charity auction last year ... donating cash to the Brett Boyer Foundation in exchange for the honor.

The thing is ... Tim waited until this week -- just days before the Gators-Bulldogs game on Saturday -- to deliver the award, and Bryan said he believes something was fishy about the timing of all that.

"I feel it was an effort to bring bad mojo into my household," said Bryan, who seriously LOVES the Dawgs.

So, what did Luke do to combat that???

REVERSE CURSE, BABY!!!

Bryan says he's now going to use Tim's trophy to try to will his Dawgs to a win over the Gators ... explaining, "I've got this all week to put a curse on the Florida Gators!"

Kickoff is set for 3:30 p.m. ET in Jacksonville ... and, if the Gators start doing some funny things -- BLAME LUKE!!!

"LeBron James Sucks!"

That's the chant that rang out at a Donald Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Monday ... and #45 loved every second of it.

Trump was doing his usual anti-NBA thing ... talking about how NBA ratings sucked this year and blamed the bad numbers on the social activism from players like LeBron James -- and man, the crowd ate it up.

"How about basketball? How about Lebron? I felt badly for LeBron," Trump said ... "I felt very badly. Down 71% and that's for their championship -- I didn't want watch one shot."

He continued, "When they don't respect our country, when they dont respect our flag, nobody wants to watch. Nobody!"

Trump tried to change the subject to the NFL -- but the crowd erupted in a "LeBron James Sucks" chant ... and it got so loud, Trump stopped to acknowledge it.

"What a crowd! What a crowd!!!"

LeBron and Trump have been going after each other for years -- most recently, LeBron invited Barack Obama to appear on his show, "The Shop," where they both stumped hard for Joe Biden.

Taylor Swift's lending her voice to a political ad that takes aim at Donald Trump's presidency and the problems plaguing America ... while encouraging young people to vote for Joe Biden.

Taylor's politically-charged song "Only the Young" is used in the music vid that addresses voter suppression and her beef with Trump ... while highlighting what Biden and Kamala Harris can do.

The ad begins with the voice of Senator Harris asking, "Why are so many powerful people trying to make it so difficult for us to vote?"

From there, Swift's lyrics ring out as troubling events from the past 4 years -- mass shootings, children being separated from their parents at the border, civil unrest, Trump's maskless defiance -- all juxtaposed with images of hope and leadership.

As Taylor sings, "They aren't gonna help us / Too busy helping themselves / They aren't gonna change this / We gotta do it ourselves," the message is clear ... young people have to step up ... and vote Trump out.

The singer has become an outspoken critic of the President over the past 2 years, starting when she announced she was voting Democrat in Tennessee back in November 2018.

Logan Paul walked so Bryce Hall could run ... 'cause the TikTok star says he's willing to take his beef to the cage and fight his nemesis Thomas Petrou in an MMA match!!

A bit of a history lesson for those not up to speed on TikTok drama -- Hall and Petrou are in opposing content creator "houses" ... with Bryce being a member of Sway House and Thomas being a founder of the Hype House.

Their affiliations have led to some serious quarrels along the way ... and the dudes have pretty much hated each other ever since.

Since Hall is already no stranger to getting into public scuffles -- see here and here -- we had to ask if the 21-year-old would ever go the YouTube super-fight route a la Paul vs. KSI ... and the dude says he's down!!

Remember, the Logan and KSI fights have been a HUGE success in bringing new eyes to boxing -- and their second fight filled up the Staples Center in Nov. 2019.

A TikTok fight could have a similar effect -- Hall has 14.6 million followers on the platform ... and an additional 6.6 milli on IG.

(Petrou has 7.7 mil. on TikTok and 2.2 mil. on IG).

So, when we asked Hall who he'd love to beat the crap out of in a real-deal fight ... dude didn't hesitate.

"Thomas!" Hall said outside Craig's late Tuesday night.

As for what kinda fight it would be ... Hall says he wants to beat Thomas up MMA style!!

Wow! Jeff Garcia really hates Cam Newton's style these days -- saying the QB should only dress swaggy when he's winning!!!

The ex-49ers quarterback unloaded on Cam during an appearance on "NBC Sports Bay Area" following the 49ers shellacking of Cam's New England Patriots.

Cam played so poorly in the 33-6 loss (3 INTs, 0 TDs), he was yanked in the 3rd quarter for Jarrett Stidham. It's the Pats 3rd loss in a row. They're 2-6 in the season.

Despite the issues on the field, Cam still dresses ... like Cam! With wild looks, crazy hats -- you know the style!

But, Garcia ain't cool with it -- essentially saying Cam's fashion choices prove he only cares about himself.

"You go into this game with 2 touchdowns, 4 interceptions, you threw what, 3 more interceptions? You get yanked in the 2nd half, there’s nothing good going your way. Why are you dressing like that to bring more attention to yourself?"

Garcia continued ... "I’d be trying to ask the equipment managers 'Put me in your jock sock cart and sneak me in the back door and I’ll show up on the field and do the best that I can.'"

When asked if he was speaking from experience, Garcia expanded ...

"This just goes back to a couple years of just watching this guy and seeing him at the podium, but yet what he’s doing on the field does not translate to being that guy."

One of the panelists brought up Joe Namath -- who would rock fur coats and other swaggy items. Garcia responded to that too.

"When you predict you’re going to win a Super Bowl and you go out and do it, wear whatever the hell you want."

Garcia has been taking some heat on social media for the comments -- our favorite clap back is this one ...