Religion/ Spirituality

When it comes to the fight over abortion, imagery is all-important, and protesters took that to heart Wednesday night when they wore 'Handmaid's Tale' costumes and took it to the home of Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett.

A small group of pro-choice demonstrators made their way to Falls Church, Virginia to make their feelings known about the SCOTUS draft opinion that would squarely overturn Roe v. Wade.

One of the protesters made a point of distinguishing ACB's choice to give birth to 5 kids from other women, claiming her devout Catholicism skewed the way she looks at the law, saying, "Not everybody wants to have 5 kids, or 4 kids or 1 kid."

There have been other protests at the homes of justices. Demonstrators showed up earlier this week at the homes of Justices Kavanaugh and Alito, as well as Chief Justice Roberts.

It's unclear if the draft opinion -- which has the sign-on of 5 justices -- will be the one that becomes the decision of record, but there's evidence it indeed will be. There has not been a subsequent draft circulated among the justices since the February draft -- this according to Politico -- and that is a strong indication the February draft may be close to the final version.

Ex-WWE and AEW wrestler Brian Kendrick is explaining his motivation behind spewing a wildly controversial conspiracy about the Holocaust a decade ago ... saying he was trying to "create a buzz" and become a villain.

The 42-year-old -- who was canned just one day after signing with Tony Khan's promotion back in February -- issued another apology for his hurtful comments on the "Duke Loves Rasslin" podcast this week ... saying at the time, he did not care if he offended anyone with his "horrific" words.

"When it gets thrown back in your face, one -- it's embarrassing, but two -- you start to reflect, you're forced to reflect on it," Kendrick said on Wednesday.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for being so cold-hearted and trying to profit off of tragedy, I suppose it's what it was. I was trying to gain off of others' tragedies by making conspiracy to create a buzz for myself to gain some sort of bookings."

"It was a terrible idea and even if it hadn't affected anybody, it's still just horribly embarrassing. I am sorry for anybody -- to people I hurt, for making light of stuff that happened to them or their family. I hope you accept that."

As we previously reported, Kendrick claimed sometime between 2009 and 2011, to believe the Holocaust was "overblown and the Red Cross stated it was only 250,000 Jews who were killed and the number was blown up to justify the creation of Israel."

Shortly after the old clips resurfaced, he lost his job.

Brian isn't just sorry -- he says he's been working with The Survivor Mitzvah Project, which is a charity that supports elderly Holocaust survivors ... and is focused on becoming a better person.

Kanye West is getting dragged to court over one of his songs on "Donda" ... because a pastor in Texas claims Yeezy sampled his sermon without his permission.

Ye is being sued by Bishop David Paul Moten, who claims Kanye filled out the song "Come To Life" with audio of Moten's own religious speech.

In the docs, obtained by TMZ, Moten claims his sermon is used for 70 seconds of the 5-minute, 10-second track ... which is more than 20 percent of the song.

Moten says his voice and sermon are used in the song intro and looped throughout the song ... and he says it's the latest example of Kanye and the music industry "willfully and egregiously sampling sound recordings of others without consent or permission."

The pastor is also suing UMG Recordings, Def Jam Recordings and G.O.O.D Music ... and he's going after all of them for damages.

Aaron Paul and Bryan Cranston seem to have an unbreakable bond ... so much so, Aaron says choosing his newborn kid's godfather was a no-brainer.

We caught up with Aaron Wednesday at LAX and asked about him naming his best friend and "Breaking Bad" costar godfather to his newest addition, baby Ryden.

Aaron says Bryan's a beautiful man who's more than deserving of the title he and his wife bestowed on Cranston.

As far as what it takes to be a godfather, Aaron tells us Bryan's gonna be on diaper duty ... and don't get him started on burping little Ryden.

Of course, it's no surprise ... Bryan and Aaron are partners in crime on and off-screen ... nice to see the longtime friends grow tighter through each milestone.

In case you didn't know, Aaron and his wife, Lauren Paul, tied the knot back in 2013. They became first-time parents in 2018, when they gave birth to their daughter, Story Annabelle Paul.

It's Easter weekend, but one group of airplane passengers got an early dose of JC juice while 30,000 feet up in the air and halfway around the world ... with no way to escape.

Check out this video that's making the rounds right now -- it shows a packed flight with a good handful of passengers singing what appear to be Christian songs to the rest of the cabin ... jamming out on a guitar and walking up and down the aisle in high spirits.

Sounds perfectly innocent, but when you get a glimpse at how others (besides the churchgoers) react ... you can tell some aren't too thrilled about the impromptu performance.

There might be some missing context here to fully explain this ... namely, whether this was a plane full of folks from the same church/denomination, or whether these Christ-followers hijacked things and projected their faith onto everyone else without asking. It's unclear.

What we do know ... this video was shot/posted by Jack Jensz Jr. -- who seems to be a pastor of some sort, and who founded an org called Kingdom Realm Ministries.

Him and his congregation have been in Europe lately helping out the refugees fleeing Ukraine, and according to his FB timeline -- this might've been shot on a flight to Germany around April 9, so a full week ago at this point. It just seems to be getting picked up now.

HBO's "Winning Time" hit the nail on the head (literally) when addressing Spencer Haywood's infamous self-circumcision ... 'cause the Hall of Famer tells TMZ Sports everything is 100% true!!

In case you haven't tuned in to last week's episode of the hit series about the Showtime Lakers, Haywood's teammates gossip about how he was known for, uh, taking matters into his own hands and putting a razor to his junk when he was a kid.

While some folks featured have criticized the validity of events on the show, we spoke with Haywood about Wood Harris' portrayal of his character ... and he says straight-up -- "It's the truth."

The 4-time All-Star says he has no issue with the show doing a deep dive into his life ... saying, "I'm fine with it because I'm fine with Wood Harris playing me in this role and he's a good person and a great actor."

"I'm okay with it and I did some bad s***."

Haywood -- who famously fought to allow players to jump straight to the NBA -- says he's come to terms with all he's done in the past ... he's 34 years sober and has a loving family and a podcast (rightfully titled The Spencer Haywood Rule).

The ex-hooper says he knows his life adventures make for great TV ... including the circumcision.

"Yeah, but let me explain it to you," Haywood says. "In this small town in Silver City in Mississippi, it ain't no silver and it ain't no city. It's population of like 370 people and you had no doctors, you had no anything, so my mother was doing it in a biblical standpoint that you gotta be circumcised."

Haywood says he had help from his brothers during the procedure ... and has a perfectly logical explanation for taking care of business himself.

"We did it to the hogs so why not do it to the humans? It's country!! It's country-folk!!"

While Haywood prides himself in the job he did, he admits he later went to a doctor to get it "cleaned up."

Pope Francis is condemning the war in Ukraine -- and arguably Putin -- by kissing a flag that once flew in the city of Bucha ... where Russians soldiers left dead bodies tied up and lying in the streets after torturing and shooting them.

The Pope displayed the tattered and stained flag to his weekly audience Wednesday in the Vatican's auditorium. After kissing and displaying it, the crowd burst into applause.

The Pope said, "Recent news from the war in Ukraine, instead of bringing relief and hope, brought new atrocities, such as the massacre of Bucha."

He pled for the barbarism to come to an end. After his speech, the Pope invited several refugee children to join him on stage, saying, "Let's not forget them, and let's not forget the Ukrainian people."

The Pope decried a lack of support from the United Nations. He's been considering a trip to Kyiv ... slamming Putin for the destruction he's caused.

Shaun Weiss is back and better ... and now he'll be returning to the big screen ... 'cause the dude's just landed a role in a movie.

The 'Mighty Ducks' star tells TMZ ... he'll be in the film, "Jesus Revolution," starring Kelsey Grammer -- based on the true story of Lonnie Frisbee and the hippies he baptized in the '70s -- and the role is reflective of his own life.

Shaun tells us, someone from Lionsgate actually saw his sobriety story and wanted to offer him the role. He did a read for a director via zoom, and voila!

We're told, he plays a strung-out Vietnam vet who gets saved and sobers up. And, he's really gotten into the role ... even asking his dentist if he could temporarily take out the implants he just got, to look the part.

Well, that wasn't possible but, either way, Shaun says the role has taken him back to his own life and being drugged out ... so much so, he says, playing the role is almost like experiencing a relapse.

As we previously reported, Shaun has struggled with drug addiction for many years ... even losing most of his teeth from drug abuse. He's since turned his life around, gotten a new set of pearly whites and has been sober for 2 years!

Talk about a comeback ...

Erica Campbell is praising Chris Rock for showing restraint in the face of a Will Smith slap to the face ... and his ability to keep calm has only helped draw attention to his comedy tour.

The Gospel singer sat down with Raq on the "It's Tricky With Raquel Harper" podcast ... and shared her take on The Oscars moment, applauding Chris for not fighting fire with fire.

Erica says emotions can cloud judgment and she's proud of Chris for keeping a cool head at the moment ... lifting him up as an example for lots of folks to follow.

It's just one part of the silver lining Erica sees from an otherwise disappointing moment between two celebs she views as important Black figures.

Chris is doing a comedy tour and his shows have been packed -- with a surge in prices on the resale market. Erica believes Chris helped his own case by showing restraint in the moment Will slapped him, and now audiences are drawn to his tour to hear what he has to say about the incident.

Denzel Washington says he immediately turned to God after the Chris Rock Oscars slap -- which is, in part, why he invoked the wicked one when chatting with Will Smith.

The legendary actor explained what he meant Saturday when he told Smith, "At your highest moment, be careful, that's when the devil comes for you." It was during a leadership summit with author and pastor T.D. Jakes, in which DW had been invited to speak on his faith.

Per reports, the topic of the Oscars was obviously brought up -- with Jakes saying it was like Denzel had waded into WWII ... to which he responded by saying, it was totally necessary.

Denzel is quoted with this ... "There's a saying: When the devil ignores you, then you know you're doing something wrong. The devil goes, 'Oh, no, leave him alone. He's my favorite.'"

He adds, "Conversely, when the devil comes at you, maybe it's because you're trying to do something right. And for whatever reason, the devil got ahold of him that night." Denzel also explains others were quick to step in and attend to Will too -- whom he apparently felt was in need of spiritual counseling -- including Tyler Perry ... who prayed with them both.

Denzel declined to disclose what exactly was said among the trio, but he did say this ... "There but for the grace of God, go any of us. Who are we to condemn? I don't know all the ins and outs of the situation, but I know the only solution was prayer."

Later in the panel interview, Denzel is reported to have talked about the idea of just sitting this one out -- to which he said ... no way, not on my watch.

DW described the moment right afterward, "I couldn't have sat in my seat. No way I could have sat in my seat. That's just not who I am." This was evident right away, because Denzel was photographed getting in between Chris and Will in the immediate aftermath.

As you may have guessed by now, Denzel is very religious ... often referencing his Christian faith -- and it seems it came in handy on Sunday, especially since Will shouted him out during his acceptance speech, when he was in tears kinda apologizing and kinda not.

Sen. Lindsey Graham seemed to be feeling the Holy Spirit while questioning SCOTUS nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson -- asking her how religious she is -- but it was really just a major case of grandstanding.

The bizarre badgering went down Tuesday morning on Capitol Hill while Graham was grilling the judge, who's being considered for the Supreme Court -- and it was clear his aggressive line of questioning really had nothing to do with Judge KBJ.

Sen. Graham asked Jackson what religion she practices and she answered, protestant ... but was clearly uncomfortable. Nonetheless, the senator persisted and asked, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how faithful would you say you are?"

Jackson explained why she was reluctant to respond, and Graham even acknowledged he believed she could be impartial regardless of her religion. That's when he tipped his hand as to what he was really doing.

Watch the clip, you'll see the SC senator was doing all this to invoke Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whose Catholic faith was under the microscope during her SCOTUS confirmation hearing in 2020, and was labeled "a f***ing nut" by some in the media ... which Graham angrily pointed out.

There was another alleged discrepancy Graham wanted to explicitly state ... namely, the idea that nominees of color are treated differently based purely on their political affiliation.

He was referring to another Black female judge who got appointed to the Circuit Court, but was filibustered during her confirmation simply because President Bush had picked her.

In the same breath, he said the same wouldn't happen to Judge Jackson.

Erica Campbell says if Kanye West is trying to be a man of God for Sunday Service, he should practice what he preaches during the week ... something she's just not seeing.

We got the Gospel singer in New York City and asked about Kanye's contention he's a man of God ... and how it stacks up with his recent behavior toward Kim Kardashian, Pete Davidson, D.L. Hughley and Trevor Noah.

Erica says Kanye can't only follow the Lord's teachings on Sundays ... she says he needs to carry it over Monday through Saturday, but it doesn't mean being a perfect person either.

Erica thinks Ye needs to be kinder, more gracious, patient, understanding and faithful during the week ... if he's truly a man of God, as he claims.

As you know ... Kanye's been lashing out at a bunch of folks on social media and in his music, with his estranged wife's boyfriend getting the brunt ... and Erica tells us why she thinks the divorce is the root cause.

Jussie Smollett is taking Lent very seriously this year, choosing to give up food while behind bars ... and he's intending to stick to it for nearly 5 more weeks.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Jussie's fasting for spiritual reasons and hasn't eaten anything since Lent started on March 3, a full week before he started serving his sentence in Cook County Jail -- and he's continued the fast behind bars.

We're told all he's ingested is water, and while his plan is to keep that up until Lent ends on April 17, Easter Sunday ... he's taking things "one day at a time."

Our sources say Jussie remains in good spirits, noting this is not a hunger strike or protest to his imprisonment. Remember, Jussie made a point to repeatedly say, during his sentencing, he is not suicidal.

He's nearly 2 weeks into the fast, and we're told he's still physically okay and in "good spirits." Cook Co. Sheriff's Office says it can't comment on religious or spiritual practices of individuals, but did say jail staff monitors all inmates to "ensure their health and wellness."

On Wednesday, his brother, Jocqui said Jussie had been moved out of the psych ward thanks to fan support, with #FreeJussie circulating online.

While he claimed his brother was kept in a restrained bed during his time in the ward, a rep for the sheriff's office says that wasn't the case and denied Jussie's bed had any restraints.

We're also told he was moved out of the ward because health services needed space for another detained person, and the decision to move him was made by medical professionals.

Rockmond Dunbar is taking Disney and 20th Television to federal court over his ouster from "9-1-1" ... accusing the studios of discriminating against him based on his race and religion.

According to the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, Rockmond claims he was the only Black male lead actor on the TV show and his dismissal severely damaged his career.

In the docs, Rockmond claims he submitted paperwork seeking both a religious and medical exemption for the COVID-19 vaccine, and says producers assured him they wanted him to remain on the show and his schedule would be adjusted to accommodate him being unvaccinated.

Instead, Rockmond claims he was barred from the set and assured his character's storyline would show him leaving temporarily, keeping open the possibility for him to return down the road.

But Rockmond claims that never happened either ... in his suit, he says Disney and 20th Television fired him in retaliation and refused to pay him the hundreds of thousands of dollars he says he's still owed.

What's more, Rockmond claims the studios not only refused to accommodate his vaccine exemption requests, but also deliberately made it sound like he was an anti-vaxxer ... and he says he essentially became persona non grata in Hollywood.

Rockmond's going after the studios for money, and he wants an injunction barring the studios from discriminating against anyone based on race or religion when it comes to vaccination policies.

We reached out to Disney and 20th Television ... so far, no word back.

Bill Maher went in hard Friday night, using Whoopi Goldberg as an example of how America has become a hateful, spiteful country that celebrates a misinformed view of karma.

The 'Real Time' host railed on the concept of karma, saying it's bulls*** to begin with -- no such thing -- but the lore of karma was actually a positive, zen-type thing, but we've made it a thing of revenge.

Bill's phone was filled with texts after Whoopi was suspended, with friends telling him how happy they were that karma hit her hard. Bill lashed out at his buds, saying yeah, Whoopi has gone after him for his views on COVID and other stuff, but that's called free speech.

He also says she's wrong on COVID and was wrong when she talked about race -- the thing that got her benched for 2 weeks -- but that's called disagreement. As he says, she has a right to speak, and the cure for misinformed speech is more speech. And, as he hilariously mused, Whoopi has a rock-solid defense -- "F*** it, it's 11 AM!"

As Bill puts it, "The View" suspending Whoopi for her views is like firing Pat Sajak for selling a vowel.

Julia Haart, the star of Netflix's "My Unorthodox Life," is getting dragged into court by her estranged hubby ... who claims she made off with $850k from a company account.

Silvio Scaglia and Freedom Holding Inc. are suing Julia ... claiming she misappropriated the funds after finding out she was going to be dismissed as the CEO at Elite World Group.

Silvio runs EWG, a subsidiary of Freedom Holding, and in a lawsuit, he says she made the huge withdrawal on Tuesday, the day after finding out she was getting the ax.

It's interesting ... the alleged withdrawal went down the day before Julia filed to divorce Silvio after 3 years of marriage.

In docs, obtained by TMZ, Silvio claims he gave Julia a 50% stake in Freedom Holding back in 2019, and she became the CEO of EWG that same year ... a job that gave her access to the company bank account.

Julia's ex claims they met in January to discuss company finances and agreed to place limits on what she could withdraw ... no more than $250k to cover a mortgage, rent and living expenses, and he claims she took out $250k shortly after that agreement was made.

Silvio says EWG sent a letter to Julia outlining reasons for her dismissal, and it cites an alleged increase in costs and expenses beyond the budget. It also blames Haart for the company's failure to raise new money.

Silvio claims Julia swiped the money as retaliation for getting fired, and he's suing to get back the $850k, plus damages.

We reached out to Julia ... so far, no word back.