Nick Cannon is at his wit's end over his anti-Semitic comments and his apology for them -- he clearly feels he's in a no-win situation, and now some fans are concerned about his well being.
"The Masked Singer" host let his frustrations out Thursday night, saying ... "I hurt an entire community and it pained me to my core, I thought it couldn’t get any worse. Then I watched my own community turn on me and call me a sell-out for apologizing."
He added ... "Goodnight. Enjoy Earth."
An hour later, he followed that up, tweeting ... "Y'all can have this planet. I'm out!"
As you know ... Nick came under fire for pushing anti-Jewish rhetoric on his "Cannon's Class" podcast, which resulted in ViacomCBS dropping him. Instead of apologizing, he initially stuck to his guns and was defiant.
But he changed his tune after a discussion with Rabbi Abraham Cooper, and posted a lengthy apology for his "hurtful and divisive words."
Nick's frustration is clear from his Thursday night tweets -- after initially getting backlash for the anti-Semitic remarks, he's now getting backlash for apologizing. It's interesting ... you could read the apology backlash as a reflection of just how much anti-Semitism there is out there.
Some fans online took Nick's tweets as a sign he might harm himself.
As we reported, Nick had a follow-up face-to-face meeting with Rabbi Cooper Thursday night, but the social media trolling is obviously weighing heavily on him.
The Twitter accounts of some of the most high-profile celebs, politicians and business leaders around have been hacked ... and it appears it's all part of a massive Bitcoin scam.
The hack began Wednesday afternoon and is ongoing, but it seems to have started with Elon Musk. Around 4 PM ET, the Tesla founder's Twitter account was seemingly compromised by a hacker ... and it tweeted out a message asking users to send $1,000 to his Bitcoin address and they'd get $2k in return.
Shortly afterward, Bill Gates' account tweeted out a similar message with the identical BTC address. The hacker or hackers are continuing to rack up victims by posting the scam on other accounts ... including those of Kanye West, Jeff Bezos, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, Barack Obama and most recently, Kim Kardashian West.
Gates' people were quick to respond to the hack, saying ... "We can confirm that this tweet was not sent by Bill Gates. This appears to be part of a larger issue that Twitter is facing. Twitter is aware and working to restore the account."
Some of the scam tweets are being deleted, but then follow-up tweets are going up just as quickly ... or popping up elsewhere.
You know what rich people love more than anything? FREE STUFF!
Just ask Dennis Rodman who sent a video message to Kanye West asking for some comped Adidas sneaks ... and Kanye isn't exactly saying no!
The rapper just posted the video message he got from Rodman -- in which the NBA legend praises all the work he's been doing with his Yeezy brand.
"Love what you doing with Adidas man, keep it up brother.," Rodman said.
He added, "Send me some shoes sometime, what the f**k man?!"
Hey, Yeezys ain't cheap -- they retail for $220 a pair if you can find them in stock. The resale market is even more expensive, with some pairs running north of $1,000!
Rodman also wished Ye a happy birthday (West turned 43 on June 8) ... but it's unclear if Rodman just sent a belated message or if Ye just got around to watching it.
Either way, Kanye seemed to dig it -- replying back to Dennis on Twitter ... "Blessings from one of my heroes, The incredible alien level Dennis Rodman!"
Rodman has an interesting group of friends -- everyone from Donald Trump to Kim Jong-Un ... and now Kanye!
6:32 PM PT -- 7/13 -- Allentown PD just released surveillance video from the incident, which cops say was captured from across the street.
UPDATE
In the video, you see the moment cops and the man fall to the ground and the ensuing struggle, plus the cop putting his knee to the man's neck and eventually taking it off.
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6:25 AM PT -- 7/13 -- The Allentown Police Department announced there's an investigation into this incident being reviewed by the Lehigh County D.A.'s Office, and the department's also conducting an internal investigation over use of force. The D.A. has also assigned 2 county detectives to the investigation.
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Allentown PD says part of the investigation will include reviewing the video posted on social media, witness statements and additional videos of the interaction.
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Allentown PD says this all began when APD officers observed a male outside a hospital who was vomiting and staggering on the street. They say the erratic behavior resulted in cops and hospital staff interacting with the individual, who began to yell, scream and spit at officers and hospital staff.
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Cops say, "as the officers attempted to restrain the individual, all parties fell to the ground." They say the individual continued to be noncompliant which required officers to restrain the individual. The man was escorted to a hospital for treatment and later released.
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The D.A.'s office is expected to issue a statement when its review is complete later this week.
A Pennsylvania city is the latest to deal with the outrage over cops holding a man down with a knee to the neck ... and the incident was captured on video, quite by accident.
A man was driving on a street in Allentown Saturday afternoon when he saw cops trying to subdue a man. A few seconds into the video you see an officer in the same position that killed George Floyd and others.
The man recording the incident says what he's watching makes it clear ... black lives don't matter to these cops.
Famed Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump was among the outraged, saying, "Allentown Police held down this man's face to the pavement and then one of its officers placed their knee on his neck!! This happened yesterday and is exactly what led to #GeorgeFloyd's death. We need this officers name and bade# NOW #ICantBreathe."
The police dept. recently banned the use of chokeholds and other neck restraints, so at the very least this would seem to violate department policy.
@DanMoscaritolo / Twitter
Protests erupted in the area -- organized by Black Lives Matter -- once the video was posted on social media. The Mayor and Police Chief showed up to keep the peace.
It's unclear why police were trying to subdue the man. Police have not released any details, including the man's condition.
"Scooby-Doo" sleuth Velma is a lesbian -- at least according to writer/director James Gunn, who says she was definitely gay in his initial 2002 movie script.
Before the filmmaker rose to the ranks of director of the "Guardians of the Galaxy" films, he wrote the screenplays for the live-action "Scooby-Doo" and its 2004 sequel, 'Monsters Unleashed' ... and he says he intended for Velma to be "explicitly gay."
Gunn was replying to a fan on Twitter asking him to return to the franchise and make a live-action Velma gay ... he claims he already tried it.
According to Gunn ... the studio, which was Warner Bros., "just kept watering it down & watering it down, becoming ambiguous (the version shot), then nothing (the released version) & finally having a boyfriend (the sequel)."
Essentially ... Gunn's accusing Warner Bros. of putting the kibosh on a gay character riding shotgun in the Mystery Machine with Scoob & co.
Gunn replied to another fan, suggesting the 2002 film’s home video release hinted at what he was trying to do with Velma’s sexuality in the original script.
The Velma character in the movie was played by Linda Cardellini ... of "Dead to Me" and "Bloodline" fame, most recently.
12:32 PM PT -- According to reports, Ventura County's search for Naya will continue on a day-to-day basis, but not at the same intensity it's been at these past few days. Sonar scans of the lake are said to be completed by end of day Sunday.
Authorities will search cabins that line Lake Piru ... not because they believe Naya Rivera is there, but because there has been so much social media activity about the cabins that law enforcement wants to put the theory to bed.
An official from the Ventura County Sheriff's Dept. tells TMZ ... they have been seeing a ton of Twitter users imploring cops to search the cabins in the area ... presumably, because they think Naya may have made her way to one.
The official tells us ... they do NOT believe Naya is in a cabin. They're confident she's still in the water, but nevertheless, a search team will walk the area where the cabins are located. Deputies will knock on doors and ask if they know anything about Naya's whereabouts.
If a cabin is not occupied, deputies will peer inside for any signs.
That said, the focus of the search is still Lake Piru, where Naya went missing Wednesday while swimming with her 4-year-old son. Because of extremely poor visibility due to debris in the water, searchers will be primarily relying on sonar.
2:06 PM PT -- Dianna Ploss just got fired from her radio gig in New Hampshire. WSMN 1590 issued the following statement, "Dianna Ploss is no longer associated or affiliated in any way with WSMN or Bartis-Russell Broadcasting, LLC."
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They added, "We at WSMN value freedom of speech, freedom of expression and assembly. We will not tolerate discrimination, racism or hatred. We continue to present and offer on air opportunities for discussion, education and the exchange of opinions and ideas."
A radio host in New Hampshire went on a vile, racist tirade against a group of workers doing their job, because they dared to speak Spanish.
Waiting for your permission to load the Instagram Media.
It's almost unbelievable ... Dianna Ploss saw the workers who were doing landscaping in downtown Nashua, and she just went nuts, screaming, "It's America. Speak English!"
Her ignorance is breathtaking ... she assumes they're working for the State of New Hampshire, as if that would justify her comments. For the record, there's no law in New Hampshire that we found prohibiting people from speaking languages other than English.
They correct her, saying they are a private company, but she's not deterred, hurling insults and making ridiculous demands.
An African-American man who happened to witness her tirade comes by and confronts her, and she barks back, "Because he's a black man. He's gonna protect the brown man from this white woman." Afterward, she posted on her Facebook page, "I'm not backing down."
We've seen a lot of racist videos, but rarely is the person who shoots it the racist herself. BTW ... Ploss reportedly quit her job in 2016 to campaign for Trump.
There's a petition circulating for her to get the ax from her radio station. Hopefully, the petition is written in English and Spanish.
An Indiana man is proud of himself this weekend, thinking he cleverly combined 2 symbols of hate -- the Confederate flag, and a noose. And, he has them displayed on the back of his pickup truck.
Man from Indiana doesn't think the noose on the back of his Confederate truck is racist pic.twitter.com/8UgczAKtV1
The man was in Bedford, Indiana when he recorded himself next to his pickup truck with the flag adhered to the back. Draped over the flag -- a noose.
He and one of his cohorts joked that it was just a leash for his dog, which itself is thinly-veiled dog-whistling. The men joked they couldn't understand why someone would leave a note on their car in disapproval.
These racist episodes are all the more troubling because the people who are spewing hate are the ones recording themselves doing it and then posting it on social media.
The online fashion retail site Shein is apologizing for creating confusion over its attempt to sell a Buddhist swastika necklace, which triggered outrage and led to the retailer removing the item from the site.
A rep for Shein tells TMZ ... the online retailer was NOT selling a Nazi swastika pendant, but rather a Buddhist swastika necklace, "which has symbolized spirituality and good fortune for more than a thousand years." The rep goes on to explain, "The Nazi swastika has a different design; it is pointed clockwise and tilted at an angle. However, because we understand the two symbols can be confused, and one is highly offensive, we have removed the product from our site."
Shein took TONS of backlash on social media after hordes of people pointed out the swastika-like necklace ... selling for a whopping $2.50.
in case u needed another reason to boycott shein: they are selling fucking SWASTIKA NECKLACES. this is ACTIVELY THREATENING to the jewish community. i’ve seen you all posting about other issues but being silent on antisemitism - do NOT let shein get away with this. pic.twitter.com/gReEmW4Tyi
Someone else tweeted, "I probably am (was) the most loyal @shein_official customer around, but now I"ll be taking my business to @zaful_official or really any other company that doesn't have such repulsive disregard for what that swastika represents to the millions of people killed by those who wore it."
A rep for Shein also tells TMZ, "As a multicultural and global brand, we want to apologize profusely to those who are offended, we are sensitive to those issues and want to be very clear that we in no way support or condone racial, cultural and religious prejudice or hostility.
"We are actively working through our internal structure and processes to resolve these issues, including a product review committee to ensure that we respect our diverse community."
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who's become a prominent leader during quarantine and a potential Biden VP, says she's contracted the coronavirus ... without a single warning sign.
Mayor Bottoms shared her diagnosis Monday afternoon, saying ... "COVID-19 has literally hit home. I have had NO symptoms and have tested positive."
As you know ... Mayor Bottoms was super outspoken about flattening the curve at the start of the outbreak, and then butted heads with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp over when to reopen the economy.
She actually urged ATL citizens to stay home in quarantine when Kemp gave the go-ahead to reopen Georgia.
MAY 28, 2020
TMZ.com
Rumored to be on the shortlist of potential Joe Bidenrunning mates, Mayor Bottoms also decried the issue of masks becoming a political symbol and urged folks in her fair city to use common sense and good judgment to safely navigate the pandemic.
Mayor KLB is married with 4 kids ... so presumably, the whole fam has a long 14 days of isolation ahead. She hasn't said if anyone else in her household has been tested.
It's happening (or so it seems) ... Kanye West is running for President, and he says he's doing it sooner than later -- as in RIGHT NOW!!! At least that's how it sounds, anyway.
Ye made the announcement out of nowhere Saturday on Twitter, saying ... "We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States! #2020Vision"
We must now realize the promise of America by trusting God, unifying our vision and building our future. I am running for president of the United States 🇺🇸! #2020VISION
Funny enough, he immediately got the support of one the biggest names in tech -- one Elon Musk, who replied, "You have my full support!" Interestingly, the two of them had just hung out a few days prior to Kanye's declaration ... and they seem like total besties.
Now, back to politics for a sec. It's not completely crazy that Kanye is announcing this bid for the White House -- he's publicly toyed with the idea several times in the past ... perhaps most notably at the 2015 MTV VMAs. Hell, folks thought he'd run in 2016.
Of course, since then ... Kanye has dipped his toe in and out of politics and political talk to much criticism -- and in some cases, to praise. Just depends on who you talked to. And yes, the guy's voiced his support for President Trump many times over since 2016.
If he's serious here -- and it's hard to tell if he is or not -- it would appear he's willing to go head to head with DT in a general election. We should note though, KW has NOT filed to run this year with the FEC, which is a requirement for anyone getting into the race.
Hey, November's a long way from now. It could happen 🤷🏽♂️
Barstool Sports honcho Dave Portnoy is apologizing for his past on-camera usage of the n-word ... and he's now vowing to do better going forward.
"I should have had [my employees'] back from the beginning and been like, 'Yup, I wish I didn't f**king say that sh*t,'" Portnoy said in a video Thursday. "I'm sorry I said it. I'm sorry it offended people."
Clips from around four years ago surfaced of Portnoy this past week ... showing the Barstool Sports founder saying and rapping the n-word on company-produced content videos.
In another one of the resurfaced clips, Portnoy also made insensitive comments about Colin Kaepernick ... saying the 49ers QB looked like an "ISIS guy," and adding, "throw a head wrap on this guy and he's a terrorist."
The unearthed footage was immediately met with backlash ... with critics calling for sponsors to drop partnerships with Barstool ASAP.
Initially, Portnoy defended the remarks ... saying he was "uncancellable." But after he says he spoke with his employees, the 43-year-old decided to issue a mea culpa.
"I can't apologize for my existence, but I can be better," Portnoy said. "And, I'm going to be better for [my employees]."
Portnoy says he'll lean on the diversity of his staff to make sure situations don't arise like this again in the future ... adding, "To all the guys that work for me, I want you to know I have your back."
"And, I want this to be a place that you f**king can be proud of and if you're not this second, we'll get there. We'll f**king get there."
Christion Jones -- an ex-Univ. of Alabama WR -- is now jobless ... he was cut by the Edmonton Eskimos over the weekend, and the team says it's all because of the guy's homophobic tweets.
The 27-year-old fired off intolerant words on social media on Saturday, writing in one, "Man ain't suppose to be with a man. A women is not suppose to be with another women."
Jones doubled down several times on the comments after he faced backlash ... but when word of his tweets reached his employers -- he was quickly fired.
The Eskimos -- who traded for Jones during the 2019 season -- said, "We stand by the LGBTQ+ community and firmly condemn the language used by Christion Jones."
They added, "There is no place for such commentary on our team. Jones has been released from the roster."
The CFL itself also blasted Jones ... saying in a statement of its own, "There is no place in our league for commentary that disparages people on the basis of their religion, race, gender or sexual orientation."
"As Pride Month continues, we stand with the LGBTQ+ community. We all need to say no to hate and yes to love."
For his part, Jones -- after hours of defending his initial comments and swearing he wouldn't apologize -- did end up saying he was sorry for the insensitive comments.
"My words were deeply hurtful, painful and served zero purpose," Jones said. "I added to the struggle of a community, to live a life free of oppression of any kind. I sincerely apologize. I was wrong."
Jones was a solid contributor for the Crimson Tide from 2011 to 2014 ... and had been having a successful CFL career before his release Sunday.
Well, Donald Trump loves his white supremacists, because he just gave his stamp of approval on a protest where one of his loudest supporters is screaming "white power."
It's a bizarre demonstration/counter-demonstration ... a line of golf carts traversed streets around Sumter County, Florida with Trump supporters, as Trump protesters lined the streets.
You hear demonstrators, mostly seniors, boil over in anger ... there's no physical contact, but it's intense.
Thank you to the great people of The Villages. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!! https://t.co/4Gg1iGOhyG
True-to-form Trump retweeted the video, saying, "Thank you to the great people of The Villages. The Radical Left Do Nothing Democrats will Fall in the Fall. Corrupt Joe is shot. See you soon!!"
Again ... one of his most vocal supporters is the guy who screams "white power" ... one of Trump's "great people." So, he's not even masking it anymore.
Cinemark Theatres is dispatching essential workers to sanitize seats between movie screenings ... and it looks like hazardous labor to say the least.
Check out this video from the theater chain's location in West Plano, Texas ... where a very essential employee is spraying down each and every seat in the middle of a pandemic.
Cinemark is shouting the dude out on social media, telling Marc thanks "for sanitizing our auditorium seats before each movie. We appreciate you!"
But, folks on Twitter are saying what Marc really needs is more personal protective equipment. They say his thin face covering and basic glasses look like they aren't doing enough to prevent him from breathing in whatever he's spraying.
Cinemark Theatres is one of the few movie chains open for business in the pandemic, and the chain isn't requiring customers to wear masks, despite COVID-19 cases skyrocketing again across the country, and particularly in Texas.
Panic! at the Disco frontman Brendon Urieis not having it after one of his songs was played at President Trump's rallies ... and he's telling the campaign to kick rocks.
Brendon went off on the Prez and his campaign after one of his most famous tracks -- the 2018 hit "High Hopes" -- was used at Trump's campaign rally Tuesday in Phoenix. Brendon quickly took to Twitter to unleash on the campaign before lashing out at Trump personally ... labeling him a "monster" who "represents nothing we stand for."
In a follow-up tweet ... Brendon added a link to the nonpartisan org HeadCount, which uses "the power of music to register voters and promote participation in democracy." The org's mission is to reach young people and music fans and inform them and empower them.
The song was also famously used by Mayor Pete Buttigieg during his run for president. BTW, this isn't the first time Brendon's spoken out against Trump. Back in 2018, Brendon didn't mince words when he told a British magazine Trump is "a f***ing asshole" who is "encroaching on people's rights."
Donald Trump, Jr. takes the stage in Phoenix, Arizona, to “High Hopes” by Panic! At the Disco, further proof I will never escape “High Hopes” by Panic! At the Disco. pic.twitter.com/YzobIH7UZl
Brendon's just the latest artist to tell Trump's campaign to stop playing their music. Most recently, Tom Petty's family members asked the campaign to stop playing "I Won't Back Down" after it was played at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The family released a statement, saying, "Trump was in no way authorized to use this song to further a campaign that leaves too many Americans and common sense behind." The statement went on to say, "Both the late Tom Petty and his family firmly stand against racism and discrimination of any kind. Tom Petty would never want a song of his used for a campaign of hate. He liked to bring people together."
