Legendary songwriter Diane Warren -- who wrote pretty much every hit song you've ever heard -- tells TMZ, it took her 56 years to reach the highest point of her career ... when Snoop Dogg got her blitzed out of her mind on some serious sticky icky.

Diane -- whose hits include Toni Braxton's "Unbreak My Heart" and Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" -- recently wrote Snoop's new song "The Good Good" ... and when they recorded it at the studio, Diane says they got high as kites together.

The best part of the video is when Diane's friends tell her not to talk about the weed session on camera ... and she blows 'em off saying -- "I don't care, I'm not running for office. I don't give a f**k."

It's pretty hilarious ... Diane's got a great sense of humor ... watch the clip.

Millionaire choke artist Charles Saatchi -- the guy who says he was only "playfully" strangling his wife in public last week -- surfaced in London today for a dinner date with himself.

Saatchi has been hounded by the U.K. media ever since photos surfaced showing the ad mogul getting a little too hands on with his celebrity chef wife Nigella Lawson.

But today, Saatchi arrived solo to the the swanky 34 Restaurant in London.

With Lawson reportedly out of town -- and far from Saatchi's grip -- looks like the only thing he'll be choking in the near future is his own chicken.

After days of ridicule, Miss Utah finally had a chance to redeem herself on the "Today" show this AM -- and this time she answered the infamous pageant question WITH FLYING COLORS!!! For a beauty queen.  

Marissa Powell sat down with Matt Lauer and explained -- as TMZ previously reported -- that nerves got the best of her during Sunday night's Miss USA contest ... causing her to give one of the most confusing answers in pageant history.

Matt, being the saint he is, gave Marissa ONE MORE SHOT to get the question right ... see how she did this time. And remember folks she only had 48 hours, the Internet and a team of people to help her prepare.

Talk about pressure.

Rapper J. Cole was basically extorted by a sick fan who tweeted a photo of a little girl with a gun to her head ... and claimed he would shoot her if Cole did not respond to his message.

The fan tweeted last night "@JColeNC retweet me and I'll buy Born Sinner. Don't retweet me and I'll kill my lil sister."

Shortly after the threatening tweet, which refers to Cole's new album ... Cole did indeed retweet the message.

It's unclear if the gun is real or where the twisted bastard behind the tweet actually lives. The account, which we're not revealing, claims to be out of Saudi Arabia -- but the truth is it could be anywhere in the world.

We reached out to police in North Carolina -- where J. Cole lives -- to see if they were investigating ... but they hadn't heard anything about it.

We also contacted Twitter headquarters ... a rep said the company doesn't comment on individual accounts to protect privacy

This morning J. Cole commented about the incident, saying ... "Wildest s**t I ever seen on twitter."


3:33 PM PT The fan's Twitter account appears to have been taken down. It is no longer loading.

11:15 AM PT  The fan is now downplaying his tweet by claiming it's a BB gun in the photo -- apparently, oblivious to the fact even a BB gun could seriously harm a child at that range.

Well this is bizarre -- a man was arrested last night for tiptoeing around Rihanna's roof ... but lucky for the singer, security guards nabbed the guy before he made it much further.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ, private security guards near Rihanna's Pacific Palisades property called police just after 10 PM, reporting they had detained the 26-year-old alleged trespasser. Guards then held the man until officers arrived, and turned him over. The man was subsequently placed under arrest.

We're told the man was adamant ... he did NOT know it was Rihanna's house he was creeping around -- though cops tell us he had a Google map of the area pulled up on his phone. (Maybe he just got really lost???)

Bail was set $2,882. He's still in custody.

According to the L.A. Times -- which broke the story -- Rihanna wasn't home at the time ... she's in the U.K. on her Diamonds World Tour.

It's been a wild year for Rihanna's L.A. pad -- she was swatted in April ... and there was also that guy who tried to break into her house and sleep in her bed. The perks of being famous.

 

Advertising mogul Charles Saatchi -- one of the biggest art collectors in the world -- was given an official "caution" by London police after photos emerged showing the 70-year-old CHOKING HIS WIFE with his bare hands.

The story is exploding in the U.K. ... after photos surfaced showing Saatchi with his hands wrapped tightly around the neck of his wife Nigella Lawson -- a celebrity chef who recently appeared on "The Taste."

The photos were taken while Saatchi and Lawson were having dinner last week at Scott’s in Mayfair -- a very posh London restaurant.

Saatchi insisted he wasn't trying to hurt Lawson -- claiming they were merely in the middle of a "playful tiff." The look of sheer terror on Lawson's face says otherwise ...

Saatchi also said, "The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place. Nigella’s tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt."

Lawson has reportedly left the couple's home with her children -- though Saatchi insists he sent her away to escape the media blitz until "the dust settled."

 

Kanye West and Kim Kardashian's baby girl already has the Midas touch -- 'cause her poop-filled diapers could be solid gold ... according to the stars of "Hardcore Pawn."

Leslie Gold -- a bona fide expert in selling other people's crap -- told our photog in NYC ... if someone wanted to pawn baby Kimye's soiled poop sacks he'd definitely pony up some cash.

You gotta see how Les' co-stars -- his kids Ashley and Seth -- react to his answer, but truth is ... he's not off-base.

Other weird celeb stuff reportedly auctioned: Scarlett Johansson's tissue ($5,300) ... William Shatner's kidney stone ($25,000) ... Britney Spears' pregnancy test ($5,001) and Justin Timberlake's half-eaten french toast ($3,154).

Miss Utah is beyond humiliated after her epic Q&A fail at the Miss USA pageant, and she's blaming her brain fart on a massive case of nerves ... TMZ has learned.

Sources close to Marissa Powell tell TMZ the beauty queen's mortified after babbling ... "we need to see how to create education better" while attempting to answer a question about salary inequality for women.

Marissa's now telling friends she botched the response because she was so anxious she spaced out during the question, and never really heard it.

Instead of asking the judge to repeat the question ... Marissa decided to fake an answer, but got more and more flustered as she tried to improvise.

Takes you back to high school, right?

Or maybe to 2007 with the South Carolina, and such as ...

Kim Kardashian's mini-me gave birth this weekend -- LIVE on stage -- complete with Mini Kanye and even a mini-baby ... yes, that's possible. 

Just hours after the real Kim gave birth ... Mini Kim pretended to pinch out a baby of her own during Beacher's Madhouse at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood Saturday night.

The lil cast included a little person playing lil K&K's baby girl -- and the real Kim K's real BFF, Jonathan Cheban, just happened to be in attendance to deliver the kid.

Mini mazel.

 

Miss Utah Marissa Powell put on a clinic at the Miss USA pageant Sunday night -- but did she snatch the bumbling-stumbling crown from former Miss South Carolina Teen USA?

Time for a dumb-off ... enjoy!