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A banana duct taped to a wall -- which sold for over $100k on behalf of a renowned artist -- is now in the belly of another man ... but apparently, it's no big deal. We think ...

Performance artist David Datuna took the bold step Saturday afternoon of EATING the super expensive Musa plant down at the Art Basel gallery in Miami -- which an art collector in France recently bought for a whopping $120,000 from artist Maurizio Cattelan.

Datuna literally walked up and stripped the brown, aging banana from the wall it was taped to and peeled it open in front of lots of shocked onlookers ... who couldn't believe it.

On Instagram, he called his performance "Hungry Artist" and posted some aftermath footage of what appears to be gallery personnel sitting him down to take his info. Based on what we can tell, this is actually a no-no ... the banana is NOT supposed to be tampered with ... although the fruit itself is allowed to be replaced on a continuous basis as needed.

It's a little confusing, but basically ... the French art collector owns the "idea" of this art piece, so whether the banana itself sticks around or not doesn't affect its value. She still has the certificate of authenticity, so she's still got $120k worth of banana art to her name.

Still, it doesn't seem like the folks who work at the gallery were all too thrilled with Datuna's stunt. In footage of the incident -- obtained by TMZ -- you can hear Datuna joke about heading to jail ... but according to reports, the guy hasn't been arrested or charged with anything yet. We're told the gallery is considering pursuing a complaint though.

BTW, the banana has reportedly already been replaced. File this one under ... forbidden fruit.

Kim K is doing exactly what she needs to in the collective fight for criminal justice reform -- no more, and no less ... so says the famed defense attorney who inspired 'Just Mercy.'

We ran into Bryan Stevenson Saturday in NYC, where he was doing press for the new flick about his real-life role in exonerating Alabama death row inmate Walter McMillian in the '90s. Michael B. Jordan plays him in the upcoming feature, opposite Jamie Foxx.

Seeing how he's a lifelong crusader for the cause, our photog asked what he made of Kim's efforts to help put a spotlight on prisoners she feels have been railroaded by the system ... including death row inmate Rodney Reed, who was recently granted a stay of execution.

You'll recall ... Kim was with Rodney when he heard the news, and according to her -- he praised Jesus in the moment. She and plenty of others had pled with Gov. Abbott to halt Rodney's execution and consider revisiting his case in light of new evidence.

As far as Bryan's concerned, Kim's doing a good thing by using her platform to bring attention to these cases ... but he stops short of saying she's a glorified savior of any kind.

If anything, it sounds like he's downplaying how she'll be remembered -- and based on his careful answer, he doesn't seem to believe her work is on his level ... not yet, anyway.

Jason Aldean made a triumphant return to Sin City -- playing his first concert there since the 2017 massacre that left 58 dead ... and wounded hundreds more.

The country singer performed Friday night at the Park MGM, which marked the first of three headlining shows he's putting on as part of his brief Ride All Night residency. Seeing how it'd been 2 years since Jason got on stage in Vegas ... he made sure to address the situation.

A few songs in, JA paused to shout out anyone who might've been there from his 2017 performance at the Route 91 Harvest Festival ... calling them "family." He also mentioned it was his first time back since then but didn't explicitly discuss the shooting.

He did make a promise though ... saying he came back to "blow it out" for the crowd, and finish what they'd started at Route 91. The audience absolutely ate it up.

At the end of his set, Jason covered Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" -- which lots of folks took as a nod to the tragedy and a sign of resilience. He's got 2 more shows this weekend.

You'll recall ... the initial shots Stephen Paddock fired rang out in the middle of Jason's set two years ago during the outdoor country music festival. At first, he didn't seem to notice ... but was quickly whisked off stage once it became clear what was happening.

Paddock was holed up in his room at the nearby Mandalay Bay hotel and had an arsenal of rifles with him ... several of which he'd modified to shoot like semi-automatics. He broke windows in his suite and fired down below at the concertgoers ... causing a blood bath.

Chris Soules seems ready to put his recent past behind him ... showing face in Hollywood for the first time since he was busted for fleeing the scene of a fatal crash.

The former 'Bachelor' was out Friday night at KIIS FM's iHeartRadio Jingle Ball in L.A., where he certainly didn't shy away from the cameras ... posing for pics as he went in with a full smile on his face. It's his first major public appearance in Tinsel Town since 2017.

While it might've looked like a comeback attempt, Chris told ET he wasn't attempting to return to the spotlight ... and that he was just tagging along with other 'Bachelor' pals.

You'll recall ... Chris was arrested in April 2017 after cops said he'd rammed his pickup truck into a John Deere tractor and sent the driver flying into a ditch. The man ultimately died.

Chris stuck around on the scene until EMTs showed, but bounced before the police could arrive. They caught up to him later at his house and made the arrest. Just earlier this year, Chris finally accepted a plea deal from prosecutors that kept him out of jail.

He was handed down a 2-year suspended sentence after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of an accident resulting in serious injury ... an aggravated misdemeanor.

Ozzy Osbourne is willing to put some big dough if someone can help track down the thieves who looted a music school with ties to his late pal, Randy Rhoads ... we're talking thousands.

The Black Sabbath frontman posted some sad news Saturday about the Musonia School of Music in North Hollywood, saying it had recently been broken into and looted for a lot of its instruments and precious valuables. Ozzy says at least 6 items were taken by crooks.

Among them ... Randy's first electric guitar, as well as Randy's mother's Great Depression-era trumpet that she'd been gifted in childhood. High value, sentimental stuff, in other words.

Welp, Ozzy's got a solution of his own ... $25,000 of cold, hard cash in the form of a reward.

He writes, "I am heartbroken that these treasured physical memories of Randy and Delores have been taken from the family so I’ve decided to personally offer a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction and/or return of all stolen items."

Cardi B's gonna mess around and bring floods to Africa ... if she keeps making it rain the way she did in a Nigerian strip club ahead of what's going to be a historic gig for her.

Actually, Cardi's already making history if you ask the dancers inside the club she took over Friday night in the city of Lagos. Not only did seemingly EVERY stripper jump in a giant selfie with the rapper, but they went home covered in naira.

Here's your international travel tip for the day: Nigeria's currency is the naira, and Cardi came with stacks on stacks on stacks of 'em when she hit the VIP. The video is pretty insane.

While the DJ pumped Cardi's music, every stripper got a chance to entertain the queen.

Mind you, this is a business trip. Cardi's performing at the Livespot X Festival Saturday in Lagos, and then in neighboring Ghana on Sunday. This is Cardi's first time on the African continent, and she said on IG she wants to experience the "real" Nigeria ... not just a hotel.

She's off to a great start!!!

One of R. Kelly's longtime live-in girlfriends has had enough of the circus surrounding his myriad of federal and state legal battles ... so she's moved out of his Trump Tower condo.

Sources close to Azriel Clary tell us she recently got her own place in Chicago and is no longer living with Joycelyn Savage. We're told Azriel wanted to distance herself from the ongoing Kelly saga -- including Joycelyn's fake Patreon page -- and focus on her life.

Our sources say Azriel does still support R. Kelly ... but being in the condo with Joycelyn and being immersed in the drama at all times became too much. We're told Azriel is making money to support herself through a TV project and modeling gigs.

Azriel's main focus is now on her singing career, something she put a lot of effort into before meeting R. Kelly. She has plans to document her daily life, showcase her singing and start acting.

Azriel's father, Angelo, told us back in July he would do anything to get his daughter out of Trump Tower ... including pay for her own apartment. The move certainly seems to be one in the direction of reuniting with her family.

It was just this week when TMZ obtained a video of R. Kelly's other girlfriend, Joycelyn Savage, making a statement in full support of the singer. Savage claimed she wasn't the one behind the pay account that claimed to have info on Kelly ... and that she and Azriel still fully supported him.

Saweetie is all about silver linings after she and Quavo were grounded by some serious issues with their private jet, and she got a painful reminder ... someone's always got it worse.

The rapper was leaving Nice Guy Friday night when we asked her about the fuel leak from her private jet that had the fire department rushing to the tarmac Thursday night -- and also prevented her from getting to a scheduled Bay Area gig.

Saweetie told us she was disappointed, especially for fans expecting to see her and Trey Songz perform -- but she was happy she and her Migos BF avoided tragedy.

Our photog helped cheer her up, though. Watch the clip, 'cause you gotta see the look on Saweetie's face when he told her about ... SCORPIONS ON A PLANE!!!

TMZ broke the story ... a United passenger claims a scorpion somehow got into her pants during a flight from San Fran to ATL and stung her multiple times.

Elliott from 'E.T.' allegedly tried to pull a fast one during his Oregon DUI stop by brazenly tampering with his urine test, then playing it cool in hopes of passing a blood alcohol test.

Henry Thomas refused to complete breathalyzer and field sobriety tests ... according to the Tualatin PD report on his October DUI arrest, and instead, he was taken to the station for a urine test.

In the report, obtained by TMZ, cops say they placed the actor in a holding cell before requesting the urine sample. As an officer was reading Henry the consent form, cops say he interrupted, asked for the cup and went over to the toilet to get down to biz.

Police say the officer turned her back to Thomas' cell and continued reading the consent form, and heard him taking a leak. But, when he returned the cup, cops say it was not warm and the sample was completely clear and filled to the brim.

Cops asked Thomas if he tampered with the urine sample by dipping it into the toilet, and he denied it.

As we first reported, Tualatin cops responded to a call of Thomas being asleep at the wheel in the middle of an intersection, and say they found 'fast acting THC' in his car.

Anyway, cops say while they were transporting Thomas to a hospital for a blood test, he threatened to sue the police department and the city ... and bragged about being the child star from 'E.T.'

He got one more chance to provide another urine sample at the hospital, but police say the actor claimed he didn't have to pee and again insisted he didn't tamper with the earlier sample.

But, just like Steven Spielberg's iconic 1982 film, there's a happy ending for Elliott.

IF he cheated the pee test, he never got busted for it, because he took a sweet plea deal and won't spend any time behind bars.

Ron Liebman, the award-winning actor who starred in 'Norma Rae,' has died in New York City ... according to his family.

Ron passed away from pneumonia on Friday in his hometown after a long and illustrious career on stage, film and TV.

He costarred with Sally Field as Reuben, the union rep who inspires the title character in 1979's "Norma Rae." He also had important roles in "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Night Falls on Manhattan" and "Garden State."

Younger audiences will recognize Ron as Rachel's often-disappointed dad on "Friends."

He won an Emmy in 1979 for his starring role in "Kaz" ... a short-lived drama he co-created and wrote -- and also won a Tony for "Angels in America: Millennium Approaches" in 1993.

Most recently, Ron was the voice of Walter, Malory Archer's husband, on the FX hit animated comedy, "Archer."

He's survived by his wife, actress Jessica Walter, whom he married in 1983.

Justin Timberlake and Peloton are taking a lot of heat, and Willie Nelson doesn't smoke weed anymore. So, we gotta ask ...

All that controversy over the Peloton commercial critics are blasting for body-shaming just landed the star of it a hilarious new gig ... with Ryan Reynolds.

Monica Ruiz is the actress who plays the wife -- sorry, long-suffering wife to many -- in that Christmas gift themed fitness spot, but now she's also starring in an ad for Aviation Gin ... and it plays perfectly off all the Peloton buzz.

Based on the commercial ... the formerly spinning-crazed wife is now more interested in downing booze with her girls. The strong insinuation here is she's left the husband who "forced" her to get on the bike every day.

The ladies toast to "new beginnings" before the wife pounds her martini. One of her GFs even says, "You look great, by the way."

Of course, Aviation is Ryan's company ... and ya gotta hand it to his marketing team for capitalizing off the social media uproar over Peloton.

All the backlash against the Peloton has impacted the ad's actors -- Monica and her "hubby" Sean Hunter -- who've dodged interviews all week. Hunter did eventually speak out in "Psychology Today."

Leave it to Reynolds, though, to lighten the mood. He tweeted his company's commercial with the caption, "Exercise bike not included."

Chris Webber says he hasn't been back to the Crisler Center at the Univ. of Michigan in 26 YEARS -- but he's finally down to bury the hatchet ... thanks to Juwan Howard.

Webber was a key member of the legendary Fab Five team in '92 and '93 ... but got caught up in a college booster scandal and in 2003, he was hit with a 10-year ban prohibiting him from associating with the school in any capacity.

The ban expired in 2013 ... but Webber has still had NO relationship with the basketball program ever since (though he did attend a football game in 2018).

"I haven't been back because they banned me from the place," Webber says ... "When they did a 10-year ban, said I couldn't come to the campus, well then, okay I'm not gonna come."

But, now that his good buddy and ex-Fab Five teammate Juwan Howard has taken over the hoops program for the Wolverines, Webber tells TMZ Sports he's seriously considering rekindling his relationship with Michigan Basketball.

"Howard is my friend ... and therefore, I put pride aside," Webber said.

"I told Juwon I'd love to come to a practice and he's definitely extended an opportunity. So, I'm pumped about it when it happens."

"I haven't been back to Crisler Arena since the day I left when I was 20 years old going to the NBA. And, so, he knows that's a special moment for me. So, yeah I would love that."

Webber says he wants his return to be private -- "No fanfare, without people around so I can just go around a reminisce and have a good time as well."

Don't let these two almost identical images of Adam DeVine get you all mixed up! Get it together and see if you can figure out the sneaky switches that have been made to this tricky pic!

The 'Workaholics' actor was recently spotted on set for a Captain Morgan holiday shoot ... and we made a few changes to the pic! Use some of that holiday magic to see if you can figure out the mystery here ... Just take a really good look around these two pics and see if you can figure out the differences between these super similar snaps!

The guy who played the high schooler who gets killed in the first season of "Riverdale" is now killing it with his good looks ... and he just landed his first modeling deal.

Trevor Stines -- best known for playing Jason Blossom on the teen drama TV series -- signed with DT Model Management and the agency says it has high hopes for the hunky actor.

DT agent, Ricardo Guerrero, tells us he knew about Trevor from Riverdale, but what really caught his attention was his sexy role in the Lifetime movie, "Purity Falls."

In the flick, Stines plays a high school wrestler who gets entrapped in a neighborhood woman's male escort business ... but the movie poster really says it all.

Guerrero says the team met with Trevor, and along with his flawless features ... his personality won them over. He adds that DT's hoping to book Stines in ad campaigns, and because of his "classic beauty" and charm ... they want him in fashion shows too.

BTW -- Trevor's 6'1" .... a perfect model height for the runway.

Enes Kanter already has a sick retirement plan in place when his NBA career comes to an end ... telling TMZ Sports he's already in talks to join WWE full time!!!

Of course, the Boston Celtics star is no stranger to the squared circle -- he VERY briefly held the 24/7 Championship at Monday Night Raw back in September, but then lost it moments later to R-Truth.

We spoke with the 27-year-old about his future plans with Vince McMahon's company ... and he says the wheels are already moving for a career in wrasslin'!!!

"I'm ready, I'm actually already talking to some people," Kanter tells us.

Oh, and by "some people," he doesn't mean *just* "some people" ... Kanter says he's met with Triple H and Paul Heyman ... and it's just a matter of WHEN not IF.

Kanter -- who is in his 9th season in the Association -- says he's still hoping to play at least 5-6 more years of hoops before he considers throwing on the spandex for the wrestling gig, so he's in no rush.