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Robert Irwin, the son of the late Steve Irwin, did something that lots of folks might find bone-chilling ... he swam with a giant sea creature that looks like a stingray.

Robert was celebrating Discovery's "Shark Week" when he made the dive. As you know, Steve died in 2006 after being stung in the chest by a stingray off the Great Barrier Reef.

The 17-year-old was undaunted, saying, "I get the honour of kicking off shark week on @discovery in the USA with ‘Crikey! It’s Shark Week’🦈 For the first leg of this epic adventure, I’ll travel to the spectacular Great Barrier Reef as a warm up before I go face to face with great white sharks at the Neptune Islands. From night diving with sharks on the hunt, to getting one-on-one with massive manta rays, it was a great way to start this expedition!"

Robert was fearless, extending his hand in front of the massive manta ray.

John Stamos showed some major versatility Sunday as he played a variety of instruments when he joined the Beach Boys for a really cool performance celebrating the 4th.

John put his pipes on display for "Wouldn't It Be Nice," "California Girls," and "Sloop John B," in front of a huge crowd in Ft. Lauderdale as part of the CNN 4th of July special.

John's been a staple with the group, even showing up in the 1888 music video for "Kokomo."  He's been a frequent guest with the group on July 4th's past and also made a couple of appearances during the Beach Boys 50th reunion tour back in 2012.

Not every boxing superstar hates Logan and Jake Paul ... 'cause heavyweight champion Tyson Fury tells TMZ Sports the two brothers have been AWESOME for the sport!!!

Remember, Canelo Alvarez felt the exact opposite when he spoke to us about the YouTubers-turned-fighters back in December 2020 ... saying they were being "disrespectful" to boxing.

But, the Gypsy King couldn't be more kind about Logan and Jake ... saying, "I've been pretty impressed with the Pauls -- both of them -- to be fair, they've been a good breath of fresh air to the boxing scene."

"Fantastic, guys. Well done if you're watching."

After all, both brothers have been able to put on a show -- Logan just went 8 rounds with Floyd freakin' Mayweather ... and Jake most recently KO'd former UFC star Ben Askren.

Very kind words coming from the 30-0-1 fighter, but don't get it twisted -- Fury thinks his little brother, Tommy will completely wreck Jake if they ever get in the ring together.

"I think Tommy knocks him out cold. I think [Jake's] a decent fighter for sure. But, I know Tommy's a dynamite puncher."

Tommy has been going back and forth with Jake for months ... and even told us back in April he thinks Paul is a "massive p***y."

Jake's busy prepping for his fight with Tyron Woodley ... but it's clear Tyson wants his brother to get a piece next.

There's a rare piece of movie history going up for auction ... the 1949 Oscar trophy for Best Special Effects for "Mighty Joe Young" ... and it's expected to fetch a fortune.

It's not often you see Oscars on the auction block ... the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences loathes seeing its trophies sold, but this one falls outside of the rules preventing the sale because it's neither personalized nor engraved.

Willis O'Brien won this vintage Oscar trophy for his groundbreaking special effects work in the original "Mighty Joe Young," when he transformed a bunch of wood, tar paper and old toupees into an 80-foot gorilla.

Willis famously turned down the first Oscar the Academy offered him for his work on "King Kong" in 1933 -- he wanted a trophy for everyone in his crew.

When 'Mighty Joe' won for special effects, Academy rules called for the producer, Merian C. Cooper, to receive the statuette and he did. However, Merian never got his name engraved on it, because he really wanted Willis to have the Oscar.

So, he essentially slipped him the award under the table, and since it's not personalized and the award was given before the 1951 rule ... it's able to go up for sale.

The statuette is hitting the auction block July 16 as part of Heritage Auctions' Entertainment Memorabilia sale ... and we're told the Oscar is expected to fetch $500,000.

Seattle-based rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot (real name Anthony Ray) shot to worldwide fame after he released his third album "Mack Daddy" back in 1992 ... which included the bass-bumping, booty-shaking and posterior-praising single "Baby Got Back."

"Baby Got Back" was such a huge success that held the number one spot on the Billboard Hot 100 for multiple weeks and earned Sir Mix-A-Lot a Grammy for Best Rap Solo Performance.

The Sir went on to make a total of six studio albums in his music career but never reached the same success as his 1992 release.

Mark Zuckerberg looks like a modern-day George Washington crossing the Delaware River -- but instead of sneaking across on a boat, he's tearing through on an e-surfboard.

The Facebook honcho posted an Independence Day tribute ... and it's patriotic enough, we suppose. The dude's riding one of those eFoil electric boards that basically lets you coast along the top of any body of water. He's super into it ... has tons of videos of him on one.

This time, he looks to be in Lake Tahoe -- where he owns a massive compound, right on the shore -- and as he maintained his balance going at a good speed, he was carrying an American flag with him.

He also overlayed his clip with John Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads" -- which is a great tune, and definitely screams 'Merica ... but doesn't really quite fit for this setting, at least in our minds. Maybe the Beach Boys' "Surfin' USA" would be more appropriate???

At any rate, you can definitely see the historical note he was going for here ... and we'll give him this, it's a cool idea. Twitter, of course, isn't really having it right now -- people on there are making tons of jokes at Mark's expense ... not to mention all the other tech billionaires having a ball with their cool toys lately. People really don't like the uber-rich these days. 😅

Matthew McConaughey seems awfully gubernatorial for his 4th of July message to America -- but his message also sounds pretty damn appealing ... let's unite, and maybe sing about it.

The actor -- and rumored Texas Governor hopeful -- just posted a video addressed to these United States ... and it's chock-full of that classic MMC charm, but underneath all the charisma and showmanship, Matt's actually got a great sentiment he's trying to impart.

Check it out ... the guy's talking all about how we, as a country, need to constantly be reminded that we're striving toward an ideal, and that we should be working toward that in harmony with one another. He even suggests what sounds like a new national anthem.

Of course, the backdrop of his remarks here is a lot of renewed chatter on what America means today ... and for whom. Consider Macy Gray's call for a revamped flag, and more recently ... when Olympic hammer thrower Gwen Berry turned her back on the flag/anthem.

In Matt's eyes ... those feelings are not something to shy away from, but to embrace -- and work to get better for everyone's sake. He acknowledges we should be attempting to be as inclusive in our individual pursuits ... because it really benefits everyone, and reminds us -- we're Americans, united as one. We know ... it's got politico prose written all over it.

Speaking of that ... Matt has slipped in favorability of late in a hypothetical run between himself and incumbent Gov. Greg Abbott (a Republican) -- but not by much, just 1 point.

He's still doing a heck of a lot better than actual politicians who are rumored/already set to run as well ... including Beto O'Rourke and Don Huffines. So, all things considered -- he's being eyed as the favorite to go head to head with Abbott.

New Orleans will have fireworks once again this year -- this after almost having to scrap the show because of a lack of dough ... and it's all thanks to Will Smith, who threw down big time.

The actor -- who's filming his latest movie, "Emancipation," down in NOLA right now -- caught wind of the city planning on skipping this year's big firework show due to a lack of funding ... and, of course, they had to refrain from last year's show as well -- due to COVID.

He wasn't about to let that happen though, it seems ... the dude ponied up a whopping a $100,000 -- with the help of his company, Westbrook -- to help pay for the fireworks and for the festivities to carry on as originally planned -- which will come to fruition later tonight.

So, basically ... he's the local hero for this 4th of July, and the gesture didn't go unnoticed. He got tons of thanks from city officials, as well as locals who are more than happy to have their firework display back. The big boom will go down over the Mississippi River at 9 PM ET.

BTW, this movie that Will's working on right now sounds like classic Oscar bait. It tells the story of a slave named Peter on a Louisiana plantation, who escapes and ends up fighting for the Union in the Civil War. It's based on a true story too -- you've probably seen the photo.

"Peter" is also known as Gordon ... and he's the slave who posed for that iconic photo, showing off the whipping scars on his back -- which shed a light on the brutality of slavery.

Rachel Nichols -- a star anchor for ESPN, covering all things NBA -- was caught on camera last year talking to LeBron James' publicist about how to prevent a fellow female anchor, who's Black, from taking over her job during the Finals ... and the fallout seems devastating.

The New York Times published a bombshell report Sunday, detailing the drama at the sports network over the past year and change ... this after a video of Nichols talking to Adam Mendelsohn was secretly recorded by an ESPN employee, leaked ... and spread like wildfire.

Nichols was working/filming from a hotel room last May just as the NBA Playoffs were getting underway (due to the pandemic) and it appears she left her camera on somehow, and the thing was still recording when she had this chat with Mendelsohn ... with the feed going back to the ESPN studio, where somebody captured the damning words exchanged.

In the first snippet posted by the Times, you can hear Nichols venting to Mendelsohn -- who's a PR/comms wiz -- about how ESPN had approached her with the idea of doing sideline reporting during the Finals that year, as opposed to hosting -- a task Nichols has shared on and off lately with Maria Taylor, another rising star ... who's African-American.

Check out the convo ... Nichols basically says she declined ESPN's offer, because she knew it would make way for Maria to handle hosting duties full-time, essentially pushing Nichols out of the picture ... something she was clearly not down for, as she wanted to maintain her gig.

Nichols goes on to say of Maria shortly thereafter ... "If you need to give her more things to do because you are feeling pressure about your crappy longtime record on diversity -- which, by the way, I know personally from the female side of it -- like, go for it." She adds, "Just find it somewhere else. You are not going to find it from me or taking my thing away."

In a 2nd audio snipped ... Mendelsohn is heard giving advice to Nichols about how she could frame the dynamic of ESPN pitting two females against each other in order to gain leverage, even if it would potentially be at Maria's expense. He also had some interesting thoughts on #MeToo and BLM, saying he had "nothing left" and was exhausted ... in what sounds like what he (and perhaps Nichols) considered phony pandering/appeasing at the executive level.

After this video/audio was spread around among ESPN workers internally, it eventually reached the higher ranks ... and the NYT reports the network has been in damage control mode ever since, with fears that Nichols might sue -- and that Taylor might leave entirely.

Bill Cosby has weighed in on the drama over his one-time costar, Phylicia Rashad, and her new bosses at Howard University ... agreeing that if they can her, they gotta refund him.

The freshly-released Cosby tweeted about the fallout from Phylicia's controversial comments last week -- in which she ecstatically celebrated Bill's conviction being overturned, calling it "justice" -- and he did so by simply concurring with another person's POV on the sitch.

Singer/actress Stephanie Mills actually spilled on how she felt about it, writing ... "I love you @phyliciarashad ❤️❤️❤️. If it’s true that Howard University wants to terminate her Position  because they feel her comments about Mr. Cosby were insensitive, then they should give back the millions of dollars that he donated to the university."

Cosby responded to that quite simply, writing ... "Thank you @iamstephaniemills your voice has always been powerful!" So, in other words, he seems to be fully in her corner on that.

A quick note ... it's not entirely clear how much, if any, dough Cosby has given Howard -- there doesn't seem to be any hard numbers on a donation. That doesn't mean he hasn't chipped in though -- and we know he's been generous when donating to HBCUs.

He famously gave Spelman College $20 million in 1998 -- also, he's an honorary degree holder at Howard. So, it's not outside the realm of possibility he's lined their pockets before.

The funny thing about Bill rushing to Phylicia's defense here ... we're almost certain she doesn't want it -- at least not publicly anyway. She low-key put this matter to bed this past week ... removing her "FINALLY" tweet, and even apologizing to the Howard student body.

So, BC reopening the scab like this probably isn't doing her any favors. If anything, she probably doesn't want Bill's name and Howard brought up in the same sentence around her at all. BTW ... it doesn't look like Howard will fire PR ... they admonished her and that's it.

Fireworks got started early in Maryland this weekend -- a good chunk of their stash went up in flames (and booms) well before the sun went down ... right at ground level, no less.

A truck carrying a crap ton of fireworks in Ocean City accidentally detonated Sunday AM, freaking out bystanders who were in the area ... but ultimately serving as an early indicator of what was to come. Seriously, it was like a full-blown firework show right there on the sand.

Of the mishap, the Ocean City Fire Dept. says ... "There was an unintentional discharge of fireworks that were being set up on the beach for the Town’s fireworks show." They added, "During the unintentional discharge, employees of the fireworks company received minor injuries and refused transport to the hospital by Ocean City Paramedics."

Thankfully, no one was seriously hurt ... but this could have turned ugly fast. In fact, it's eerily similar to another detonation gone wrong right here in L.A. from last week -- when the LAPD's bomb squad tried safely disposing of thousands of pounds of illegal fireworks they'd confiscated ... but ended up sending shockwaves through a southside neighborhood instead.

Joey Chestnut is again a hot dog eating-champion, breaking his own record for a stunning 76 wieners ... something that would've been great to see, but made impossible by ESPN.

The annual Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest was held once more Sunday -- a 4th of July tradition now -- and JC was gunning for an even higher count than last year's haul ... which clocked in at 75, a new world record at the time. In 2021, he surpassed it by one.

Joey was scarfing down dogs on camera, but when the crucial moment arrived for hot dogs 75 and 76 ... the broadcast glitched up big time, and a still shot of Joey stayed frozen on screen for a good few seconds. Moments later, time had jumped ... and everyone missed it.

As incredible of a feat it was for Joey, his performance was unfortunately outshined by the technical issue ... which is going more viral than even Joey is right now. Some folks captured the flub live and reposted it on the internet ... and yeah, it's as bad as they're making it out to be.

Anyway ... congrats to Joey for taking the big prize (again) and holding on tightly to the belt. It's not an easy task, especially when you're pretty much tasked with one-upping your own stomach year after year ... something he's done successfully for quite a long time now.

Sha'Carri Richardson has handled her disqualification from the Olympics with incredible grace, but she threw a little shade at people who came down on her.

Sha'Carri tweeted, "The support (heart emojis) my community I thank y’all, the negative forget y’all and enjoy the games because we all know it won’t be the same"

"I’m sorry, I can’t be y’all Olympic Champ this year but I promise I’ll be your World Champ next year" And now the shade -- "All these perfect people that know how to live life, I'm glad I'm not one of them!"

As you know, Sha'Carri came in first in the 100-meter race at the U.S. Track and Field Trials but was later disqualified after testing positive for weed. She was honest ... she indulged after learning her biological mother had died, and she didn't make excuses.

President Biden drew a hard line, saying, "rules are rules." But Seth Rogen, who founded the hugely popular House Plant weed brand, had harsher words, "The notion that weed is a problematic “drug” is rooted in racism. It’s insane that Team USA would disqualify one of this country’s most talented athletes over thinking that’s rooted in hatred. It’s something they should be ashamed of. Also if weed made you fast, I’d be FloJo."

Sha'Carri appeared on "Today" Friday, saying, "I want to take responsibility for my actions, I know what I did. I know what I'm supposed to do, [what] I'm allowed not to do and I still made that decision."

It's really a shame. Richardson was a favorite to snag gold in Tokyo, and it would have been the first such medal for the U.S. since 1996.

Nick Cannon is on a baby roll ... he just welcomed #7 and the kid's really Zen!

Nick and GF Alyssa Scott welcomed Zen Cannon to the world nearly 2 weeks ago. The baby was born on June 23. His mom posted a pic of the newborn with the caption, "I will love you for eternity."

We knew Alyssa was pregnant back in January, but Nick didn't say he was the dad until Father's Day.

Nick's been busy ...  earlier in June, before Zen was born, he had twins -- Zion and Zillon -- with DJ Abby De La Rosa. Nick also had a baby -- Powerful -- 6 months ago with Brittany Bell. They also share another child -- 4-year-old Golden.

As you know, Nick and his ex-wife, Mariah Carey, share 10-year-old twins, Monroe and Moroccan.

He's already got a basketball team ... the question now, is he shooting for a baseball franchise!!!

Barack and Michelle Obama have always had a very special 4th of July, at least for the last 23 years ... because it's not just Independence Day for them.

Malia turned 23, and her pops couldn't be happier, writing, "Happy Fourth of July, and Happy Birthday, Malia!  It's been such a joy to watch you begin to make your own way in the world with poise, grace, and humor.  I miss the days when you thought the fireworks were for you."

Michelle had her own message, "Happy Fourth of July, everybody -- and also, happy 23rd birthday to our dear Malia! It's been a few years since we took this photo, but I know that she'll always be my sweet little girl. Malia, we love you, and are so excited to see what this year will bring for you!"

Malia has a bright future, no doubt. She graduated from Harvard this year. She studied filmmaking in the Visual and Environmental Studies Dept. Given her parents' pivot from politics to filmmaking, seems like this could become a family biz.

Malia has dipped her toe in Hollywood, working as a production assistant and then part of the writer's room for Donald Glover's series about Hive, a Beyonce-like pop star.

She also has a fairly long-term BF -- Rory Farquharson, whom she's been dating since 2017.

Kendall Jenner is unreal ... she set St. Tropez on fire during her latest photo shoot.

Kendall wore an eye-popping, electric blue, latex crop-top, accompanied by black bikini bottoms as she mugged for the camera.

She 86'd the outfit for another -- a wetsuit which she wore ... well, better than most. She was hangin' with the crew, taking selfies, joking around and clearly being the center of attention.

The photo shoot was for Messika Jewelry, although bling isn't exactly what catches your eye.  It's a French jewelry line that is also fronted by Gigi Hadid and Kate Moss.

She's been in France for the last week ... and that should boost tourism in the area!!!

Kendall's had a busy week. She re-entered the world of fashion runways, after being sidelined due to the pandemic, at the Jacquemus La Montagne show at La Cite Du Cinema in Paris, France. She posted video of the event with the caption, "good to be back!
thank youuuu"