The Oscars

The Academy Awards are luring celebrities to their lavish gifting suites by showering them in things like beauty treatments, lavish vacations and even a simple pack of gum.

GBK, the fancy event planning firm that gives away high-priced Oscars swag every year, is posting up at the London Hotel. This year they're providing $20,000 worth of freebies which includes some low key items -- a $130 3D printing pen, and $15 vegan gum.

The big ticket swag though is the $8,000 trip for 2 to St. Martin, and a $1,500 laser treatment ... to burn fat around your abs. Seriously. There's also an $8,000 coupon to a Beverly Hills vision center.

"Straight Outta Compton" got big props on Wednesday night, winning big at the All Def Movie Awards, but the biggest winner was Ice Cube.

The ceremony was held in Hollywood, clearly a response to the lily white, upcoming Oscars. 'Compton' won Best Picture. Most Quoted Movie went to "Friday" (Ice Cube got the award), and Best Black Survivor in a Movie went to Ice Cube for "Anaconda."

Michael B. Jordan won best actor for "Creed," Will Smith got the Lifetime Achievement Award, and Norman Lear snagged the Vanguard Award.

Our favorite ... the "Most Likely to Steal Your Girl Award' went to Amber Rose.

Tyrese told our photog it's not really the "black" Oscars ... it's for everyone.

Mike Tyson thinks Leonardo DiCaprio's famed Oscar drought should come to an end this year ... saying that Leo's killed it in "The Revenant" and deserves to take home a gold trophy.

Josh Brolin's got issues with the Academy Awards -- not only because they dissed some worthy black actors, but they also gave him the cold shoulder.

Josh and his fiancee Kathryn Boyd were at LAX when one of the paps brought up the lack of diversity in Oscar nominees this year, and he quickly pointed out he wasn't invited either.

BTW, Josh was awesome in "Sicario" ... and probably shoulda been nominated.

Anyway, JB says he's happy Idris Elba at least won a SAG Award, but his reaction when someone wished him luck in getting a future nomination was, umm ... unexpected.

Jada Pinkett Smith doesn't think loading the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences with black people is a solution to the obvious problem.

We got Jada Tuesday in Flint, Michigan, where she met with the Mayor over the water crisis. Jada doesn't like the notion that black people will automatically vote black.

She has a fascinating point to make about "Beasts of No Nation" and Idris Elba, and why they got overlooked.

As for whether she's softened her position on attending the Oscars ... take a guess and watch the video.

Here are all the 2016 Oscar nominees at the Academy's annual luncheon.

Now let's play a game -- it's like "Where's Waldo?" If Waldo were black.

Go ahead and try to find The Weeknd among the 155 nominees. Looking ... looking ... looking ... looking ...

Before you go blind -- here's the answer key.

The Academy Awards will be filled with some seriously pampered asses this year -- celebs are getting the most balling toilet paper ... EVER!

Each year all the Oscar nominees get a stupid amount of swag in the official gift bag and this year's includes $200,000 worth of gear like $6,000 worth of pet food, $1,900 Vampire breast lift (no surgery, it's a blood thing), and a $275 luxury toilet paper and moisturizing set. Can you imagine how soft that paper is??

It's also got some traditional crap -- $55k Israel trip, $54k Japan trip, and some grossly overpriced skincare items. On the cooler side, for female nominees like Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Winslet ... there's something called a $250 female "arouser" which offers "gentle suction and stimulation."

Leonardo DiCaprio better load up on nicotine gum before the 88th Academy Awards, because it's a strict no-smoking zone inside ... and that includes vaping.

Hollywood's famed Dolby Theatre says it makes no exceptions with its smoking policy ... even during the Oscars ceremony. One of the biggest dramas that night is whether Leo will win his first Oscar, and y'know ... light up in celebration.

As we previously reported, the American Lung Association ripped Leo for vaping inside the SAG Awards last week.

If he does the same on Oscar night -- we're told it WILL be a problem. However, Leo's more than welcome to light up in one of the smoking sections set up adjacent to the theater.

So the winner won't get all the spoils, but of course ... Leo's gotta win first.

Oscar is wiping his hands clean -- the Motion Picture Academy denies having anything to do with the "Straight Outta Compton" cast not even getting invited to the ceremony.

The nomination diss was one thing, but as TMZ first reported ... the entire cast and the vast majority of the crew were not invited, including producers Ice Cube and Dr. Dre. The 4 nominated writers of the film did make the cut.

The Academy told People it has nothing to do with the Oscars guest list, saying it only invites nominees -- and anyone else who shows up has to be invited by their studio. The studios get an allotment of tickets each year based on how many nominations it receives ... according to the Academy.

Bottom line: Universal Pictures would have to hook up the cast, but as Cube told us ... he ain't trying to go to the Oscars, anyway.

The cast of "Straight Outta Compton" will NOT be at the Oscars because they were NOT invited -- nor was the film's producer Ice Cube.

Our 'Compton' sources say none of the cast received an invitation -- mirroring the nomination process. We're told the only people invited are the 2 writers nominated for best original screenplay.

Not that Cube's losing a lot of sleep over it -- we're told he would've RSVP'd a 'No' ... even if he'd been invited.

It's unclear if this is really a diss. There's no public list of Academy members, so it's hard to say what the Academy's criteria are for extending an invite. We've reached out, but no word back yet.

We're told Ice Cube WILL attend the SAG Awards and NAACP Image Awards ... which both nominated 'Compton.'.

Alfonso Ribeiro's got a message for his pal Will Smith -- don't sweat the Oscars, 'cause they're just not that big of a deal.

Alfonso told us he thinks black people "have bigger fish to fry than the Oscars." In fact, he has a different perspective -- in Hollywood, anyway -- about awards in general.

What's odd is he's still waving the flag for Will to win one of those trophies, and he's got a take on all the Oscar protests.

Check out rebel Carlton! Not often ya get to see that.

Gabrielle Union is a baaad woman -- she just fired back at Stacey Dash and took down Ronda Rousey as collateral damage in her feud with Dash.

We got Gabby at LAX Tuesday ... on her way back from the Sundance Film Festival, where she dissed Stacey for suggesting the BET Awards should be canceled to make the Oscars more diverse. Gabby's reaction was the classic ... "Stacey Dash who?"

Watch the clip ... Ronda got dragged into this when photogs hinted Union and Dash's beef might get physical. Gabrielle also celebrated another victory ... her movie, "The Birth of a Nation" and a record-setting day at Sundance.

All she does is win.

Nick Cannon is lashing out at the Oscars for giving black actors the shaft this year, but unlike other protesters, Nick struck back ... in spoken word.

Nick penned, and then recorded, the poem/rap that covers the entire Oscars controversy -- including a shout-out to Chris Rock. Nick supports him hosting the show, saying ... "Hell, yeah, I'm gonna watch that ceremony where they gonna let a black man be the Master for at least two hours."

It's not clear if Nick's saying screw the Oscars altogether, like Jada Pinkett Smith, or demanding more black involvement in the Oscars voting process ... like Nick's "Chi-Raq" director Spike Lee said.

Either way ... man's got rhymes.

Chris Rock was a man of few words Saturday night as he left The Comedy Club.

As he and pal Dave Chappelle left, our photog asked about the push for a host boycott.

Clint Eastwood -- five-time Oscar winner and eleven-time nominee -- has some advice for people who got snubbed at the Academy Awards this year ... quit whining.

Eastwood -- an Academy stalwart -- isn't buying into the protests over the so-called black snub.

The Motion Picture Academy is getting some "brothas on the wall" -- to quote Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" -- after unanimously voting to increase its minority and female membership.

Thursday night's vote -- a clear reaction to outrage over a lack of black Oscar nominees recently -- will not affect this year's ceremony, but instead aims to double the Academy's diversity by 2020.

Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said they will immediately begin recruiting new minority members. She also announced new rules to ensure that the only members who get to vote on Oscar nominees will be those who are still actively making films.

Bottom line: If you're an Academy member who's old and out of touch with the latest movie culture ... your days might be numbered.

What the vote doesn't address is what Spike talked about -- which is more minorities at the studio level who decide which films get made.