Awards / Awards Shows

Brian Grazer -- who produced "Apollo 13" and "A Beautiful Mind" -- has taken Brett Ratner's place to produce next year's Academy Awards show.

Brian signed on moments ago, agreeing to replace Ratner just one day after the "Rush Hour" director resigned .... following uproar over a homophobic slur Ratner dropped at a film screening.

Academy prez Tom Sherak announced Grazer's appointment this afternoon.

Eddie Murphy is showing the ultimate solidarity with good friend and producing partner Brett Ratner by quitting the 2012 Oscars, which he had agreed to host.

Ratner bailed -- though he may have had no choice -- after making a homophobic remark last week at a screening of "Tower Heist," which stars Murphy.

Murphy says he wanted to do the show and never says squarely he's bailing because Ratner is gone, but his statement leaves little doubt: "I was looking forward to being part of the show that our production team and writers were just starting to develop, but I'm sure the new production team and host will do an equally great job."

Looks like the Motion Pictures Academy does better with old people -- they're generally a lot safer.

Brett Ratner claims he's officially "resigned" as producer of the 2012 Academy Awards ... after dropping the homophobic F-bomb at a media event Sunday night.

Ratner -- best known for directing the "Rush Hour" movies -- was at a fan Q&A session for "Tower Heist" Sunday when he told the crowd, "Rehearsal is for f*gs."

Now, he's penned an open letter ... apologizing for the "hurtful and stupid things I've said" ... and adding, "Having love in your heart doesn’t count for much if what comes out of your mouth is ugly and bigoted."

Ratner continued, "Being asked to help put on the Oscar show was the proudest moment of my career. But as painful as this may be for me, it would be worse if my association with the show were to be a distraction from the Academy and the high ideals it represents."

Ratner says he's been in contact with GLAAD -- the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation -- and he promises he will work to "increase awareness of the important and troubling issues this episode has raised."

"I deeply regret my actions and I am determined to learn from this experience."

Tom Sherak -- the President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences -- issued a statement saying, "[Brett] did the right thing for the Academy and for himself."

He added, "Words have meaning, and they have consequences. Brett is a good person, but his comments were unacceptable. We all hope this will be an opportunity to raise awareness about the harm that is caused by reckless and insensitive remarks, regardless of the intent."

Days after being released from federal custody, rapper T.I. grabbed a mic inside an Atlanta nightclub this weekend and BEGGED Diddy to chill out ... after the mogul threatened to get violent with a man in the crowd.

It all went down at the BET Hip Hop Awards Weekend after-party at Compound nightclub -- when Diddy, a spokesman for Ciroc Vodka, spotted someone drinking a rival liquor.

Diddy began shouting at the man, "B*tch ass n**gas ... put that sh*t down ... before I come smack that purple shirt off your ass."

It appears Diddy grabs ice and throws it at the man ... before screaming, "What the f**k are you gonna do, b*tch? F**king f*ggot ass light skin n**gas get the f*ck out of my face."

That's when T.I. -- who's still on probation stemming from a gun arrest -- grabbed another microphone and pleaded with Diddy, "I done paid enough time ... and nobody else in this motherf**ker [who is] talking about fighting done did no time."

He then told Diddy, "Let them n**gas drink what the f**k they want man."

He added, "I love you n**ga ... you know I will go to war with you, but come on man ... let's go."

Chaz Bono and his girlfriend, Jennifer Elia, walked the red carpet at last night's Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles.

The Cuban Brad Pitt shaved his head and flashed his rock hard abs at Los Premios Juventud, which honors Spanish-speaking celebs in film, TV, music and sports.

After the Emmy noms were announced this morning, Kurt Sutter went to Twitter and fired off the following:

"The worse part of not getting an emmy nod. katey [his wife] promised me a threesome if she won. now i have to settle for me, her and the shaved bunny."

"Best part of not getting an emmy nod. now i don't have to pretend i give a s**t about the profiteering douchebag academy ... because you know if we were nominated i'd be all humble and blowing smoke up their asses. now i can stay true to myself and just be a d**k."

He continues with a joke -- "These two academy member walk into a bar. one orders a beer. then they both die because they're so f**king old."

And ... "If my mom and dad were alive this emmy snub would kill them. that's not true, they were too old to understand my show. just like the academy."

Sutter also took aim at "Glee" ... writing, "f**k glee. hate those annoying, 'please accept me for who i am', singing brats. there, i said it. are you happy?"

He went on to explain, "I love ryan murphy ['Glee' creator]. he's always very cool with me. love glee too. just tired of all the j**z piling up at its feet."

The 27-year-old hit the ESPYs last night (left) having shed a good amount of hair, scruff and weight from just over a year ago (right).

Hill credits the weight loss to working out and eating healthier -- insisting "it's important."

Vonn -- who won Best Female Athlete at the event -- posed with her trophy .... and her ESPY award backstage ... and then posted it to her FB page with the caption, "I finally got my Justin Bieber pic!"

Bieber ... such a pleaser.

TMZ obtained the video, which shows Bieber -- who was a presenter at the award show -- and his squad being stopped at the door last weekend. It appears one of Justin's bodyguards did NOT have a ticket ... and while both sides argued, Biebs eventually interrupted by saying, "I need to bring my security! This guy's a douche bag."

Everyone on Team Bieb ended up getting into the show -- and a BET rep downplayed the incident ... saying, "It is our standard policy to make sure everyone has their tickets or credential upon arrival. Justin had the proper credentials."

As for Justin -- his rep says the Biebs was just standing up for his bodyguards ... the guys who always have his back.

Some "lucky" BET viewers were chosen to present the viewer's choice award at the show last night ... but there was a HUGE mistake ... because someone put the wrong name on the teleprompter.

So the lucky fan read the winner as "Chris Brown" ... but quickly recanted and said, "I'm sorry, the winner is Rihanna." But that wasn't the case either ...

Despite the fact that Rihanna's name appeared on the video screen as the winner ... one of the presenters chimed in for a THIRD time and announced Drake as the winner!!! Drake then appeared on stage to collect his trophy.

Drake gave a short speech and described the whole thing as awkward. Understatement.

After the awards, a BET rep announced that Brown was the correct winner -- and chalked the whole thing up to a "human error" on the part of BET producers.

After the fall, Shania Twain posted a video on her website ... saying, "I'm here to tell you that I now realize I don't need a stunt double ... to wipe out on my way to the CMT Awards stage."

She added, "I didn't hurt myself ... I have a bit of a sore thumb. That's about it."

As Reese accepted the "Generation Award," she told the crowd, "I just wanna say to all the girls out there, it's cool to be bad, I get it ... but it's also possible to make it in Hollywood without a reality show."

She added, "When I came up in this business, if you made a sex tape, you were embarrassed and you hid it under your bed and if you took naked pictures of yourself on your cell phone, you hide your face."

Was that a shot at Blake Lively?

Moments after Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis walked out to present the first award of the night at the MTV Movie Awards ... JT copped a feel of Mila's breasts.

In the spirit of, "You touch mine, I'll touch yours" ... Mila then put her hand in Justin's crotch ... and the two stood awkwardly for a couple of seconds, while millions of jealous people sat and stared.

Mila eventually read the line, "And the winner for Best Male Performance is ..."