Today I Learned

The sultry bestseller "Fifty Shades of Grey" is causing a boom in the sex toy market -- in fact, a company that specializes in vaginal exercise balls says it's sold a record number of hoo-ha doodads in the last month ... all thanks to the book.

A rep for the sex toy company -- called Fun Factory -- just sent a thank you letter to "Fifty Shades" publisher Vintage Books, writing, "In the last month, our Smart Balls sales have gone up 300%."

In case you haven't read the book -- the main character Christian Grey uses a pair of Kegel exercise doohickeys called Ben-Wa balls on his female sex slave (for those with the book, skip to page 362).

The rep writes, "Thanks to the book, we are getting emails and calls from around the world asking about our Smart Balls ... Yesterday, the Fun Factory office received an email from a 74-year-old woman in Dubai who read the book while vacationing in the USA."

Which star from "The Hangover 2" -- not named Bradley Cooper -- would you want to sit next to in business class? Gotta be that scene-stealing monkey ... unless you're name is Harvey.

Wayne Newton is a sexually deviant kiss fiend -- this according to a new lawsuit filed against Mr. Las Vegas.

70-year-old Wayne is being sued by a former business partner, who claims he invested millions to turn Newton's Vegas mansion into a museum -- and Newton torpedoed the project.

According to the lawsuit, Newton and his family continually interfered with the development plans -- refusing to vacate the mansion to allow construction to take place, failing to remove his horses and "vicious" dogs from the property, and refusing to turn over memorabilia crucial to the operation of the would-be museum.

But the shocking part ... Newton's ex-biz partner claims the Vegas icon was "so sexually reprehensible and intimidating" to a young female worker, the girl not only quit ... she threatened to sue.

According to the lawsuit, the girl claims Newton "engaged in obnoxious sexual behavior" -- forcing her to withstand constant "wet, sloppy, and disgusting" kisses that were "clearly of a sexual nature."

According to the lawsuit, the alleged affronts left the girl feeling violated -- "She had to brace herself every time she saw him for this inevitable assault."

Mark Cuban just raked in a $1,000 check for drawing a picture of two stick-figure cats kissing each other ... seriously.

It's not as random as it seems -- Mark is an "investor" on the reality show "Shark Tank" ... and recently sunk $25k into a company called, "I Want to Draw a Cat for You" -- a website that sells personalized cartoon cats for $9.95 a piece.

After he bankrolled the company, IWTDACFY jokingly posted an offer on the website that Cuban would personally sketch some cat art for $1,000 ... not thinking anyone would actually bite.

But they were wrong ... 'cause a short time later, a 24-year-old dude named David Switzer put up the cash ... and requested a kitty pic featuring himself and his girlfriend.

Mark tells TMZ ... although he has no prior cat-drawing experience, he's taking the job seriously ... and even reached out to the regular cat artist to get an idea of what the pic should look like (see below).

The Oreo cookies advertisement featuring a breastfeeding baby was NEVER intended for public consumption ... this according to the people at Kraft Foods.

The ad went viral earlier this week ... with several media outlets reporting it was a legitimate South Korean ad created by the Cheil Worldwide ad agency.

Now, a rep for Kraft -- the company behind the cookie -- tells TMZ, "Kraft Foods did not create this ad. It has never run in Korea or any other markets."

Simon Cowell has learned the hard way not to sleep with strangers, because when he woke up he realized he had been robbed of a computer that contained X Factor secrets.

TMZ has confirmed ... last October, Simon hooked up with a girl he met at Drai's nightclub in Hollywood. He took her home, but the next morning she was gone and so was his computer and his wallet loaded with cash.

Simon -- who has his Bev Hills mansion wired for security -- called the cops. The footage showed the woman, cops tracked her down and she handed over the computer and the wallet sans cash.

Although it's unclear exactly when Simon broke up with fiancee Mezhgan Hussainy, sources connected with Simon tell us it was BEFORE the theft.

57-year-old Kelsey Grammer rolled into a tattoo parlor to get his first ink job done ... and chose to tattoo his wife's name on his right hip. Not the most manly spot, is it?

The "Boss" star hit up Insight Studios in Chicago yesterday with wife Kayte Grammer ... where, according to one local report, the girl behind the counter asked him for ID because she didn't recognize him. Do they not have "Frasier" re-runs in Chicago?

One of the shop's tattoo artists tweeted the pic of Kelsey in the chair as he was getting the work done.

The ink reportedly cost only $60, the cheapest the store offers.

Perhaps next time he should shell out a little more ... and pick a less feminine location.

"If you think you're having problems in life, imagine you're in the dentist's chair getting a root canal ... and the power goes out"
-- Mark Curry ... minutes after it actually HAPPENED to him yesterday.

With a half-numbed face and a mouth full of cotton balls ... the former "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper" star was standing outside of his dentist's office in Beverly Hills moments after the building lost power.

Despite the circumstances, Curry was crackin' jokes about the situation ... telling us, "My dentist had a flashlight on the top of his head and a drill he brought from home."

This is how Alicia Silverstone feeds her 10-month-old son -- chewing up food in her mouth ... then spitting it directly into his ... like a bird.

Alicia posted the video on her blog this weekend, claiming it's her "favorite" way to feed her son Bear Blu (that's his name). Alicia adds, "He literally crawls across the room to attack my mouth if I’m eating."

It's unclear why she does this -- there's probably some hippie-dippie explanation about the bacteria in her mouth helping to strengthen her kid's immune system ... or something -- but she never explains why herself.

Aubrey O'Day's decision to let her dogs rub their butts all over the table at a popular L.A. eatery last week has triggered a Health Dept. investigation ... TMZ has learned ... because, quite frankly, it's disgusting.

TMZ broke the story ... the "Celebrity Apprentice" star let her puppies wag their naked asses all over her table at Toast for several minutes ... before finally putting the poochies on the ground.

Gross.

Now, a rep for the L.A. Public Health Dept. tells TMZ ... a health inspector has visited the restaurant to remind employees about pet guidelines ... specifically the one that reads, "Pets shall not be allowed on chairs, seats, benches and tables."

The rep adds, "The Health Dept would like people to enjoy eating with their pets ... but we also want people to be respectful to other people."

We're told the staff was quite receptive to the official ... and no citations or warnings were issued.

Shocking -- LeBron James played a basketball game in Ohio last night, the same state where they lit his jersey on fire last year.

More Shocking -- Dude was a last minute fill-in for a team at the Mandel Jewish Community Center, where he instantly became the best player to ever compete in the Herbert S. Diamond league.

TMZ has learned ... LeBron was killing time in his home state ... when he got a call from some of his friends who had a 7:30 PM game at the JCC.

We're told LBJ's pals were a man short, so they reached out to LBJ to fill in ... and King James was happy to oblige.

Obviously , LeBron dominated -- and led his squad to a ten point victory.

We're told LeBron was super nice ... taking photos and signing autographs with a bunch of kids who happened to be down the hall rehearsing for the musical "Grease."

Afterwards, LeBron tweeted "Just got done hooping in the JCC league. So funny but good run @RichPaul4 had a few 3's #basketballneverstops.

Lindsay Lohan's genitals are a friggin' gold mine -- because Playboy's million dollar baby has just received ANOTHER million dollar offer from a sex toy company ... TMZ has learned.

The honchos from an adult entertainment company called FleshLight have fired over a letter to Lohan's reps ... hoping to seal a deal with the actress which would allow the company to take a mold of LiLo's lady parts to produce "authentic" Lindsay Lohan sex toys.

Shockingly, the practice of genital molding is not that uncommon in the world of adult entertainment ... loads of XXX actresses -- including Jesse Jane and "Nailin' Palin" star Lisa Ann -- have copied their private parts for sex toys.

We're told Lindsay hasn't seen the offer yet ... but sources close to the actress tell us, "She would never accept such an offer for any amount of money."

A fart fetish group has made an offer to ABC to license the rights to the infamous Nancy Grace "Dancing with the Stars" fart footage ... we repeat, a fart fetish group ... apparently, they exist.
A rep for the fetish site Clips4Sale.com tells TMZ, the company made an official offer to ABC yesterday -- writing, "After viewing and hearing Nancy Grace's alleged 'toot' after her performance on 'Dancing With The Stars,' [we] would like to acquire the rights of the three-second footage." (below)

The rep adds, "We wish to acquire this for our members of our web site who are 'Flatulophiliacs' or simply put, 'Fart Fanatics'."

It's unclear how much the clip would cost -- or if it's even for sale -- but we're confident these guys can sniff out a good deal.

If you ever wondered what happened to Mark Wahlberg's GIANT fake penis from "Boogie Nights" -- turns out he held onto it ... with both hands, we presume.

The tiger -- named Schicka -- was a featured guest at Supperclub in L.A. earlier this month during a birthday party for nightclub promoter Tomik Mansoori.

Sources connected to the tiger tell us ... party promoters shelled out $3,000 to rent the Schicka for the night ... and some guests were even allowed to feed her.

Several crowd members shouted out requests during the performance -- and for the most part, she delivered ... with hits like, "Waiting for Tonight," "Let's Get Loud" and her new song, "On the Floor."

The groom -- son of Uzbek oil tycoon Azam Aslamov -- was seen smiling during the show alongside his bride.