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Comedic legend Gilbert Gottfried defended his fellow comedians until the very end ... using his last social media post to back Chris Rock after the Oscars.

Gilbert posted a photo of him with Chris the day after Will Smith's on-camera slap, with the caption "Which is the worst crime? Chris Rock being physically assaulted or Chris Rock telling a joke?"

He also joked around about the "King Richard" star to The Associated Press, saying he used to worry about putting a mask on while performing ... but "now I have to worry about wearing a football helmet," hilariously begging Will to stay away from his shows.

As we reported, Gilbert passed away Tuesday from a heart abnormality called Ventricular Tachycardia due to Myotonic Dystrophy type II. His family asked his fans to keep laughing as loud as they can in his honor.

His career spans back to the '70s when he was a cast member on "Saturday Night Live," and quickly became a standout character on multiple shows and movies, including "Beverly Hills Cop II" and "The Cosby Show."

NFL insider Adam Schefter is begging for forgiveness over his insensitive tweet regarding Dwayne Haskins' death ... saying it was not his intent to disrespect the late Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback.

A number of superstars took issue with Schefter saying Haskins was "struggling to catch on" in the NFL while announcing the tragic news ... including Ravens star Lamar Jackson, who tweeted his frustrations with the ESPN analyst.

"@AdamSchefter you lame asf all around grown ass man and can look in the mirror and smile at yourself," Lamar tweeted on Saturday.

While Schefter deleted the initial tweet shortly after posting, he shared a three-plus minute-long apology on his podcast on Monday ... saying he wishes he could take it back.

"It was insensitive," Schefter said. "It was a mistake, and I can assure you it was not my intention. I wish I could have that tweet back. The focus should have been on Dwayne -- who he was as a person, a husband, a friend, and so much more."

"I wanted to apologize to Dwayne's family, his friends, the players in the NFL, and offer my condolences to everybody close to Dwayne. And in the way I failed Saturday, I wanted to turn the people's attention to make sure that Dwayne is remembered properly."

Schefter then lists several of Haskins' accomplishments on and off the field, shares anecdotes about his character and highlights his charitable contributions.

Schefter continued ... "He will always be missed and will always be remembered. Sincerest condolences to his family, friends and everyone he touched."

Elon Musk might've just become the brand's largest shareholder, but he's turned down an opportunity to join Twitter's board ... according to the CEO.

Parag Agrawal made the announcement Sunday night, saying the company had several discussions with Elon about joining the board as early as Saturday ... an offer that was eventually turned down by Musk.

While the reason is unclear, Parag says the decision was still "for the best," adding they'll always remain open to Elon's input. He tells his staff that distractions will come up but they should "tune out the noise."

Elon's already been offering up suggestions for the company, writing online about turning Twitter's San Francisco headquarters into a homeless shelter ... adding "since no one shows up anyway."

Amazon's Jeff Bezos chimed in, offering advice with a hint of "been there, done that" ... pointing out his Seattle HQ utilized a portion of their space into a shelter -- something that seems to be helping the community.

Elon hasn't been Twitter's biggest fan in recent months, sparking debate at the end of March about free speech and how he believes the platform is limiting user's ability to speak out.

Elon Musk is considering turning one of Twitter's offices into a hub of humanitarianism -- and Jeff Bezos, of all people, has a suggestion ... get on my level, 'cause I already did it.

The Tesla chief -- and now, the Twitter board member -- floated a somewhat kooky idea this weekend about what to do with the social media company's San Francisco headquarters ... namely, whether he oughta help turn it into a place where the needy can come and crash.

He posed it as a question in a poll, writing ... "Convert Twitter SF HQ to homeless shelter since no one shows up anyway," with a simple "Y" or "N" response. As of this writing, upwards of 1.7 million have responded, and they're mostly saying ... do it, dude.

Welp, it sounds like the former Amazon honcho -- and currently the 2nd richest guy in the world, behind Elon -- heard about his tech bro's dilemma ... and offered some advice.

Jeff responded, "Or do portion. Worked out great and makes it easy for employees who want to volunteer." He attached a link to an article that details exactly what he's referencing ... apparently, Amazon's Seattle HQ did exactly what Elon's proposing a couple of years back.

The Amazon shelter -- which actually lies within the Seattle campus and is attached to one of their big offices there -- is called Mary’s Place Family Center in The Regrade ... and it's a whopping 8 floors, spanning 63,000 square feet and with the capacity to house around 200 people a night.

Amazon teamed up with MP to get this place going amid the early days of the pandemic, and by all accounts ... it's been a godsend to the community. The digs ain't bad either.

Tory Lanez is sticking up for his hair, telling the world his alopecia is to blame for the bald spot on the back of his head ... something that's been the focus of recent jokes online.

Tory wrote on Twitter Wednesday after loads of people piled on after noticing the rapper's hair was thin in a video of him leaving an L.A. County courthouse, saying, "i rap about it all the time …it’s alopecia…. What’s the big deal."

Of course, the hair-loss condition is front of mind for a lot of people after Chris Rock's joke at Jada Pinkett's expense which targeted her short hair. Jada has alopecia, and her hubby Will Smith obviously thought the joke was in poor taste ... leading to the slap.

Unclear if 29-year-old Tory really has the hair condition or if he's joking at Jada's expense.

As we reported, the artist was handcuffed in court Tuesday in L.A., during a hearing about a violation of Meg Thee Stallion's protective order. Tory tweeted about her in February, addressing Meg as "U" -- the order states he isn't allowed to mention her at all.

Tory Lanez was handcuffed in court and had his bail increased after a judge ruled he violated the protective order in his case with Meg Thee Stallion for talking about her on social media.

The Canadian rapper had a hearing Tuesday in L.A. where he was remanded into custody of the Sheriff's Department, and the judge set his bail at $350K. Prosecutors had requested he be held without bail, or at least set it at $5 million.

We're told he's in the process of posting the $350K.

The judge said Tory's tweet, where he directly addressed Meg as "U" was a violation of a protective order -- he's not supposed to contact or mention her at all. Tory fired off that tweet back in February when he said, "Good d*** had me f***ing 2 best friends ... and I got caught ... that's what I apologized for ... it's sick how u Spun it tho ..."

Prosecutors also voiced concern about a tweet from DJ Akademiks from February which read, "BREAKING: It was revealed in court few moments ago that Tory Lanez DNA WAS NOT found on the weapon in the Meg Thee Stallion case."

The prosecution believes that info was given to Ak from Tory's team. However, Tory's attorney, Shawn Holley, said that wasn't possible, because DJ Akademiks's initial tweet was wrong ... Tory's DNA wasn't on the magazine, and a sample from the gun was inconclusive.

About 15 minutes after posting his initial tweet, Ak posted a new one which reflected the inconclusive finding.

It's Grammys Day, and while lots of musicians and artists are getting ready for the big show -- one guy seems more than willing to change the conversation on Twitter ... The Weeknd.

Indeed ... Abel has been VERY active on the bird app Sunday, responding to fans and teasing new video treatments for songs of his on his new album, "Dawn FM," including stills from what he shot for "Out of Time" ... which he says will drop Tuesday.

Now, Weeknd's been chirping up throughout the past few days -- much to his fans' amusement and delight, directly responding to their tweets with humor/wit -- but just hours before showtime ... it seems the dude is extra active, and even has himself trending.

No harm, no foul -- Abe's obviously fired up about his new projects, but the timing of his more-than-usual tweet storm is somewhat curious ... considering his beef with the Recording Academy.

You'll recall ... he was pretty pissed about getting snubbed last year -- so much so that he vowed to never submit again, and so far ... he's stuck to his promise. "Dawn FM" isn't nominated as a result of Abel not putting it up for consideration ... even though it's by far one of the most popular records out this year. It's hit a billion streams on Spotify, and he remains a presence on the charts.

Despite Weeknd's absence from the show -- it would appear the spotlight is fully on him, at least for now ... and something tells us that's not by accident. He's very social media savvy.

It remains to be seen if TW will attend/submit for other music award shows later this year ... much like he did in 2021, where he cleaned up and stuck it to the Academy's voting body.

If he does ... we wouldn't be surprised if 'Dawn' kills it. Fact is -- it's a very good album, it's performing well and it probably sounds great in a live setting. Unfortunately, the Grammys will never get to experience that for themselves ... maybe even forever!

While there's lots of POVs on Will Smith's slap -- one person has a take we haven't heard, and that'd be Bill Maher ... who sees it as a microcosm of society at large these days.

We got the HBO host and legendary comic Tuesday on "TMZ Live," and he kept it as honest as ever when dishing his thoughts on the whole Oscars saga. Long story short ... BM seems to think Will's reaction was literally faux Twitter outrage encapsulated in, well, 'Real Time.'

Check out Bill's perspective ... because it really feels spot-on as far as what exactly happened, or at least what we all saw anyway.

Bill gives the play-by-play, explaining that Will laughed at Chris Rock's "G.I. Jane" joke at first -- apparently finding some humor in it, or so it would seem -- but then changing his tune on a dime, which looked to be in direct response to how Jada Pinkett reacted ... AKA, not well.

It was then that Will got up and did what he did, which Bill says was a total overreaction -- not dissimilar from what he believes a lot of Twitter justice warriors do on the daily.

In his mind, a lot of folks might think something is funny at first (privately) but then look around the room and realize they aren't "allowed" to actually feel that way ... and then pivot accordingly, oftentimes resulting in overblown indignation.

That's what Bill thinks Will's episode amounted to -- him realizing Jada was more offended than he was, and taking on her cause in the most outrageous way possible ... going up and striking Chris, whom Bill defends to no end here -- even calling him the "hero" of the day.

There's more that Bill gets into here with us ... including the fact that he was actually at the same after-party that Will and co. eventually flocked to, and he's got some tea about how a prominent figure in the Black community analyzed Chris' reaction ... or lack thereof.

Ricky Gervais couldn't stop himself from joining the Will Smith-Chris Rock Oscars drama, and seemingly backing Chris ... tweeting a clip from "The Office" that pokes fun at alopecia.

Gervais retweeted the clip Monday from his David Brent account -- his character on the OG British version of the show -- and it shows David trying to win over his employees by taking them out for drinks at lunchtime.

Ricky's full line in the scene shows him joking about Alcoholics Anonymous, saying "I know someone who is an alcoholic and it is no laughing matter - particularly for his wife. And, she's got alopecia. So ... not a happy home life."

Now, it's not like Ricky captioned it with anything about the Oscars, but it's clearly the only relevance ... coming the day after Rock dropped his "G.I. Jane 2" quip at Jada Pinkett Smith -- who as you know has alopecia -- and, thereby, triggering Will's now-infamous slap.

Jada had announced last year she shaved her head after being diagnosed with alopecia. As TMZ reported ... Rock did not know she has the condition.

It's interesting that Ricky's sounding off about the incident -- he's hosted the Golden Globes 5 times, and always roasted celebrities left and right ... yet no one ever laid a hand on him.

The entertainment world wasn't the only one shaken up by Will Smith's Oscars slap on Sunday night -- notable sports figures, including Deion Sanders and Patrick Mahomes' wife, also couldn't believe what they saw.

Just minutes after Will smacked Chris Rock on stage at the Academy Awards over a joke the comedian made about Jada Pinkett Smith ... Sanders commended Rock for taking the blow.

"Chris took it like a STANDUP GUY LITERALLY!!! WOW WOW WOW!" Sanders said on Twitter, before adding, "Lord help us please help us Love each other especially in front of company."

Brittany Mahomes, meanwhile, chastised Smith for letting his anger turn into physical violence.

"You. Don’t. Slap. Someone," the Kansas City star quarterback's wife wrote on Twitter.

Others in the sports world commented on Will as well ... with Steph Curry even cracking a joke on social media over it.

The Golden State Warriors point guard made the quip while praising the Stanford women's basketball team for its big victory on Sunday night.

"This was loud!!!" Curry wrote. "Like that slap on that other channel."

New Las Vegas Raiders star Chandler Jones made a 'Fresh Prince Of Bel-Air' jab after seeing the on-stage swing ... writing on Twitter, "Got in one little fight and we all got scared."

NBA star Bradley Beal added, "Smack the taste out his mouth," while Baltimore Ravens QB Lamar Jackson wrote on Twitter in disbelief, "He slapped that boy fr ? Or I’m trippin."

Elon Musk seems to be following in Donald Trump's footsteps -- at least when it comes to social media ... because the tech wiz might just be mulling the launch of a new platform.

The Tesla chief just tweeted out some interesting thoughts on what he thinks needs to happen with Twitter itself, writing ... "Free speech is essential to a functioning democracy. Do you believe Twitter rigorously adheres to this principle?"

His question was accompanied by a poll, and out of the more than 2 million people that participated ... a little over 70% agreed that Twitter was slippin' on the First Amendment.

EM followed with yet another interesting tweet, adding ... "The consequences of this poll will be important. Please vote carefully." 👀

Finally, Elon showed us his cards (ish) by writing that Twitter has, by and large, become the de facto public town square of modern society ... and that if they aren't living up free speech principles, that's seriously hurting democracy as a whole.

Then, he poses yet another interesting query ... "Is a new platform needed?"

Of course, this might remind folks of Donald Trump's recent attempt to start his own social media space, which he's called Truth Social -- and which went live recently. While many right-wing Twitter users were happy to announce its launch, as well as their own new pages, the buzz is ... Truth Social hasn't taken off yet quite like some may have hoped.

Trump himself is said to have barely posted on there ... and some who've hopped on say it's a bit of a digital ghost town, even among some of its most ardent supporters initially. AKA, no one's really using it all that much!!!

Doja Cat's music career is dead ... thanks to Twitter.

Well, that's what the singer and rapper's claiming, at least, after going toe-to-toe with the Twitter mob over a canceled concert in Paraguay. Her first mistake was hopping online after playing Lollapalooza in Brazil Thursday night.

Doja copped to not putting on "a good enough show," but promised she'd do better Friday night. Well, her fans in Paraguay got all butt hurt because she'd never tweeted them over missing a festival show there earlier this week. Mind you, that concert was canceled due to a deadly storm and flooding ... so, certainly not DC's fault.

Anyway, Doja's response to the ridiculous outrage was "I'm not sorry," and that ignited the Twitter war with fans and even journalists in Paraguay. She eventually fired back, "I moved on I'm just gonna let everybody be mad" ... and changed her Twitter handle to "I quit."

Then she rage tweeted, "I can't wait to f***ing disappear and I don't need you to believe in me anymore." She added, "I'm a f***ing fool for ever thinking I was made for this this is a f***ing nightmare. Unfollow me."

Doja topped it off by declaring, "This s*** ain't for me so I'm out. Y'all take care."

BTW, she's supposed to hit the road with The Weeknd this summer in North America ... so, we seriously doubt she's done done -- but, way to go, Twitter. Ya happy now?

Shawn Marion is PISSED.

The 43-year-old NBA champ went on an all-time rant this week ... eviscerating hoop fans for criticizing his unique jumper and demanding some damn respect.

Marion made his fiery comments in a Twitter Space that was discussing the topic, "Who WOULD'VE been the GOAT, if they had more help?" ... after, apparently, someone clowned him over his unorthodox stroke.

And he didn't hold back.

"They talk about my motherf***ing shot," Marion said. "Don't nobody in the f***ing league shoot the same. Get the f*** out of here."

"I'm shooting 35-40% from the f***ing 3-point line at one point in my career," Marion added. "I was a very consistent jump shooter, so you want to sit there and tell me you want to talk about my motherf***ing shot, but don't want to talk about everything else I do on the f***ing floor?"

"Get the f*** out of here. Suck my d***. Like, seriously."

The Matrix went on to list his accolades throughout his 16-year career ... and he's got a point -- the dude is a 4-time All-Star, 2-time All-NBA and scored 17,700 points and grabbed 10,101 rebounds while suiting up for the Phoenix Suns, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Dallas Mavericks and Cleveland Cavaliers.

Marion has been passionately defensive of weird jumpers in the past -- he gave some solid advice to Lonzo Ball via TMZ Sports back in 2017 ... after the young hooper was getting crap for his own shot at the time.

It's been months since LeBron James shaded Kyle Rittenhouse for crying in a courtroom ... but he is clearly nowhere near ready to let it go, 'cause he trolled the Lakers star's diss while sharing an anti-Joe Biden meme Thursday.

The 19-year-old posted the short video on his Twitter page ... taking a shot at LeBron's famous "lemon heads" comment while going after Biden over America's high gas prices.

The meme featured footage of a tearful Rittenhouse from his day on the stand ... edited onto an arm holding a gas pump.

"No, it's not Lemon Heads ...," Rittenhouse captioned the video, jabbing at Lebron, "it's the burning hole in my pocket thanks to a Joe Biden presidency."

Rittenhouse went on to thank the "mememaster" who created the piece in another tweet for sending it his way.

You'll recall, LeBron blasted Rittenhouse back in November after he believed the teenager was fake-crying while on the stand during his murder trial.

"What tears?????" LeBron said after watching Rittenhouse's reaction in court. "I didn’t see one. Man knock it off! That boy ate some lemon heads before walking into court."

Rittenhouse -- who was eventually found not guilty on all charges -- has fired away at LBJ ever since ... saying in December "f***" him."

Arnold Schwarzenegger is using the power of his celebrity to reach Russian citizens and members of the military ... applauding the Putin dissenters from within and giving others the lowdown on what is REALLY going on in Ukraine.

Arnold posted a 9-minute video in which he praised those who are taking a stand against the Russian President, saying, "The world has seen your bravery. We know that you have suffered the consequences of your courage. You have been arrested. You have been jailed, and you have been beaten. You are my new heroes."

Schwarzenegger may have unique power to break through the modern version of the Iron Curtain ... he's such a massive, world star, his social media posts may seep through the cracks for his Russian fans.

Arnold has history in Russia ... he was the first Western star to film in Moscow -- in "Red Heat" back in 1988.

Arnold is urging Putin to "Stop this war." Putin won't care, but again, if Russian citizens hear this, they're gonna think twice about Putin's claim it's not a war at all.

D.L. Hughley just took the gloves off in his online battle with Kanye, and ... well, on a level it's hilarious.

For starters, D.L. mused, "Kanye do you know how horrible you gotta be to make a #Kardashian date a white man! #TeamDl."

D.L. wasn't done ... "Ye is at it again huh?? Welp at least I wasn’t crying on the phone about how big Pete’s Peter is! If you want her back instead acting up why don’t you try doing some d**k ups! #TeamDl"

D.L. was triggered by Kanye's comments Wednesday morning, when he posted a pic of D.L. in fatigues and said, "This grown ass man picked this outfit out himself Is he influential or under the influence???"

Now, here's where DL may have crossed the line a bit ... "Kanye how dare you talk about the way someone dresses, look at you!! All those people in your head and not one of em got a Macys card? #TeamDl"

As you know by now, Kanye has gone in hard on D.L., Trevor Noah and, of course, Kim and Pete. D.L. posted over the weekend, "You can tell when people surround themselves with real ones. REAL ONES in your corner would NEVER allow you to threaten a man or his family, especially in a public forum."

He went on ... "Kanye supposedly has all these goons who will kill for him, but not one of them will get his prescriptions filled?"

D.L.'s parting shots, "Kanye ain’t it funny how you can explain my jokes, but not your behavior? #TeamDl."