Weird News

Real-life tragedy struck the home of "General Hospital" star Maurice Benard Monday -- TMZ has learned, a tiny fire broke out in the actor's home ... and several innocent stuffed animals met their demise.

Law enforcement tells TMZ, the fire started in the bathroom at Maurice's Temecula, CA home around 10:30 AM after someone left a towel over a light fixture.

Firefighters rushed to the scene and successfully extinguished the conflagration -- but not everyone made it out alive. We're told a bunch of stuffed animals belonging to Maurice's 7-year-old son fell victim to smoke inhalation.

We're told there was so much smoke in the house, the stuffed animals are no longer safe to play with -- and have to be thrown out.

Rob Dyrdek hates the name Rob Dyrdek -- this according to Rob Dyrdek.

The MTV star made it clear on Twitter -- he's sick of using his full name on the social media site, and instead offered to buy the far more abbreviated ... @rob from some dude named Rob Bertholf.

Dyrdek tweeted on Tuesday -- "@rob Do you have any interest in selling your twitter name?" Then added, "You need a vacation? Maybe a nice watch?"

Dyrdrek better think bigger -- much bigger -- because Bertholf tells us he ain't selling for less than 6 FIGURES!!!

The current @rob says he turned down a $25,000 offer two years ago for the handle -- and you gotta love his explanation for the inflated price: "It wouldn't be worth my time to rebuild all of my profiles that are linked to my twitter handle."

The video you would never admit to wanting to see -- but secretly were DYING to watch -- has finally made its way online ... the "Fear Factor" donkey semen stunt!!!!!

For those of you not up on your donkey semen history ... the stunt was originally supposed to air as part of an episode in January ... but NBC execs got cold feet and yanked the controversial episode from their schedule.

Luckily, TV execs in Denmark had the balls to air the stunt this week.

Michael Jackson owes a convicted criminal $1 BILLION for exploiting personal details about her life in his music -- this according to a bizarre and, dare we say, bogus lawsuit.

Kimberly Griggs filed the case in San Diego -- claiming she and Jackson had an intimate relationship beginning in 1979, which she says he chronicled in his albums "Off the Wall," "Thriller," "Bad," "Dangerous," and his greatest hits album ... "Number Ones."

Griggs -- who spent years in prison for burglary and robbery -- claims she was pissed that Michael exposed her personal secrets in his tunes, so to make things nice he promised to give her the rights to the songs.

She says she was stunned when MJ died and she was completely left out of his estate.

According to the handwritten lawsuit, Griggs wants $1 billion in damages.

Octomom will not be coming to the stage of a Florida strip joint -- TMZ has learned she's canceling her stripper gig because she thinks club staffers are talking smack about her.

As TMZ first reported, Octomom was set to drop her top (and only her top) at T's Lounge in Palm Beach, FL next month -- but Octo's rep Gina Rodriguez tells TMZ they pulled out of the deal this morning.

Rodriguez says the straw that broke Octo's back was a WPEC12 interview with a club bartender who said, Octo has "a lot of mouths to feed so it was only a matter of time" before she started stripping. The bartender added, "She must be a little crazy, normal people don't have that many children."

Beauty queen stereotypes be damned -- because the new Miss USA Olivia Culpo pulled a Hilary Swank the night she took the crown, and celebrated by chowing down on a CHEESEBURGER!

The freshly crowned Miss USA tells TMZ she wasn't able to eat for several hours following the pageant in Las Vegas Sunday night. So, when 2 am rolled around she did what everyone else does in Vegas ... ROOM SERVICE!!!

Olivia tells us she ordered a cheeseburger feast up to her Planet Hollywood Hotel room -- complete with lettuce, tomato, pickles, and yes ... (gasp) a side of fries. Sorry guys, no shake.

Olivia admits devouring the entire burger, but insists she only ate "a few fries."

Back in 2005, Hilary Swank famously chowed down on Astro Burger hours after she won an Oscar.

Gotta love skinny chicks who can stuff their faces ... unless you're fat.

This is not Chris Bosh's week -- a day after the Miami Heat lost to the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the ECF, a masseuse collapsed at the home of the injured Heat forward ... and later died in the hospital.

According to the police report, the South Florida masseuse went to Bosh's home yesterday to tend to Bosh's abdominal strain and appeared to be in good spirits -- then suddenly collapsed. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she died last night.

A Miami Beach police spokeswoman says the department will conduct its standard death investigation -- but there are no signs of foul play.

Billy Bretherton from A&E's reality show "Billy the Exterminator" has been arrested for synthetic marijuana possession along with his wife Mary -- and TMZ has the bug-eyed mug shots.

Law enforcement tells TMZ, police were dispatched to the Courtyard Marriott in Benton, Louisiana on April 28th in reference to a 911 hang-up call. When cops arrived at the Brethertons' hotel room, we're told they discovered what they suspected was synthetic marijuana and some drug-smoking device.

FYI -- synthetic marijuana refers to a wide-range of drugs that mimic the effects of marijuana ... some are legal, some aren't.

Police confiscated the substance for testing -- and last week, they say it came back positive as synthetic marijuana. Arrest warrants were subsequently issued for Billy and Mary for drug possession and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Billy and Mary were contacted by police about the warrants and the two turned themselves in June 1st. They bonded out the same day.

It was a real "puck you" to the New Jersey Devils Monday night, as L.A. Kings fans taunted their rivals with blown up images of an even famous-er N.J. franchise -- the cast of "Jersey Shore."

Devils players may not have gotten the joke, since 18 are not even American, but fans sure did.

In the end, Snooki, The Situation, Pauly D and Jwoww may have been L.A.'s secret weapon, because the Kings won 4 zip, which puts them 1 game away from their first Stanley Cup.

Finally, Snooki and Sitch did something useful.

Gentlemen, put your hands together and welcome to the stage ... OCTOMOM!!!!

That's right ... sources close to Octo tell TMZ she has booked a gig at T's Lounge in West Palm Beach, FL for her first stint as a stripper. We're told Octomom will do two shows a night from July 11-15.

But it's not all good news -- or maybe it is -- because we're told that while T's Lounge is all-nude, Octo will only be going topless. And if you were hoping to take Octo back to the champagne room, that's not going to happen -- she won't be doing lap dances.

According to our sources, Octo has felt "sexually liberated" since filming her solo porn (due out this summer) and decided stripping would be a good way to promote the upcoming video.

Justin Bieber was knocked out cold after running into a wall of glass during a concert in Paris.

We just spoke with Justin, who said he was performing on stage, and in between songs he walked backstage and hit the glass. He says he was disoriented, but went back on stage and finished his set.

As he walked to his dressing room he passed out cold, for around 15 seconds. Doctors say Justin suffered a concussion but he'll be ok.

This is not the first time Justin has had a run-in with blocks of glass. Check out the video.

The movie "Bridesmaids" apparently had a huge impact on a Malibu teacher ... and an even bigger impact on a student the teacher repeatedly slapped -- just like in the movie.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... 9th grade Malibu High School student Dionne Evans went to cops in the last few days, claiming her teacher slapped her 6 times in the face because Dionne didn't bring her notebook to school on May 22, as the teacher had required.

According to the police report, the teacher made Evans stand in front of the class -- then asked, "Did you see 'Bridesmaids'?" before slapping her multiple times.

The teacher was referring to the scene in which one character literally tries to slap some sense into another. Take a look.

We're told the teacher has already issued a written apology -- but Evans' family doesn't think it's enough ... so they hired legal eagle Donald Karpel, who we're told is looking at both criminal and civil options.

We've learned the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. is currently investigating the incident.

Brooklyn Nets guard DeShawn Stevenson isn't the first person to put an ATM inside his house -- in fact, DeShawn tells TMZ, he straight up jacked the idea from a big-time reality star...

DeShawn tells us, Rob Dyrdek put an ATM in his house long before he did -- and when DeShawn saw Rob's house on MTV ... the NBA star thought it was genius, so he got one himself.

We're told he paid $3,500 for the machine and lets his rich NBA friends use it for last-minute cash withdrawals before they go out.

But the service ain't free -- DeShawn says he charges his pals a steep $4.50 ATM fee.

DeShawn says the machine holds $20,000 and he refills it 4-6 times a year.

Forget waterboarding, Guantanamo Bay prisoners are now being tortured by BIG BIRD -- at least according to a new documentary released by Al Jazeera.

According to the doc -- called "Songs of War" -- detainees at the U.S. Naval base have been forced to wear headphones blaring Sesame Street music on repeat for hours or days on end ... to break their will (start at 2:00).

Award-winning Sesame Street composer Christopher Cerf tells Al Jazeera, "My first reaction was this just can't possibly be true ... "

Cerf says, "Of course I didn't really like the idea that I was helping break down prisoners, but it was much worse when I heard later that they were actually using the music in Guantanamo to do deep, long-term interrogations and obviously to inflict enough pain on prisoners so they would talk."

Take a bunch of rednecks ... put 'em on a desert island with a giant roll of duct tape ... and you get one of the most painfully stupid things you'll ever see.

We won't go into details here -- but let's just say people from the South can be extremely resourceful when it comes to unsightly body hair removal.

The clip is from a CMT reality show called "Redneck Island" that comes out next month -- think "Survivor" but with yokels.

It might be the most cringeworthy few seconds in TV history -- Kathie Lee Gifford asked Martin Short how his wife is doing ... one small problem ... she died 2 years ago.

Martin appeared on "The Today Show" this morning to promote his new movie, "Madagascar 3" -- when Kathie asked, "And you and Nancy have one of the greatest marriages of anybody in show business. How many years now for you guys?"

Martin doesn't know how to respond, saying, "We ... have ... married ... 36 years."

Apparently Kathie didn't get the memo -- Martin's wife Nancy Dolman died in August 2010 from ovarian cancer.

The clip gets even worse -- you have to watch.