You Might Want to Rethink

The folks behind Coachella have issues with the hood ... which is why they're going to court to gripe about an urban version of the festival.

Hoodchella is set to go down in April in the City of Angels. It's being advertised as a 2-day festival featuring a bunch of DJs.

Coachella has certainly made a name for itself since it launched 17 years ago, and the people behind it say they own the name and changing a few letters isn't going to fly.

Here's what's strange. This marks the SECOND annual Hoodchella, and it doesn't appear the Coachella people objected the first time around.

But under the category "Better Late than Never," they've filed legal docs demanding that the folks behind Hoodchella change the name.

A group of production assistants are going after behemoth Paramount, claiming they were forced to take dumps in their cars while working on some of the studio's highest-grossing blockbusters.

The class action lawsuit was filed by 4 NYC based P.A.s, who say they began working for the studio in 2010 and put in mega hours for films like 'TMNT,' 'Wolf of Wall Street,' "Noah," and "Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon," which grossed more than $1 billion.

The group -- assigned to keep location shoots clear of pedestrians and cars -- claims they regularly put in 60-100 hours a week but never got overtime pay.

It gets worse ... they say they weren't allowed to leave their posts to get food or use the restrooms. Some say it was so bad they had to urinate and defecate into bottles and buckets in their cars.

One of the hip-hop hamsters in the famous Kia ads has just pled no contest to felony insurance fraud ... after taking disability money while dancing up a storm.

Leroy Barnes snagged California disability money between Sept., 2010 and Sept. 2011, claiming he couldn't work when in fact he was dancing in the Kia commercials.

Barnes had claimed in 2010 he was injured while working as a dancer and was struck by a piece of ceiling during sound check. As a result, he collected the disability for which he has been prosecuted.

Barnes was sentenced to 90 days of electronic monitoring and 400 hours of community service. He also has to repay $24k to the State of California.

The dancer's credits include dancing for Madonna, Chris Brown and Kelly Roland.

Charlotte Rampling is one of the 20 white people nominated for an acting award at this year's Oscars ... and she thinks people who have a problem with that are racist.

Rampling -- who scored a Best Actress nom for her role in the movie "45 Years" -- told Radio 1 in France she finds the outrage over the absence of minorities to be "racist to whites."

In the interview, conducted in French, Rampling went on to say, "You never know if it was really the case, but perhaps the black players do not deserve to be in the final stretch."

Madonna scoffed at reports she was drunk onstage over the weekend, and the smoking gun proving she's telling the truth is right on her feet.

Madonna performed in Nashville Monday night and laughed off reports she was loopy in Louisville.

She was convincing on that front, but pissed off the Nashville audience in a similar way she did in Kentucky ... by taking the stage more than 2 1/2 hours late.

Reba McEntire and Kix Brooks were in the audience and clearly frustrated while waiting for Madonna to arrive. Check out their tweets.

Kiefer Sutherland treated patrons at a famed Hollywood strip club to an awesome topless dance.

Sutherland hit up Cheetahs earlier this month and had an "I can do that!" moment ... ripping off his shirt and jumping onstage with the dancers.

It looks like he's wearing a t-shirt in the pic but that's not a sleeve ... it's a tat.

The pic was taken after Mr. Bauer took a bow.

As for the money on the ground ... Kiefer was awesome, but it was directed at the girls.

BTW ... it's the second most entertaining thing he's done. The first ... well, who can beat it?

A Norwegian Cruise liner got some extra passengers Thursday night, when a boatload of Cuban refugees were spotted drifting aimlessly in the Caribbean.

A passenger tells TMZ the boat made a sudden stop when the makeshift, raft-like vessel was spotted. The 17 people on board said they were from Cuba and had been lost at sea since December 24.

One of the women on the raft was pregnant. The people were hoisted up onto the cruise ship and taken somewhere away from the passengers.

The ship docked in Cozumel, Mexico Friday and it appears the 17 refugees were turned over to Mexican authorities.

We've reached out to Norwegian for comment ... so far, no word back.

El Chapo came down from the mountains during his time as a fugitive to undergo erectile dysfunction surgery in Tijuana ... according to a Mexican newspaper.

Reforma claims sources close to the investigation told its reporter, Chapo received a testicular implant to improve blood flow ... just a stone's throw from the U.S. border.

The paper claims the surgery required anesthesia and an operating room and involved planting a prosthesis.

Here's a surefire way to piss off New Yorkers ... stop traffic in the middle of a busy day (on a super busy street) for a camping photo shoot in the middle of the street!!!

That's what NY Giants WR Victor Cruz did Thursday ... pitching a full-size camping tent in the middle of 6th Ave. for a funny photo shoot with celebrity jeweler Mr. Flawless -- and TMZ Sports has the footage.

Watch the video ... you can hear the pissed off drivers leaning on the horn while the two try to look comfy in their urban camping setting ... complete with firewood on the asphalt.

Tichina Arnold, aka Pam on "Martin," hit the nuclear button on her 3-year marriage by exposing what she says is her husband's sex tape with another woman.

Sources very close to Tichina tell us she put Rico Hines on blast with a scathing group text to friends and family, saying ... "It's over between Rico and I. This is where I part ways and all bets are off." That's the tame part.

The bombshell? She claims he's been banging scores of women -- sometimes without protection -- and she has a sex tape to prove it. Her mass text includes the video and she said, "I can't for the life of me understand why Rico would video himself f---ing 'raw dog' ONE of his MANY extraneous whores that 'trick' on him for his money."

Hines is a former assistant basketball coach at St. John's University.

She also named 20 of the women, who she labels "extraneous Kim Kardashian wanna be's."

Tichina says she's concerned about STDs and plans to get tested. Her rep told People she's ending the marriage. It's unclear if she's filed divorce docs yet.

Hines tells us through a rep, "This is a private and deeply personal matter between my wife and me, and I do not want to comment any further at this time."

Justin Bieber could be roadkill right now after a dangerous close call with a pack of cyclists.

The 16 person group was cruising on PCH in Malibu Wednesday morning when Bieber stepped out in the path of bicyclists ... forcing them to swerve out of the way.

Sean Weide -- one of the bikers -- says he and his buddies were doing about 25 MPH when the Biebs popped out in the street flailing his arms. They missed him by less than 2 feet.

Weide says they were all pissed off at first, but when someone recognized it was Justin ... everyone was just happy they didn't kill a celebrity. Tends to wreck the vibe in the middle of a ride.

Mack Wilds -- the "90210" dude who plays Adele's ex in the "Hello" video -- shut down traffic near Times Square after popping Belair bottles in the street.

Wilds and some friends, including NYC celebrity jeweler Mr. Flawless, chose a congested spot for the impromptu photo shoot ... the middle of 47th Street and 6th Ave.

Mack has something to celebrate. The song has gone 4 times platinum. The album is positioned to sell another million copies for the third week.

PETA is blowing the whistle on celebrity animal trainer Michael Hackenberger by releasing a brutal video showing him whipping a tiger several times until it cowers on its back during a training session.

Hackenberger is the director of the Bowmanville Zoo in Ontario, Canada and his Hollywood credits include "The Interview," "Life of Pi" and "George of the Jungle," a Disney movie.

It's painful to watch ... Hackenberger appears to whip the animal about 20 times. At one point in the video, he admits PETA would burn his training facility to the ground if they saw his training techniques.

Hackenberger's denying PETA's claims ... he argues he was hitting the ground with his whip and that PETA sliced the video to make it look worse.

It's been a bad year for big cats.

Boxer Adrien Broner says he's turning to GUNS to help him cope with the issues in his personal life -- saying, "Since nobody want to help me be in a better place in life I'm back on my bulls**t."

Broner just posted a disturbing video to his Instagram page -- waving around a pistol and an assault rifle.

In his caption, Broner explained ... "since nobody want to help me be in a better place in life I'm back on my bull sh*t F*CK EVERYTHING AND EVERYBODY!!!!!! #GANGINTHISBITCH #AboutBullets."

Broner had been in a public feud with his close friend Floyd Mayweather -- but this weekend, insisted everything was cool.

The woman who mowed down several dozen people in Las Vegas Sunday night says she was sober but just extremely tired.

Lakeisha Holloway told police she was trying to sleep in her car on several hotel properties but security kept running her off.

In the police report, obtained by TMZ, Holloway described a "stressful period of time today where she was trying to rest/sleep inside her vehicle with her daughter."

Holloway told cops she doesn't really know how she ended up on the Strip. The report says, "She would not explain why she drove on the sidewalk but remembered a body bouncing off of her windshield, breaking it."

Holloway told cops after the crash she drove a mile on a flat tire before driving onto hotel property, telling the security officer what happened and asking him to call police.

The police report says Holloway said she was not under the influence of any drugs or alcohol.

Miss Colombia will suffer not only disappontment as a result of Steve Harvey's blunder, but it is "something that can harm her" ... so says the country's Counsul General to New York.

Maria Isabel Nieto tells TMZ the snafu was extremely painful for Miss Colombia and could cause long-term issues. Nieto notes that physically taking the the crown from her will likely cause psychological trauma.

The Counsul General thinks Donald Trump is right on the money ... Miss Philippines and Miss Colombia should share the crown.

Failing that, Nieto thinks pageant officials should give Miss Colombia a more expanded role in the coming year. As she put it, all the first runner up does is wait, and that's not fair.