You Might Want to Rethink

Scott Stapp threatened to assassinate President Obama ... and his alarmed wife and sister-in-law made a desperate 911 call to stop him.

Scott had just gone AWOL from a mental facility late last month, when his sister-in-law told the 911 dispatcher he was cruising around his neighborhood, shirtless on a bicycle. She says the former Creed frontman claimed to be a CIA agent and his mission was to kill Obama.

Stapp claimed in a rambling video the IRS is trying to ruin his life because he's been trashing Obama.

Jaclyn Stapp, Scott's wife, joins the 40-minute 911 call, telling the dispatcher Scott had printed out 400 - 600 pages of CIA documents which he supposedly found online, put them in a book bag and took off on his bike.

The 2 women were pleading with the dispatcher to snare Scott and take him back to the psych ward.

As cops were dispatched, Scott placed his own 911 call, saying his wife had stolen his truck and that's why he was on a bike.

When cops arrived Scott told them Jaclyn had pilfered $6 mil from him, and when he confronted her she decided to get him locked up. In the end, police determined Scott did not show enough signs of mental instability to warrant a psych hold.

TMZ broke the story ... Jaclyn has filed legal docs trying to get Scott on a 60-day psych hold, claiming he was deep into various drugs, including coke, weed, PCP and amphetamines. Scott posted a video claiming he's drug free.

"Real Housewives of Orange County" star Vicki Gunvalson's topless Instagram photo was inadvertent ... so she claims.

Vicki posted a photo Thursday AM, thanking Bravo TV for her Christmas Present -- a nice set of headphones.

In the Dept. of Obvious ... even a casual look at the pic reveals Vicki was naked when she pressed the red button. She, however, says she never saw her boobs before posting the photo.

Vicki tells us she was distracted, getting ready for work.

The question ... are you buying what she's selling?

Ray J's girlfriend says she'd never kill herself ... and her recent threat was just a bad choice of words.

Princess Love says she clearly took things too far -- especially considering her friends Stephanie Moseley and Earl Hayes' murder-suicide.

Princess tells us her suicide scare Wednesday was triggered by an argument she and Ray J had over holiday plans. As TMZ previously reported, Ray J thought she was upset over a BET special he filmed with Karrueche Tran.

"South Park" took a slightly-pervy sounding Christmas song, infused the Bill Cosby allegations, and the result was a little creepy and kinda funny.

A hologram-version of Cosby attempts to keep Taylor Swift in his home by singing "Baby It's Cold Outside" ... and eventually holo-Cos offers her a drink ... just like many of his accusers say he did to them.

Later in the episode, Cosby and Swift are seen getting closer -- but, as you can imagine, it's totally a one-sided affair.

The lawyer who reps the woman who sued Bill Cosby for allegedly sexually assaulting her in 1974 has just tried correcting a huge problem ... he's taken Cosby's name out of the suit, but it's a ridiculous gesture.

Judy Huth's lawyer, Marc Strecker, filed the lawsuit last week and named Cosby as the defendant. Problem is ... under California law out of fairness, these suits require the lawyer NOT to name the defendant but to refer to him as John Doe.

The reason for the law ... so people aren't ruined by lawsuits that may turn out to be bogus.

So Strecker just re-filed the lawsuit swapping out Cosby's name with Doe. Obviously, he can't unring that bell.

Huth claims Cosby got her drunk and then took her to the Playboy Mansion in 1974 where he allegedly sexually assaulted her. It's pretty clear ... the statute of limitations has long run.

Stephen Collins has been quietly put back on the air by a network that vowed to give "7th Heaven" the ax in the wake of his child molestation confession.

UP TV was running the series but announced in October it was taking it off the air ... shortly after TMZ ran the audio in which Collins confessed to molesting and/or exposing himself to children.

But we noticed the show is now back on the schedule, so we contacted the network.

The CEO for UP TV, Charley Humbard, tells TMZ, "We brought the show back because many viewers expressed they could separate allegations against one actor from the fictional series itself."

Humbard continues, "As it turns out, they cannot." So Humbard says they're now taking the show off the air ... again. It's unclear if they're yanking the show because of ratings or our phone call.

There are rules in the strip club -- no touching, no pictures and NO JACKING STRIPPER'S CELL PHONES ... but an NBA player has been accused of breaking Rule #3 ... TMZ Sports has learned.

The man in hot water is Orlando Magic player Maurice Harkless -- who's been named in a police report filed by an exotic dancer in San Francisco.

Law enforcement sources confirm ... the dancer claims 21-year-old Maurice came into the club late Sunday night -- but before he left early Monday morning, he swiped her cell phone and took it with him.

Sources connected to the situation tell us the stripper confronted the 6'9" player and tried to get the phone back ... to no avail.

We're told the San Francisco Police Department is now investigating the incident -- and there is surveillance footage that could crack the case.

We reached out to Harkless and his camp for comment -- so far, no word back.

5:03 PM PT -- A rep for Harkless just sent us a statement saying, "There must be a mistake in identity. Maurice Harkless was not involved in any situation that involved taking a cell phone or any property."

Georgia prosecutors clearly don't have a sense of humor -- they can't even tell the difference between a real death threat and a funny one ... so claims the guy who threatened to kill Mama June and Pumpkin.

Andrew Kurt Summers -- who now faces felony charges of making terroristic threats -- went on Facebook and threatened to shoot June and her daughter.

But Summers tells TMZ ... he was never serious. It was simply, as he puts it, "a joke, a dumb mistake."

Summers says he has no ill will toward the family. He says he was trolling her Facebook page because of the Mark McDaniel situation. As for what he specifically wrote ... he won't say because the case is going to trial. Nor would he explain how a threat to shoot someone is funny.

Summers was in proximity of the Honey Boo Boo clan. He lives just outside Atlanta, 2 hours from their home.

He's freaked out about the prospect of prison, saying he's a law abiding citizen with a clean record.

Miley Cyrus donned a silver wig to match her silver pasties when she showed up Wednesday night to perform at Art Basel in Miami ... with BF Patrick Schwarzenegger in tow.

Miley performed mostly covers -- Led Zeppelin, The Beatles, Johnny Cash -- and mocked her own music, saying, "You thought (Art Basel) was a respected place where you could escape me."

One thing's for sure ... the Kennedys are having fun conversations today.

Lindsay Lohan is putting her experience with booze and coke to good and profitable use ... she's launching a clothing line called ... MY ADDICTION.

We've learned LiLo has partnered with Civil Clothing to roll out a menswear collection that will be sold exclusively at every 13-year-old skater's favorite clothing store ... PacSun.

We're told Civil Clothing cleverly came up with the name, pitched it to Lindsay and she agreed. The collection starts at $29.95.

Cuba Gooding Sr. didn't run off with a $7,000 fee to perform at a charity concert ... he's simply holding onto the cash juuust in case the failed event is ever reorganized in the future.

As we first told you ... the '70s soul singer got sued by Reginald Lewis -- who claims he paid Gooding Sr. to play a benefit at a Maryland children's hospital. The concert ended up getting scrubbed -- but Cuba tells us he and Lewis agreed ... the singer should keep the $7K.

Gooding -- who sang the '70s hit "Everybody Plays the Fool" -- claims they decided to do the concert at a later date, but there was "no time table" for when it would go down.

The Oscar winner's dad denies stealing, and claims Lewis is only suing to get publicity. Still, Cuba says he'd be happy to perform in 2015.

Lady Gaga is calling BS on Kesha's lawyer, who claims Gaga has accused Dr. Luke of raping her.

Gaga insinuated on Howard Stern Tuesday morning she had been sexually assaulted by a record producer years ago, but she didn't name names.

Mark Geragos just tweeted, "Guess who the rapist was?" Someone responded and asked if it was Luke, and Geragos replied, "#bingo."

Gaga's rep tells TMZ, "It's absolutely not true," although she would not comment on who Gaga was referring to when she made her comment on Stern.

Luke's rep tells TMZ, "Mark Geragos' statement is completely false and defamatory. Luke met Lady Gaga twice for less than half an hour total in those two meetings combined." The rep adds, "He has never been alone with her and never touched her. Neither meeting was in that time frame reported."

But Geragos tells TMZ, "I said it because it's true." Geragos says the Cosby scandal is a trigger for the revelation, saying, "The Cosby allegations have now made others more courageous about coming out."

Geragos says he will depose Gaga in Kesha's sexual assault lawsuit against Dr. Luke. He also tells us 3 other women -- "not as famous" -- also claim they had a similar experience to Kesha's and they will be deposed as well.

Gaga's rep just expanded on the singer's denial, saying, "The Dr. Luke lawsuit is utterly incomprehensible. This simply isn't true and how dare someone take advantage of such a sensitive matter."

Ray Rice says the disastrous news conference he and Janay held together in May was a "horrendous mistake" ... but he's pointing the finger at the Baltimore Ravens.

Ray broke his silence with Matt Lauer during a stand-up interview in his kitchen for the "Today" show ... and said of the P.R. debacle, "I made a tremendous mistake not apologizing to my wife."

Ray and Janay also took heat over the May 23rd event because Janay APOLOGIZED for her role in the elevator incident.

"When we was going in, we were given what to speak about. It wasn't truly coming from us," Ray says.

So, who told them what to say? Janay claims the Ravens "gave us a general script" going in to the news conference that day ... and Ray and Janay did what they were told thinking the team would have their back.

During the interview, Ray also told Matt he had never laid a finger on Janay before the elevator attack.

Cuba Gooding Jr.'s dad put Scrooge and the Grinch to shame by bailing on a Christmas charity concert for a children's hospital, while making off with a bunch of cash ... according to a lawsuit.

Reginald Lewis says he's been trying to track down '70s soul singer Cuba Gooding Sr. ever since he cancelled a benefit gig for the Kennedy Krieger Institute last December in Baltimore. Lewis claims he loaned Gooding $7,000 to promote the event ... and never got the money back.

Lewis is suing for the dough, but says he can't locate Gooding -- whose group The Main Ingredient sang the '72 hit "Everybody Plays the Fool" -- to serve him with papers.

We reached out to one of his reps -- but same result ... radio silence.

Nipsey Hussle apparently is of the belief that airport cops have bigger fish to fry than a weed-smoking passenger, because he was about as flagrant as it gets when he showed up at LAX Friday.

Apparently Nipsey knows what's up, because he smoked undeterred and entered the terminal in a haze.

Jonathan Bennett's "Dancing With the Stars" appearance almost never happened ... because he suffered a humongous fall as he jokingly tried to prep for the show ... and it was all caught on tape.

So here's the deal ... the "Mean Girls" star shot this video a few months back, but kept it hidden until "DWTS" finished its run (congrats, Alfonso).

In the video, he and a few friends attempt an "interpretive dance" ... but Bennett tried a move on the railing of a staircase that ended ... well, you gotta see it. He ended up with 2 broken ribs and his arm in a sling for 2 months.

The best part -- they were dancing to "Wind Beneath My Wings."

Seeing as he was the one who allowed the video to be posted ... Bennett's ego escaped unscathed.