You Might Want to Rethink

Kobe Bryant celebrated an amazing victory Sunday night ... winning an Oscar and, incredibly, the celebrities in the audience had a case of selective amnesia.

Kobe took home the Oscar for Best Animated Short Film for "Dear Basketball." The audience cheered Kobe ... some even rose to their feet for a standing O.

Interesting ... considering the majority of the audience were wearing Time's Up pins. You may recall -- although a lot of the people who came out after the ceremony didn't -- Kobe was arrested in 2003, charged and brought to trial for rape. The case fell apart when the alleged victim stopped cooperating with prosecutors. Kobe subsequently settled for a reported $5 million, though he denies paying her a cent.

Kobe was Teflon at the awards ceremony. Not so for Ryan Seacrest, who was shunned by some celebs even though he hasn't been sued, arrested, charged -- and was cleared by an E! investigation.

And James Franco was essentially exiled from the Oscars -- again not arrested, charged, nothing.

So, why did Kobe get a pass? We spoke with a bunch of stars including Shawn Mendes, Bebe Rexha, Colin Hanks and others who claimed they had no knowledge of his past. Some just made jokes.

There's an upside to that powerful nor'easter crushing the East coast, at least for one Beantown nut who's riding out the storm ... on a folding table!

We got this video of the resourceful adventure-seeker weathering the storm Friday by turning the table into a wakeboard to travel down a flooded Boston street. We're guessing the Land Rover's hauling him to get some coffee at Dunkies.

We gotta say, it looks like a wicked pissah! If you can overlook -- like this guy has -- the power outages and damage to personal property ... this nor'easter stuff ain't so bad.

J.R. Smith weaponized soup.

Sip that in ... because that's why the Cleveland Cavs suspended the NBA star for Thursday's game against the 76ers.

Team officials had announced Smith was hit with a 1-game suspension for conduct detrimental to the team ... and now ESPN is reporting that conduct was a soup attack on a Cavs coach.

The target of Smith's delicious rage ... Damon Jones -- a former Cavs player who's now an assistant with the team.

O.J. Simpson told Judith Regan he "hypothetically" had an accomplice in the murders of his ex-wife and her friend ... an accomplice who was with him during the killings.

FOX is belatedly airing an O.J. Simpson interview it had shelved years ago ... shelved under extreme pressure. Regan, a book publisher, helped Simpson write a book called, "If I Did It: Confessions of a Killer."

Regan interviewed Simpson on camera for the TV special and he initially drew from the book and talked hypothetically about how the murders might have been committed. The un-aired show was viewed as a confession of sorts, and now TMZ knows why.

Sources familiar with the program tell us, Simpson talked in the third person as he described how the murders might have been committed, but at some point in the interview he lapsed into first person. We're told it sounded like a first-person account of the murders and, although it's not a clear confession, it's in that arena.

We're told Simpson flat-out talks about an accomplice who was with him at Nicole's home. He did not name the accomplice.

Simpson's scenario goes like this ... he went to her house the evening of June 12, 1994, to "scare the s*** out of her." He took the Bronco to her home with his friend, brought a knife and put a hat and gloves on for dramatic effect.

Simpson then says he looked in Nicole's window ... saw burning candles and believed she was expecting a man to show up. Just then Ron, a waiter from the restaurant where she had just dined, appeared with a pair of sunglasses Nicole's mom had forgotten at the restaurant. Simpson started screaming in rage, Nicole came running out ... and at that point he says he "blacked out" and came to covered in blood.

The special airs on Sunday, March 11.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt are a couple of money grubbing actors who signed up to glorify Sharon Tate's vicious murder ... so claims her sister, Debra Tate.

Debra tells TMZ she believes Leo and Brad only saw the Benjamins when they signed up to star in Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" ... a film about a struggling actor who lives next door to Sharon Tate at the time of the 1969 murders.

Debra says, "To [celebrities] it's a paycheck and these people just don’t care. They are terribly hurtful to the actual family and all the living victims. They don’t give a sh*t."

She goes on to say she'd like to believe Brad and Leo haven't thought this through because they're "throwing all their social responsibility to the wind."

Debra also went after Hilary Duff, who's portraying Sharon in a different film. Debra's fuming after Hilary posted an insensitive picture on Instagram, saying, "What kind of trash is she? That's just absolutely garbage. Is there any point in that?"

As for her feelings about Quentin, Debra's adamant his movie will just end up glorifying Manson ... given Quentin's thirst for eroticizing murders. She claims Quentin's lawyers said the director would reach out to her, but they never did.

After the real-life disaster at last year's Oscars, the Academy feels the best way to make sure the proper people accept the award for Best Picture -- bring back the ones who screwed it up ... because TMZ has learned Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway will do the honors again!!!

Our Oscar sources tell us Warren and Faye both just showed up at the Dolby Theatre and rehearsed the big moment. We're told they were shuffled onstage together very quickly to run through their bit. They went through their lines twice. She began by saying, "Presenting is better the second time around," Beatty followed up with, "The winner is 'Gone with the Wind.'"

We're told the writers are still putting finishing touches on their lines.

Sports Illustrated is going to bat for Ashley Graham after Toccara Jones called her twerking abilities subpar -- and this new video of her booty-shaking in the sand ... is the perfect re-butt-al..

SI posted the new clip on Wednesday ... showing more of Ashley's on location twerk-off with a photo shoot crew member. Interestingly, the video dropped AFTER Toccara, the "Queen of Thickness," called out AG's twerk skills.

She straight-up laughed, telling us Ashley was lacking some major pop.

In Toccara's defense ... she was looking at a different SI vid (below), where Ashley was shot from afar.

We have no clue if the new angle would sway Toccara's vote, but we'll say this -- Ashley's got plenty of swaying going on back there. Plenty.

Kevin O'Leary is in a pretty good mood, considering he and the other "Shark Tank" moguls missed out on a cut of $1 BILLION Amazon paid for a product they let slip through their hands.

Mr. Wonderful talked to us about whiffing on Ring, a smart doorbell company once pitched on "Shark Tank" (as DoorBot) by its creator Jamie Siminoff. Kevin proudly reminded us he's the only shark who made an offer.

Even though he couldn't close the deal, Kev has no hard feelings and says he KNEW Jamie was gonna make it big.

Now that Siminoff's a billionaire, Mr. Wonderful has some advice for him on what to do with his cheddar. Hint: It's time to swim with the sharks.

Senator Cory Booker is stunned that Congressman Don Young tried pitching the Holocaust as a serious defense for arming teachers ... calling the pro-gun notion "outrageous."

We got the senator from New Jersey on Wednesday in D.C. and asked him what he thought of Rep. Young suggesting the Holocaust wouldn't have happened if Jews had their own guns.

Booker admits he hadn't heard the remarks or seen the video himself -- but says it doesn't take a genius to know the idea is historically inaccurate and highly offensive. Uh, ya think?

Alaskan Congressman Don Young says if Jewish people in Nazi Germany were armed, they could have prevented the Holocaust -- and that's his argument against gun control.

The U.S. representative was fielding questions about how to make schools safer in the wake of the Parkland, FL mass shooting when he floated his jaw-dropping theory. He was responding last week to Dimitri Shein, a democrat running for Young's seat, who recorded their heated exchange.

Young actually said, "How many Jews were put into the ovens because they were unarmed?"

Young is an NRA member who's down with arming school teachers. He's said video games and the breakdown of American families are to blame for epidemic gun violence. In video of his town hall-style meeting (around 2:10), Young added ... 50 million Russians were killed because they didn't have guns.

There was plenty of vocal support for Young's theories during the meeting.

For what it's worth, there was a Nazi law prohibiting Jews from owning guns -- but remember, they would have been battling Hitler's army, which was steamrolling entire countries.

Akon's learning the hard way that giving the cold shoulder never pays ... especially when it comes to lawsuits, cause now he's gotta cough up tons of dough.

Akon's been ordered to pay $164,786.99 to a company that leased him some space on the 66th floor of the Empire State Building for his fashion line, Aliaune Milano ... this according to legal docs obtained by TMZ.

The leasing company, GTFM, said Akon agreed in July of 2012 to pay $25k per month and did so until July of 2015 when he stopped paying rent. GTFM claims Akon's company finally left in January of 2016, owing almost 7 months of rent.

Joe Jonas is dealing with the downside of having someone run his errands ... especially if that person allegedly hits someone else with his car.

A woman is suing the DNCE singer, claiming his assistant was driving Joe's 2012 Audi A6 in the heart of Hollywood, when she made a left turn in an intersection that resulted in a collision with the woman. According to the legal docs, it went down in March 2016.

The woman's lawyer, Gerald Marcus, tells us his firm ran the plates and confirmed the Audi was registered to Jonas. We're told no police report was filed and there were no witnesses. It's unclear from the docs if Joe was in the vehicle with his assistant.

Regardless, the woman's suing both Joe and the assistant for negligence, claiming she was injured in the collision and has endured mental and physical pain, incurred medical expenses and lost earnings.

We reached out to Jonas ... no word back so far.

Brace yourself, Ashley Graham ... this might hurt a little. Her pal, Toccara Jones went full LMFAO after watching Ashley attempt to twerk during her S.I. Swimsuit photo shoot.

We got the self-proclaimed "Queen of Thickness" Tuesday at LAX, and asked her to evaluate Ashley's ass-shaking skills -- which AG herself touted on camera in the video posted by Sports Illustrated.

Let's just say, Toccara's review was straight-up cold-blooded.

Toccara did see some booty action in the clip that impressed her, but it was another chick on the set who caught her eye!

The upside -- TJ didn't criticize without compassion. In fact, she had some advice on how Ash can get more pop outta that thang.

Watch carefully, Ashley ... and also if you're not Ashley.

Tekashi69 came face-to-face with cops for the 2nd week in a row -- this time NYPD had to bust up his music video shoot.

6ix9ine was trying to shoot in Brooklyn Tuesday and had his crew in place, and several hundred people in the streets of the Crown Heights neighborhood. One big problem though, he did not have a valid permit for the production ... according to law enforcement sources.

NYPD swooped in on the location for a couple of reasons -- the first being the large crowd. Word got out when he promoted the shoot on social media, and the masses swarmed the area. Cops on the scene told Tekashi it was a dangerous situation, because some of the responses online included threats to kick his ass.

It's become a thing since that LAX brawl last week. Even if the Brooklyn crowd had been pro-6ix9ine, we're told the lack of a permit would have gotten him shut down anyway.

A kid who started peeing all over an elevator seriously pissed off the powers that be ... 'cause he got stuck in the elevator.

The video is hilarious -- the boy, who was alone in the lift, decided to empty his bladder. Wizzin' in the corner wasn't good enough for him either. Instead, he sprayed down the wall of the elevator, including the buttons ... which caused a short circuit.

Kim Kardashian got a good laugh from her husband ... and Kanye West got instant relief as he handled his biz wiz.

Kim and Kanye had just arrived Sunday at a warehouse in L.A. when he answered nature's call -- outside the building. Kim, rocking a new pink 'do, turned around and appeared to burst into laughter at Kanye's desperate need to pee.

Y'know this was an emergency, because the couple was fully aware of the paparazzi. Then again ... we haven't seen video, so it's possible 'Ye was just clowning for the cameras and not actually urinating. Either way, Kim was entertained by his antics.