You Might Want to Rethink

Bill Maher used St. Patrick's Day to make a point ... the United States of America is (A) not united and (B) on the cusp of becoming the next Northern Ireland.

The 'Real Time' host served up a warning that would be useful to heed -- Our politics have become a religion for the majority of Americans, and the level of hatred toward people embracing "the other" religion has us dangerously close to calamity.

It happened in Northern Ireland, where a politically combustible landscape turned into urban warfare, and Bill sees us headed in that direction.

As he says, Democrats and Republicans are embracing that same level of hatred for those they oppose. The majority of people in both parties don't want their kids to marry someone attached to the opposing party.

And then, he invokes the name of Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has called for a "national divorce" -- in other words, creating two countries ... made up of blue states on the one hand and red on the other.

Aside from it being ridiculous, Bill points out there are fundamental disagreements within each political party, so thinking a divorce will create harmony is just stupid.

A hilarious moment went down during the NCAA tournament on Friday ... when Baylor men's basketball player Dale Bonner was checking into the game against UC Santa Barbara -- but his jersey was inside out!!

The wardrobe malfunction happened Friday at the Ball Arena in Denver ... where the Bears were playing the Gauchos in the first round of the tourney. Bonner was set to sub in for one of his teammates in the first half of the matchup -- but, unfortunately, his BAYLOR jersey looked more like ROLYAB.

Bonner initially didn't notice the mistake ... as referees had to delay the game to tell him that he was rocking his jersey on the wrong side.

Bonner quickly corrected himself and got the jersey on correctly ... as everyone on the court stood around and waited for him to get it together.

The commentators referenced the gaffe during the broadcast ... attributing the mishap to possible March Madness jitters.

The tourney is known for its wild moments ... but no one could've predicted this one.

The college hockey player who pushed a woman's wheelchair down the stairs at a Pennsylvania pub last weekend has been banned from the establishment ... TMZ Sports has learned.

Nate Sanders -- the security manager at Sullivan's Pub and Eatery in Erie -- tells us ... Carson Briere, the son of Philadelphia Flyers interim general manager Daniel Briere, is no longer welcome at the bar after security camera footage showed him pushing Sydney Benes' wheelchair down a flight of stairs on Saturday night.

According to a GoFundMe page organized by Sanders ... Sydney is a double amputee that requires a wheelchair to be mobile while she's learning to use her prosthetics. Nate told us he assists Sydney with getting around whenever she visits Sullivan's.

Sanders said that should Carson step foot inside Sullivan's moving forward following the ban ... he's prepared to get law enforcement involved if necessary.

Carson -- a junior center on Mercyhurst University's ice hockey team -- has apologized for his actions ... calling them inexcusable. He's since been suspended from the team as the school investigates the incident further.

Police have also launched their own probe into the matter.

Not even Furman players themselves could believe Virginia lost the way it did to kick off March Madness on Thursday ... with Paladins star forward Jalen Slawson yelling after the improbable win, "He just freakin' threw it!"

If you missed it ... UVA, a four-seed, lost to 13-seed Furman on a last-second three-point shot -- after one of the most embarrassing turnovers you'll see in an NCAA tournament game.

Up by two over Furman with 9.8 seconds left -- Cavaliers guard Kihei Clark got trapped in a full-court press, but instead of finding a way out of it, he just heaved the ball toward mid-court -- where it was predictably intercepted.

One immediate pass and one three-point shot later, UVA was down by one ... and they went on to lose a few seconds later by that margin.

Slawson wasn't the only guy floored by how it all went down -- even Patrick Mahomes was left in complete shock.

"Virginia what are we doing?!?!?" the Kansas City Chiefs star tweeted after the game.

Believe it or not, there are some folks who actually weren't that stunned by the upset ... according to the NCAA, 10.67% of brackets that were filled out this month picked Furman to get the dub.

Ja Morant was just hit with an 8-game suspension without pay for flashing a gun at a strip club earlier this month ... with NBA commissioner Adam Silver calling his conduct "irresponsible, reckless and potentially very dangerous."

Ja -- who met with Silver and other NBA execs in NYC on Wednesday -- will be eligible to return to the Memphis Grizzlies on March 20 against the Dallas Mavericks.

The league conducted an investigation into the incident ... and determined Ja was "in an intoxicated state" when he showed the firearm on his Instagram Live.

The league says the investigation could not determine Ja owned the gun, brought it to the club, or even had it "beyond a brief period."

The league also says its investigation did not find that Morant had the gun while traveling with the Grizzlies or at any NBA facility.

Morant apologized shortly after the video surfaced ... and sought treatment at a counseling program in Florida.

Silver didn't hold back when addressing Morant's actions ... saying, "Ja's conduct was irresponsible, reckless and potentially very dangerous."

"It also has serious consequences given his enormous following and influence, particularly among young fans who look up to him. He has expressed sincere contrition and remorse for his behavior."

Silver says Morant has "made it clear" he used the incident as a learning experience ... and he now understands his role as one of the faces of the NBA.

The son of Philadelphia Flyers interim GM Daniel Briere -- Mercyhurst Univ. ice hockey player Carson Briere -- has been accused of shoving a woman's wheelchair down a flight of stairs over the weekend ... and now, cops say they're investigating the matter.

The incident was captured on a bar's security camera at around midnight on Saturday.

In the footage, you can see two men walk up a staircase and notice a wheelchair sitting at the top of it. One of the men, identified online as Briere, wearing a backward white hat and a dark-colored sweatshirt, then sits in it, before attempting to wheel around in it.

Eventually, Briere gets out of the chair -- before pushing it down the stairs. He then walks away from the scene.

Twitter user @juliazukowski -- who first posted the video -- claims the chair had been left at the top of the stairs because its owner "physically had to be carried down to use the restrooms." She created a GoFundMe page on Wednesday, to raise money for a new chair.

Mercyhurst University said in a statement after the video began circulating on social media that it -- and police -- have launched an investigation into it all.

"Late this afternoon, Mercyhurst University became aware of the disturbing video in which one of our student-athletes is seen pushing an unoccupied wheelchair down a flight of stairs at a local establishment," school officials said in a statement Tuesday. "Our Office of Student Conduct and Department of Police and Safety are investigating."

The school would not confirm Carson Briere was at the center of the probe ... telling TMZ Sports on Wednesday morning, "We are just beginning our investigation and cannot comment on the process."

Carson Briere joined the Mercyhurst hockey team back in 2020. He had previously played for Arizona State's ice hockey team, but was dismissed from the team after the program said he violated rules.

In his three seasons with the Lakers, he's tallied 59 points.

His father, 45-year-old Daniel Briere, played in the NHL for 17 seasons, and was just named the Flyers' interim GM on Friday. We reached out to the NHL team for comment, but so far, no word back yet.

Lil Nas X is known to crack jokes online, but even the "Old Town Road" rapper knew his joke about transitioning crossed a line ... so he's issuing an apology.

LNX had originally posted a photo of social medial influencer Glow Princess, and quipped "the surgery was a success" ... causing many clueless fans to believe he'd actually undergone a gender-changing procedure. 😬

When fans in the know began firing off angry tweet after angry tweet, Lil Nas owned up to his blunder.

He responded ... "Apologies to the trans community i def handled that situation with anger instead of considering why it was not cool ... much love to you guys. sorry."

Avril Lavigne got a little feisty with a topless streaker who crashed the Juno Awards ... and the fans all seemed to love it.

The singer-songwriter was onstage introducing fellow musician AP Dhillon at the annual event in Edmonton, Canada Monday night ... when things suddenly took a bizarre turn.

Check out the video ... the woman sauntered onto the stage with no security in sight, prancing around with a message scrawled across her back.

The message read, "SAVE THE GREEN BELT," a reference to a controversial residential development plan spearheaded by the Ontario government.

Avril played it cool at first and ignored the woman, but then decided enough was enough. She turned to the woman and barked, "Get the f**k off. Get the f**k off, b***h."

Security finally showed up and escorted the woman away. It's not clear if she was arrested.

Later on, Avril joked about the strange encounter during her acceptance speech for the TikTok Juno Fan Choice Award. She said, "Now nobody try anything this time or the Canadian's gonna come out of me and I'll f**k a b***h up."

The audience ate it up. One fan told a reporter Avril did "a great job handling" the disruptor. Another person said he got a good chuckle out of it, while acknowledging Avril had initially kept her cool. A third person commended Avril for doing a fantastic job in "fighting through" the disturbance.

It marked the latest drama in Avril's life. As we reported, she broke off her engagement with Mod Sun and is now dating Tyga. Avril and Tyga were recently seen gallivanting around Paris during Fashion Week, locking lips and holding hands. We're told their growing relationship is no publicity stunt, but the two haven't put a boyfriend/girlfriend label on it yet.

Marcus Smart's on-court scuffle with Trae Young is gonna cost him ... 'cause the NBA just fined the Boston Celtics player $25K as a result of the altercation.

The two guards got into it with 1:25 left in the game at State Farm Arena on Saturday ... when Young drove to the basket and got fouled by Smart.

It appeared Young may have accidentally kicked Smart in the groin during the play -- and Smart didn't like it one bit.

After the whistle was blown, Smart got into Young's face ... and the two exchanged some heated words.

That's when Smart and Young took their beef to the hardwood ... as Smart pulled the Hawks guard down with him as he fell to the floor.

Both players' teammates and referees broke them up ... and Smart was ejected from the game, while Young received a technical.

On Monday, an NBA executive announced that Smart -- the former NBA Defensive Player of the Year -- was fined $25K for "initiating an on-court alteration and pulling" Young to the floor.

As for Trae ... it seems he got away with just a tech.

Tems stood out at the Oscars, blocking the view of people sitting behind her ... and while the folks there were polite, Twitter gave her an earful.

The Nigerian singer -- who was on hand Sunday for her musical work on 'Wakanda Forever' -- had one of the more noticeable getups at the award show ... a massive white dress that was jutting out and upward at her shoulders, which made her look like a human flower.

The problem ... when she sat down, her 'fit sorta caused a big distraction -- both onscreen for viewers, and certainly for everyone else sitting in the rows behind her.

During the broadcast, there were several moments where you could see the people right behind Tems peering over her shoulder to get a glimpse of the stage or of Kimmel. It was pretty funny ... they were obviously challenged by her dress and had to do peek-arounds to see the action. It doesn't appear anyone said anything to her.

The same can't be said for the bird app ... 'cause a lot of users there were pretty angry at the fact that she wore something so big, and which would presumably cause some blind spots in the theater. A bunch called it "rude" ... others found it hilarious. Mixed bag.

Jimmy Kimmel's hosting the Oscars again tonight, and a year out from the infamous slap ... the dude has been talking a lot about it, kinda turning the moment into a punchline.

The late night funny man has been doing a ton of press in the weeks leading up to the big gig -- his third such time handling MC duties for Hollywood's biggest show -- and yes ... he's been asked repeatedly about Will Smith smacking Chris Rock, and how he'll address it.

Here's a few quotes of JK's from the past couple weeks or so. When asked by THR what he would do if someone tries to pull a copycat and slap him, Kimmel said ... "If I’m bigger than they are, I beat the s*** out of them on television. And if it’s The Rock, I run."

A few days ago, as preparations were underway, Kimmel made another joke about carnage ...  with reference to the color of this year's walkup. He said, "People have been asking, 'Is there going to be any trouble this year? Is there going to be any violence this year?'"

He adds, "We certainly hope not. But if there is, I think the decision to go with a champagne carpet over a red carpet shows how confident we are that no blood will be shed."

In other words, he's been swearing off the brutality by teasing the possibility of more, albeit in jest. On the issue of actually talking about it in his monologue, Jimmy says he'll do it.

He's said in interviews that he's going to "squeeze just a couple more drops out of it" and give a take that he thinks no one has heard yet. Kimmel did note he doesn't plan on talking about it at length but says it's the elephant in the room and that it must be addressed.

As for the whole crisis team thing -- namely, AMPAS hiring a bunch of people to "deal" with any craziness that might go on -- JK says he isn't privy to it ... and knows nothing of the logistics of what they have planned or how they would implement him if things go south.

It's interesting that Jimmy's been making light of the slap as much as he has, and will presumably do so again come 5 PM. Ya gotta figure ABC and the Academy have signed off on it all ... they're the producers and showrunners of this thing, and they call the shots.

Neve Campbell skipped out on the latest 'Scream' movie due to money negotiations -- but the studio's decision to move on seems to have paid off regardless ... big time, in fact.

'Scream 6,' which just hit theaters Friday, smashed through an opening weekend box office record that the films before it had set ... raking in about $44.5 million domestically through Sunday, which blows out the previous benchmark set by 'Scream 2' years ago -- $32 mil.

Last year's "Scream V" came close to touching that, with about $30 mil through 3 days of a 4-day holiday weekend ... but this new figure is by and far the best any of these movies have ever done. Paramount's gotta be happy -- it only cost $35M to make this latest slasher.

Interestingly ... they achieved this without Neve, which was a gamble. Fact is, she's been the face of the 'Scream' franchise since the start ... and her decision to exit last year was controversial. She claimed Paramount wouldn't pay her what she thought she was worth.

At the time, Neve was quoted as saying ... "As a woman I have had to work extremely hard in my career to establish my value, especially when it comes to 'Scream.' I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise. It’s been a very difficult decision to move on. To all my 'Scream' fans, I love you." Yeah ... scathing.

And yet ... her former costar, Courteney Cox, did take the money and sign on again -- reprising her role as Gale Weathers, and referencing NC's character, Sidney, in passing.

David Arquette -- another longtime fan fave, who was killed off in the last movie -- has actually been somewhat promoting "Scream VI" on IG -- but Neve hasn't uttered a peep about it ... focusing instead on other projects she's working on, including more horror stuff.

Funny enough, legacy characters (like Neve's) are actually alluded to in the new installment (yes, we've seen it). Ghostface, at one point, talks about how nobody cares about long-standing heroes from decades past ... and that the "rules" of re-quels have totally changed.

It would appear that sentiment held true in offscreen in real life as well, especially with a solid new young cast that everyone likes -- Jenna Ortega, Melissa Barrera, etc. Oh, and Ghostface himself ... he's kinda the one who gets asses in seats ... or so it seems, anyway.

David Blaine told a Las Vegas crowd that he'd seriously hurt himself during a gig this weekend -- but rather than throw in the towel ... he called in the cavalry to push through.

The famed magician was performing his magic show at the Resorts World hotel, and toward the beginning ... he did a stunt where he jumped from a 9-story scaffolding structure within the theater into a foam pit below, only to complain of pain right after ... so say eyewitnesses.

We're told he expressed over his mic that he'd dislocated his shoulder, and tried having crew members work on it live. Apparently, it was pretty obvious he was in pain and struggling.

The stagehands couldn't get the job done, so DB went to Plan B ... calling on any doctors in the crowd to come forward and help him out, which a handful then did on the spot. They took turns trying to pop his shoulder back in, and after some time -- finally succeeded.

The Lufthansa flight from hell might never have become public if the airline had its way ... this according to a new report.

A passenger named Rolanda Schmidt told Insider ... when the plane plunged nearly 4,000 feet in extreme turbulence -- turning dinner service into what looked like a fraternity food fight -- a flight attendant got on the PA and asked everyone on the plane to delete photos and videos of the chaotic scene. The flight attendant allegedly made the request twice.

Schmidt said she and others were incredulous ...“I think we were all just like, ‘What?!'”

During the second announcement, the flight attendant reportedly said she was making the request to protect the privacy of those on board.

Schmidt says she's dealing with a concussion, a bruised arm and a possible fractured hip as a result of the 4,000 foot plunge.

Obviously, the flight attendant's request didn't take, and the images of the passenger cabin have littered the internet.

One of the passengers was Matthew McConaughey's wife, Camila Alves, who posted video with the caption, “To respect the privacy of those around me that’s all I am showing but the plane was a CHAOS And the turbulence keep on coming.”

A New Hampshire state legislator is facing criminal charges after he lost his s*** and assaulted a snowplow driver for not doing his job ... or at least that's what he claimed.

Jeffrey Greeson (R-Wentworth) was busted Friday by NH State Police and charged with disorderly conduct, criminal trespassing and simple assault. He posed for a grim-faced mug shot before being released without bail.

Greeson's arrest stemmed from a March 4 incident in which he accosted Wentworth Highway Department employee Paul Manson, who was plowing snow outside the state rep's home after a major storm.

Check out this wild video showing Greeson blowing his top as he struggled to walk through knee-high snow to confront Manson on the street.

Referencing the snow, Greeson screamed, "You don't put it in my driveway! Push it over! Out of the road! Over there!"

Greeson was also cursing and barking orders at Manson. "Your job is to clear the road! Clear the road! Now, get in your truck and do your job!"

The situation got so heated police were called. After nearly a week of investigating, cops arrested Greeson, who is serving his second term in the New Hampshire House of Representatives.

Manson recorded Greeson's tirade and posted the video on his Facebook page. He admitted to a local TV reporter he pushed the snow into Greeson's driveway, and he felt bad about doing it.

Still, Manson says he had no choice because his job was to clean off the roads, which meant directing the snow into driveways across the entire area. In other words, he wasn't singling out Greeson.

Greeson issued a statement addressing the matter, "I apologized to the man. He accepted my apology. That was several days ago, and we have both moved on."

Bill Walton may be the king of out-of-the-box analysis, but he crossed the line while calling a college hoops game on Thursday ... dropping a derogatory word for little people -- twice.

The Hall of Famer and broadcaster used the m-word when calling the Arizona State vs. USC matchup ... when he was attempting to show praise for the Pac-12 Tournament's in-game host.

"He does not need a little chair because he is a giant in a world full of shriveling m*****s," Walton said during halftime.

Walton then turned to his broadcast partner, Dave Pasch, and cracked a joke ... saying, "Speaking of shriveling m*****s, what is your name again?"

Pasch responded by asking, "What is wrong with you?" He then did his best to move on from the awkward interaction to talk about the game -- but Walton interrupted.

"I'm guilty of having fun in Las Vegas, fun with a purpose," the 6'11" former center said ... before finally getting back to talking about the contest.

Pasch is heard chuckling as Walton goes through his analysis ... and fires off a zinger of his own as the focus gets back to the game.

"I don't know what you consumed at halftime."

If you're unfamiliar, the m-word has been deemed a derogatory slur by the Little People of America, which has urged people to stop using the term.

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones found himself in hot water as well recently ... after using the term on the first day of his team's training camp last year.

The LPA fired off a response to Jones at the time ... calling on the NFL legend to apologize. He later issued a statement saying he was sorry.

As for the tourney matchup -- ASU beat USC, 77-72.