You Might Want to Rethink

Steve Martin and Charlie Sheen are but a handful of celebs who seem to really want their blue checkmarks back on Twitter -- and they're making their concerns known, publicly.

The two Hollywood heavyweights took to the bird app over the past couple days to express their dismay at not being verified anymore -- and they tweeted their gripes too ... letting everyone (as well as Elon Musk, specifically) know they want to be 1 of 1 on Twitter.

First, Steve ... who may or may not be joking here. He writes, "I no longer have a blue check. But I would appreciate it if told me that you still see it. I really need this."

He's getting a lot of responses from fans who say he's still blue checkmark verified in their books ... and that he doesn't need Twitter's validation to be considered legit. Again, considering SM's sense of humor -- we feel like he's low-key trolling in this instance.

Then there's Charlie ... who, perhaps, sounds a bit more serious about wanting back in the blue club. He says with some zest, "dear @elonmusk i’m sorry your fancy rocket exploded in spectacular fashion. I’m certain you’ll build an even bigger and more explody one."

CS adds, "now, may i please have my blue check back? it would mean a lot to me. thank you in advance, sincerely - c sheen." Elon responded, saying he feels Chuck's pain.

Of course, some are responding to both Charlie and Steve and asking the obvious -- if you want a blue check, why not just pay for it ... especially seeing how you can easily afford it??? It's a fair question -- but it's also tricky ... 'cause blue checks are kinda cringe now.

Indeed ... the consensus online seems to be, if you still have a blue check -- except for LeBron, William Shatner and Stephen King (whose checks Elon has explicitly said he's comping) -- you obviously pay for it now ... aka, you're sorta in the "loser club," if you will.

If that is, indeed, the case ... there sure are a lot of "loser" A-listers who still have their checks and who presumably pay Elon $8/month -- including Taylor Swift, Arnold Schwarzenneger, LL Cool J, Khloe Kardashian, John Cena, Soulja Boy, Ellen DeGeneres, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus and The Weeknd (who's got a gold checkmark, surprisingly).

All these people have opted to retain their verified status ... and clearly see some value in letting the public know they still are who they say they are. Can't really knock 'em.

Feels like we're back in high school again ... so, pick your clique, we suppose. 🤷🏽‍♂️

Phil Jackson says he hasn't watched the NBA since 2020 -- when it went into the bubble for the playoffs and publicly supported Black Lives Matter ... a step too far for him, it seems.

The iconic head coach -- who's got 11 championships under his belt from the '90s through the early 2010s between the Bulls and Lakers -- sat down with Rick Rubin earlier this month for a podcast ... which is making the rounds now 'cause of what Phil had to say.

Check it out for yourself ... Rick asks Phil if he watches NBA basketball to this day in the wake of retiring in 2011, and Phil says he kept his eyes on the game only through 2020.

When asked why, Phil says the NBA did something "wanky" while in Orlando -- namely, getting mixed up in politics with a bunch of slogans on the court and on the jerseys of the players themselves. He never says "BLM" ... but there's no doubt that's what he's talking about here. He even kinda mocks it -- saying he joked about it from home with his family.

Phil says guys would have phrases like "Justice" plastered across their backs instead of their surnames like normal ... and goes on to explain that he'd make cracks about "Justice" or so-and-so making a drive to the basket -- which he says his grandkids got a kick out of.

Long story short ... Phil thinks the NBA was pandering to a certain audience and demographic -- and their virtue signaling that year turned a lot of people off ... including himself. He says politics should stay out of sports, and that folks don't wanna see 'em mesh.

Phil cites athletes who've gone on to have political careers -- the implication being ... if you wanna pursue that, do it off the court and outside of the league. BTW, Rubin did a good job pressing Phil on what exactly bothered him about the BLM stuff ... and he responded clearly.

Now, as you can imagine ... Phil's getting ripped a new one on Twitter -- as this is coming as news to a lot of people who thought the dude was an unproblematic genius of basketball.

His resumé still speaks for itself, no doubt, but he's getting a helluva lot of side-eye now after these comments -- and you gotta wonder what some of his greatest former players -- many of whom were Black -- might have to say about this.

Bill Maher told a great story Friday night about an AAA-list Hollywood shindig where all the beautiful people were railing against cancel culture. They didn't have the balls to follow through, but Bill certainly did -- with the first annual COJONES AWARDS!!!

Bill says a big-time producer invited him to his Brentwood home to moderate a discussion on how to put the brakes on cancel culture. He says it seemed every big actor in Hollywood was there, and they were all charged up. When Bill suggested an awards show to honor those who pushed back, everyone was charged and promised to follow through. They didn't.

Well, on 'Real Time,' Bill did.  He presented awards to folks who, as Bill says, told the eggshell skull-whiners ... "F*** off you over-sensitive little s****."

This year's award recipients include the President of Cornell University, who refused to offer a "trigger warning" to students in lectures that may prove too much for them to handle.

Another recipient -- Trader Joe's, which refused to yank Trader José beer from its shelves.

And Netflix honcho Ted Sarandos snagged a set of balls for refusing to pull Dave Chappelle from the menu.

A school bus driver in Colorado reportedly got stripped from his job after getting caught using his brakes as a cruel way to teach students to stay seated -- and he's apparently now facing a slew of charges as a result.

Douglas County School District bus driver Brian Fitzgerald tried to turn a recent ride home from Castle Rock Elementary into a messed up & teachable moment for the kiddos in his vehicle last month, as the security footage shows.

You can see him ask them to sit down, but it seems to fall on deaf ears ... he then offers a word of warning if they don't behave, then suddenly slams on his brakes -- throwing the kids forward with a loud thud, and resulting in a few kids shouting as it happens.

Fitzgerald makes sure they got the message, before demanding again that they all sit down ... it sounds like one kid asks "Why did he do that?" One child was reportedly bleeding on their cheek after getting brake-checked.

He's reportedly been fired from the district, but now is looking at 30 misdemeanor counts of child abuse, as well as a count of child abuse with bodily injuries. Fitzgerald's scheduled to appear in court next month.

Detroit Lions star Jameson Williams -- the 12th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft -- has just been suspended six games ... after the NFL says he violated its gambling policy.

The exact allegations against the former Univ. of Alabama receiver are unclear -- though according to the Lions, one of Williams' violations included betting from an NFL facility on non-NFL games.

Several other players were hit with punishments for gambling policy violations on Friday as well, including receiver Quintez Cephus, defensive back C.J. Moore and wideout Stanley Berryhill, who were all teammates with Williams in 2022.

Cephus and Moore received indefinite bans and were cut by the Lions immediately afterward. Berryhill received a six-game suspension -- though he and Williams are still slated to remain on Detroit's roster.

"As a result of an NFL investigation, it came to our attention that a few of our players had violated the league's gambling policy," Detroit Lions general manager Brad Holmes said in a statement Friday. "These players exhibited decision making that is not consistent with our organizational values and violates league rules."

"We have made the decision to part ways with Quintez and C.J. immediately. We are disappointed by the decision making demonstrated by Stanley and Jameson and will work with both players to ensure they understand the severity of these violations and have clarity on the league rules moving forward."

Washington Commanders defensive lineman Shaka Toney was also suspended indefinitely on Friday for violating the NFL's gambling policy, the league announced.

When the NFL revealed its rulings ... officials added their probe "uncovered no evidence indicating any inside information was used or that any game was compromised in any way."

Timothée Chalamet might wanna pump the brakes a little earlier next time, slamming into a camera during a shoot in an apparent case of some serious miscommunication.

Kylie Jenner's new boo was in NYC Wednesday shooting a commercial called "Vertigo" when the mishap went down. You see the actor come down a set of stairs to be greeted by two other actors when the camera jets out and collides with Chalamet.

Unclear who's to blame for the poor choreography, but you can see a piece of the camera break off in the process.

Madison Bumgarner went ballistic on Cardinals star Willson Contreras during their game on Wednesday ... telling the St. Louis catcher to "shut the f*** up" -- while appearing to call him a "p****."

The Diamondbacks pitcher fired off the NSFW commentary after Contreras got mad at himself for fouling off a pitch in the third inning.

It's unclear exactly why the former World Series MVP was so ticked at Contreras for the reaction ... but a hot mic captured almost the entirety of his ensuing rant.

"Shut the f*** up," Bumgarner can be heard saying on the game's broadcast ... before he mouthed the words, "You p****."

Bumgarner later could be seen appearing to tell the 30-year-old, "F*** you!"

Contreras motioned to Madison's catcher as if to signal he needed to do something about Bumgarner's language and demeanor ... but the chatter continued nonetheless.

The at-bat ultimately concluded with a walk ... and after Contreras flipped his bat on the way to first base, Bumgarner looked like he had even more words for the St. Louis hitter.

Latto seemingly geared up for a rap battle against Nicki Minaj while performing at Coachella, but Akademiks says the "Big Energy" rapper doesn't have the bars to win the war!!!

Ak gave his honest assessment of Latto's potential timeline for engaging Nicki in a rap beef, and thinks Latto would be better suited pushing her career away from this saga.

As the more experienced MC, Ak notes Nicki's bars will come off as more clever and fans will gravitate to everything she says. In other words, disses about ass shots will only fly so far.

He also doubted Latto and Nicki would ever cross paths to exchange words in person ... à la Cardi B and Nicki's near-brawl during 2018 New York Fashion Week.

Ak thinks Latto's only chance to best Nicki is to recruit other female rappers who've had their own personal problems with "The Pinkprint" rapper -- like Megan Thee Stallion and Doja Cat -- and shame her with low blows about aging and being a big ol' hater!!!

Passengers on a Southwest flight were annoyed by constant screams on board ... but not just from a baby, these were from a grown-ass adult throwing a tantrum over a crying child, swearing up a storm as they were stuck in the air!!!

We've all been a little annoyed with the crying baby thing, but this dude took it to a whole other level -- the freak-out was caught on camera as he loudly groused he paid for a comfortable flight and got this instead.

He says lots of wild stuff in the clip -- screaming at the top of his lungs, asking if the baby paid more for crying privileges. The flight attendants try pointing out he's yelling in the cabin, and the man responds "So is the baby!"

The attendant hits him back with the perfect response ... "You're a man!"

It doesn't end once the flight lands, BTW -- because he was greeted by cops at the airport and seemingly escorted out.

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

F. Murray Abraham, who's starred in "White Lotus" and "Homeland," faced sexual misconduct allegations on another hit show ... and it was so serious, it reportedly cost him his job.

Abraham got the boot from Apple TV+'s "Mythic Quest" about a year ago, but the reason for his departure was never revealed. Now, a new report in Rolling Stone magazine says the firing was due to 2 alleged incidents of the actor harassing, at the very least, female costars or crew members.

According to the report, Abraham was given a warning after one incident ... and was told to stay away from some of his female costars. Sources say a second incident later went down and when the show creator and star Rob McElhenny found out, Abraham was dropped.

Abraham played C.W. Longbottom, the pretentious head game writer at Mythic Quest HQ. His absence first went into effect at the beginning of season 3, and a send-off for the character was written into the show -- something McElhenny told Variety was "a really fitting tribute to him."

Lionsgate, which produces "Mythic Quest," tells TMZ ... "We take allegations of misconduct seriously and investigate them thoroughly.  As a matter of corporate policy, we do not discuss personnel actions.”

Russell Westbrook got into a heated confrontation with a fan Sunday night ... and, at one point, told the man, "Watch your mouth, motherf***er," and it was all captured on video.

It all went down during game 1 at the Footprint Center in Phoenix ... Russ, on video, repeatedly told the guy wearing Suns gear to watch his mouth as the two exchanged words.

It's unclear what led to the encounter ... but it happened in the club area during halftime of Game 1 of the Clippers-Suns first-round matchup.

According to a Suns insider, visiting players have been going through the club area where the incident occurred all season to get to the visitor's locker room.

As for the game ... Westbrook struggled to hit shots all night, scoring just nine points on 3 of 19 shooting from the field.

However, the former MVP was a presence on the glass, securing ten rebounds and making the game's defensive play, blocking Devin Booker's shot and sealing the deal for the Clippers.

President Biden either had another gaffe in Ireland this past week -- or he really wants to stick to the rest of the world ... or, lick it, rather.

During the final days of his international trip to Ireland, Joe delivered remarks at a banquet dinner in front of state officials -- and toward the end of his speech ... he made a somewhat bizarre request in trying to reaffirm the U.S. and Ireland's commitment to each other.

Here's what he said ... "There’s nothing, and I mean this from the bottom of my heart -- there’s nothing our nations can’t achieve if we do it together. I really mean it."

Then, the strange line ... "So, thank you all. God bless you all.  And let’s go -- let’s go la- -- lick the world. Let’s get it done. Thank you." As you can hear (and see), it seems like JB got a little tongue-tied on that final part ... frankly, it's unclear what he was trying to say.

Of course, some are clowning Biden over this ... either by pointing out that he apparently misspoke ... or facetiously crying foul that Prez is advocating for people to go around licking things in a post-pandemic world, which he clearly was not doing. It was just a slipup.

Jimmy Kimmel's late-night sidekick, Guillermo Rodriguez, is in the doghouse with a rescue agency that says two pups he adopted ended up at a shelter, but he says the whole ordeal started with a misunderstanding within his family.

Mutt Scouts, a dog rescue group based in SoCal, tells TMZ ... Guillermo adopted two chihuahuas -- Chase and Rey -- back in 2021 when they were just puppies. He was stoked about the addition to his family, posting pics of them on IG soon after getting them.

However, Mutt Scouts says they recently got a call from an animal shelter in the L.A. area ... saying the dogs were surrendered to them by an unnamed woman. The shelter called Mutt Scouts because both pups were microchipped and registered to the org prior to Guillermo adopting them.

Mutt Scouts provided TMZ a copy of the contract Guillermo signed before adopting -- which says the rescue would be the first point of contact to help rehome the dogs if he no longer wanted the dogs or couldn't care for them.

The org took to social media this week to call him out, and some 'Kimmel' fans were pissed and noted Guillermo's past post with the dogs is no longer on his page.

Guillermo tells TMZ ... this all started when he was asked to take care of his grandmother's large dog because she's battling dementia. At the same time, he went in for knee surgery ... so his stepsister had to watch Chase, Rey and grandma's big dog.

He says his stepsister panicked the big dog was going to harm the two chihuahuas, and that's when she decided to take them to the shelter. When Guillermo found out, he says he immediately told her she'd make a big mistake. He knew they should have gone to Mutt Scouts and says he contacted the group on Friday and said he "was sorry from the bottom of his heart."

Mutt Scouts tells us they hope Guillermo's case is a teachable moment for anyone looking to adopt a pet. It's standard procedure for adopted animals to be returned to the rescue agency if the owner can longer care for them.

Chase and Rey are now with Mutt Scouts, which is hoping to find a new home for them. Mutt Scouts tells us Guillermo made a $5k donation to help them care for the pups in the interim.

Jennifer Connelly (in the '90s) was way more attractive than Zendaya is today -- and she was considered pretty mid on the hotness scale ... so suggests this weekend's Twitter doofus.

Here's the deal ... a troll on the bird app has everyone fired up over a ludicrous tweet he posted Friday -- in which he tries to shade Zendaya by comparing her to Connelly ... but he inadvertently shaded JC too in the process -- and folks are stunned by his measuring stick.

This fella writes, "Any zoomer who thinks right pic is above average attractive doesn't understand that in the '90s, a '7' looked like left pic." In his tweet, he's got a photo of young Connelly next to an unflattering pic of Z ... so already, Sun Optimist is off to a biased start.

He ends with this wild statement, "'Above average' meant something else back then. There'd be like ten girls as or more beautiful than Connelly working at every chain restaurant."

In other words, this guy is saying that young women in the '90s were simply much prettier, on average, than your everyday hottie in 2023 -- and he's using Jen as an example ... by claiming you could find a million Connellys anywhere in America back then. Again, he's also saying Jen wasn't even considered a true dime in this regard ... a few notches below, in fact.

Two things ... he's a jerk for pitting these two beautiful women against each other -- but also ... a lot of people think he's dead wrong about Connelly, specifically. Many say, she IS a 10!

Zendaya is no slouch either, of course, so his entire premise is absurd. In a follow-up tweet, he says the modern "zoomer" thinks heavier-set women are the cream of the crop ... so he clearly has a bone to pick with the conversation about modern beauty standards, etc.

Not to fan the flames on this or anything, but considering Zen and Jen are knockouts in their own right ... we are somewhat curious who the public considers the lovelier dame here.

Tommy Lee is stirring up controversy on his social media page ... because he reposted a transphobic clip from far-right news network OAN.

The Mötley Crüe drummer posted the One America News Network clip on his official Instagram account Friday afternoon ... and it's being met with mixed reactions from celebs and Average Joes.

In the clip, OAN anchor Liz Wheeler is going on a rant about transgender, transracial and transabled people ... trying to get a rise out of folks with a segment light on facts and heavy on drama ... ticking off all the things she fantasizes could happen down the road.

Tommy added the caption, "Where does it end people?!?!"

The post quickly caught the attention of Questlove, who replied ... "Oan tho? #unfollow."

Tommy's friend, Criss Angel, rushed to his defense ... commenting, "100%."

The rest of the replies and comments are mostly from people condemning Tommy, but he does have some supporters out there.

OAN is known to stoke controversy ... and the network has been dropped by most major cable carriers in the United States.

LaRussell has zero fear of AI rap recordings blocking his shine amid his breakout season ... and that's because he's confident AI can't recreate the human experience!!!

TMZ Hip Hop caught up with the Oakland rapper on the music video set of his "Hell of a Feeling" collab with Symba ... who stressed to us why both hip hop culture and the Bay Area need the track.

The thought of AI made LaRussell LOL as we gauged his thoughts on the industry's hotly debated topic ... and turns out he has no concerns, despite major labels putting up roadblocks!!!

Universal Music Group recently sent out demands to Spotify, Apple Music and all the top streaming services to block AI companies crawling their platforms ... and Drake was none too pleased hearing his AI mimicked vocal rapping Ice Spice's hit "Munch."

LaRussell makes his bread as an independent artist and thinks AI can only increase his cash flow if used correctly.