You Might Want to Rethink

A couple of Florida women tried to pull off a "Bosom Buddies"-esque ruse -- except they dressed up as old ladies -- in order to get vaccinated ... but it didn't work, at least not this time.

According to Dr. Raul Pino -- the health administrator for Orange County, FL -- the 2 women showed up at a coronavirus vaccination site this week "dressed up as grannies" in an attempt to get a shot.

Pino says their get-ups included granny glasses, but the women were only 34 and 44 years old ... and you have to be over 65 to be eligible for the COVID vaccine in the state.

Here's the thing, though -- Dr. Pino says the women presented valid Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cards indicating they HAD received their first vaccine doses, adding ... "I don’t know how they escaped the first time."

The health administrator claims there was another recent instance of a man trying to pretend to be his father of the same name in order to get a shot, and warned of people "faking it" in order to skip the line.

The 2 granny impersonators were not given the vaccine but were also not charged with any crime ... though they might be issued trespass warnings.

Sen. Ted Cruz's big mistake in jetting off to Cancun wasn't leaving his constituents suffering in a deadly cold, it was forgetting how to play the political game ... according to Texas GOP brass, anyway.

Warren Norred, a member of the Texas State Republican Executive Committee tells TMZ ... the Senator's only guilty of political tone-deafness, and he's not surprised.

Norred claims Ted's not a natural politician, and therefore didn't think like one ... who would understand taking a trip in the middle of a crisis tends to draw outrage from voters.

Frankly, that rationalization doesn't hold water, because Cruz has repeatedly blasted Democrats in D.C. -- especially President Obama -- for, in his eyes, sleeping on the job during crises.

Jack P. Barcroft, another TX GOP Exec. Committee member, isn't laying blame on Cruz, but on his staff. He says someone in the Senator's office is dedicated to optics and media relations, and failed Cruz by not blocking his Cancun getaway.

Barcroft also thinks Cruz caved when he flew back, and should've just followed through with his trip. He believes the Senator could have effectively led from down there.

Late Thursday, once back in Texas, even Cruz admitted the trip was a mistake. Earlier, he claimed he always intended to come back Thursday, and was merely dropping off his daughters to visit with friends.

Of course, his wife also went and, presumably, could've done that on her own.

The Texas Democratic Party definitely isn't buying what Cruz is selling.

If Dolly Parton doesn't want a statue of herself at the Tennessee Capitol, then that's exactly what should happen ... according to the politician who suggested it, and already has a plan B.

Tennessee State Rep. Jeremy Faison brought up Dolly's name in 2019 as the best replacement for the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue at the Capitol, and last month another state rep introduced a bill to make it happen.

As we reported though, DP politely turned down the honor, saying she didn't want to be put up on a pedestal. Faison says it's up to the TN General Assembly to honor her wishes, and though the bill is still technically on the table ... he believes his colleagues will rightfully nix it.

He tells us he's not at all disappointed by Dolly's request -- in fact, he admires her even more for it, and says it just proves she's a Tennessee treasure.

The Congressman also suggests there's an overlooked historical figure who would be a great statue replacement -- Anne Dallas Dudley.

Anne was a prominent women's suffrage activist in the early 20th century who founded the Nashville Equal Suffrage League ... and helped women get the right to vote.

Sen. Ted Cruz is back in Texas after his quick getaway to Cancun was seemingly shortened by the outrage over his timing -- amid the statewide emergency -- and now he has police protection.

Officers escorted Cruz as he deplaned in Houston to head to customs. Sounds like he's in a pretty chipper mood for a guy who pissed off millions of people in a matter of hours.

As we reported ... Cancun Cruz and his family boarded a United flight Wednesday night to begin a tropical getaway as millions of his fellow Texans are literally freezing and dying due to the winter storm-induced power outages.

The Senator quickly hopped on a flight back to Houston Thursday afternoon, hours after the backlash. He was reportedly trying to get an upgrade to business class, but as you can see he rode back in economy -- and passengers weren't shy about chatting him up.

Cruz says he only took the trip to be a "good dad" and chaperone his daughters to Cancun. He claims he had always planned to return today, but that seems suspect ... considering his wife was on the trip, and could've handled babysitting duty on her own.

Oh, and he had a pretty big roll-on bag too for a 24-hour trip. 🤔

There's only one Texan who's warm right now, and that's Texas Senator Ted Cruz ... who bolted to Cancun with his family while millions in his state suffer.

Photos show the Republican Senator hanging out in the United Club lounge and boarding a flight to Mexico with his family  ... an incredible sight as people are literally dying in Cruz's state just trying to stay warm.

But, it's true ... while millions of his fellow Texans are without power and water and are literally freezing during a winter ice storm, Ted's off to a Cancun resort for some fun in the sun.

Cruz was already facing criticism this week during the Texas power outages as a tweet resurfaced of him mocking California's "failed energy policies" when it experienced outages last August.

As for his own state's power outages, Cruz threw in the towel, tweeting ... "I got no defense. A blizzard strikes Texas & our state shuts down. Not good. Stay safe!"

Ted might want to start working on a defense while he's poolside in Mexico.

Demi Burnett -- a 'Bachelor' alum who appeared on Colton Underwood's season -- is saying she's sorry for wearing a controversial Yeezy jacket ... with a symbol of hate plastered on it.

Demi posted an apology video Tuesday night, in which she claims she just thought she was wearing a cool jacket made by Kanye West ... and didn't even think about the Confederate flag emblazoned on the arm.

She says ... "I just wore it for that one night, it was a Yeezy jacket, I thought it was so cool, I was like, 'yeah, Yeezy!' And, I didn't even like, pay attention to that. That's ignorance."

Demi adds she didn't realize how harmful the symbol is to people, and says ... "I am so f***ing sorry. Like, I'm disgusted with myself. I'm embarrassed. It doesn't even matter how I feel. I'm just so f***ing sorry because that is not what I stand for, that is not what I'm about. And, I'm really mad that I ever wore it."

She claims the jacket was a gift from the father of her ex -- musician Slater Davis -- and he shared the pic on his Instagram story ... so it seems it was taken last year before they split.

Demi's jacket scandal comes amid a much larger race-related controversy in 'Bachelor' nation ... as host Chris Harrison's stepped away from the show for allegedly excusing historical racism -- and specifically for defending the past of current 'Bachelor' contestant, Rachael Kirkconnell.

A mayor in Texas has thrown in the towel after going on a heartless rant ... calling residents lazy and crybabies as the state suffers from massive power outages in frigid temps.

Tim Boyd said he's resigning as Mayor of Colorado City, Texas ... just hours after he posted a lengthy rant on Facebook, grousing, "no one owes you or your family anything" and that "the city and county, along with power providers or any other services, owes you NOTHING!"

The diatribe came as most of the Lone Star State has gone without power and water for at least 3 days. Texas and much of the South is being slammed with a once-in-a-generation snowstorm ... resulting in at least 5 deaths.

But, even as the weather brought Texas to a halt and sent residents literally running for warm cover ... Boyd called the dire situation a "sink or swim" moment for residents. He also said he's "sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout."

Eli Manning has officially completed his transition from NFL star to clumsy dad ... the dude just WIPED OUT trying to ski and film his kids at the same time, and the vid is hilarious!!

Unclear which mountain the 2-time Super Bowl champ was riding on Tuesday ... but as he was going down it -- he decided getting some footage of his kids cruising would be fun.

SPOILER ALERT: It wasn't -- at least not for the 40-year-old ex-QB.

Eli caught an edge with one of his skis as he was filming and tumbled to the ground.

Don't worry, Manning was OK ... which makes the clip hilarious -- especially because you can hear him begin to scream "Oh shoot!" right before he fell!

In the video, Manning told a concerned witness he was fine ... and he later wrote as a caption on the clip, "This is what happens when I try to ski and film my kids at the same time."

A popular blogger has been calling Tessica Brown -- aka, 'Gorilla Glue Girl' -- a bold-faced liar who made the whole saga up and scammed the world ... but Tessica is now saying the blogger better shut it, or risk getting dragged into court.

An attorney repping Tessica's management team fired off a cease and desist letter to the person who appears to run the IG and Twitter accounts @gossipofthecity_ -- telling them to stop spreading the claim TB hustled everybody into thinking she sprayed Gorilla Glue into her hair.

The account has been posting about it for several days now, including messages and videos to both accounts -- which have close to 610,000 combined followers -- insisting Tessica is a liar and that she pulled a fast one ... especially on those who donated money to her.

The account even re-posted a 15-minute video from another woman who claimed to have sprayed Gorilla Glue in her own hair, trying to debunk Tessica's account. The post read, "Salute to this sister who actually deserves the money y’all donated to that liar. #girlbye."

To that, Tessica's lawyer says her predicament was neither contrived nor a joke, and to suggest otherwise is wrong. Her attorney, Jeffrey Klein, says Gossip of the City is defaming Tessica and warns the account's operator that they're on thin ice.

You can read the letter for yourself ... it's clear that a lawsuit could be filed if the account keeps it up. We're told this letter was sent last Friday -- yet, most of the posts still seem to be live as of now.

@gossipofthecity_ even acknowledged the cease and desist in a separate post, calling it a fake. We've been assured by Tessica's team, though, that it is very much real ... and they mean business.

Now, Tessica herself detailed the pain, embarrassment and agony she was going through with us directly on 'TMZ Live' -- and insisted this was as real (and unfortunate) as one could imagine. Remember, she went to the ER over this, and even flew out to Cali for a procedure to remove the adhesive.

Moneybagg Yo said he's made a bundle during the pandemic and that he didn't want it to end -- something he immediately regretted and took back.

The Memphis rapper issued a mea culpa Monday after a pair of cringe-worthy tweets about the coronavirus -- and how it had affected him (and his net worth) as well as others (in his eyes, anyway). All the tweets still seem to be live on his profile.

At first, he wrote ... "Not gone lie I made a couple Ms in da pandemic, ion want it to end Smiling face with open mouth and cold sweatHundred points symbolMan shrugging."

Moneybagg followed up by saying he thought the pandemic had helped a lot of people, but didn't really elaborate on how. Either way, it was a terrible take ... for which he apologized.

After catching backlash, Moneybagg wrote, "I apologize to everybody I offended my comment was very insensitive it was not my intent to hurt anyone." Seems he got the message that ... yeah, the pandemic actually hasn't been great for a lot of folks, despite his good fortune.

And yes, MY has had a relatively good year -- he dropped an album last January (pre-pandemic) which charted well on the Billboard 200 ... and then dropped a new single, "Said Sum," this past November, which has also found its way onto the charts with staying power.

Chris Harrison excusing historical racism has left former Black contestants from the franchise divided on how to proceed with the host's future -- some say he needs teaching, others want him gone for good.

We spoke to several Black 'Bachelor' and 'Bachelorette' alums from recent years, and the consensus is they're disappointed with the longtime host's downplaying of Rachael Kirkconnell's past ... which many have called straight up racist.

We're told Chris' apparent lack of interest in understanding why Rachael's prior actions were upsetting ... came off as him talking down to the Black community.

So, what does that mean for his future on the shows? Well, Marshana Ritchie ('Bachelor,' Season 12) and Leslie Hughes ('Bachelor,' Season 17) tell us Harrison needs a long break, and a lot education on Black history ... plus, sensitivity training before he returns.

Marquel Martin ('Bachelorette,' Season 10) and Robyn Jedkins ('Bachelor,' Season 17) both think Chris should be given a second chance -- and probably shouldn't be burned at the stake, but they add ... he needs to do better at understanding the Black perspective before speaking on these issues again.

Fan fave Mike Johnson ('Bachelorette,' Season 15) says he wants to see Chris do work in the African-American community before coming back, while genuinely attempting to connect to Black viewers ... who might see the show as skewed toward white audiences.

Now for some of the harsher takes, courtesy of DeMario Jackson ('Bachelorette,' Season 13) and Jubilee Sharpe ('Bachelor,' Season 20) ... they both want Chris gone permanently.

DeMario and Jubilee tell us they don't think Chris should be allowed to return as host, and that 'Bachelor' execs should turn the page entirely ... both in a new host, and a new environment within the franchise that's more inclusive of POC, from the top-down.

Jubilee says she sensed producers tended to focus more on the white, blue-eyed/blonde contestants more than anyone else. DeMario echoed that to us, and went on to say it was time 'Bachelor' producers truly cater to Black people if they really want to make them part of the fan base. Up to now, he feels it's been a lot of pandering.

Tekashi 6ix9ine's attorney says the director of an upcoming docuseries who called the rapper a "horrible human being" should zip it ... because they've never even met.

Tekashi's attorney, Lance Lazzaro, tells TMZ ... "Supervillain" director Karam Gill is 100 percent wrong in his assessment of 69 and has no clue what he's talking about.

Gill started the war of words by telling the NY Post, "The public and media hates him because he is truly a horrible human being who has done terrible things." Gill also told the outlet Tekashi is "a toxic individual in our culture" who tries to get a reaction out of his every move.

Lazzaro tells us 6ix9ine had nothing to do with the docuseries and he's troubled by Gill's comments seeing as the director disparaged 69 without ever meeting him.

He also thinks the director is just talking to gain viewers and adds ... anyone who gets to know Tekashi realizes "he has a great heart."

Apparently, things got bloody on Valentine's Day for Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox ... and they loved it.

The actress and rapper's love day celebration was more odd/unique than yours, as MGK rocked an orb with a drop of Megan's blood inside it. He proudly displayed the first blood Valentine piece on a necklace.

Megan seemed pretty excited about it ... saying, "There goes my heart manifest outside of my body draped in the towering silhouette of a most unusually handsome boy." Pretty damn poetic!

She added, "The journey will likely be perilous but there is no destination without him."

MGK's bloody pendant ain't all that unique -- both Billy Bob Thornton and Angelina Jolie famously wore vials of each other's blood while they were married in the early 2000s.

Didn't exactly work out for that duo, but Megan and MGK are going for it, anyway.

A Papa John's employee says he got canned after refusing to make pizza with no running water in the building so he could be sanitary ... and now, it sounds like he's lawyering up.

A TikTok user who goes by @mommarhodey posted a video she says her brother sent her from a Papa John's location in Colorado Springs, where he films his working conditions in below freezing temps ... which he shows left their pipes frozen, and no water to use at all.

The guy says he decided he didn't wanna keep baking pies in that type of environment, as he felt it was gross ... Y'know, because he wasn't able to wash his hands. So, he left his shift early -- but before doing so he wanted to set the record straight on what he was dealing with.

The employee shows a water heater in the corner of the room, and a tiny portable heater next to it that he says his manager set up in hopes of getting the thing working again ... and water running in their restaurant. He also tries turning on faucets all around him, to no avail.

His sister's the one sounding the alarm about this on his behalf -- she posted some follow-up videos explaining what happened next ... and would you believe it, she claims her bro was fired over it. As you can imagine, she's super pissed ... calling it a "wrongful termination."

She says she called the local public health department there, who apparently told her the Papa John's in question was shut down until they could get running water back. However, that doesn't jibe with what sis here says she's heard from the Papa John's staff.

She claims they've been continuing to work, despite the stop-order from officials. MommaRhodey says she's alerted the BBB, and Papa John's corporate office.

We reached out to the Papa John's location in question ... they had no comment. No word from their corporate office either at this point.

The LAPD is conducting an internal affairs investigation to determine which officers shared a photo of George Floyd with the caption, "You Take My Breath Away."

The cops in question appear to work out of LAPD's Harbor Division, where the image was being passed around at work. The Department believes the original post may have been the work of an LAPD employee.

It appears a member of the LAPD saw that the post was being shared and was so offended they contacted the brass, which then triggered the investigation.

Internal Affairs is now trying to get to the bottom of it, looking to see where it was posted and who shared it. It seems that shouldn't be too difficult if the post was being shared among some of the rank and file.

Chris Harrison is stepping away from 'Bachelor' duties -- including moderating the 'After the Final Rose' ceremony -- and is once again apologizing for defending a contestant's alleged racist past.

The longtime 'Bachelor' host issued a new, lengthier apology Saturday ... this after he posted a quick one on Instagram a couple days ago that many felt was not up to par in addressing his recent remarks. Some said he was dismissive and excusing of racist behavior alleged against Rachael Kirkconnell -- one of the final few women vying for Matt James' heart.

Chris' statement is much more heartfelt than perhaps his initial remarks. He says ... "I have spent the last few days listening to the pain my words have caused, and I am deeply remorseful. My ignorance did damage to my friends, colleagues and strangers alike."

He goes on to say by excusing historical racism, he defended it ... and now realizes that was wrong, especially doing so in an interview with none other than Rachel Lindsay, the franchise's first Black 'Bachelorette.' He says he's been educated and open to being taught more about this topic, and promises to be more mindful about these issues in the future.

That said, Chris also broke some news about his time on camera ... saying, after consulting with ABC execs, he's decided it's best if he skips the 'After the Final Rose' ceremony, where the lead man/woman gets to reflect in front of a live studio audience.

It's unclear how long Chris plans to be absent from the series -- usually, 'The Bachelorette' starts taping immediately after 'The Bachelor' wraps. In any case, he's taking some time off.

Now, as for what the heck this is really all about ... Chris basically stepped up to defend Kirkconnell after old photos of her at a college antebellum party surfaced -- which many say celebrates the South's racist past, and is part of Confederate culture. It's a bad look.

There's also a TikTok video out there that chronicled Kirkconnell's social media history -- including stuff she'd posted and liked in recent years ... and there appears to be a lot of pro-Trump stuff, Confederate flag backdrops, MAGA shots and Blue Lives Matter posts.

She's also alleged to have made fun of white friends of hers in high school for dating Black guys -- but the evidence for that seems to be a little thin and less documented.

She'd been mostly silent over all the outrage that had been building, until Friday ... when she issued this statement and an apology -- copping to some of the social media activity, but not all of it.

Kirkconnell says a lot of the posts and behavior she engaged in occurred when she was young, and says she's a different person now ... realizing the hurt she inflicted. She notes her apology doesn't mean she's deserving of forgiveness, but she's asking for it anyway.