You Might Want to Rethink

"Hosting? Plan a super spread." That's the tone-deaf holiday advertisement that's got an East Coast supermarket chain bending over backward to say sorry for its brain fart.

Giant Food ran the full-page ad in its own magazine, slapping the slogan in bold letters in front of a backdrop of grub synonymous with sharing ... including a shrimp cocktail platter, fruit tart and a cheeseboard.

The advertisement is encouraging folks to host holiday parties and entertain guests with foods that are easy to get your hands on and share -- but it's doing so using a phrase synonymous with COVID-19 outbreaks ... and as the virus is surging around the country. Basically, a horrible time for a "super spread."

As you know, health and government officials across the country are discouraging folks from getting together for large gatherings with Thanksgiving and the holidays fast approaching ... warning against potential super-spreader events.

The supermarket chain -- which has stores in Delaware, Maryland Virginia and D.C. -- should have known better ... after all, they're operating in Joe Biden and Dr. Fauci's backyards ... and now it's apologizing.

Any other year, these images wouldn't be a big deal -- people taking turns swiggin' from the Stanley Cup on a Florida beach.

But, we're in a FREAKIN' PANDEMIC -- with numbers surging in FL -- which is why a victory celebration over the weekend is now a major cause for concern.

The party took place at the famous Don CeSar hotel at St. Pete Beach (22 miles from Tampa International Airport) -- where a Tampa Bay Lightning asst. coach got to spend his 1 day with the trophy after the team won the 2020 championship.

The Tampa Bay Lightning tell us the coach who had the trophy that day is Jeff Halpern -- a former NHL player who spent 14 seasons in the league before joining the Lightning as an assistant.

You'd think Halpern would've learned after the backlash from a previous Stanley Cup celebration back in September -- when players passed the trophy around to random fans so everyone could take a drink.

This time ... we're told 44-year-old Halpern hosted a private celebration on the beach with family members and friends. Witnesses say there were about 50 people at the bash and at least 3 different people sipped from Lord Stanley's Cup.

Again, it happens ALL THE TIME in non-pandemic years -- but with COVID numbers on the rise, passersby tell us they were shocked at what they were watching ... because it did not appear anyone was making an effort to clean out and disinfect the Cup between drinks.

FYI, The Florida Dept. of Health reported more than 10,000 new coronavirus cases on Sunday -- the largest increase in months -- along with 29 resident deaths.

So far, the FDH says there have been more than 885k total COVID-19 cases in Florida since the pandemic began -- with more than 17k deaths.

A newly-elected congresswoman is pissed she can't do her HIIT workouts in a gym -- instead having to sweat it out in her hotel -- but the fact she could pull it off might derail her point.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene -- who just won her congressional race in Georgia for the House of Reps. -- posted a video of herself Saturday which shows her in the midst of hardcore exercise ... a routine she says she'd normally do at a CrossFit facility in her home state.

She sounded pretty sour about having to do this in the confines of her D.C. hotel room, writing ... "I work out everyday in a CrossFit gym that is open. With people. Gyms are small businesses that have been devastated by the government mandated shut downs."

Rep. Greene added, "In DC, NOTHING is open bc of Democrat tyrannical control. So here’s my hotel room workout. We must FULLY reopen!" BTW, she's a Republican ... FYI. Also, it looks like Greene can get her CrossFit fix just fine from where she's at -- just sayin'!

Side note ... the GA congresswoman has been picking up major headlines since her Nov. 3 victory -- for one, she vocally rails against coronavirus guidelines, like masks and lockdowns, and parrots much of what President Trump has said these past few months on COVID.

She also flip-flops on her mask-wearing -- just like DT -- which was on full display these past couple days when she and other freshman congressmen and women touched down in the nation's capital for orientation ... where one day she was masked up, and the next not.

Aaron Pico admits he felt bad after OBLITERATING his opponent with a crushing right hand at Bellator 252 on Thursday -- and later apologized to the guy for talking trash after the knockout.

If you haven't seen the video yet ... BUCKLE UP!!

Pico just destroyed John de Jesus with an overhand right in the 2nd round of their featherweight bout -- sending his opponent crumbling to the ground, where Pico continued to fire off shot after shot until the ref stopped the fight.

In the moment after the knockout, Pico was so fired up, he started talking trash to JDJ while he was still laid out on the mat.

But, Aaron eventually cooled down and tells TMZ Sports he had a respectful conversation with JDJ after the fight.

"Yeah yeah, he said good fight, I just apologized, and said that I probably shouldn't say that after the fight, but it's over it is what it is."

"It's a fight," Pico added ...  "That's what people don't realize sometimes. There's so many emotions that go into it that you just can't explain it, especially when you knock somebody out."

"It's a feeling that you can't explain ... that seems like the best drug that you could possibly take, knocking someone out. You feel like on top of the world for a while, and then it wears off."

Aaron says the two men had been beefing all week -- which got him more hyped up than he would have liked to have been in the fight.

"I just knew I had to literally just stay calm and that was the game plan going into the fight -- that he was gonna taunt, he was gonna do a lot of things. But, my coaches just said 'just stay in the process. Be like Georges St-Pierre and don't let anything phase you.'"

Pico is now on a 3 fight win streak -- winning all of his fights in 2020.

Author and legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin just got canned by The New Yorker -- the magazine where he's written for nearly 3 decades -- over his faux pas of a Zoom call.

An internal memo from Conde Nast chief Stan Duncan was sent to staffers this week, letting them know that as a result of their investigation -- Toobin was no longer affiliated with the company.

As for exactly why they fired him -- the email, posted by The Daily Beast, said Conde Nast takes these types of situations seriously, and are committed to maintaining an environment that upholds their standards.

You'll recall, Toobin was suspended by the New Yorker -- not to mention CNN -- for exposing himself on a Zoom call with New Yorker staffers as well as folks from WNYC radio. Toobin called the incident "embarrassingly stupid." He was allegedly masturbating, and insists he thought he was muted and his camera was off.

Toobin confirmed he'd gotten the axe as well, tweeting ... "I was fired today by @NewYorker after 27 years as a Staff Writer. I will always love the magazine, will miss my colleagues, and will look forward to reading their work." Toobin started working for TNY in '93.

Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't like how folks who cram into a Trump rally call themselves patriots, yet don't show up in the same numbers to pay their respects to REAL heroes on Veterans Day.

Arnold poured out his emotions Wednesday after he'd paid a visit to the Los Angeles National Cemetery to honor the brave men and women whom he says he owes much of his success to, as an immigrant.

He said despite there being tens of thousands of gravesites for fallen soldiers, he only saw about 20 people around. Arnold explains ... he can't fathom how so few show out for them, but will swarm to a political event by the thousands on a promise to "make America great."

It's a not-so-subtle shot at Trump, who the Governator has made clear he despises. But, his point is well taken here ... 'cause he says it's those vets who've really made America great.

Arnold ends with a challenge to anyone watching -- saying he hopes to see them out there in droves next year, and that the country really needs to have a convo about what patriotism really means. Where's the lie?

A Pennsylvania politician is fighting off accusations that he's been posing as a gay Black man online to drum up support for Donald Trump ... and boy, this story gets weird.

Dean Browning -- a former Republican commissioner in Lehigh County -- tweeted a bizarre message earlier this week that had folks thinking he screwed up and posted something he meant to throw on to an alternative account he allegedly keeps ... maybe for good reason.

The tweet read, "I'm a black gay guy and I can personally say that Obama did nothing for me, my life only changed a little bit and it was for the worse. Everything is so much better under Trump though. I feel respected - which I never do when Democrats are involved."

The reason this raised eyebrows ... Dean's white, so what gives? At first, many believed Dean was tweeting something he meant to put on what's been described as an alleged "sock puppet" account -- AKA, Dan Purdy, a Twitter account that often replies to Dean, and which identifies as a gay Black man. To some, Purdy's tweets come off as a spam account.

After realizing his tweet had gone viral -- and after taking it down -- Browning came out and denied he was posing as a gay Black man, insisting that the message he tweeted had, in fact, been sent to him from one Dan Purdy ... whom Browning claims is a real person.

Soon after that, a Black man claiming to be the real Dan Purdy stood up ... and recorded a video of himself copping to sending Dean the message and backing up the sentiment of the tweet. That video has since been deleted, but many captured it and circulated it around.

Here's the kicker ... a lot of people are saying this guy who says he's Dan Purdy looks an awful lot like singer Patti LaBelle's nephew, William Holt ... who also goes by Byl Holt. Aside from the striking resemblance, Internet sleuths also noticed Dan and Will appear to use the same avatar for different profiles on social media. So ... a few things line up.

It hasn't been confirmed this is Patti's nephew, but if it is ... what a strange twist to an already confusing situation. Just goes to show (we think) -- don't judge a tweet by its tweeter.

You have to be nuts to climb to the top of a construction crane, hundreds of feet in the air, and hang from it ... but it requires a special type of craziness to do it in the nude.

Adam Lockwood, a 19-year-old climber, checked those boxes last weekend when he scaled a 660-foot crane in Benidorm, Spain, stripped naked, and dangled mid-air above the city ... without a safety rope or harness.

If "Free Solo" gave you the sweats ... the sight of Adam completely free and solo and tempting fate might be too much.

Apparently, this is nothing new for the daredevil hailing from Manchester, England. Lockwood's in the midst of a string of death-defying climbs all over Europe the past few months, and earlier this year he was given a 2-year suspended jail term for scaling buildings and cranes in Manchester and posting videos online.

He's even done naked climbs before, but he says this is the first time he's hung naked. Adam reportedly said ... "It's a bit of a challenge and unique. I thought why not," and added ... "Thankfully the weather was hot which helped."

'Memba those murder hornets, and their TWO queens found in a Washington State nest? Turns out that was just the tip of the hive ... because there could be a lot more queens out there.

The WA State Department of Agriculture now says the nest they recently eradicated near had A LOT more queen hornets inside than they originally thought ... closer to 200 rather than just a measly 2. Big difference!!!

You'll recall that after an initial sweep in late October, the team went out there again when they realized they were short a female hornet ... which they believed might still be inside. They chopped down the tree in question and ended up finding two ladies in the nest -- one new and one old, they say -- plus a crap ton of larvae in different stages of development.

Welp, the WSDA now says there were actually up to 500 live specimens in the trunk -- 76 were fully developed virgin queens, 190 larvae, 108 pupae (next after larvae, almost all of which were queens) ... AND 112 worker hornets. That was the haul from this one job.

One WSDA official is quoted as saying the team got there "just in the nick of time" -- and, yeah, you can say that again. But, it leaves a major terrifying question ... how many other queens (or queens in development) might still be buzzing around, and how far did they travel???

The scientists there aren't oblivious to that -- they say they do believe there might be more nests in the area, but aren't sure where just yet. They also say they're going to scour that area for at least 3 more years to make sure the hornets are fully wiped out.

Here's a very unique, and creepy, tribute to Charles Manson ... a "Helter Skelter" face tattoo made with some of the mass murderer's DNA.

Tattoo artist Ryan Almighty tells TMZ ... Patrick Boos from Niagara Falls wanted to pay homage to Manson with this not-so-subtle tattoo -- and just to ratchet things up, Patrick chose the Manson ashes option. He called it a once in a lifetime opportunity.

As we've reported, Ryan says he has ashes from Manson's cremation, and he dipped his ink gun in it while drawing a pretty intense "Helter Skelter" on Patrick's forehead last weekend.

The Beatles track from the White Album -- which dropped 52 years ago -- was written by Paul McCartney using a fairground ride as a metaphor. Manson infamously misinterpreted it as a subliminal call to incite a race war.

When members of the Manson family carried out a brutal string of murders -- including Leno and Rosemary LaBianca in 1969 -- the words "Death to Pigs," "Rise" and "Helter [sic] Skelter" were scribbled in blood at the LaBianca home.

The "Helter Skelter" forehead tattoo, Manson ashes included, set Patrick back about $500.

Remember, Almighty gave another fanboy a CM tat with the Manson ashes -- and told us he scored the macabre remains from people who scooped up ashes when they were scattered at Manson's funeral.

The Lt. Gov. of Texas is dangling a very expensive carrot in hopes of finding proof of voter fraud ... but what he's really doing is motivating liars to come out of the woodwork.

Yes, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick made the crazy announcement Tuesday ... saying he "will pay up to $1 million to incentivize, encourage and reward people to come forward and report voter fraud." He says the cash will come from his campaign fund.

There is a catch ... Patrick says any whistleblowers would have to turn over evidence that leads to an arrest and conviction in order to get paid. Each person who does that will receive at least $25,000 -- so, Patrick is clearly planning to hook dozens of tipsters.

Remember ... Republicans have filed several affidavits and complaints in courts across the country alleging potential voter fraud and unfair elections, but so far, no court has reversed any election results or confirmed the allegations.

Make no mistake, Patrick is scoring points with President Trump, who still refuses to concede to President-elect Joe Biden. Patrick says he supports "Trump's efforts to identify voter fraud in the presidential election and his commitment to making sure that every legal vote is counted and every illegal vote is disqualified."

With $25k up for grabs, we're guessing Patrick will get plenty of people claiming to have the evidence he's seeking -- whether they actually have it or not.

Tony La Russa has been charged with DUI stemming from a February incident ... where he allegedly crashed his car in Phoenix and was "argumentative" with police.

The 76-year-old -- who was just hired to manage the Chicago White Sox -- allegedly hit a curb just before midnight on Feb. 24 ... which apparently wrecked his tire.

Cops were called to the scene and found La Russa standing next to his SUV ... which was still smoking, according to court docs obtained by ESPN.

La Russa reportedly smelled like alcohol -- and told the responding officer he had recently left a dinner with some old pals with the Los Angeles Angels.

According to the report, La Russa told the officer his tire had blown out -- but the cop didn't exactly believe Tony's story and conducted a field sobriety test.

La Russa was "argumentative" -- and refused to take a breathalyzer or willingly offer a blood sample to measure his blood-alcohol level, according to the court docs.

Now, prosecutors are moving forward with DUI charges and if convicted, he could face jail time ... though it's unlikely in this particular case.

La Russa has a previous DUI conviction stemming from a 2007 incident in Jupiter, Florida ... but since it's been more than 7 years, it wouldn't be a factor in his current DUI case, under Arizona law.

Phil Collins' ex says he's going back on his word to give her 50-50 ownership of the home he's now trying to evict her from, and she's saying he became a filthy mess along the way.

Orianne Cevey filed new docs in the ongoing legal battle between her and her famous musician ex-hubby -- who's trying to boot her from their Florida mansion. In her response, obtained by TMZ, Orianne claims Phil made a deal with her that she says he's now trying to back out on.

Basically, Orianne says that in 2015 ... she and Phil rekindled their relationship, and she claims Phil told her that if she divorced her then-husband, Charles Alami, and relinquished her stake in their $20 million estate on Sunset Island in Miami ... he'd give her a 50% stake in their new pad.

Orianne says she agreed and did exactly that -- even moving back in with Phil and their kids and snapping up a massive property in Miami Beach that she says she made her own over the past 5 years.

After a while though, Orianne says things went south ... as she claims Phil became a hermit and completely secluded himself from the world. She also says he lost his musical talents and began abusing pain killers -- and adding insult to injury ... she says he stank.

Orianne mentions a very detailed state of squalor she says Phil allowed himself to fall into -- claiming he stopped brushing his teeth and refused to shower for damn near a year, from 2019 to 2020. Orianne says his stench became unbearable and that by 2019, he was incapable of having sex. She claims "Philips stench became so pervasive that he became a hermit, refusing to interact personally with any people."

As to the meat of the issue -- Orianne is sticking to her story, that Phil promised her half of the home, and is now trying to jettison her without honoring the deal.

The stench of relationships ... it's in the air tonight.

Michael Jackson's famous Neverland Ranch is the backdrop for a new music video, but it's not for a posthumous MJ track ... it's an artist who allegedly snuck onto the property.

Here's the deal ... up-and-coming artist Daeshard shot his music vid this summer, and while he tells us he had permission to be at Neverland Ranch, the folks who run the property say he's full of it.

MJ fans who came across Daeshard's video started to raise the alarm, saying there's no way someone would be approved to film a project at Neverland Ranch. We reached out to honchos at Colony Capital, which owns the ranch, and they tell us the video was NOT authorized.

Colony Capital claims the people who shot the video, including Daeshard, were trespassing and security asked them to leave, which they did.

Sources close to the situation tell us security spotted 3 individuals with 3 GoPro cameras and an iPhone shooting the video on July 23.

Our sources say security told them they were trespassing, and ordered them to erase the footage and get off the grounds. We're told security erased footage right in front of them and thought everything was erased before they left, and that's the only reason they didn't call the police.

But, Daeshard obviously didn't stop till he got enough ... footage. His music video was recently released, and very clearly shows him rapping all over the ranch.

He also posted a pic from the property ... so, it's not like he's trying to hide it.

Our sources claim the group intentionally hid some of the footage when confronted by security.

Here's hoping this is the last we'll have to hear about "fake news" for a long time -- which, ironically enough, is coming to us courtesy of President Trump's own campaign staffers.

The Trump campaign's Communications Director, Tim Murtaugh, tweeted out a photo this weekend that showed the walls of the interior of their headquarters in Arlington, VA completely plastered with copies of a newspaper front page that read, "President Gore."

The paper was supposedly the front page of the Washington Times from 2000 -- Tim was trying to show they got it wrong and called a Gore win prematurely. He wrote, "Greeting staff @TeamTrump HQ this morning, a reminder that the media doesn't select the President."

The problem ... that front page is FAKE, and the outlet actually called him out over it on Twitter -- noting the photos/headline were doctored, and NOT what they ran at the time.

Of course, somebody tracked down the actual front page TWT ran in 2000 after Election Day, and sure enough ... they actually called it for George W. Bush (which, while still premature the day after, ended up being correct in the end). In other words, actual fake news that Team Trump fell for, and taped up in their offices. Murtaugh eventually deleted his post.

It's just a testament that Trump's delusion about this election and his unfounded claims of a rigged system and voter fraud runs deep through his ranks ... which is not a good sign of what's to come.

PETA's making a strong effort to get Doc Antle in the USDA's crosshairs ... filing a complaint and asking the department to investigate him over Lil Pump's recent visit.

The animal rights org fired off a letter to the U.S. Department of Agriculture formally requesting it investigate the 'Tiger King' star for apparent violations of the Animal Welfare Act at his Myrtle Beach Safari.

In the letter, obtained by TMZ ... Debbie Metzler, associate director of captive animal law enforcement, cited Lil Pump's trip there this week, and a video that shows him make "direct physical contact with a juvenile tiger."

She claims it violates the law requiring that “dangerous animals such as… tigers… or elephants must be under the direct control and supervision of a knowledgeable and experienced animal handler."

Then there's the Lil Pump encounter with the elephant, Bubbles. Metzler calls the stunt exceptionally dangerous because it could have spooked the elephant and triggered the elephant to bolt and potentially injure people. PETA wants the USDA to hold Antle accountable for any and all violations it discovers during its investigation.

As we reported ... Pump and his boys took a trip to South Carolina and had one helluva close encounter with Bubbles. Video shows Pump getting picked up by the elephant's trunk. The rapper damn near fell off before safely landing on his feet.