TMZ.com Home

The NCAA is ADMITTING it gave the men's tournament teams a better weight room set up than the women -- but it's blaming the disparity on a lack of space.

Riiiiight.

It all started when Stanford's performance coach, Ali Kershner, exposed the difference in the two setups Thursday on social media ... showing a giant workout area for the men in Indianapolis complete with machines, benches, racks, etc.

The women in San Antonio got stuck with yoga mats and 6 sets of dumbbells.

The post drew outrage from WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu and NBAers like Ja Morant and CJ McCollum ... who blasted the NCAA over the disparity.

"Thought this was a joke," Ionescu said. "WTF is this?!?"

NCAA VP Lynn Holzman tried to justify the difference by claiming they simply couldn't find the space for a larger, more comprehensive training area ... and the organization was working on getting more equipment to the women's facility.

"We acknowledge that some of the amenities teams would typically have access to have not been as available inside the controlled environment," Holzman said.

"In part, this is due to the limited space and the original plan was to expand the workout area once additional space was available later in the tournament."

Oregon Ducks player Sedona Prince was quick to call B.S. on the NCAA ... sharing a video of plenty of open space at the women's facility.

The vid caught Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry's attention ... who demanded the issue be fixed.

"Wow-come on now," Curry said. "@marchmadness @NCAA yall trippin trippin."

Holzman added the NCAA is "actively working to enhance existing resources at practice courts, including additional weight training equipment," ... although it's unclear when that'll actually happen.

Lisa Ling says the White House flying the American flag at half staff to honor the Atlanta shooting victims is a powerful gesture for Asian-Americans ... but it's just one step of many that need to be made.

The CNN host was at LAX when a photog asked her about President Biden's decision to lower flags in the wake of the shootings that killed 8 people, including 6 Asian women ... and she got choked up talking about the symbolism.

Lisa says it's monumental when the President acknowledges the lives of some of the "most marginalized women" in society ... and she explains why it sends a strong message to everyone.

But, Lisa knows the fight against racism is far from over -- she says for every heartwarming image of the lowered flags, there are more horror stories on social media. She points to the example of the woman in San Francisco, who actually fought back against her attacker.

President Biden had a rough go climbing the stairs to Air Force One ... tripping several times on his way to the top.

Ya gotta see the video ... Biden's hustling up the carpeted staircase when he trips not once, not twice but three times. He's holding the railing with one arm but still goes down, and even appears to bang his shin.

Biden finally makes it to the top after a few stumbling blocks, and turns around for a salute before ducking inside AF1.

The Prez is on his way from Joint Base Andrews to Atlanta, where he's meeting with community leaders in the wake of the massage parlor shootings ... and he's already putting the trip in trip.

Unclear what caused him to eat it, but you'll remember Biden suffered a hairline fracture on his right foot in November, he wore a boot to help the injury, but maybe there's still some healing left to happen.

Biden's not the only Prez to take a spill on the steps of Air Force One though, Gerald Ford took a nasty fall in 1975 when the plane touched down in rainy conditions in Austria.

It's been a rough week for POTUS and Vice President Kamala Harris and their official planes ... Harris' Air Force Two had some mechanical issues and she had to get a new ride.

Justin Bieber's crossed a line with his new album, "Justice," and he's getting called out for it -- turns out mixing pop love songs with snippets of Martin Luther King Jr. speeches was not a great idea.

JB dropped the album Thursday night, and the first voice you hear on it isn't his ... it's MLK saying, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Powerful and true words ... no one's questioning that, but it's the fact the speech is used to introduce the love song, "2 Much" that's pissing off a lot of people.

Twitter's teeing off on Justin for the "tone deaf" use of MLK, because, despite its title, the album isn't about social justice. It's filled with Bieber's signature pop ballads and dance tunes -- and they're pretty good -- but MLK Jr. has NO connection to them.

There's even a nearly 2 minute "MLK Interlude" track in the middle of the record, which leads into a song called "Die For You." If you're thinking there's a tie-in because of MLK's assassination ... nope! It's just an upbeat diddy about a hot chick.

While no one's gonna question Justin's chops in pop music, he's way off the mark here as a historian.

Sharon Osbourne and her family -- including her dogs -- have been receiving death threats since her dust-up on "The Talk" ... so she's hired her own security.

Sources close to Sharon tell TMZ ... following last week's on-air dispute with co-host Sheryl Underwood over defending Piers Morgan and his harsh comments about Meghan Markle, Sharon's been bombarded by angry folks on social media and she's received several calls to her home threatening her safety.

Sharon's social media has been flooded with comments like, "Die and go to hell." "F**k Sharon Osbourne, her husband, her momma, them ugly f**kin' kids, the family dog and the b***h that lives next door. She can go die in a fish grease fire" and "I hope Sharon Osbourne gets hit by one last wave of COVID & dies."

We're told Sharon's personal phone numbers have also been blowing up, wishing harm on her and her dogs.

The private security company's been stationed outside the Osbournes' L.A.-area home all week to keep an eye on things.

Meanwhile, Sharon's turned off comments on her most recent couple of Instagram posts because they were so nasty.

As for the issues over at "The Talk" -- which went on hiatus following Sharon and Sheryl's contentious exchange -- we're told Sharon's still reeling from it ... but she's hopeful there can be a reconciliation at some point and she can return to a peaceful environment.

As we reported ... Sharon fired off an apology for offending or disappointing people of color with her words, but explained she "panicked, felt blindsided, got defensive & allowed my fear & horror of being accused of being racist take over."

Our sources say Sharon and Sheryl have not spoken since last week, and Osbourne has also not had any contact with CBS or 'Talk' honchos while they are conducting their investigation.

Sharon Stone's finally calling out the underhanded move that got her out of her underwear for the infamous cross-legged scene of "Basic Instinct" ... and says the experience was humiliating.

Sharon claims someone on the production team told her she needed to take her panties off for filming because the white color was reflecting the light. She says they ensured her "we can't see anything," referring to her private parts.

However, according to Stone's new memoir, "The Beauty of Living Twice," when she screened the final cut of the movie in a "room full of agents and lawyers, most of whom had nothing to do with the project" ... she realized she'd been double-crossed, if you will.

Sharon says she slapped the film's director, Paul Verhoeven, after the meeting and called her lawyer, Marty Singer, who told her what went down was against SAG policy and the movie could not be released without her approval.

However, Stone says she thought about it and ultimately decided to allow the scene to be included because it fit her character ... but it didn't change the duplicity of the situation.

Stone also alleges she's dealt with sexual misconduct on sets for years, including a director who demanded she sit on his lap and a producer telling her she should have sex with her co-star to increase on-screen chemistry.

Britney Spears is now the target of one of the harshest dance critics in the world ... Abby Lee Miller.

As you know, Britney posts lots of Instagram videos of herself dancing, but a clip she put up Thursday crossed the line ... at least it did for Abby, who couldn't hold her tongue, and commented, "Close your rib cage!"

The real shocker here? Plenty of people seemed to agree with Abby ... but yeah, lots more are defending Brit and coming for ALM.

For what it's worth, a closed rib cage is said to help dancers with movement, making transitions more fluid and with less effort.

While her approach in critiquing Britney might've been off ... it's hard to argue with Abby Lee's success when it comes to producing dance talent. Miller was certified by Dance Masters of America in the '80s and opened her own studio which later became "Dance Moms" ... which, of course, gave us JoJo Siwa and Maddie Ziegler.

Sean Hannity's guilty of breaking the golden rule: Puff, puff, put down the e-cig before coming back from commercial break, damn it!!! But, at least it created this priceless moment.

Not since the election has the Fox News anchor been this shocked -- looks like Sean was chilling, vaping and reading something during a commercial break of his show Thursday night. Typically, someone would give him at least a 5-second heads-up before coming back live to the studio.

You can tell, Sean totally missed the warning, and then -- looking like a teen caught in his parents' liquor cabinet -- made a poor attempt to hide the evidence. All you could hear for 5 seconds was the stage manager loud whispering, "Sean!" ... trying to get his attention.

He recovered, but the worst part had to be taking some crap from Laura Ingraham when his show wrapped, and hers began.

Vivica A. Fox and Lance Bass both competed on "Dancing with the Stars" but didn't win, and they think they know why -- the judges hated their professional dancing partners!!!

Vivica, a 'DWTS' Season 3 alum ... and Lance, from Season 7, were sharing their experiences with Lisa Vanderpump on her new series, 'Overserved' ... when they made claims that call into question whether the 'Dancing' judges score strictly based on skill.

According to Vivica ... her dancing partner, Nick Kosovich, was one of the main reasons they got eliminated because he didn't "play the game" and "made too many requests."

Fox implies the judges -- who were Carrie Ann Inaba, Len Goodman and Bruno Tonioli -- didn't like Kosovich, so they took it out on their dance scores.

The former 'NSYNC star had the same judges as Vivica, and he says they absolutely hated his dance partner, Lacey Schwimmer. He claims prior to the finale, one of the judges had a little to much too drink and even admitted all the judges despised her.

Lance and Lacey finished as runners-up.

Demi Lovato was just minutes away from taking her last breath ... a terrifying realization that has ultimately helped the singer in her recovery from the overdose that almost killed her.

Demi recently sat down with Tracy Smith for CBS "Sunday Morning News," in a preview released Friday, she says she only had 5-10 minutes to live had she not been found by when she was by someone in her home after her 2018 OD.

Smith, who also sat down with Demi in 2016 after she had struggled with addiction asks the singer what's changed this time with Demi's recovery ... the singer shares, "I essentially had to die to wake up." Demi says after her 2016 scare she was "sober but still miserable."

Of course, the interview comes on the heels of the release of Demi's "Dancing with the Devil" documentary where she makes several stunning revelations.

Among them ... she says she was raped as a teen when she was part of the Disney family and reveals she was declared legally blind after her 2018 heroin OD. The singer still can't drive because of blind spots she suffers as a result of the night that almost killed her.

Several White House staffers got the ultimate buzzkill when they were asked to resign or got demoted for smoking weed in the past ... even though they were told it would be no biggie.

Those are the claims being made about President Biden's administration anyway, and the firings reportedly even affected WH employees who lived in one of the 14 U.S. states where marijuana use is legal.

According to the report ... Biden's staff was subjected to background checks where they had to disclose their history of pot use, but some were told it would be "overlooked."

Apparently, that wasn't the case, as White House Director of Management and Administration Anne Filipic reportedly called up many of the workers and asked those who admitted to marijuana use to either resign or be placed in a remote work program.

The White House is disputing how many staffers were actually affected by the weed-related moves, but says ... "This decision was made following intensive consultation with career security officials and will effectively protect our national security while modernizing policies to ensure that talented and otherwise well-qualified applicants with limited marijuana use will not be barred from serving the American people."

As you may know ... marijuana is still illegal on the federal level -- despite being legalized all over the country at a state-level and in D.C. -- so critics of these reported firings say it unfairly targets younger people and those who come from states where it's legal.

Believe it or not, it's already been one year since Joe Exotic was unleashed on the world ... and the man himself is dropping a footwear collection from behind bars to celebrate.

The shoes are part of Joe's "Revenge" collection with streetwear brand Odaingerous ... and they come with all the usual Exotic flair, like animal print, gold and Italian leather.

Oh, and there's also a thinly veiled dig at Joe's nemesis, Carole Baskin. Would you expect anything less?!?

As you can see, Joe's coming in hot with 3 different shoes ... there's the Dapper Don Trainer with its wedge heel and padded straps, plus a low-top Dapper Don sneaker and the pièce de résistance, a traditional tennis shoe dubbed the Revenge Exotic 1.

The Dapper Dons are a play on Carole's missing husband, Don Lewis, and the Revenge Exotic 1 is covered in gold and 3 types of animal prints. Joe's hawking the kicks at $219, $249 and $252, and they all come in a tiger print box.

The shoes drop online Saturday, the one-year anniversary of the 'Tiger King' premiere on Netflix.

Joe's REVENGE collection has already released an underwear line and a fashion line ... and each drop has sold out immediately.

Kamaru Usman isn't just looking to beat Jorge Masvidal at UFC 261 -- he wants to make a statement ... telling TMZ Sports, "I want to put the nail in that coffin once and for all."

Usman -- the reigning welterweight champ -- already defeated Masvidal when they clashed on Fight Island back in July ... but it's worth noting Jorge only took the fight on less than a week's notice.

Remember, Usman's original opponent for UFC 251 was Gilbert Burns -- but he caught COVID and Masvidal stepped up on less than a week's notice to save the card.

Masvidal fought hard -- but it was obvious his conditioning wasn't great ... and Usman proceeded to maul him for 5 straight rounds, winning by unanimous decision.

Ever since that fight, Jorge has been saying he'd wreck Usman if given a proper training camp -- and his wish was granted.

Masvidal will now have 6 full weeks to prepare for Usman before they face off on April 24 and Kamaru says he's fired up!!!

"I am more than excited," Usman tells TMZ Sports ... "I'm blessed for the opportunity that Allah has given me and being able to go out there and do major things. I'm so thankful."

As for Masvidal's claim that he'll whoop Usman the 2nd time around ... Kamaru is clapping back at that, too.

"There's two things -- One, either he truly believes it which I have to take very very very seriously ... or he's just too stupid to understand what's happening right now."

"So, I gotta believe that it's the first one and I gotta take him at his word."

Usman says he knows Masvidal is dangerous -- but at the end of the day he's a "journeyman" fighter who peaked in 2019 ... and those days are long over.

"Now it's time to come back to reality. It's 2021. The ship has sailed my man."

Ohio born actor Rex Lee is best known for playing the hard-working assistant Lloyd Lee -- who thrives in his high-stress job while constantly subjected to his boss, Ari Gold's, mood swings and verbal assaults -- in the iconic early 2000s HBO drama "Entourage."

Rex was cast alongside some awesome up-and-coming actors including Adrian Grenier as the Hollywood actor, Vincent Chase, Kevin Dillon as the dopey brother, Johnny "Drama" Chase, Jerry Ferrara as the behind-the-wheel buddy, Turtle ... and of course Jeremy Piven as the aggressive agent, Ari Gold.

The couple that speeds together, stays together?!

NASCAR superstar Tony Stewart is punching the gas all the way to the alter ... he just got engaged to his drag racer girlfriend Leah Pruett and the diamond ring is MASSIVE!

Stewart confirmed the engagement on social media late Thursday night -- saying, "So excited to spend the rest of my life with a truly amazing woman."

"She’s motivated, hard working, funny as hell, and as dedicated to her sport as anyone I’ve ever known. Love you babe."

49-year-old Stewart had just celebrated his 1-year dating anniversary with 32-year-old Pruett ... when he decided to put a ring on it this past weekend.

Pruett was so stoked, she casually showed off the hardware on her IG page ... and yeah, we noticed!

The couple met in 2019 -- but didn't go "official" until 2020 and reportedly spent the majority of the pandemic quarantined together ... and apparently, it's been going great!

During their 1-year anniversary last week, Tony posted a love note for his lady ... saying, "The last 365 days with this beautiful lady have been the highlight of my life."

"Cheers to one year together and many more to come!"

Looks like he meant what he said ... he's hoping they spend the rest of their lives together!

Stewart is a 3-time NASCAR Cup Series champ and he was inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in 2020.

Pruett is also BEAST on the track -- the NHRA Top Fuel driver has 11 total wins in her career.

Stewart has been engaged before ... he proposed to actress/model Pennelope Jimenez back in 2017 but ultimately called things off in 2019.

As for Pruett, she's been married once before -- but that ended in 2019.

No word on when the race car driving lovebirds will formally tie the knot -- but we're guessing it'll be one helluva party.

The woman who told the world she married Pete Davidson -- even though she didn't -- showed up inside his NYC home ... according to cops.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Michelle Mootreddy is currently in police custody being questioned by detectives after she allegedly slipped inside Pete's Staten Island crib.

Our sources say Mootreddy walked into Pete's place through an open side door Thursday and sat down at the kitchen table. We're told one of Pete's relatives was home, and someone called 911. We're told Pete wasn't home at the time.

Law enforcement says Mootreddy is the same person who sent out a press release Tuesday stating the 'SNL' star was launching a production company with her and claimed they'd gotten hitched.

As we first reported, Pete's reps said he doesn't know the woman, he didn't start a production company and damn sure did NOT get married to her.