The Oscars

Will Smith's old 'Fresh Prince' co-star is on the attack ... saying he and Jada Pinkett Smith are NOT the Obamas, and black Hollywood isn't gonna sing "we shall overcome" with them.

Janet Hubert, the original Aunt Viv, blasted Jada's anti-Oscars stance with a rambling video post that started ... "First of all, Miss Thang, does your man not have a mouth of his own with which to speak?"

Hubert goes on to accuse the Smiths of being sore losers, and says there are way more important things going on in the world -- "Our boys are being shot left and right, people are hungry, people are trying to pay bills and you talking about some motherf***ing actors and Oscars."

The President of the Motion Picture Academy has issued what feels like a frantic response to calls of boycott for the lily white 2016 Oscar nominations.

Prez Cheryl Boone Isaacs just announced her org will take "dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership." She says the Academy will conduct a review of its membership "in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our class of 2016 and beyond."

It appears the President -- the first African American ever elected to the position -- is reacting in part to calls for a boycott from Spike Lee and others. Jada Pinkett Smith went even further, saying the Academy has become irrelevant to African Americans and they should no longer beg for representation -- they should get validation from their own community and that should be enough.

Boone Isaacs says she is "heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion," adding, "In 2016 the mandate is inclusion in all ... facets: gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation."

She made it clear ... members of the Academy and beyond have expressed their frustration to her.

Jada Pinkett Smith did something remarkable and powerful Sunday, posting words that could have been delivered by Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver 50 years ago.

Jada -- whose husband, Will Smith, was overlooked by the Academy for his performance in "Concussion" -- says in a super powerful way, "Maybe it's time we pull back our resources and we put them back into our communities, and we make programs for ourselves that acknowledge us in ways that we see fit, that are just as good as the so-called mainstream."

Jada suggested, "We can no longer beg for the love, acknowledgement or respect of any group."

She made it clear ... she won't be attending the Oscars.

You gotta listen to her ... back in the day Eldridge was viewed by the "mainstream" as radical and dangerous. Jada revives the sentiment, and it doesn't sound radical or dangerous at all.

Spike Lee is blasting the Oscars for its lack of "flava" and says he won't attend the "lilly white" ceremony because MLK Jr. would want it that way.

In his scathing message to the Motion Picture Academy, Spike said ... "40 white actors in 2 years and no flava at all. We can't act?! WTF!!"

Spike apologized to his friends involved in the Oscars production this year -- Chris Rock, Reggie Hudlin, and Pres. Cheryl Boone Isaacs -- but said he simply "cannot support it."

He admitted he was purposely unloading on MLK day because as Dr. King said, "There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but he must take it because conscience tells him it's right."

Spike added, the Academy Awards aren't even the real issue. He says Hollywood will remain vanilla until minorities become "the gate keepers" who really decide which movies get made, and ... "The truth is we ain't in those rooms."

Powerful message ... not unlike a crucial scene from Spike's best movie.

Magic Johnson says he won't sit quietly while the Oscars run a snow job on black people -- claiming there were a BUNCH of black actors who deserved nominations ... including Will Smith.

The NBA legend went to Twitter and wrote ... "[Cookie] and I are avid movie goers and we are disappointed by the lack of diversity with the Oscar nominations."

"Saw Leo/TheRevenant and Matt/TheMartian both spectacular & deserve noms, but you can’t ignore Will/Concussion and Idris/BONN."

"And we can’t forget about Michael B Jordan & Ryan Coogler w/ Creed, Sam Jackson in The Hateful 8, all deserved to be nominated."

Fans of Ice Cube and N.W.A. are fired up about the Oscars dissing "Straight Outta Compton" -- and now we know what Cube himself thinks about it.

We just got him in NYC -- a couple hours after his movie was left off the Best Picture nominees list -- and asked, "Are you disappointed?"

So, did he give us a PC Cube response -- or an old school N.W.A.-era Cube rant? We were definitely pulling for one over the other.

Check it out ...

Jerry Heller has already made it clear ... "Straight Outta Compton" is defamatory, but if it gets an Oscar nod it will bring his rage to a new level.

Jerry will be on "TMZ Live" Thursday and he unloads about the flick, saying the Oscars puts the movie on a world stage so everyone will see the portrayal of him which he says is pure fiction.

Jerry says Cube, Dre and Eazy-E's widow are the ones who engineered his portrayal, and he thinks it's simply a case of African American anti-Semitism, at the very least on Cube's part and he suggests the sentiment goes beyond Cube himself.

By the way ... check out the video and hear him talk about a plot to kill Suge Knight.

Add Colin Farrell to the growing list of people who think this could finally be Leonardo Dicaprio's year to win an Oscar.

We got Colin arriving at LAX Sunday night and he had high praise for Leo's performance in "The Revenant" -- making it clear there's more bromance between the actors than rivalry.

As a bonus ... the Irish native also shed some light on why football (soccer) is so popular in his homeland and still struggling in the States. We also love his New Year's resolution!

Chris Rock lit up a beacon of hope for all who love the Academy Awards -- there's a fighting chance the show won't be TV's version of Ambien!

Hours after the Oscars announced Rock would host next year, we got him heading into dinner at Giorgio Baldi in Santa Monica. But check out the video ... the exciting part is WHO he hung out with at the restaurant: Rosario Dawson, Matt Stone and Rick Rubin.

So, we're thinking (hoping, really) they were cooking up musical numbers that don't suck. Can't ya see the mashup? "99 Problems and Kyle's Mom's Chocolate Salty Balls Ain't One."

We'll leave it to the pros, but watch and dream.

The guy who burglarized Lupita Nyong'o's hotel room and stole what he THOUGHT was a $150,000 dress has gotten away with the crime, because Calvin Klein wants the whole thing to go away.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... reps from Calvin Klein contacted the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. earlier this week and said they had no interest in pursuing the case now that they got the dress back ...and it's pretty obvious why.

The thief called TMZ Friday and indignantly said he took 2 of the pearls down to the L.A. Garment District for appraisal, only to learn they were fake and worthless. He told us he had returned the dress to The London West Hollywood hotel and left it under a sink in a 2nd floor bathroom. We told the cops, and they got the dress.

We're told the Calvin Klein people did not tell cops why they did not want to pursue the case, but it's pretty obvious. The dress was represented as the real deal, and the dressmaker clearly doesn't want to put a spotlight on the phony pearls.

If there's one thing Kevin Hart knows ... it's how to build anticipation -- well, that and comedy -- and he fueled up the Oscars hosting hype train with his dinner date Monday night.

Kevin hit up Craig's with Ellen DeGeneres -- making us think he might be looking for tips on how to land the 2016 Oscars gig ... for which he's been rumored to be a candidate.

The buzz has been building since the second NPH wrapped up this year's debacle, and this video will certainly add to it.

The heist of Lupita Nyong'o's Oscar dress went oh so wrong'o for the thief ... he decided to return the stolen goods -- but not before calling our newsroom with an explanation. Turns out it's hard to get rich fencing a pearl gown made of fake pearls!

And you thought it was just the boobs, butts, faces, and people that were phony in Hollywood.

It didn't take a fashion expert to know Lupita Nyong'o's stolen "pearl" dress was fake -- since Piers Morgan claims he knew it was bogus the second he saw it on Oscar night.

We got Morgan in NYC Monday ... and he says he rubbed elbows with the Oscar winner at the Vanity Fair party, and was close enough to realize the gown was all smoke and mirrors. Watch him explain why it fooled people without his keen eye.

As for the theft of the dress originally believed to be worth over $150K ... well, he only sees one loser in all of this.

We'll hand it to Piers ... his take on the heist is entertaining, but it might be slightly off -- since it turns out Lupita attended the VF bash in a different gown ... a slinky gold number.

Who knows? Maybe this one was really blue and black.

Cops are flustered as to how the Lupita Nyong'o Oscar dress escaped detection when it was taken from her hotel room, but now we know ... it was thrown off her balcony.

TMZ broke the story ... the surveillance video was unhelpful. The cameras weren't trained on Lupita's door and none of the cameras on the floor showed anything suspicious.

The guy who stole the dress -- who called TMZ Friday with a road map to recovery in The London West Hollywood bathroom -- told us he knew where the cameras were placed in the hallway so he was never seen. As for the dress ... he said he threw it over the balcony and someone on the ground picked it up.

As we reported ... the thief says he took 2 of the pearls off of the dress and went down to the Garment District for appraisal, but found they were worthless fakes. That's when the thief took the dress back to the hotel.

The thief told us he knew Lupita was in the room where they took the dress and waited for the opportunity to enter ... which they did when they found the door was ajar.

By the way ... the thief also says he saw Lupita's Oscar gift bag -- valued at $125,000 which he didn't take. Looks like he chose wrong.

It's turning into the greatest Oscar story in years. Lupita Nyong'o's stolen Oscar dress -- which was reportedly worth between $150,000 and $10 MILLION -- appears to be all smoke and mirrors.

TMZ broke the story ... the thief called us Friday afternoon and said he took 2 of the pearls down to the Garment District in L.A. and learned they were fake. That's when he returned the dress to the hotel.

Law enforcement sources tell us ... Calvin Klein's people never told them if the pearls were real or fake. We're told the only person who represented the pearls as real and valued the dress at $150K was Lupita's stylist.

A source directly connected with the Women's Creative Director of Calvin Klein, Francisco Costa, put it this way to TMZ, "Did anyone ever say they were real from Calvin Klein? I always assumed everyone knew they were fake, but I guess not."

The source awesomely adds, "Do they really make dresses out of real jewels since Cleopatra died?"

Lupita Nyong'o's Oscar gown was returned to The London West Hollywood Friday afternoon where it was taken 2 days earlier ... and the thief called TMZ to tell us where it could be found and added it was a worthless fake.

A guy called us at around 2:30 PM Friday and said he had taken the dress from Lupita's hotel room after he noticed the door was ajar. He said he and others took 2 pearls off of the dress and took them to the garment district in downtown L.A. ... where they were told they weren't real.

The thief says he decided to take the dress back to the London in a garment bag that was inside a trash bag that he deposited in a 2nd floor bathroom adjacent to a fitness center.

We contacted the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. and gave them the info. They went over to the hotel and retrieved the bag and they found a garment bag with the dress inside.

Law enforcement says they were told the Calvin Klein dress was worth $150K, but the thief says it's almost worthless.

The thief told us he returned the bag and called us because he wanted the world to know "Hollywood's fake bulls**t."