Big Brother

"Big Brother" is now keeping a deep secret -- something that could derail the show if revealed too soon -- and it involves the death of one of Ariana Grande's relatives.

Ariana's grandfather died Tuesday. He's also the grandpa of Ariana's brother, Frankie Grande, who's a contestant on "Big Brother."

It seems just before he died the grandfather knew Frankie might bail from the show if he found out, so one of grandpa's last wishes was to keep his death a secret from Frankie.

Ariana was chronicling her grandpa's illness ... recently posting pictures with him in the hospital. But Frankie never saw them per the rules of the show.

Ariana made her grandfather's wishes clear, tweeting, "asked grandps last week if he wanted us to pull frankie off bb & he said "no way! he's gotta play the game even tho i don't understand it"

It seems from the "Big Bro" live feeds ... Frankie is still in the dark over his grandpa's death.

7:00 PM PT -- Producers just told Frankie about the death.

"Big Brother" did so well with an alleged racist last season ... they're doing it again, but this time the family of a man who made racial and homophobic slurs has come to his defense.

Caleb Reynolds -- one of the new "Big Bro" housemates -- called Prez Obama a "Muslim monkey" and he also used a homophobic slur, but his family 86'd his entire Instagram account after a torrent of criticism.

But Reynolds' family members tell TMZ ... Caleb is being judged for something he wrote two years ago, not long after he returned home from a tour in Iraq. His brother tells us, "A racist man doesn't fight next to a black man for this country."

A friend of Caleb's ... who is black ... also posted a video on YouTube this week defending Caleb.

"Big Brother" premieres tonight. Ratings went up dramatically after Aaryn Gries went on a racist rant last season. We'll see what happens this time around.

By the way ... there's no way CBS didn't know about this ... they do background checks on all contestants for reality shows and scour social media.

"Big Brother" Season 8 winner Evel Dick Donato is convinced a car SMASHED INTO HIM Friday night in Ireland ... and his injuries look really, really bad.

Dick posted a photo on Twitter last night showing his messed up face with the caption, "Pretty sure I got hit by a car, but I have no memory of what happened... at all."

The next morning, Dick began to recall what went down and said he was biking home after drinking at a bar in Dublin -- when suddenly, he was being woken up on the side of the road by a cab driver.

Dick refused medical treatment ... but the next morning promised his followers he'd get checked out.

"Big Brother" star GinaMarie Zimmerman is certainly at home in front of the cameras, and now she wants to pose naked for them ... Playboy's cameras, to be exact.

The former pageant coordinator -- who was famously booted from her job after her racist comments on the show -- tells TMZ her new goal is to be in Playboy. Zimmerman says all her friends feel she's too old to do it, but she's determined to make it.

"Big Brother" champ Mike "Boogie" Malin needs to go on "Jeopardy" and win more than 3 times what Ken Jennings scored ... just so he can pay off an enormous court judgment.

The Boogie man was just socked with a $10.5 MILLION judgment ... which is what happens when you stiff your landlord for 8 years.

Boogie and his partner opened an ATL restaurant -- Geisha House -- along with a nearby bowling alley. But they forgot one small detail on the first of every month ... something that generally gets you evicted very quickly.

For some reason the landlord was patient ... lying in wait for the tab to go sky high. The boom was lowered with the $10.5 million judgment.

"Big Brother" season 11 star Dr. Michele Ross had a ROUGH weekend at the hospital ... she claims she got placed on a psychiatric hold after doctors ignored her desperate pleas for help.

Ross (who went by Michele Noonan on the show) tells TMZ ... she rushed herself to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in L.A. Friday after suffering terrible pains related to her endometriosis (a uterus problem). Ross says doctors were about to discharge her without performing a laparoscopy to help diagnose the source of the pain when she told them, "I am in so much pain I want to die."

Well once doctors heard "want to die" ... Michele claims they treated it as a suicidal threat and immediately placed her on psychiatric hold. Ross claims she was locked in a room with security standing guard at the door ... until a psychiatrist came to evaluate her.

Ross says she was finally allowed to leave Saturday ... but not until hospital staff threw away the prescription pot brownies she had. And she says she never got the procedure she wanted.

She tells TMZ ... even though she's a neuroscientist, she gets treated like a crazy person because she has blue hair. Or as we like to call it ... Bynesism.

"Big Brother" star GinaMarie Zimmerman -- who called welfare "n****r insurance" on the show and got fired from her job as a result -- says all is now good between her and the African-American community.

GinaMarie was leaving a convention in Queens when she told our photog that all the hate she received for dropping an n-bomb on TV is behind her.

As for the special pass she claims black people gave her ... we'll let her explain that one.

Julie Chen is going back to her Chinese roots -- giving her maiden name top billing ... over Les Moonves no less!

When Julie married CBS honcho Leslie Moonves back in 2004, she changed her legal name to Julie Moonves. But since then she's had a string of big jobs, including host of "The Talk" and "Big Brother," as well as anchor on the "CBS Early Show" -- where she was billed as Chen.

This created problems. Julie tells TMZ, "Some places list me as one last name versus the other and when you have to show ID ... like at The White House or airport it could stall things when it was not a match... It was a hassle." Jeez ... how cool is that -- a hassle at The White House. It's like "Scandal" only real.

So Julie has filed a petition to change her name again -- this time to Julie Chen Moonves -- no hyphen. We're guessing the judge will approve the petition because everyone in L.A. wants a job with Les and we're guessing he's down with the change.

Evander Holyfield says he punched a pregnant horse in the face ... and he wasn't joking.

Holyfield made the shocking confession during tonight's episode of UK Celebrity Big Brother ... and an hour later he was BOOTED from the house.

The ex-heavyweight boxer told his horrified roommates ... the pregnant horse bucked him off and embarrassed him ... so he clocked it in the face.

You gotta watch the video ... and then reconsider the way you felt when Mike Tyson bit his ear off.

Evander Holyfield's rant against homosexuality pissed off the former "Big Brother" star who once cornered the market on homophobic comments -- Aaryn Gries ... who tells us the boxer is an idiot.

Gries may have called a gay guy "queer" -- and true enough she mocked African Americans and Asians -- but Aaryn says her comments pale in comparison to what Evander said on "Celebrity BB" ... claiming homosexuality is like a physical handicap which can be cured by a doctor.

Aaryn says, "I know I said mean things, but at least I'm not ignorant enough to think that homosexuality is treatable. Seeing homosexuality as a sickness is outdated."

Evander Holyfield told a housemate on "UK Celebrity Big Brother" that being gay is no different than being handicapped ... because a doctor can fix both ... and was immediately SCOLDED like a child by "BB" producers.

Holyfield made the comments Sunday -- during his first week in the BB house -- when reality star Luisa Zissman asked him if there were any gay boxers in the sport.

Holyfield -- a deeply religious Christian --cited the bible and said homosexuality is NOT a choice ... but rather something like a "handicap" ... something doctors can fix.

Zissman respectfully disagreed with Evander ... and it seemed the two were ready to move on with their lives ... when Evander was taken to a private room, where producers RIPPED him for expressing his beliefs.

In fact, "BB" producers called Evander's comments "inappropriate" because they "aren't the views that are held by a large section of society."

Holyfield says he understood that his comments could be considered offensive ... but never apologizes.

This whole situation reminds us why we revolted against England ... so we could have the freedom to express our religious and other beliefs ... no matter how offensive.

As bad as Evander is .. the show is being RIDICULOUS. Didn't they they learn anything from the A&E/"Duck Dynasty" debacle??

"Big Brother" contestant Aaryn Gries is finally coming clean, admitting she talks like a racist ... but she insists it doesn't make her one.

Gries tells TMZ she's been making racial jokes for years ... but had no idea they were offensive because "no one had expressed that I was taken that way."

Gries says she wishes someone had warned her before going into the BB house ... that making these "jokes" on national TV would paint her as a big ol' racist.

"I am not a racist," she says, adding, "Sometimes you can say mindless things that will haunt you."

Guess Aaryn forgot about the gay housemate she called a "queer" ... and all the Asian people she mocked ... and the African Americans ...

"Big Brother" star Britney Haynes -- who competed on the show in 2010 and 2012 -- has revealed her 2-month-old daughter has been diagnosed with cancer.

The 27-year-old reality star, along with her husband Ryan Godwin, broke the news on Facebook ... writing, "On September 1st, we were among the daily 720 sets of parents to be absolutely devastated with a Childhood Cancer diagnosis."

Britney's daughter, Tilly, was born on July 13.

Haynes continued, "Please take the time to pray for all these children, our sweet baby included. We appreciate each and every one."

Over the weekend, Britney tweeted a photo of Tilly -- writing, "Thank you for all of the thoughts, wishes, and prayers for my precious girl. She's everything to me."

"Big Brother" contestant Aaryn Gries has taken lots of heat for her racist comments on the show ... but we have color photos showing a more tolerant side.

We got pics of Aaryn's big prom night in 2009, when she was a senior at Douglas County High School in Castle Rock, Colorado. Her prom date -- clearly visible in the photo -- is Mike Miller. Mike -- who is BLACK -- was a starting tight end on the football team.

Mike tells TMZ Aaryn -- whom he dated for a few months -- makes bad jokes sometimes, but not "prejudiced or hateful." He calls her sense of humor "smart-ass."

Who knew ... she had a little black in her.

Drumroll please ... Aaryn Gries' Valentine this year WAS A BLACK MAN -- so says the black man himself, and he insists it's proof the "Big Brother" villain isn't the disgusting racist she portrayed on TV.

Shawn Onyechi tells TMZ, he knows Gries from college in Texas and they were pretty close before she left for "Big Brother."

They didn't date, but Shawn says they were Valentines this year ... and he knows for a fact she's NOT the racist pig she appeared to be on the reality show.

Shawn even tweeted, "Who thinks Aaryn Gries from big brother is racist? I've heard her comments, but personally I KNOW otherwise."

Quick recap: Aaryn's said a bunch of racist crap on the show, including this reference to a black contestant: "Be careful what you say in the dark, you might not be able to see that bitch."

Aaryn has since been evicted from the "Big Brother" house, and in her defense she said she's not racist ... she's just Texan.

"Big Brother" villain Aaryn Gries CAN'T be the homophobic racist she appears to be ... because she took a black guy to her high school prom, this according to Aaryn's mom.

We're still waiting for the photographic evidence ... but Aaryn's mom reached out to the L.A. Times and insisted it's true.

There's more ... Aaryn's mom also says the reality star once dated a "Cuban American."

Still more ... Aaryn's mom says the reality star recently sponsored a Filipino child through a charity and "she has cousins of Japanese descent who she truly loves."

Despite all of that ... Aaryn's mom says, "While I love and continue to support my daughter Aaryn, words cannot describe my disappointment in some of her comments made on 'Big Brother.'"

"These inappropriate comments certainly do not represent the value system under which her father and I have raised her."

As for gays, Elizabeth says Aaryn "has never discriminated against anyone for their sexual orientation whether within our family or not. Aaryn truly loves all people equally."