You Might Want to Rethink

Billy Baldwin dice que las afirmaciones de Sharon Stone de que un productor de cine le instó a dormir con él mientras trabajaban en una película juntos son falsas.

El actor salió el martes a desmentir una afirmación que Sharon hizo recientemente en un pódcast, donde alegó que el productor Robert Evans le dijo que debería acostarse con Billy para obtener una mejor actuación de él en "Sliver" de 1993, en la que ella actuó junto a Billy.

En respuesta a eso, Billy escribió: "¿No estoy seguro de por qué Sharon Stone sigue hablando de mí todos estos años después? ¿Sigue enamorada de mí o sigue dolida después de todos estos años porque rechacé sus insinuaciones?".

Billy continúa afirmando que Sharon le confió a su amiga, Janice Dickinson, que iba a "hacer que se enamorara tanto de mí que le daría vueltas la cabeza". Básicamente, está haciendo parecer que Sharon realmente quería estar con él mientras rodaban.

Billy hace otra alegación sorprendente, escribiendo: "La historia de la reunión que tuve con Bob Evans implorándole que me permitiera "coreografiar" la escena de sexo final en la foto de abajo para no tener que besar a Sharon es una leyenda absoluta".

Sharon sale con esta historia después de años de estar lista para revelar la identidad de un productor que ella dice que era escoria, y ahora, ella está denunciando que Evans fue ese tipo.

Sharon continuó explicando que le dijeron que había problemas de actuación en la película y la estaban culpando a ella, todo porque se negó a dormir con Billy, y agrega que Evans aparentemente pensó que teniendo sexo iban a "salvar" la escena y la película.

Ella dice que había sugerido otros actores además de Billy -como Michael Douglas- a quien ella dice que considera un profesional, así que sí, ella está destrozando Billy.

Billy Baldwin is calling BS on Sharon Stone's allegations that a film producer urged her to sleep with Billy while working on a movie together ... suggesting she was actually into him.

The actor came out swinging Tuesday to deny a claim Sharon recently floated on a podcast -- where she alleged late producer Robert Evans told her she should bang Billy to get a better performance out of him in 1993's 'Sliver,' in which she starred opposite Billy.

In response to that, Billy wrote ... "Not sure why Sharon Stone keep talking about me all these years later? Does she still have a crush on me or is she still hurt after all these years because I shunned her advances?"

Billy goes on to claim that Sharon confided with her friend, Janice Dickinson, that she was going to "make him fall so hard for me, it's gonna make his head spin." Basically, he's making it seem like Sharon actually wanted to get with him while they were shooting.

Billy makes another startling allegation, writing ... "The story of the meeting I had with Bob Evans imploring him allow me to choreograph the final sex scene in the photo below so I wouldn't have to kiss Sharon is absolute legend." He teases spilling some tea one day.

Sharon coming out with this story follows years of her teasing being ready to reveal the identity of a producer she says was scummy -- and now, she's naming Evans as that guy.

Sharon went on to explain that she'd been told the acting issues with the movie at the time were being blamed on her ... all because she refused to sleep with Billy, which she says Evans apparently thought would make their chemistry better and "save" the flick.

She says she'd suggested other actors besides Billy -- like Michael Douglas -- whom she says she considers a professional ... so yeah, she's kinda trashing BB here too.

Las ediciones de Kate Middleton con Photoshop tenían al menos 16 errores que los expertos pudieron notar, y con la publicación de una nueva foto, más teorías conspirativas comienzaron a aparecer.

El homenaje del Día de la Madre de la princesa de Galles ha sido analizado en profundidad por varios fotógrafos diferentes del Daily Mail, y en conjunto destacaron más de una docena de errores que Kate cometió durante la manipulación de su polémica foto.

Tras una inspección más cercana de la imagen viral -que muestra a la princesa Kate posando para una foto con sus hijos, el príncipe Jorge, la princesa Carlota y el príncipe Luis- está claro que se cambió bastante después de que al parecer se guardara dos veces en Photoshop.

A continuación tenemos una lista completa de los errores detectados. A Charlotte le falta una parte de la manga izquierda; la cremallera de Kate está torcida; el pelo de Charlotte está cortado; la falda de Charlotte sobresale; las rodillas de Charlotte están borrosas; la manga del jersey de Louis está contorsionada; el pulgar derecho de Louis está borroso; la cornisa está distorsionada; el paso detrás de Louis está distorsionado; el dedo de Louis parece cortado; el jersey azul de George mejorado; la mano de Kate desenfocada; la manga del jersey de George tiene líneas inusuales. ¡Uf!

Con todos estos cambios realizados, muchos se inclinan ahora por una nueva teoría acerca de cuando esta foto fue tomada en realidad y si todo el mundo en la foto estaba realmente ahí cuando se tomó.

Los detectives en línea se remontaron a diciembre, cuando un video fue publicado en el canal oficial de YouTube del Príncipe y la Princesa de Gales, que muestra a Kate y a sus hijos haciendo un trabajo de caridad en trajes que algunos creen que parecen coincidir con esta foto del Día de la Madre.

Los colores de la ropa de cada persona son diferentes de lo que se ve en la imagen en cuestión, pero algunos han sugerido que es justamente ahí donde se encuentran las alteraciones, en los cambios de color.

Hay otra teoría de la conspiración que tiene que ver con la foto que salió a la luz el lunes, la cual muestra a Kate y al príncipe Guillermo en un carro dejando Windsor.

No se puede ver la cara de Kate claramente en este nuevo ángulo, es casi como si ella estuviera mirando hacia otro lado. Debido a esto, algunos han asegurado que la foto está manipulada, a pesar de que nos hemos asegurado de que la agencia que la distribuye es auténtica.

La razón por la que la gente sospecha de esta foto, también es Photoshop, sin embargo, tiene que ver con el hecho de que la apariencia de Kate aquí refleja una foto más antigua que la de 2016, cuando fue fotografiada de pie con Guillermo y el príncipe Harry. Algunos creen que el ángulo y la imagen son idénticas.

Es una teoría interesante, pero el departamento de arte de TMZ intentó comparar las dos imágenes, como muchos ya lo han hecho en línea, y no encajaron perfectamente... específicamente alrededor de las orejas. En otras palabras, es muy probable que estas sean dos fotografías diferentes.

El equipo de arte de TMZ trató de duplicar las ediciones, y por desgracia para los teóricos de la conspiración, no hay coincidencias. Así que... a pesar de la especulación, parecen ser diferentes fotos.

Sin embargo, eso no va a detener a la gente de seguir especulando, y a menos que Kate aparezca a dar explicaciones, la gente no va a detenerse.

Kate Middleton's Photoshop fail reportedly had at least 16 editing mistakes that experts could see ... and with the release of a new pic, more conspiracy theories are mounting.

The Princess of Wales' UK Mother's Day tribute has been analyzed in-depth by several different photographers who weighed in with the Daily Mail -- who collectively highlighted more than a dozen blunders Kate made while manipulating her controversial pic.

Upon closer inspection of the viral image -- which shows Princess Kate posing for a photo with her children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis -- it's clear that quite a bit was changed after reportedly being saved twice on Photoshop.

Here is a full list of the spotted errors ... Charlotte is missing a part of her left sleeve; Kate's zipper is screwy; Charlotte's hair is cut off; Charlotte's skirt juts out; Charlotte's knees are blurred; Louis' sweater sleeve is contorted; Louis' right thumb is blurry; indent/distortion on the ledge; step behind Louis is distorted; Louis' finger looks cut off; George's blue sweater enhanced; Kate's hand out of focus; George's sweater sleeve has unusual lines. Phew!

With all these changes made ... many are now leaning into a new theory about when this photo was actually taken -- and what everyone in the pic was actually wearing at the time.

Online sleuths went back to December, when a video was posted to the official YouTube channel of the Prince and Princess of Wales -- which shows Kate and her kids doing some charity work ... in outfits that some believe seem to match up with this Mother's Day photo.

The colors of each person's clothing are different than what you see in the picture in question -- but some have suggested that's where the real alterations lie ... namely, color swaps.

There's another conspiracy theory floating around as well ... and this one has to do with the photo that surfaced Monday showing Kate and Prince William in a car leaving Windsor.

You can't see Kate's face clearly in this new shot -- it's almost as if she's looking away -- and because of that ... some have made the leap that even if this photo might be manipulated ... even though we've been assured by the photog/agency distributing it that it's authentic.

The reason people suspect this pic might be Photoshopped, too, though has to do with the fact Kate's appearance here mirrors an older photo she was in from back in 2016 ... when she was snapped standing with Will and Prince Harry. Some think the angle/image are identical.

It's an interesting thought, but TMZ's art department tried lining up the two images -- as many have already done online -- but they don't blend into each other perfectly, specifically around the ears. In other words ... it is very likely these are, in fact, 2 different photographs.

TMZ's art team tried duplicating the edits ... and, unfortunately for conspiracy theorists, it doesn't line up. So ... despite the speculation, it does seem to be different photos.

That's not gonna stop the tinfoil hat people from continuing to gossip/speculate though ... and anything short of seeing Kate hop on camera or come out for an actual appearance probably won't appease everyone who's fired up about this.

Glen "Big Baby" Davis just issued an apology to sexual assault victims ... this after a video of him making a joke about nonconsensual sex resurfaced on Tuesday morning.

The clip was offensive to say the least ... it showed the former NBA star walking out of an elevator and insisting a woman smelled so good, it "almost made me r*** you, girl."

It's unclear when the video was shot ... but in a mea culpa released on his Instagram page on Tuesday afternoon, Davis seemed to imply it was quite some time ago.

"First of all, I want to say I'm sorry to all r*** victims -- anybody that felt any type of way about what I said," the 38-year-old said of the clip. "I am a stand-up comedian, I do comedy and sometimes I might say stuff a little bit wrong."

"And I did."

Davis went on to say he hoped no one would be offended by his words ... before he chastised those on social media for bringing the old vid back to light.

"I took that down a long time ago off my page," he said. "Y'all kept that and just decided to use it today. That's ridiculous."

Mientras Kate Middleton y la familia real se recuperan del escándalo de la foto del Día de la Madre, la empresa que les ayudó a conseguirlo está de fiesta, porque Photoshop está de moda en Wall Street.

A pesar de que la Princesa de Gales -o alguien en el palacio- no sabe muy bien como manejar el famoso Softweare, la empresa matriz de Photoshop, Adobe, vio un repunte en el precio de sus acciones después de la negociación del lunes, reafirmando el viejo dicho que asegura que "no existe la mala publicidad".

Aquí está el desglose: Adobe (ADBE), iba por los $551.69 el viernes, aumentó un poco el lunes por la mañana a $552.45, y al final del día, subió  estrepitosamente a $560.42. ¡Los números no mienten!

El experto en negocios, Trung Phan inmediatamente le atribuyó la capitalización bursátil de 3.000 millones de dólares de la compañía a la afirmación de que la princesa Kate había utilizado el producto de Adobe.

Por supuesto, no está claro si la polémica de Kate realmente está detrás de la fluctuación... pero la coincidencia es grande.

También parece que todo el mundo se divierte imaginando a Kate como una persona normal, haciendo clic en Photoshop como el resto de los mortales.

Una persona bromeó en X: "Me gusta la idea de que Kate Middleton consiguió un descuento real en la nube creativa de Adobe y comenzó a hurgar en Photoshop", y otro agregó: "El Palacio ahora va a actualizar a la suite completa de Adobe para arreglar la foto de Kate Middleton".

Sin embargo, mientras que un montón de teorías conspirativas están dando vueltas acerca de por qué la realeza adulteró la foto, la declaración oficial del Palacio de Kensington de Kate afirma que solo hizo un trabajo mediocre con Photoshop para mejorar su foto del Día de la Madre con sus tres hijos.

No hay explicaciones de por qué el Palacio mintió en primer lugar, o de cuándo se tomó la foto, ni hay noticias sobre lo que realmente está pasando con la recuperación de Kate a dos meses de la cirugía abdominal.

While Kate Middleton and the royal family dig out from the Mother's Day pic scandal, the company that helped them pull it off is popping bottles -- 'cause Photoshop's suddenly hot on Wall Street.

Despite the Princess of Wales -- or someone at the palace -- having sketchy photo editing skills, Photoshop's parent company, Adobe, saw a spike in its stock price after Monday's trading ... affirming the old adage of any publicity's good publicity.

Here's the breakdown ... Adobe (ADBE) went from $551.69 on Friday, did a little Monday morning stretch to $552.45, and by the end of the day, they were ridin' high at $560.42. The numbers don't lie!

Business writer Trung Phan immediately put the company's $3B market cap to Princess Kate's claim she'd used Adobe's product.

Of course, it's unclear if the Kate saga really is behind the fluctuation -- but the whole thing is a bit of a coincidence.

It also seems like everyone's getting a kick out of imagining Kate as just another regular Joe, clicking away on Photoshop like the rest of us mere mortals.

One person joked on X, "I like the idea that kate middleton got a royal discount on adobe creative cloud and started poking around in Photoshop," ... and another added, "The Palace now upgrading to the full Adobe suite to fix the Kate Middleton pic."

Nonetheless, while a whole set of conspiracy theories are floating about why the royals doctored the pic ... KM's official Kensington Palace statement claims she just did a crappy job using Photoshop to improve her Mother's Day snap with her 3 kiddos.

Her apparent falling on the sword doesn't explain why the Palace lied, in the first place, about when the photo was taken -- nor does it shed any light on what's really going on with Kate's now 2-month-long recovery from abdominal surgery.

Nicki Minaj appears to have chewed out a stagehand during her most recent tour date -- and it was all caught on video.

The rapper is in the middle of her "Pink Friday 2" tour, and on Sunday ... she was out in Seattle for a concert -- where some behind-the-scenes drama unfolded between Nicki and someone on her team, or at least someone on production.

Check it out ... Nicki and this woman -- who seems to be trying to work on NM's hair -- get into a little argument ... and it's mostly Nicki looking exacerbated/frustrated with this lady.

Before the woman can do anything for Nicki's 'do -- her boss side-steps her and shoos her away as she's getting ready to go back onstage ... getting back to business and carrying on with the show.

Some are calling Nicki's reaction a bit dramatic ... but others are actually defending her.

12:06 PM -- The L.A. Lakers say they're already in the process of fixing the typos on Kobe Bryant's statue ... admitting to ABC News on Monday they've known of the issues "for a few weeks."

"We have been aware of this for a few weeks," a spokesperson said, "and are already working to get it corrected soon."

The statue erected to immortalize Kobe Bryant outside of Crypto.com Arena has multiple typos on it ... at least four, to be exact.

The flaws were discovered this week ... on the base of the monument where an image of a signed box score from Bryant's famed 2006, 81-point game was etched in.

You can see Von Wafer's name is mistakenly spelled "Vom Wafer." Jose Calderon's name is also incorrectly listed as "Jose Calderson." The word "decision" in two of the "Coach's Decision" portions of the statue is also wrongfully written as "decicion."

A copy of the box score sold at Goldin Auctions back in 2022 shows none of the errors were featured on the original document.

We've reached out to the Lakers for comment, but so far, we've yet to hear back.

The Bryant sculpture was first put up at the arena back on Feb. 8 ... at a star-studded event. Phil Jackson, Stu Lantz, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Derek Fisher and Lakers owner Jeanie Buss were all there ... as was Vanessa Bryant, who helped introduce it with an emotional and, at times, lighthearted speech.

"For the record," Vanessa said before the public saw the carving for the first time, "Kobe picked the pose you’re about to see. So if anyone has any issues with it, tough s***."

At the ceremony, it was also announced the Lakers would unveil two more tributes to Bryant at their arena at a later date.

Kate Middleton's Mother's Day photo appears to be littered with Photoshop edits -- and upon closer inspection ... we think we've pinpointed all the major ones, and they're noticeable.

The Princess of Wales has already copped to altering the picture seen round-the-world -- but neither she nor Kensington Palace have clarified what exactly was doctored and how. According to Sky News ... metadata for the original photo -- which they seem to have obtained -- shows the picture was taken at their Adelaide Cottage home in Windsor.

They also report that the metadata shows it was taken with a DSLR camera ... and more importantly, it was apparently saved twice in Photoshop on an Apple MacBook -- once on Friday night and again on Saturday morning before it was released to the public by the Palace.

Remember, when it first went up on social media -- Prince William was credited as the photog -- and they said this snap was taken last week sometime ahead of Mother's Day.

Now, though, in light of the photo being reported to be manipulated -- and Kate falling on the sword as the one to blame -- everyone is picking this photo apart and analyzing it to see exactly how it may have been tweaked ... and we actually have some ideas of our own.

Take a look at what graphic designers in our own building say are apparent Photoshop edits ... or more accurately, Photoshop fails. The big red flag everyone has been pointing out is Princess Charlotte's hand overlapping with Kate's left hand ... where you see a blur.

Our own experts say this seems to be a bad use of the stamp tool in Photoshop ... that, or a possible flub in duplicating layers of two different images and not lining them up correctly.

In terms of Kate missing her wedding ring -- we know magazines are notorious for editing stuff like that, including copying/pasting body parts ... and our team here says that may well have been what happened with Kate's hand here. Basically, that whole section looks edited.

There's also the issue of Prince Louie's sweater pattern not lining up -- something our team noticed -- and Kate's jacket zipper seemingly disappearing and reappearing in the shot.

Even Kate and Charlotte's awkwardly overlapping appears to be a Photoshop mistake ... that's our own team's take anyway. It's just a handful of apparent mistakes we honed in on -- but there are certainly more others have picked up on ... and the conspiracies are flying.

Some are suggesting that Kate's face here is actually cropped from a Vogue cover -- but according to our graphic designers ... that doesn't seem likely since the lighting is all off.

The Palace isn't explaining itself here ... at least not fully. We've reached out to them for further explanation on what exactly was changed here -- but haven't heard back yet.

There's more intrigue ... with a new photo of Kate riding with Prince William as they drove to a private appointment -- and here, too, she's heavily obscured ... shying away from cameras.

It's the latest shot paps have gotten of her outside of Windsor ... but it's hard to really see her.

At this point ... people are calling for Kate to just come out and address the public -- because anything short of that won't appease everyone's curiosity or suspicions. With the fake photo being put out ... it's quite clear that Kensington Palace was okay with trying to pull a fast one -- or at the very least, wanted to make her seem like she's doing better than she is.

One last thing ... a lot of people have suggested AI is afoot in this Mother's Day pic -- but we talked to AI expert Paul Dawes -- CEO of More.Ai -- and he tells TMZ ... this photo appears to be more Photoshopped than AI-generated ... although it's possible it could be.

Dawes says an AI tool may have been used to edit real photos -- but this image does appear to be thrown together with actual photographs of real people ... that's his take.

Ditto for AI expert Mike Gioia of Pickaxe, who says this picture is likely more Photoshopped than tinkered with AI. He tells us the teeth, hands and eyes all seem fairly normal (or human) ... and he would know, as those are telltale signs of whether AI created it, or if it's the real McCoy. In this case, he says he thinks these features look more authentic than not.

Gioia does say this might've been created with the help of something in Photoshop these days called Generative Fill ... which uses AI to pop in generic images. It's just hard to tell.

Bottom line ... this is a bad Photoshop job -- but the question remains ... WHY??? Kensington Palace has been tight-lipped ... and they're letting Kate herself take the heat.

The Detroit Pistons' lousy season somehow just got even lower ... the team's GM, Troy Weaver, was filmed getting into a heated spat with an angry fan at a game on Saturday.

The incident reportedly happened in the fourth quarter of Detroit's blowout loss to the Dallas Mavericks at the Little Caesars Arena ... when a man decked out in Red Wings gear seemed to confront Weaver at his seat.

You can see in a video posted to TikTok on Sunday ... Weaver appeared to yell at the fan, "You're lucky I don't beat your ass" -- before the man can be heard responding, "You suck at your job."

Weaver then motioned for a security guard to take the guy away from the area. The video then cut out.

A season ticket holder who claimed to have witnessed the interaction told the Associated Press on Sunday the tiff was actually the second time the man had gotten into it with Weaver at the game.

"The guy that was in the incident, with the Red Wings stuff on, came over and was pointing at the scoreboard earlier in the game,” Jeffrey Calloway told the AP. "Troy Weaver just shrugged his shoulders and said, ‘OK,’ and the guy went back to his seat."

"When [Jalen] Duren got ejected, the guy came back and told him that he was terrible at his job. Then, Troy Weaver was telling the fan he had to leave and that's when ushers or security walked over."

Weaver -- Detroit's GM since 2020 -- has yet to publicly comment on the matter.

A photo of Kate Middleton and her kids sent around by Kensington Palace Sunday to celebrate Mother's Day in the U.K. is now being accused of possibly being fake.

Multiple photo and new agencies -- like the Associated Press, Getty Images, etc. -- have yanked the picture in question, and AP even handed down a kill notification to journos worldwide ... letting them know they have reason to believe this photo may be manipulated.

Part of that message read ... "At closer inspection, it appears that the source has manipulated the image. No replacement image will be sent. Please remove it from all platforms, including social, where it may still be visible."

The hesitation follows a wave of skeptics online and elsewhere, who suggested the pic looked sorta AI-generated ... and did not at all seem authentic -- this despite the fact palace officials insisted it had been taken by Prince William himself at their cottage in Windsor.

On paper, this has been presented as the real McCoy -- but reputable news outlets are now distancing themselves and refusing to circulate it ... casting serious doubt on its legitimacy.

As of now, Royal officials have yet to comment on this, even to reporters across the pond ... and the photo is still on the Prince and Princess of Wales' official social media accounts.

If true, obviously it's scandalous ... and will only add fuel to the fire over Kate's condition as she continues to recover from abdominal surgery earlier this year ... which has sidelined her for a while. Photos of her that surfaced last week were also called into question.

Kensington Palace has attempted to tamp down rumors and speculation about all this -- but the Internet has been having a field day with memes, jokes and gossip regardless. This latest apparent Snafu ain't gonna help ... if anything, it'll kickstart a fresh wave of inuendo.

Miriam Margolyes says people who are still diehard 'Harry Potter' fans as fully functioning adults worry her a bit -- and she's got a clear message for them ... grow the hell up!

The actress -- who played Professor Pomona Sprout on two 'HP' films back when those were still a thing -- did a recent interview with New Zealand's 1 News, where she was plugging a new project of hers ... and she was quite candid on how she feels about this topic.

Check it out ... Miriam says people that are still obsessed with the 'Harry Potter' movies -- or, god forbid, the even older books -- concern her ... 'cause they're still acting like lil' kids.

She says she'll still get asked about 'Harry Potter' stuff to this day -- and goes on to say she's startled to hear people are doing whole ass 'HP'-themed events ... including weddings. Miriam jokes that she wonders what the first night of fun would be for 'HP' newlyweds.

As Miriam puts it, 'Harry Potter' is for children, and the adults still clinging to their childhood nostalgia need to get over it. MM hits the point home by definitively saying ... "It's over!"

Yes, it's a bit harsh -- but you can tell Miriam just doesn't understand the years-long fandom.

Zita Vass wants to know why she -- and presumably other white women -- can't say the n-word during live concerts ... and she's got quite an argument on why it should be kosher.

The Guess model posted a series of videos on her social media account this weekend ... and it was all about this hot-button issue -- namely, folks who aren't Black needing to censor themselves when it comes to singing or rapping the n-word, especially at live shows.

Zita says she's sick of doing that ... and thinks she oughta have a pass in live music settings.

She goes on to argue that African-Americans use the word as a term of endearment -- and insists she has no ill will in her heart if she were to use it in repeating back song lyrics ... going on to say she resents the notion that doing so would make her racist in some circles.

Zita also asks why the term is only exclusive to Black people ... and openly wonders why it's taboo for non-Black people to say it. She distinguishes between wanting to use the n-word generally and using it for musical purposes -- noting she only wants to do the latter.

Of course, she's catching some backlash -- with lots of people flooding her comment section to let her know why it's not okay ... explaining points that have been litigated ad nauseam.

Her IG caption for this is a little eyebrow-raising too, FWIW ... she writes, "THE N WORD - Warning #controversial #africanamericans."

The director of 'The Holdovers' is being accused of ripping off another Hollywood creative, who claims the guy hijacked his own years-old script in what he calls outright plagiarism.

Simon Stephenson -- whose story/writing credits include 'Luca,' 'Paddington 2' and other big hits -- levied a heavy plagiarism allegation against Alexander Payne earlier this year with none other than the WGA ... and his claims are just now coming to light publicly.

According to Variety -- which has reviewed and published emails from this whole ordeal -- Stephenson hit up some WGA honchos to complain that Payne's script/story for 'The Holdovers' was a "brazen" ripoff of a script he wrote back in 2013 called 'Frisco.'

Not only are the plots nearly identical, Stephenson alleges, but he goes on to claim there is "line-by-line" replication ... adding he has proof Payne reviewed his screenplay in years past.

Stephenson wrote in one of his emails to WGA, "I’ve been a working writer for 20 years -- in my native U.K. before I came to the U.S. -- and so I’m very aware that people can often have surprisingly similar ideas and sometimes a few elements can be ‘borrowed,’ etc."

He adds emphatically ... "This just isn’t that situation. The two screenplays are forensically identical and riddled with unique smoking guns throughout."

Stephenson was reportedly told his gripes were not a guild issue, and that he might need to consider a lawsuit to address his concerns -- no word on whether he's done that yet.

As for Payne -- who's not a writer on 'Holdovers,' but who says he heavily supervised the script-writing process -- he's publicly said his flick is loosely inspired by a 1935 French film.

Chris Brown apparently got into a little fender-bender this weekend -- and while the scrape to his sports car will probably buff right out ... that doesn't mean he was happy about it.

The singer was hitting the town very early Sunday morning in Hollywood -- leaving The Nice Guy after a little partying, we're told -- and on his way out ... he seems to have bumped into another vehicle that left the front of his Lamborghini with some major scuff marks.

The fact that his whip is white makes the black marks all the more noticeable, of course, and it looks like Chris stopped to exchange info with whoever it was he might've tapped.

He certainly looked frustrated at the moment -- but handled his biz and went on his way.

The next morning, however, Chris seems to have realized the extent of the damage -- 'cause he was photographed looking a little heated as he appeared to be addressing the mishap with a crew of people he was with while leaving a private house party just hours later.

No word on what exactly he was saying -- but it sure reads like ... "LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO MY F***ING CAR!!!" This new angle also appears to show the bumper is slightly dented.

Like we said ... it should be easy enough to fix it -- but considering how damn pricey these cars are -- it might end up costing CB a pretty penny ... assuming insurance doesn't just handle it. In any case ... Chris wasn't happy about having to deal with it, period.