Globe May 20, 2019

CUTTING A RUG COURTENEY COX could have used one of her Friends to help haul that heavy carpet around L.A. ALL THE BUZZ Brash comedienne SARAH SILVERMAN puts her money where her mouth is — and buys coffee for a construction crew in NYC THE QUIET MAN Scrawny KIEFER SUTHERLAND goofs off in London while promoting his album Reckless & Me DEAD MAN WALKING Scruffy SEAN PENN bums around San Fernando Valley, looking nothing like his on-screen self BIG SHOT MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY wets his whistle on stage at a benefit concert in Austin, Texas LOOKING BOARD Pop princess RIHANNA’s fashion game has really gone to pieces!…

TODAY show queen Hoda Kotb has a new on-air rival — co-host Jenna Bush Hager! The former first daughter is stealing her baby-news thunder and hogging more air time — and is on her way to becoming the viewers’ darling. Less than a week after Hoda, 54, grabbed ratings by announcing she’d adopted a second daughter, Hope Catherine, 37-year-old Jenna stole the spotlight by revealing she and husband Henry were five months pregnant and expecting a boy. Then, when Meredith Vieira stepped in to co-host and do show promos while Hoda is on maternity leave, ex-President George W. Bush’s daughter wrangled those flashy TV spots for herself. “These are free commercials to promote the morning show,” sources say. “It’s shocking how Jenna is now in them all of a sudden.” Jenna’s…

CAROLINE Kennedy’s body is wracked with pain by an incurable crippling disease that’s turned her every movement into torture! The last surviving child of assassinated President John F. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie, has been battling rheumatoid arthritis since 1999, when she was diagnosed following a Colorado camping trip. But the autoimmune disease that savages joints like the knees, fingers, hips and lower back is now on a merciless rampage. “As time has progressed, the pain has gotten worse,” says a source. “It can be sheer agony!” The diagnosis was a double-blow, coming shortly after her beloved brother John, his wife, Carolyn, and her sister died when the plane he was piloting crashed off Martha’s Vineyard on July 16 that year. Caroline, now 61, ran to the doctors after waking…

FORMER Cheers beauty Shelley Long has turned into a frumpy, sad shell of her former self — and now, her face is unrecognizable following tragedies that nearly killed her! The 69-year-old actress was recently spotted shuffling around Pacific Palisades — and not a soul recognized the gal, who played snooty know-it-all waitress Diane Chambers on the super-hit ’80s sitcom. Except for an eight-episode gig on Modern Family and voicing a character on Disney’s cartoon Milo Murphy’s Law last year, Shelley’s largely faded from view. “Shelley pretty much keeps to herself and spends most of her time with her little dog or in the company of friends,” dishes a source. “It’s a far cry from when she was a big star!” When a GLOBE reporter tracked down the TV legend, there…

COMIC Chris Rock has triggered a feud with Bobby Brown by making a “tasteless” drug joke about the singer’s late ex-wife, Whitney Houston. Riffing on social media about having to attend long, useless meetings, Rock posted a photo of a bored-looking Whitney, with the words: “Hurry up I got crack to smoke.” Tragic Whitney was blasted on cocaine when she drowned in a hotel bathtub at age 48 in 2012. “I thought you was a friend of the family,” fired back Brown, adding that Rock was “humiliating our QUEEN.”…

JEOPARDY! players are banned from betting amounts of money like $69, because the number has a raunchy sexual meaning. Former champ Ken Jennings, who played for an incredible 74-game streak and won a whopping $2.5 million, blew the lid off the taboo numerals, saying contestants were forbidden to use “69” in amounts because the number refers to a racy sex position. Other banned amounts include the devil’s number, 666, or numbers linked to neo-Nazi propaganda like $14, $88 and $1,488, a reference to 14 words used to sign off race-baiting radio programs.…