Table of contents for February 28, 2022 in Globe

HEARTBROKEN Hoda Kotb is in a world of pain after splitting with fiancé Joel Schiffman — and her disgraced former colleague Matt Lauer is swooping in to dry her tears, GLOBE has learned! Sources snitch the TV host is leaning on Matt as a friend — but her pals don’t trust him and wonder about his REAL agenda! On Jan. 31, 57-year-old Hoda announced on Today she and the financier ended their eight-year relationship after adopting two children — and sources say Matt swooped in. “Hoda is still friendly with Matt and she has been the most sympathetic of his former colleagues,” spills an insider. “To be fair to Matt, he does care about Hoda. But there’s no denying it’s a little creepy, too, since they’re not exactly best buddies and…

SPIDER-MAN GETS SIGNALS CROSSED Speaking of male admiration, Spider-Man megastar TOM HOLLAND, 25, says he got kinky mixed signals from his Uncharted co-star MARK WAHLBERG, 50, during their first meeting. “Mark Wahlberg was kind enough to give me a massage gun after I left his house in L.A. and he drove me back to my hotel,” recalls the young Brit-born action star. “I was confused as to what kind of massage gun this was, having never seen one before, and I thought it was the type of self-pleasure. I thought Mark Wahlberg was driving me back to my house for reasons other than just being a gentleman.” Whaaat? “I didn’t know you — it’s Hollywood, baby,” he later told Mark, who explained they’d been discussing “working out, fitness” and “recovery,”…

REALITY star Jennifer Aydin confesses she’s miserable after a new nose job made her look “wackadoo!” In a clip showing her Real Housewives of New Jersey co-stars mocking her new sniffer, 44-year-old Jennifer confesses the surgery, which isn’t completely healed, backfired. “When you get plastic surgery, even though you know it’s a risk, you assume you’re going to be happy with the results, which I wasn’t,” she admits. “It has since settled in nicely, but I do regret it. But what can I do? I just have to make the best of it and keep pushing forward.” Aydin, whose hubby, Bill, is a plastic surgeon but didn’t do her fixes, also got a chin implant, which she says left her numb and made it hard to move the lower part of…

TWILIGHT vampire Robert Pattinson is sinking his teeth into another batty role as Gotham City’s Caped Crusader in The Batman. The upcoming movie, directed by Matt Reeves, will make Pattinson the sixth actor to play the superhero in the Warner Bros. film franchise, which kicked off in 1989 with Michael Keaton. Here are ten things you don’t know about the 35-year-old London native. 1 He’s been pals with Like Minds star Tom Sturridge since childhood. 2 Before diving into acting, he performed solo acoustic guitar gigs at open mic nights in London pubs. 3 His bit part as Reese Witherspoon’s onscreen son in 2004’s Vanity Fair wound up on the cutting room floor — which he didn’t know until attending the premiere. 4 He ditched college to play tragic hunk…

LEAPIN’ lizards! Florida teen De’Angelo Moxey is facing theft and burglary charges after cops claim he stole two black dragons from their Jupiter Farms habitat. In January, hissing-mad reptile breeder Kenan Harkin told police someone broke into his property and took the animals, which are also known as monitor lizards and can grow up to eight feet long! The young female and male pair — named Inky and Bobby Rubino — were valued at up to $4,000 apiece! According to authorities, Harkin spoke to other reptile breeders who’d experienced recent thefts, and one gave him Moxey’s name. Cops say license-plate-reader cameras in Jupiter also placed an SUV belonging to the 18-year-old’s mom in the area shortly before the dragon-napping. When confronted by law enforcement at his Florida City home, Moxey…

SHRIVELED Hugh Hefner kept 18-year-old twins as Playboy Mansion sex slaves, plying them with drugs and holding them under lock and key to perform at his shocking orgies, the now-grown sisters, Karissa and Kristina Shannon, charge! Now, the 32-year-olds are dancing on horrid Hefner’s grave, saying the skin magazine mogul, who died at age 91 in 2017, was the “devil” and insisting they’re “glad he’s dead.” Both are suing his estate for abuse, charging their two years living at Hef’s L.A. party palace were like being in a cult. “Hef acted like he owned you,” reveals Kristina. “If we broke his rules, six guards would drag us to our room and not let us leave. “He preyed on vulnerable young girls like us. He would offer you the world, then…

COUNTRY music legend Kenny Rogers’ savvy family plans to cash in The Gambler’s chips and add to his $250 million estate as they orchestrate his comeback from beyond the grave, sources spill. When he died two years ago at his Georgia home, the 81-year-old left behind a trove of new music and unreleased writing, photography and art estimated to be worth $150 million — and his kinfolk have realized “they’re sitting on a gold mine,” a tipster tells GLOBE. “There are unreleased recordings, unseen film footage, a memoir he’d worked on, never-before-seen photographs and poetry he wrote for loved ones,” says the insider, who insists this “treasure chest of memories” is poised to make Kenny’s loved ones a boatful of bucks! “This goes way beyond the money he left behind,”…

WHEEL CHAIR - BOUND Harry Smith thought he was a goner as his electric ride slid into a Florida pond, but the helpless 81-year-old was miraculously saved by his heroic pooch Sarah. Smith, who can’t swim, was in his motorized chair taking the nine-year-old beagle mix for a walk near their Port St. Lucie home when his chair lost traction on a grass embankment and slipped down the slope toward the water. Frightened Smith says he desperately began working the controls trying “to back around to get out” of trouble. But his chair went “straight back instead and right down the embankment and dumped me right in the water.” Neck-deep in the murky water, Smith began yelling for help, but his cries were hard to hear. However, Sarah leaped into…

SHAMED TV hunk Chris Noth was seen wearing his wedding ring after going home to L.A. and meeting with his wife, Tara Wilson, following sexual assault claims by four gals. As GLOBE reported, Tara, 39, mom of Noth’s sons, Orion, 13, and Keats, 18 months, was seen without her ring and sobbing heavily in her car in L.A. on Jan. 13 following the shocking allegations. Two gals claimed in December Noth, 67, raped them years apart at his apartment. One gal calling herself “Zoe” says she was 22 and working at a firm Noth, then 49, did business with. He got her number, lured her to his pad and assaulted her in 2004, she charges. The second woman, identified as “Lily,” says she was a 25-year-old waitress at a Big…

LETHAL Weapon stars Mel Gibson and Danny Glover are teaming up for a FIFTH flick in the crime comedy series — 23 years after the first film! Gibson, 66, says the only sticking point to getting Glover, 75, onboard was that original director Richard Donner, 91, passed in July. After previously getting Donner’s blessing, Mel says: “I called Danny up and said, ‘Hey, dude, is it okay with you if I direct this?’ Glover replied ‘Yeah, let’s go.’” In the hit movies, Glover plays a cautious family man while Gibson is an adrenaline junkie with a death wish.…

KILLER whales really do rule the oceans! Scientists have recently discovered the apex predators feed on live blue whales — the largest mammals in world history — by biting off their dorsal fins so they can’t maneuver! QUEEN ELIZABETH’s food product line doesn’t cut the mustard, but Her Majesty is peddling ten ounces of ketchup made from tomatoes grown on Sandringham Estate for $9 a pop! A 30-ounce name-brand bottle of the condiment costs about $4 at the supermarket. Royal rip-off? FLORIDA takes its vanity license plates very seriously. State officials just announced they rejected 500 requests for tasteless personalized tags including, “I FART,” “T BUNDY,” “WTRASH,” “DRUGMAN,” “4EVER69” and “M3TH.” MELISSA BRODT discovered 1,600 baseball cards glued to a wall when she removed roof shingles used as bizarre interior decor while…

LOVELORN Liam Neeson has finally found someone special — but the Taken star sadly says the lady is already taken! Lanky Liam, 69, says his heart began pumping faster while he was in Melbourne, Australia, shooting the action movie Blacklight. “I loved Melbourne,” he says. “I made a couple of pals. I fell in love, but she was taken!” The hunky heartthrob has hardly dated since the love of his life — wife Natasha Richardson — died at 45 after hitting her head in a beginner’s ski class in 2009. They shared two sons, Micheál, 26, and Daniel, 25. In 2016, Liam set the internet on fire by announcing he had an “incredibly famous” ladylove — and had to walk it back as “a joke” to douse the flames!…

NBC’s star sportscaster Bob Costas confesses he began gaining expertise on athletics as a bookie in high school! The 69-year-old announcing vet says his dad gambled and would call a bookie and have “thousands of dollars riding in a given day.” His dad’s big bets and his boyhood love of playing sports led to him running a sports book at age 15 in his Queens, N.Y., high school. One day in 1968, his dad found $120 — about $1,000 today — in his dresser with betting sheets saying: “Joey bet on the Jets, Sam bet on the Browns.” His dad scolded him, saying: “I can’t stop” betting and warned, “Don’t start.” Costas says, “I knew by the tone of his voice, and the look in his eye, there would be…

PRESIDENT Joe Biden’s son Hunter is quaking in his boots — terrified a new tell-all book by ex-wife Kathleen Buhle will expose his family’s darkest personal and financial secrets, insiders say. For now, Kathleen’s proclaiming her memoir — due in June — will rip the lid off the 52-year-old first son’s sordid past addiction to drugs, prostitutes and strip clubs that wrecked their marriage. But sources say he’s worried she’ll go much further — and embroil his father in scandal. “He’s scared and should be,” says a source. “A lot of it he doesn’t remember because he was so high on drugs or passed out cold. But Kathleen does, and word is she’s telling it like it is. “He’s depressed and the few friends he has left are worried he’ll…

Manly Succession patriarch BRIAN COX, 75, is obviously still enchanted by his Troy castmate BRAD PITT’s mesmerizing good looks in a titillating toga! Cox confesses he was “agog” after catching Brad “without pants” when he appeared for a scene in the 2004 Trojan war epic wrapped in the cloth costume. Says Cox, “My jaw was down because he was so stunningly beautiful. I mean, I’m straight, but I just thought, ‘Wow! My God, this guy is stunning.’” Brian, who played Pitt’s boss King Agamemnon, recalls thinking, “What chance does one have sharing the screen with this beautiful, beautiful man?” Imagine how ROSE BYRNE, now 42, must have felt — she spent a whole day doing sex scenes with Brad, who’d packed on over 30 pounds of pure muscle to play…

BUSTY Tori Spelling, whose bizarre boobs have often been a butt of internet jokes, says she’s going to replace her “expired” breast implants — and make them even BIGGER! “I got them when I was really young. And I didn’t know that at a certain point they would have an expiration,” she explains. “I didn’t know you would have to do it again.” The FDA announced in 2011 women with silicone implants are at risk for complications the longer they keep them — and that’s why the 48-year-old Beverly Hills, 90210 alum says she’s overhauling her hooters “for health reasons.” She’s terrified her five children with husband Dean Mc-Dermott will lose their mom! “After needing to for many years I’m finally addressing my expired and recalled implants,” she says — insisting…

SKIRT-CHASER Bill Gates shouldn’t count on former wife Melinda to funnel her fortune into the charity they founded before she kicked him to the curb after 27 years of marriage! Sources claim the cheating tech tycoon’s scorned ex won’t give most of her money to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation — going back on an earlier pledge. Instead, insiders say the 57-year-old philanthropist, who pocketed a $65 billion settlement in 2021, will focus on organizations of her own choosing.…

DEADLY COVID-19 will continue to ravage the planet well into the next century — and will never disappear, warns a top epidemiologist. Virology expert Dr. Gregory Poland, of the renowned Mayo Clinic, says “we’re not going to eradicate” the killer bug. Some scientists have expressed hope coronavirus is on the wane, given the recent Omicron mutation’s more mild symptoms. But Poland says the disease has shown a disturbing ability to infect animals, mutate and transmit across species — meaning it could circulate indefinitely! “Your great-great-great-grandchildren will still be getting immunized against coronavirus,” he predicts. “How can I even say such a thing? If you got your flu vaccine this fall, you were immunized against a strain of influenza that showed up in 1918 and caused a pandemic.”…

FOOD Network star Ree Drummond showed she really is The Pioneer Woman when she rescued her hubby, Ladd, from an icy pond! The mini-drama happened when Ladd tried to break the ice on their Oklahoma ranch and his truck “got stuck in the pond,” he says. “I was trying to put my front tires in. I got a little too far in the pond.” Last spring Ree saved Ladd when he broke his neck after being kicked in the head by a cow. This time Ladd confessed he called “the most capable person I know” — HER — to rescue him from the ice. That explains why they’re married 25 years.…

NOVELIST Lee Child claims fans griped about tiny Tom Cruise portraying his crime-fighting military man Jack Reacher in two thrillers! Child, 67, insists he’s a fan of Tom’s work. But when the character was recast for the new Amazon series Reacher, the writer says he was happy 6-foot-2 bruiser Alan Ritchson, 37, was tapped to play the hero — instead of the 5-foot-7 Mission: Impossible performer, 59. In Child’s books, Reacher is described as “extremely tall, extremely broad, long-armed and long-legged,” with “hands the size of dinner plates.” And Child reasons, “Reacher has got to scare people, and you can do that so much easier with one glance of this huge animal rather than a normalsized actor.”…

SUPER-SIZED songbird Lizzo has fired a new salvo at fat shamers by posting a nude clip with words from an untitled song about “unconditionally loving one another.” The 5-foot-10 Truth Hurts songbird, who’s weighed as much as 308 pounds, poses in the buff with the words: “If you love me, you love all of me. You don’t get to pick and choose.” While some have slammed her for pushing unhealthy ideas about weight and obesity, the 33-year-old singer brags about her roly-poly shape and recently boasted: “I gained weight … I look TF GOODT.”…

SEX-swapper Caitlyn Jenner is all woman — launching a Formula One racing team with female drivers! Following her 1976 Olympics decathlon gold medal as a man named Bruce, she competed in Camel GT road racing and won the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race at the Long Island Grand Prix in 1979 and 1982 — also as a dude. Now, she’s prepping a team of gal drivers for the W Series starting in May. W Series CEO Catherine Bond Muir says the “sky is the limit” for Caitlyn’s team since they have “one of the world’s greatest athletes supporting them.”…

Comedian CHRIS HARDWICK, 50, and wife heiress/actress LYDIA HEARST, 37, welcomed their first baby, daughter DIMITY FACENTE HEARST-HARDWICK. That makes Lydia’s mom, PATTY HEARST, a new grandma! Country star MORGAN WALLEN, 26, has been secretly dating ARMIE HAMMER’s ex-girlfriend, PAIGE LORENZE, 24, for a year. The singer has a one-year-old son, Indigo, with ex-fiancée KATIE SMITH. SIENNA MILLER, 40, is having a blast in the Big Apple. Days after dropping jaws by locking lips with model CARA DELEVINGNE, 29, at a bar, the star was spotted on a date with actor OLI GREEN, 25. LUCY LIU, 53, will star in the limited TV series thriller Later, based on STEPHEN KING’s bestselling novel. It’s about a single mom with a kid who can talk to the dead and gets in over…

ROCK legend Rod Stewart is being ravaged by cancer again, medical experts believe. After examining photographs of an angry lesion near the 77-year-old Do Ya Think I’m Sexy singer’s ear, New York–based internist Dr. Stuart Fischer declares, “That’s definitely a skin cancer. It needs immediate treatment. Waiting too long could mean the cancer will spread to surrounding tissues, which would require invasive surgery, scarring his face forever.” Another doctor believes Rod’s face already shows indications of radical treatment. “His cheek exhibits signs of scarring from radiation,” says longevity expert Dr. Gabe Mirkin, who adds Stewart’s history of thyroid and prostate cancer clouds his future. The Maggie May icon admits to having “a touch” of thyroid cancer. More troubling, he endured three months of “intensive radiation” treatment for an aggressive form…

A SMOKEY and the Bandit car was just bought for a whopping $495,000 — but it’s a fake! While the 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am sold at the Barrett-Jackson’s Scottsdale 2022 auction is a dead-ringer for the V8 muscle car driven by Burt Reynolds in the hit 1977 hit flick, this one never appeared in the film. Instead, it was a gift to Burt, who died at 82 of a heart attack in 2018, and does have his signature on the glove box!…

ARIES March 21 - April 20 Active Rams are feeling cooped up as an obligation forces you to stay close to home. The cosmos says use this downtime to reflect on new possibilities. A chance for love is starred midweek — be open to someone who isn’t your type. Saturday, don’t be tempted to blow the budget on a shiny trinket. GEMINI May 22 - June 21 Twins have an uncanny gift for imaginative enterprises while Neptune pairs with Saturn. Follow your heart and ignore naysayers — this will be a progressive lifestyle overhaul. Lotto luck or a small windfall may arrive Saturday. Carefully investing your winnings could change your future forever. LEO July 23 - Aug. 23 Things get real in romance or work this week, as Venus in…

BATMAN Ben Affleck is fuming with jealousy over his galpal Jennifer Lopez flirting up a storm with her hunky young music partner Maluma, sources tattle. The 49-year-old actor-director and 52-year-old Jenny from the Block have been going strong since they rekindled their romance last year — but Jennifer’s recent promotional tour with the Colombian crooner is causing drama, spies say. “It was only a three-or four-day trip but J.Lo was with Maluma a lot and they’ve got a real connection, which gets under Ben’s skin,” spills a source. “They’re very touchy-feely, have all these inside jokes and J.Lo goes on about him like he’s some type of artistic genius who’s got it all and how lucky his girlfriend is.” Jennifer and the 28-year-old singer costar in the new romantic comedy…