TMZ.com Home

Britney Spears can rest a little easier after the ugly incident in which her housekeeper accused her of battery ... we've learned the singer will NOT be charged with a crime.

The Ventura County District Attorney's Office tells TMZ ... prosecutors decided NOT to file any criminal charges against Britney for misdemeanor battery.

The D.A. says the office declined to file charges "based on insufficient evidence that a crime had occurred and the lack of injury to the housekeeper or significant damage to the phone."

Britney's attorney, Mathew Rosengart, tells us "As I have previously-stated, this was nothing more than sensationalized-tabloid fodder -- an overblown 'he said, she said' regarding a cell phone. If this involved Jane Doe rather than Britney Spears it would not have been pursued or covered at all."

He continues, "Anyone can make an accusation but this should never have made it this far and we are glad the DA’s Office has done the right thing. Sadly, it is apparent that some have learned nothing from the past, and we sincerely hope the media and others will be more respectful of Ms. Spears in the future."

We broke the story ... one of Britney's longtime housekeepers accused her of battery during an argument over Brit's dogs, with the housekeeper claiming Britney slapped her phone out of her hands.

As we reported, the housekeeper called deputies to Britney's home, but later went to a Ventura County Sheriff's station to file a report, and the Sheriff's Dept. launched an investigation.

As we first told you ... Britney's dogs were taken to a vet after her dog sitter and housekeeper believed the pets were being neglected ... and that's what triggered the confrontation between Britney and her housekeeper.

The Ventura County Sheriff's Dept. wrapped up its investigation into Britney's housekeeper's claim and forwarded its findings to the Ventura County District Attorney's Office.

We were told the case basically boiled down to Brit's word against the housekeeper's story -- the housekeeper claims Britney struck her in the arm, while Britney claims all she did was swipe the phone out of her hand.

We're told the Sheriff didn't know which version was true, and the case was ultimately forwarded on to the D.A. to make the final call.

As we reported, our Britney sources were confident nothing would come of the allegations ... and ultimately that's what happened.

Kevin O'Leary and Kevin Harrington allegedly scammed tons of entrepreneurs out of hundreds of thousands of dollars ... according to claims in a new lawsuit.

The "Shark Tank" stars are being sued by 20 people who claim O'Leary and Harrington each played roles in what they say was a brazen scam to defraud hard-working entrepreneurs.

According to the lawsuit, obtained by TMZ, O'Leary and Harrington steered investors and entrepreneurs to hire one of two companies, InventureX or Ideazon, to handle crowdfunding for their startups.

In the suit, the folks who claim they got scammed say they were promised help raising funds for the businesses and some say the prospect of appearing on "Shark Tank" was dangled in front of them ... but they say once they paid money to the companies endorsed by "Shark Tank" stars, they got little to nothing in return, aside from a bill.

What's more, the suit claims the crowdfunding companies O'Leary allegedly endorsed might not even exist at all and suspect it may be a big "predatory fraud scheme.”

While 20 people are suing O'Leary and Harrington, those folks claim they are just one small faction of hundreds, if not thousands, of folks who fell victim to the scam.

We reached out to reps for "Shark Tank" ... so far, no word back.

Joe Rogan's contracted COVID-19 -- something he's spent countless hours talking about -- but says he's doing better thanks to a laundry list of meds ... but still has to cancel an upcoming show.

The famous podcast host, UFC commentator, conspiracy theorist and hot-take-giver says he got home from being on the road Saturday and felt like hell, so he quarantined from his family and got tested for the coronavirus.

Sure enough, he has COVID, so Rogan says he immediately began consuming all the modern medicine he could get his hands on -- seriously, listen to what he claims he took -- to combat the virus ... and it worked.

Joe says after 3 days on all those meds, he feels great ... but he's canceling his upcoming show in Nashville out of caution and rescheduling for late October.

As you may know ... Rogan's provided many controversial takes on COVID and the vaccine, stating in April that young, healthy people don't necessarily need to get it. This resulted in some pushback from Dr. Fauci, and Joe walked his comments back later ... saying he's not anti-vaxx, and that he is a moron.

More recently, Rogan's railed on vaccine mandates, alleging they are pushing the U.S. "closer to dictatorship." His inoculation status remains unclear, but if one thing's for certain ... he'll probably talk more about it on his podcast soon.

NeNe Leakes' husband, Gregg, has died ... this after an on-and-off battle with cancer.

The 'RHOA' star's hubby of over 20 years passed away Wednesday -- this according to a family rep. They say, "Today the Leakes family is in deep pain with a broken heart. After a long battle with cancer, Gregg Leakes has passed away peacefully in his home surrounded by all of his children, very close loved ones and wife Nene Leakes."

The rep adds, "We ask that you pray for peace and strength over their family & allow them to mourn in private during this very very difficult time."

Sources close to the family tell TMZ there won't be a funeral -- which is at Gregg's request. We're told he wanted to be cremated, and NeNe and co. are honoring that wish. Our sources do say, however, that there will be a celebration of life ceremony some point down the road.

Gregg was featured on pretty much all the season for 'Real Housewives' that NeNe appeared on before bowing out of the franchise entirely last year. His colon cancer diagnosis was covered at length on the series ... and it was incredibly emotional watching him battle.

Gregg and NeNe first got hitched in 1997 but divorced in 2011. However, a couple years later -- in 2013 -- they said "I do" once more ... and have been happily married ever since. The couple shares their son, Brent, who's in his 20s -- and also have kids from previous relationships. Despite that though ... they were quite the blended family, usually putting on a united front while cameras rolled.

The news of Gregg's passing was something NeNe alluded to just over the weekend -- a video of her at a lounge in Georgia went viral ... because she called out some clubgoer who gave her a hard time for not publicly wishing them a happy birthday over the microphone.

She ended up giving the birthday shout-out, but not before letting them know Gregg was on his death bed at home ... and that she and her fam were going through a very hard time.

RHOA honcho, Andy Cohen, also commented on Gregg's death, sending "love and strength" to NeNe -- who he has not always had the best relationship with.

Gregg was 66.

Ex-congressman Joseph Kennedy III is outraged at the looming release of the man who killed his grandfather, Robert F. Kennedy ... standing in square opposition to two of RFK's own children.

Joe put out a statement Wednesday after last week's news that assassin Sirhan Sirhan was getting out of prison after 53 years. It's pretty scathing ... he says flatly, Sirhan doesn't deserve it.

He writes, "I echo the anger and heartache of my father, a majority of his siblings, and my grandmother at the California Parole Board's recent recommendation. For our family, there has been no apology, no acceptance of responsibility, and no remorse."

JKIII adds this ... "For our country, there has been no justification for letting the perpetrator of one of our most devastating political assassinations walk free."

Joe goes on to explain the U.S. cannot accept violence as an answer to political disagreement ... which he suggests is what led to Sirhan killing Bobby all those years ago. He adds he's all for rehabilitation of criminals, but for those who skirt responsibility -- like Sirhan  -- Joe says "there should be no accommodation."

It's a pretty fierce take on the strong likelihood that the 77-year-old will walk free soon. He's also standing against Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Douglas Kennedy -- two of RFK's sons who've come out in support of SS's release.

We've all been there ... pulling up to McDonald's for a McFlurry late at night only to discover the machine is broken -- AGAIN. Enter the Federal Trade Commission.

The FTC is looking into the case of those pesky machines, and why they constantly go down.

The problem has been the butt of late-night jokes. Wendy's and Jack in the Box have even targeted Mickey Dees on social media. The problem's been so persistent ... there's a website dubbed McBroken ... which tracks ice cream machine outages across the country.

The problem? McDonald's ice cream machines are overly complicated to operate and incredibly difficult to clean ... often making them susceptible to breaking down. According to the Wall Street Journal ... the machines require a nightly automated heat-cleaning cycle that can last up to 4 hours to get rid of the bacteria.

And, when the cleaning cycle fails, the machines become useless until a repairman comes along. That takes time, and sometimes employees take matters into their own hands.

But, the FTC's apparently had enough ... it sent a letter to franchisees earlier this summer. In the letter, obtained by the WSJ, the agency wants to know how McDonald's reviews suppliers and equipment, including the ice cream machines.

Colton Underwood appears to have ventured into the dating waters after coming out as gay ... and the water is fine.

The former 'Bachelor' has been in Hawaii at the Four Seasons in Maui with a mystery man -- enjoying the beach and packing on the PDA -- and TMZ's solved the mystery ... Colton's new beau is Jordan C. Brown.

Jordan is very involved in politics, having worked on John Kerry's presidential campaign in 2004 and also advising on Barack Obama's campaigns in both 2008 and 2012 ... helping fundraise. He also worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.

It's unclear how long the 2 have been hanging out, but we know they were both part of a group including Colton's pal, Olympian Gus Kenworthy, that took a trip to Provincetown, MA back in June ... though they weren't photographed together.

The photos tell the story. Colton looks relaxed and happy, so it seems he's finding his way.

Lanny Cordola is on a life-saving mission to help some of his young female guitar students left behind in Afghanistan ... and the stakes are life and death.

The legendary rocker talked to us on "TMZ Live" Wednesday about his efforts of late to help 12 girls -- not to mention their families and loved ones -- flee Taliban-controlled Afghanistan ... which is even more difficult now that the U.S. is completely gone.

These are pupils of his, BTW -- ones who were part of his Miraculous Love Kids foundation -- an org. he started to help teach music to children in war-torn parts of the world.

As you can imagine -- and as Lanny tells us plainly here -- the situation is dire ... and these girls are in hiding at the moment as they try and flee the country with the help of LC and others working behind the scenes, and across the border in Pakistan -- where he is now.

Lanny tells us the Taliban has destroyed a facility they used in Afghanistan to teach/play music -- blowing out the windows of the building and clearing the place out. They're not too fond of those types of teachings, especially if females are involved.

That's not deterring Larry though, who's determined to bring the rescue mission to a close -- and it sounds like that might happen any day now ... following some recent failed attempts. FYI ... there's another celeb who's been involved with the MLK music program -- and Lanny says he's donated generously in the past to make these girls feel like true rock stars.

Speaking of donations ... the rock community appears to be rallying around Lanny's cause here. Tom Morello of RATM asked for donations to miraculouslovekids.org to help fund what Lanny's trying to do here -- and it sounds like they could still use the help, even now.

Simone Biles has proven yet again that her G.O.A.T. status extends far off the gymnastics floor ... 'cause she just helped gift her Olympics teammate Suni Lee's father with a new wheelchair -- and the amazing gesture was all captured on video.

24-year-old Biles surprised Suni's dad, John, on the "Today" show on Wednesday with the present ... revealing a new, state-of-art electronic ride with a sweet video message.

"Hi, Mr. Lee, it's Simone," Biles told John before showing him the present. "I love your daughter, Suni, so much and I know how much she loves you."

"You have done so much for her so I reached out to my friends at the 'Today' show to see if we could do something special for you. Hope you like it!"

John -- who was paralyzed from the chest down in 2019 after falling off a ladder -- was thrilled with the gift ... shouting, "Oh, wow!" when he first put his eyes on it.

The new wheels are a significant upgrade from John's manually operated wheelchair ... with the "Today" show saying the souped-up ride will eventually be custom-fitted for all his needs.

John said the new chair with make his and his family's life much easier ... adding, "This is amazing. Thank you, guys!"

Kourtney Kardashian is not letting Scott Disick rain on her PDA parade with Travis Barker ... because the couple took their traveling PDA show to the French Mouse House.

The lovebirds are in France after making out in pretty much every nook and cranny of Italy, and this time they're cuddling and kissing at Disneyland Paris.

Kourt and Trav traded a gondola ride in Venice for a boat ride on "It's a Small World" ... but there was one constant ... lots of smooching.

Kourtney got the full Disney experience too ... wearing some Minnie Mouse ears.

The Disneyland trip comes on the heels of a romantic trek through Italy, which seems to have gotten to Kourt's ex.

As we reported ... Scott shaded Kourtney over her Italian PDA in a DM exchange with her other ex, Younes Bendjima, but YB wasn't having it, and neither was Kourt.

She seemed to fire back at Scott on social media, with all signs pointing to her saying he treated her badly when they were together.

The Beverly Hills police are being sued over allegations it targeted almost nothing but black people on Rodeo Drive to arrest ... in some cases, for minor infractions.

Renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump claims in a new lawsuit ... the City of Beverly Hills created a police task force to patrol the famed street for violations of law, and the result was 106 arrests ... and 105 of those taken into custody were black.  The one remaining arrestee was Latino. BTW, Crump says the Latino could have easily been mistaken as black.

The 2 named plaintiffs in the lawsuit -- Jasmine Williams and Khalil White -- say they were visiting Bev Hills a year ago and riding scooters on the sidewalk, when they were stopped by Bev Hills cops. They were handcuffed and taken into custody.  According to the suit, prosecutors dropped the case.

The lawsuit claims examples of other "crimes" for which people were arrested included roller skating, jaywalking and traffic infractions in Beverly Hills.

The lawsuit references another incident last October involving Salehe Bembury -- VP of Sneakers and Men's Footwear at Versace -- who claimed he was detained for jaywalking.

According to the suit, BHPD Captain Scott Dowling, who is also named as a defendant, directed officers "to seize, interrogate, use force, falsely arrest, and maliciously prosecute any African-Americans who traveled on Rodeo Drive" with the sole purpose of "keep[ing] out African-Americans, who were deemed as 'criminals.".

We've reached out to the Beverly Hills PD for comment, so far no word back.

We're about to find out if Olivia Jade's a real dancer ... she's joining the star-studded cast of "Dancing with the Stars."

The daughter of Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli will be back into the public eye in a big way for season 30 of the popular celebrity dance competition. We were outside the rehearsal studio Tuesday and got a woman in a visor -- who looked like Olivia -- being escorted inside.

Though the official cast will not be announced until next week, we've confirmed the woman in the visor was, in fact, Olivia. It appears her partner will be Val Chmerkovskiy.

Jade -- who was a big YouTube star well before she got embroiled in the college admissions controversy -- will join the likes of JoJo Siwa, Kenya Moore, Olympic gymnast Suni Lee and many more celebs on the upcoming season.

JoJo's making history as the first contestant to be part of a same-sex pairing, which she tells us will give her a leg up on the competition. We're almost certain her partner will be Jenna Johnson.

The family of Elijah McClain -- the unarmed Black man killed in Colorado 2 years ago during a run-in with cops -- feel they just got a measure of justice, because those involved in his death have just been indicted.

Colorado AG, Phil Weiser, announced the 32-charge indictment Wednesday against 5 people tied to McClain's 2019 detainment and subsequent medical transport -- slapping 3 Aurora PD cops (2 current, 1 former) and two Aurora Fire medics with two counts each ... manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Two of those officers -- Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt -- face additional charges ... 2nd-degree assault with the intent to cause bodily injury. The indictment comes after Weiser was tapped as a special prosecutor to investigate ... this following massive public outrage.

Weiser says he handed over his findings to a grand jury this past January -- and now, some 8 months later, it seems they've found sufficient evidence to bring these folks to trial.

You might recall ... McClain was walking home on August 24, 2019 when he was stopped by the three officers mentioned, who apparently accosted him because he seemed "suspicious" -- which one of the cops can be heard saying in since-released body cam footage.

Before long, things escalated ... and the cops had McClain in a carotid hold, among others for quite a while. He passed out during the struggle -- and the medics are alleged to have administered a lethal dose of ketamine, which prosecutors believe kill him.

The incident occurred well before George Floyd's case gripped the nation last year -- but was among the many high profile stories that led to mass protests for Black Lives Matter.

A woman tried pulling a fast one by allegedly passing off a phony vaccine card to get around Hawaii's strict COVID protocol -- but she got caught red-handed ... thanks to a major typo.

24-year-old Chloe Mrozak of Illinois was arrested and booked last week for presenting fraudulent vaccination documents during a trip to the islands. She was actually successful in getting there with what cops call a bogus vax card.

Officials caught on to her, though, in part because she apparently misspelled Moderna ... writing in "Maderna" instead, not once but TWICE! Her card suggested she'd gotten the jabs in Delaware -- courtesy of a health org called the NRA. So yeah, the jig was up pretty fast.

Special agents coordinated to catch Mrozak on her way back to the mainland ... and sure enough, on August 28, they tracked her down at the airport in Honolulu, and took her in. Reports say officials found no evidence she'd actually been inoculated.

As for why she mighta gone to these lengths -- the operating theory is that she didn't wanna deal with Hawaii's mandatory 10-day quarantine rule for the unvaccinated.

If Kourtney Kardashian is not dragging Scott Disick over the coals, she's sure making it seem that way, because everything about her post early Wednesday morning points to her ex.

Kourtney posted this image ... 2 people locked in a kiss, with the caption ... "Relax ... This is going to hurt FOREVER" -- followed by, "HOW TO GET OVER SOMEONE who treated you BADLY."

It's more than a coincidence ... the kiss mimics Kourtney/Travis's passionate kiss on a boat in Italy -- a kiss that triggered Scott.

As we reported, Scott saw the pic and sent a DM to Kourtney's other ex, Younes Bendjima, shading Kourtney for the PDA display. Younes wasn't having it, and apparently nor was Kourtney.

It's puzzling ... when Kourtney and Scott split it seemed amicable, and they appear to be co-parenting without big problems. There was a time when Scott was off the rails and Kourtney was concerned about him being around their 3 kids, but that seemed to be in the rearview.

As for Kourtney and Travis, they've left Italy for Paris, where they spent Tuesday at Disneyland.

Abortion rights are now squarely on the chopping block after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to stop the most restrictive anti-abortion law in the country from going into effect.

The Texas law prohibits abortions after the 6th week of pregnancy. As you know, many/most women don't even know they're pregnant during the first 6 weeks. What's more, if an abortion is performed after the 6th week, any citizen in the country -- not just Texas, but the entire country -- can sue anyone who helps facilitate the abortion for $10,000 plus attorney's fees.

That means someone could sue not only the clinic, but the Uber driver who took the woman to the facility, a friend who made a call to the clinic on the woman's behalf, a counselor who advised the woman, the spouse of the woman, etc.

The Supreme Court was asked to put the law on ice Tuesday night, before it went into effect at midnight, but SCOTUS was silent ... and in this case, silence speaks volumes. If the justices didn't feel this law squarely violated Roe vs. Wade, it's a loud, screaming signal about their feelings toward Roe.

There are 5 justices -- and possibly 6 -- who have strongly indicated they would be inclined to overturning Roe, and they will have a shot at that soon, because a Mississippi anti-abortion law is a direct challenge to the 1973 precedent that gives women the right to an abortion.