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Amber Heard is out with the old, in with the new when it comes to her legal representation -- scrapping a key attorney on her team ... and bringing in the big guns.

The actress, who is currently appealing the Johnny Depp verdict, announced Monday that she's hired the law firm Ballard Spahr as she ventures into an appellate court ... which she apparently thought warranted a fresh set of eyes to review the case as well as evidence.

The lead attorneys from the firm that are coming on ... David L. Axelrod (not the Obama/CNN guy) and Jay Ward Brown -- both of whom successfully defended the NYT against a defamation suit recently brought by Sarah Palin ... a First Amendment case, their specialty.

Amber is keeping Ben Rottenborn onboard with the addition of Axelrod and Brown -- but she is losing one lawyer ... Ms. Elaine Bredehoft, who was lead counsel in the trial. Her departure from the team isn't really explained beyond simply saying she's stepping down.

EB says it's the perfect time to "pass the baton" and that she's done her due diligence in making sure the new team is up to speed. Frankly, Elaine took a bit of a thrashing, metaphorically, during her representation -- that seems to be the consensus anyway.

As for the new boys ... DLA and JWB say, "We welcome the opportunity to represent Ms. Heard in this appeal as it is a case with important First Amendment implications for every America." They add they're confident the appellate court will interpret the law in their favor and clear AH's name.

A rep for Amber says, "When it comes to protecting the fundamental right of Freedom of Speech, we look at the jury’s decision -- to paraphrase a famous quote -- not 'as the beginning of the end, but merely the end of the beginning.' A different court warrants different representation, particularly as so much new evidence is now coming to light."

Prince Harry's royal jewels must be priceless ... because the auction for the underwear from his strip billiards game in Sin City is already at a quarter million bucks.

The bidding opened Thursday, on the heels of the 10-year anniversary of Harry's wild night in Vegas, with ex-stripper Carrie Royale producing the goods ... the Prince's black undies from his memorable night in a high roller's suite.

It only took a few minutes for the bidding to skyrocket ... a $10,000 opening bid rose to $16k before a strip club owner from San Diego placed a call-in bid of $250k. That's not a typo ... it went from $16k to $250k!

Video from the live auction shows Carrie, dressed in a black cocktail dress, and some other exotic dancers going crazy when the big bid came through.

The $250k bidder, Dino, says he plans to create a shrine to Harry's undies if he ends up winning the auction. Carrie believes the winning bid could reach as high as $1 million, and online bidding remains open until Sept. 30 or when the auction reaches $1 mil, whichever comes first.

The live portion of the auction went down at Larry Flynt's Hustler Club, where Carrie claims Prince Harry dropped by during his wild time in Vegas.

Remember ... Harry stripped down to his birthday suit playing billiards in a Vegas suite back in August 2012, and Carrie claims she snatched the discarded undies.

Bryce Dallas Howard claims she got the short end of the stick for the 'Jurassic World' trilogy, making far less money than Chris Pratt despite being co-leads ... but that didn't stop him from making sure they got equal pay outside their film contract.

Initial reports back in 2018 showed Chris took home $10M to Bryce's $8M for the sequel, "Fallen Kingdom" ... but Bryce says she was actually paid "so much less," than the reported estimate, in an interview with Insider.

Bryce says she was at a "great disadvantage" back in 2014 when negotiations began for the blockbuster series -- adding, "unfortunately, you have to sign up for three movies and so your deals are set."

Chris, however, was a bigger star than Bryce at the beginning of the trilogy, having already starred in "Guardians of the Galaxy."

But, she claims Chris fought for her outside their 3-movie deal ... telling her he'll handle the negotiation for her when it came to things like spin off games or theme park rides -- making sure they both walked away with equal pay.

Brittney Griner is fighting back in her drug case in Russia -- formally filing an appeal of her conviction in the foreign country, days after she was sentenced to 9 years behind bars there.

Griner's attorney confirmed the filing to CNN on Monday. It's not immediately known what the grounds of the appeal are, or when it will be heard in court.

The move, though, was expected -- after Griner was convicted and sentenced on Aug. 4. The WNBA superstar admitted to having hashish oil in her luggage at a Moscow airport, but she told a courtroom she packed it inadvertently and had no intentions at all of breaking the law.

Regardless of the appeal process, the U.S. -- which has called Griner wrongfully detained -- is continuing attempts to strike a prisoner swap deal with Russia in order to bring the 31-year-old home.

"I call on Russia to release her immediately so she can be with her wife, loved ones, friends and teammates," Biden said following her conviction earlier this month.

"My administration will continue to work tirelessly and pursue every possible avenue to bring Brittney and Paul Whelan home safely as soon as possible."

Trey Songz has an ally in his corner when it comes to claims of sexual assault against him -- a woman testified an attorney for Songz's alleged victim offered her up to $200,000 to change her story and make Trey the bad guy ... a claim the attorney denies.

If you haven't followed along, Trey's in the middle of a sexual assault lawsuit filed by a woman named Jauhara Jeffries -- who says he violated her at a 2017 New Year's Eve party in Miami.

We've obtained a transcript from a recent court hearing in the case, where a woman named Mariah Thielen testified she met with Jeffries' attorney, Ariel Mitchell, in April 2021 at a bar in Miami. Thielen says Mitchell smelled like weed during the meeting, and was carrying a gun.

According to the transcript, Thielen -- who was with Jeffries the night of Trey's alleged assault -- says Mitchell offered to pay between $100k-$200k if she'd lie and say she witnessed Trey sexually assault Jeffries ... and claim that Trey assaulted her too. Mitchell allegedly said she was trying to paint Trey as "the next R. Kelly."

Thielen says Mitchell's plan was to take her allegations to Trey's team in hopes of coming to a monetary settlement, and her lies would help to make that amount larger ... again, this according to the transcript.

Thielen claims she turned the offer down -- saying she wouldn't have lied for even $10 million -- and reported the meeting to Trey's legal team a short time later.

Mitchell denies the claims, telling us, "We’re highly confident and certain the court will find the witness committed perjury. Parties are still awaiting the judges' further instructions on how to proceed given the witness’s inconsistent testimony during the hearing."

Mitchell's partner, George Vrabeck, withdrew from the case, stating there was "multiple grounds for withdrawal" that existed under the Florida Rules for Professional Conduct ... but Mitchell says that's only because, "He will be representing me against the parties involved in this disgraceful motion brought by Trey Songz and his representatives."

Make some room in Cooperstown for Justin Crawford in about two decades -- 'cause Johnny Damon says the Philadelphia Phillies' top draft pick is about to have a MONSTER MLB career!!

Damon -- who used to play against Justin's father, Carl Crawford, in The Show -- made the guarantee to TMZ Sports while out at an event in NYC earlier this month.

"He'll probably steal 500 bases," Damon said of Justin, "hit a couple hundred home runs. Just be a menace to his opponents throughout the years."

Justin was officially taken by the Phils with the #17 overall pick in last month's MLB draft -- and because of his skill set and famous father pedigree, everyone's assuming he's got a bright future ahead of him.

But, Damon, who had to try to get Carl off the base paths for years when the two were AL East rivals in the early 2000s, took it one step further -- and said he's expecting flat-out, Hall-off-Fame-level greatness from the 18-year-old.

"I'm happy for Carl," Johnny said. "And I know his son is going to have a great Major League career."

"Outer Banks" star Chase Stokes is making a plea to get folks to stop drinking and driving after his stunt double was tragically killed in a hit-and-run car crash.

We caught up with Chase at LAX Friday, and he opened up about the devastating loss of 22-year-old Alexander 'AJ' Jennings. Chase tells us he's still processing the tragic loss, adding it's been tough on the entire cast.

TMZ broke the story ... AJ was killed on July 5 in a hit-in-run crash in South Carolina ... where "Outer Banks" was shooting season 3.

While Chase is completely heartbroken, he hopes this will be a HUGE lesson to other folks on the road. He says he's a big believer in people taking responsibility for their own actions ... saying drinking and driving is a downright stupid decision with real consequences.

American actress Nikki Blonsky was just 18 years old when she was cast as Tracy Turnblad -- the positive and optimistic high school student who does not necessarily fit in with the popular kids -- in the 2007 film 'Hairspray.'

Nikki shared the big screen with John Travolta as a laundry business owner and Tracy's mother, Edna Turnblad, Zac Efron as the talented and cocky lead male dancer, Link Larkin, Amanda Bynes as Tracy's best friend, Penny Lou Pingleton, and Queen Latifah as a radio DJ, Motormouth Maybelle.

A famous walrus in Norway has been killed after the government there thought it was getting a little too close for comfort when it came to human contact.

The Director General at the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries announced Sunday that Freya -- the 1,300 pound walrus in question -- was euthanized after officials deemed its habits of approaching humans and their boats were becoming too dangerous and a risk to the public.

Frank Bakke-Jensen, the honcho, says, "The decision to euthanize the walrus was made based on an overall assessment of the continued threat to human safety."

Freya made a splash this summer after flopping itself into boats near the Oslo Fjord -- where they'd often be docked. In some cases, she partially sank the vessels ... and in others, she was able to catch a little tan in the sun, minding her own business as people looked on.

It might be those same people who are to blame for this, so say Norwegian officials. Their rationale to putting the animal down has been chalked up to the massive crowds that would form around Freya whenever she'd come near -- which is rare for walruses.

Spectators would approach and take selfies, something the government says was towing the line of potential harm -- and which caused officials to warn everyone to stay away.

Dwayne Johnson has comic nerds confused after suggesting it'd be wrong to include his DC character alongside another hero in the same movie ... without getting his own movie first.

The Rock revealed to Vanity Fair he did a little lobbying with WB to make sure 'Black Adam' would be its own standalone film before any potential blending with 'Shazam!' -- a separate character played by Zachary Levi, who Adam actually faces off with in the source material.

VF writes that Black Adam, played by Dwayne, was actually set to be in the first 'Shazam!' movie in 2019, as he was initially written into the script as the big bad opposite Levi.

The Rock says when he saw this, though, upon first being approached for the project ... he expressed his reservations -- recounting, "When the first draft of the movie came to us, it was a combination of Black Adam and Shazam: Two origin stories in one movie."

He adds, "Now that was the goal -- so it wasn’t a complete surprise. But when I read that, I just knew in my gut, 'We can’t make this movie like this. We would be doing Black Adam an incredible disservice.' It would’ve been fine for Shazam having two origin stories converge in one movie, but not good for Black Adam." Dwayne made some calls, and got his way.

DJ doesn't elaborate on why he thinks it'd be a disservice ... and that's where the DC fandom is kicking in. In their eyes, it makes complete sense to introduce Black Adam in a 'Shazam!' movie -- even from the get-go -- seeing how BA is literally a known nemesis.

That's not what the 'Shazam!' films have done thus far ... in both the OG/forthcoming sequel, there are other bad guys Shazam is fighting, although Black Adam has been teased. Eventually, they'll cross paths ... but critics think it's strange Dwayne insisted on having his outing to kickstart things. Frankly, a Carly Simon song is coming to mind for some over this.

The argument ... The Rock's ego might be showing by admitting he wanted the character to be bigger than WB had, perhaps, initially intended -- especially if he was going to play him.

In Dwayne's defense ... all he did was chirp up on what he thought would be best, and clearly Warner thought that was the right way to go -- seeing how they actually pivoted and did a whole 'Black Adam' flick like DJ suggested, which is coming out later this fall. And besides, it's all headed for a big mashup anyway down the line ... so who cares?

Kim Kardashian is a single woman again ... and she seems to want everyone to know it.

The reality star took to IG this weekend with what can only be described as good old-fashioned thirst traps -- posting a ton of shots of herself in a gym, with a barely-there outfit that's showing off all her famous curves. The pics were taken by a photog named Indiana.

As you can see ... she's in there posing on/half-using some equipment -- not really trying to get a workout, but definitely looking good, and certainly fit. Her caption reads, "I do my own heavy lifting."

KK also posted a video of this same shoot a day prior -- and in it, she's got Ciara's song "Paint It, Black" overlaying the grainy footage. There, she is also striking poses, only this time with the camera rolling ... filming herself as well. Indeed ... she's just as fine in motion.

It's interesting timing, considering word of her and Pete Davidson splitting up surfaced a week and change ago. They were going strong for 9 months, but in the end ... it seems it wasn't meant to be, with reported conflicting schedules and a big age difference at play.

Unclear who broke it off, exactly, but if we're being honest ... ya gotta imagine it was Kim who ended things ... which, if true, makes this hottie flex all the more intriguing.

If the theory holds up that she dumped Pete, then this wouldn't necessarily be a look-what-you're-missing post (that wouldn't make sense). It could just be a ... here's-what-I'm-working-with post for new potential suitors -- which is kinda what she did when she and Kanye were first entering divorce. Or ... maybe she was just feeling herself. Who knows!!!

Teresa Giudice is doing her honeymoon the right way -- and in her case, that's with her banging bod on full display for all of Greece to see ... with her hubby in tow.

The 'Real Housewives' star is out in Mykonos right now enjoying a little R&R with her new groom, Luis Ruelas -- to whom she got hitched earlier this month in her native New Jersey. They're one hot couple ... and let all of the beach goers know it with a romantic stroll.

Check out this video, obtained by TMZ, which was taken Sunday morning ... you see TG and Luis hand in hand as they cruise along the sandy shore, showing a lot of skin.

As you can see, Teresa's in a hot pink two-piece bikini ... and Luis is bare-chested in red trunks. They're both in great shape, and it shows. It also seems they're just having a blast in general -- as one should on a honeymoon. Eventually, the couple took a dip in the water.

Eyewitnesses tell us that not too many people were bothering them -- it's unclear if anyone even recognized them, but all the better -- and that Teresa and Luis were showing some PDA in each other's company. These shots were taken at Principote Beach, BTW ... super nice.

It's great to see Teresa has found love again and was willing to marry. Her time with Joe Giudice, while eventful, was at times tumultuous and stressful. Now, she looks super happy.

Big Time Rush is in big time trouble -- at least on Twitter -- because users are outraged over the title of an old song, which some label as ableist ... now invoking Beyoncé and Lizzo.

Here's the deal ... the one-time boy band of the 2010s has recently reunited to put out new music -- and one of their fan fave vault songs that they're itching to release is called "PARALYZED," which has been leaked before, but never officially included on an album.

Now, they're saying they're gonna do it for real ... and have been teasing their fans with when and under what circumstances they'll do it.

On Saturday, they tweeted ... "We’re so happy to see that everyone across the globe are now able to enjoy all our music. But the real question. How badly do you want us to release PARALYZED?" They encouraged their followers to get "PARALYZED" trending before they put it out ... but so far, haven't. The track's only on Sound Cloud (in an unofficial capacity).

If you listen to it and read the lyrics ... it's a fairly straightforward, seemingly innocuous song about a girl who's got the boys stunned and frozen, AKA paralyzed, because of how attractive she is. Essentially, they're smitten ... but they're playing up the paralyzed angle.

They even stutter some of the words they're singing, and that's where things turn problematic.

Some argue the song in general is an issue and offensive to paralyzed people -- and it's here where Bey and Liz are getting roped in ... with accusations of racism flying.

Hop into the "Lizzo and Beyonce" trend right now, and you'll see all the discourse going on. Basically, some say that those who were up in arms over the female artists using the word "s***" in their songs and demanded they remove it should be doing the same for BTR.

The argument boils down to ... some in the ableist community and/or their allies are actually just racist -- because they made a big stink when 2 Black women innocently used the term -- which was popular and in regular use pre-2010s, frankly -- but when a bunch of white/white-passing dudes are more on the nose ... there seems to be crickets in terms of indignation.

Not everyone is buying that though -- because, yes, it's very accusatory and makes a lot of conclusions based on ... nothing but perceived reactions on Twitter, which is kind of silly.

The point ... some see a double standard between Lizzo/Beyonce and Big Time Rush -- and are apparently mad that there isn't more of a push to get BTR to change or nix their song entirely. Whether that double standard is actually real or not is in the eye of the beholder.

A deeply disturbing hit-and-run was captured on dashcam in Chicago -- a crime that sent several bodies flying in the air ... and left the victims laid out helplessly on the pavement.

Check out this video that surfaced online Sunday ... depicting what appears to be a relatively small crowd of people arguing/fighting in the street in the very early morning -- when, all of a sudden, a silver sedan comes zooming through the road and literally mows them down.

WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS EXTREMELY GRAPHIC, SO WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK.

When the vehicle makes contact with the group ... you can see a few of the people get flung up into the air and land on the ground. One male, wearing blue, was also struck -- but was spared the full impact of the car, and seemed to be moving on his own afterward.

Chicago PD tells TMZ ... this happened on the 7000 block of S. Jeffery Blvd near Jackson Park on the city's South Side. Four men were actually struck -- including the guy in blue -- and three of them were pronounced DOA when transported to the University of Chicago.

The other surviving member was taken to Stroger Hospital, but his condition is unknown. No one is in custody, and cops are looking for the vehicle/driver. There doesn't seem to be much of a description beyond the possible color. No further info is available at this time.

Anne Heche will be taken off life support Sunday, TMZ has learned, because organ recipients have been identified and surgeons are ready to remove and then implant.

Organ donations are considered one of the most sacred forms of medical procedures ... doctors treat the organ donor with reverence and respect, even though they are not aware of the procedure.

We're told Anne will be taken off life support early Sunday afternoon ... after which the procedure will begin.

Sources connected to Anne confirm to TMZ multiple organs will be transplanted, although they choose not to reveal specifics.

Anne was declared brain dead Friday ... which in California means the person has died, despite the fact she remained on life support with a beating heart so her organs would remain strong.

As you know by now, Anne was in a horrific car accident last Friday, when she drove at high speed into a home ... the car burst into flames and she was severely burned.

Denise Dowse, one of the stars of some iconic shows including "Insecure" and "Beverly Hills 90210" has died.

Denise lost her fight with viral meningitis Saturday and died at age 64. She had been in a coma for a week ... this after the disease caused inflammation in the membranes that encased her brain and spinal cord.

Her sister, Tracey said, "It is with a very heavy heart that I inform everyone that my sister, Denise Dowse has gone forward to meet our family in eternal life."

Denise played Vice Principal Yvonne Teasley for a decade on the OG "90210" ... and that is just one of many credits. She played Dr. Rhonda Pine on "Insecure" from 2017-2020. And there were more iconic shows in which she starred ... "Coach Carter," "Grey's Anatomy" and also appeared on "Good Trouble," "Rocket Power" and "The Guardian."

She was a staple in the 90s, appearing on "The X-Files," "Criminal Minds," "Bones," "House," "Monk," "Law and Order," "Charmed," "The Bernie Mac Show, "Moesha," "Sister, Sister" "Gilmore Girls," "Seinfeld," "ER," "Full House" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."