Celebrity Feuds

Justin Baldoni is ripping Blake Lively, claiming she cherry-picked facts for the NY Times hit piece against him ... and he's planning to do the opposite to get the truth out.

Blake just filed new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, saying Justin's attorney Bryan Freedman is trying to taint the jury pool and influence court proceedings and public perception with his comments in the media, plus an upcoming website Justin's launching.

Bryan's firing back at Blake, telling TMZ ... the motive behind the Baldoni website is to "do the exact opposite" of what he claims Blake and husband Ryan Reynolds did "when they gave provable false information to the New York Times."

Donald Trump and Gavin Newsom won't be going on vacation or downing a couple beers together anytime soon ... but, the two men are staying cordial while POTUS is in L.A. -- at least for now.

The 47th President of the United States touched down at LAX Friday afternoon to assess the damage caused by the devastating wildfires in the region ... and, the Governor of California was at the airport to meet him.

Check out the clip ... the two bitter rivals shake hands and seem to put their issues aside for a friendly conversation on the tarmac. The two politicians exchange a few brief words which appear to be genial and warm, as they engage in a tug-of-war handshake back and forth.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds want a judge to gag Justin Baldoni's lawyer ... claiming he's making false statements about the case.

The megastars filed a letter in court Tuesday ... and, in it, they ask the court to issue a protective order to stop Baldoni's lawyers -- led by Bryan Freedman -- from engaging in "improper conduct" including going on an alleged "harassing and retaliatory media campaign" against Blake and Ryan.

They say he's violating court rules that stop a lawyer from making statements to the press that are irrelevant to a case and might prejudice the jury.

Blake Lively is thrilled Justin Baldoni decided to release unedited footage from "It Ends With Us," because she says it only proves her point ... that she was visibly uncomfortable with Baldoni's advances during the scene.

Blake's legal team tells TMZ, "Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning. Every frame of the released footage corroborates, to the letter, what Ms. Lively described in Paragraph 48 of her Complaint."

They continue, "The video shows Mr. Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms. Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character."

Justin Baldoni is staying on the offensive ... attempting to shoot down Blake Lively's allegation he sexually harassed her, by releasing raw video from "It Ends With Us" that reveals some very telling conversation between the costars.

Baldoni's team dropped nearly 10 minutes of unedited footage -- including one scene where Justin and Blake are slow dancing. Blake referenced the scene in her lawsuit against Justin, and accused him of getting creepy with comments about the fragrance she was wearing.

In the video, which has both actors mic'd up, you don't see Justin making any offensive comments or actions toward Blake. We're told his team believes this completely refutes Blake's sexual harassment claim.

Heather McDonald isn't feeling sorry for either Justin Baldoni or Blake Lively amid their legal war ... blasting the two actors for duking it out in their respective lawsuits.

We caught up with the comedian outside Craig's in West Hollywood on Monday, where she gave her candid opinion on the Hollywood drama. While Heather noted the situation has made for good content for her "Juicy Scoop" podcast, she told us both Justin and Blake are clearly in the wrong.

Watch the video ... she blasted Justin as "kind of a weirdo," and said she totally believed the actor was "creepy and inappropriate" on set ... which Blake claimed in her lawsuit against her "It Ends With Us" costar and director.

Justin Baldoni's fans are sticking by him despite accusations made by Blake Lively ... stopping him to take a few pics after he left a grocery store in Hawaii.

The actor was leaving the store in Maui Saturday ... and, he nearly didn't make it to his car, 'cause a whole bunch of fans wanted photos with him -- and, Baldoni happily obliged.

Check out the video and pics ... a series of women run up to him -- taking selfies or having friends take the pics while slinging an arm around the producer and podcast host.

Kid Rock is gearing up to perform at one of Donald Trump's big inauguration events over the weekend -- but one former first lady who won't be at the inauguration is Michelle Obama -- and KR is taking a little jab at her.

The rock star was interviewed Thursday on "Jesse Watters Primetime" ... with Watters kicking things off by asking KR if Monday's inauguration was going to be his first.

KR responded no and that he heard Michelle was skipping the event, before telling a story about how he performed at Barack's 2009 inauguration despite not voting for him.

Blake Lively is not backing down from Justin Baldoni's massive legal challenge ... and she says his $400 million lawsuit is straight out of the abuser playbook.

Blake's legal team responded to Justin's lawsuit Thursday with a scathing statement, saying ... "This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim. This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender."

Lively's team says Justin and his production company are pulling out all the stops to try and "overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation against sexual harassment allegations."

Justin Baldoni is continuing his legal crusade against his "It Ends With Us" costar Blake Lively -- he and his production company just filed a massive lawsuit against Blake, her husband Ryan Reynolds and her publicist Leslie Sloane ... seeking hundreds of millions of dollars.

Justin and his company, Wayfarer Studios, which produced "It Ends With Us," filed the federal suit ripping Blake and Leslie for their alleged campaign to smear Baldoni and snatch away control of the movie ... which he directed and costarred in with Blake.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Blake was "determined to make Baldoni the real-life villain in her story" to deflect from getting publicly trashed as "tone-deaf" during the film's media tour.

Wendy Williams made many shocking claims during her interview with "The Breakfast Club" this morning, and one of the biggest stunners came when she offered her dark prediction about Diddy's fate.

It all started at the end of the 30-minute discussion when host Charlamagne tha God brought up the long-held belief the disgraced music mogul got Wendy fired back in 1998 from her HOT 97 radio gig.

Wendy did not respond directly to the accusation ... but, instead, said she looks "wild" on TV before pivoting to Diddy, bluntly saying he's gonna spend the rest of his days behind bars.

Forget the issue of Drake's street cred (just for a moment), because it's his lawyers who clearly know very little about Kendrick Lamar ... the guy who wrote the song they're suing UMG over.

A big part of Drake's 81-page defamation lawsuit over "Not Like Us" refers to the danger the diss track created for the Toronto rapper -- as the song "repeatedly suggests that violence should be used against Drake because he is a pedophile," and "the Recording repeats 'wop, wop, wop, wop' and then says Lamar will 'f**k 'em up.'"

But this is where Drake's legal team gets out over its skis, writing ... "Later, the Recording threatens that if Drake comes to Oakland, where Lamar grew up, he will not make it out alive: 'I think that Oakland show gon' be your last stop.'"

Betty White may've been known as "America's Sweetheart," but the Hollywood legend allegedly had a mean streak ... this according to fellow actress Sally Struthers.

The "All in the Family" star came out swinging against the "Golden Girls" alum during an appearance on the "Let's Talk About That" podcast ... blasting the late comedy legend as a "very passive-aggressive woman."

Per Sally, she had a less-than-enjoyable encounter working with Betty on a game show pilot.

Desus Nice says he's "heartbroken" Cam'ron and Jim Jones are ruining their Dipset legacy with their latest beef ... but he says it's all about the almighty dollar.

We got the comedian at LAX and our photog asked him about Cam'ron and Jim trading shots on podcasts and diss tracks.

Desus, who is a born and bred New Yorker, says it's sad to see the former bandmates at each other's throats ... but he's hoping some good music comes out of this beef.

1:00 PM PT -- A spokesperson for Universal Music Group tells TMZ … “Not only are these claims untrue, but the notion that we would seek to harm the reputation of any artist -- let alone Drake -- is illogical. We have invested massively in his music and our employees around the world have worked tirelessly for many years to help him achieve historic commercial and personal financial success.

"Throughout his career, Drake has intentionally and successfully used UMG to distribute his music and poetry to engage in conventionally outrageous back-and-forth ‘rap battles’ to express his feelings about other artists. He now seeks to weaponize the legal process to silence an artist’s creative expression and to seek damages from UMG for distributing that artist’s music.

"We have not and do not engage in defamation -- against any individual. At the same time, we will vigorously defend this litigation to protect our people and our reputation, as well as any artist who might directly or indirectly become a frivolous litigation target for having done nothing more that write a song.”

Drake is not backing down in the war against his own label, in fact he's now upped the ante by suing Universal Music Group for spreading the "false and malicious narrative" he's a pedophile ... TMZ Hip Hop has learned.

Drake filed the defamation case Wednesday morning in federal court in NYC ... ripping UMG for releasing and promoting Kendrick Lamar's vicious diss track, "Not Like Us." In the docs, obtained by TMZ Hip Hop, Drake says UMG knew full well Kendrick's lyrics, and images in the music video, referring to Drake as a pedophile were false and dangerous.

In the suit he calls Kendrick's hit -- filled with "inflammatory and shocking allegations"-- was a "gold mine" for UMG ... and he says they had an ulterior financial motive in promoting it.

Danny Trejo is sending a stern message to his celebrity peers, including Kim Kardashian -- stop using the Los Angeles wildfires to push your own causes!!!

The actor tells TMZ ... he doesn't believe now is the time for Hollywood's elite to get on their respective soapboxes to peddle different causes ... especially since brutal blazes are burning across the region right now.

As he sees it ... helping the victims should be the sole focus -- even if many celebs, such a Kim, are well intended.