CELEBRITY JUSTICE ™

The Roots cut a former member out of his share of the band's success after cancer forced him to quit ... at least that's his claim in the lawsuit he's just filed.

Ex-bass player, Leonard "Hub" Hubbard, started in the Philly band in 1992 -- before they were even called The Roots ... and played with them until 2007, when he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma ... a form of blood cancer. The illness forced him to leave the band, 2 years before they started backing Jimmy Fallon on late night TV.

Hub says his deal with the band called for him to continue getting paid as a co-owner. But in his lawsuit, Hub says a former manager for the group sent him a letter in 2014 threatening he was going to lose his health insurance and his cut of the band's revenues.

He says other band members continue to get a bigger share of the pie than they deserve ... while he's left out in the cold. Hub is suing founding members Questlove and Black Thought and their current manager.

We've reached out to Questlove ... no word back yet.

Former boxing champ Kelly Pavlik has been formally charged with assault -- for his role in an alleged pellet gun attack that was captured on video and posted on TMZ Sports.

As we previously reported, the alleged victim claims he was working on a pond at Pavlik's Ohio home in August when the boxer grabbed a 22-caliber pellet gun and opened fire on him.

If convicted, Pavlik faces up to 180 days in jail.

In the video, you can hear the man scream for Kelly to stop ... but despite his pleas, someone fires a weapon ... and you hear the man yell, "Kelly ... Ow! You son of a bitch. It went right through my arm."

"You just shot me in the arm ... dude I got blood."

The camera then pans over and you see Kelly holding a pellet gun.

We just got the first footage of the "Little Women: LA" bar fight -- and it's as vicious as advertised, and includes the head shot that sent one cast member to the hospital.

Check out the video -- Christy McGinity Gibel and Terra Jole are the main combatants ... screaming at each other before unloading their full drinks.

As TMZ first reported, Christy suffered bruises on the brain, according to production sources -- and there's crystal clear video of Terra's glass hitting Christy. From the clip, it's hard to tell if the container's plastic or glass ... but our sources say Christy believes it was glass.

Christy's filed a report with cops, and if this ends up in court ... you're watching exhibit A.

50 Cent is a financial shadow of his former self ... this according to new bankruptcy docs obtained by TMZ.

The mogul claims in the legal docs his bank booty totals $7.4 million. Add to that his real property holdings of around $8.8 million and his total assets are just north of $16 million.

It's a breathtaking number, but not in a good way. 50 sold his interest in Vitaminwater for somewhere between $60 million and $100 million. Mind you ... that's just the water. At his peak, 50 was reportedly worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

50 has put it out there that he has declared "rich man's" bankruptcy ... and that he's still rolling in the dough. He's got more money than most, but compare him to The Game, who deposited more than $13 million in his charity account alone.

AC/DC is about to hit the road, and they've got one thing on their minds -- bootleggers making bank off their legendary name ... so, they've fired a preemptive strike against them.

AC/DC -- biggest touring rock band in 2015 -- is moving to block all non-authorized sale of its merchandise during the upcoming tour. Y'know, most of the those guys you see hawking t-shirts and hats outside the arena -- the band's filed a federal lawsuit to get cops to shut them down.

The tour starts February 2 in Tacoma, and they're asking the court to launch a full scale attack -- sending U.S. Marshals and cops to the Tacoma Dome to arrest all offenders and seize all bogus goods. They're asking for the same show of force in other cities too.

By the way, AC/DC earned $180 million on the road last year ... topped by only Taylor Swift.

In the words of Brian Johnson, "Moneytalks, B.S. walks" -- and bootleggers are now on notice.

Just because Chris Soules didn't score a wife on "The Bachelor" ... doesn't mean he's searching for one on FarmersOnly.com -- according to a lawsuit he just filed.

Chris says a TV and web commercial for the site -- where farmers "don't have to be lonely" -- used his "persona" without his permission. The spot claimed Chris needed the site's help in the romance department because "he picked a city girl" while he was on a TV show.

Soules picked Whitney Bischoff on 'Bachelor,' but they famously broke up after a 6 month engagement.

Here's the odd thing ... the FarmersOnly ad never actually shows Chris' face, or says his name -- it's just a silhouette of a cowboy over the Hollywood sign, while a spokesman talks about the cowboy's love problems.

But as Chris says in his lawsuit ... he's "one of the most famous celebrities in the United States" -- so he and his attorneys think he's the lonely cowboy in the FarmersOnly ad.

Chris wants all the money the site made off "his" commercial, plus damages.

The L.A. Clippers have come out strong to condemn the actions of Blake Griffin -- confirming he punched a guy on Jan. 23rd ... and calling his actions disgraceful.

The team issued a statement saying, "Griffin suffered a spiral fracture of the 4th metacarpal in his right hand throwing a punch on Jan. 23rd in Toronto."

"His conduct has no place in our organization and this incident does not represent who we are as a team."

"We are conducting a full investigation with assistance from the NBA. At the conclusion of the investigation, appropriate action will be taken."

The statement comes in the wake of reports Griffin punched the team's assistant equipment manager during a dispute at a restaurant.

The Clippers say Blake already had a surgical procedure done on his hand early Tuesday morning -- and will need 4 to 6 weeks to recover.

O.J. Simpson will have to wait to watch "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story" on DVD, because his prison only gets basic cable.

Officials at Lovelock Correctional Center in Nevada tell us inmates are allowed to watch television in their cells and common areas ... but the prison does not get FX, which is airing the new Ryan Murphy series.

As we previously reported ... Juice's BFF, Al Cowlings, has already threatened to file a lawsuit if he's portrayed in a negative way on the show. O.J. won't be judge of that ... or get to review Cuba Gooding Jr.'s performance.

The Toronto Police tell TMZ Sports they are NOT investigating the reported Blake Griffin restaurant fight that went down during the Clippers' recent trip to Canada ... because no one has filed a report.

We spoke with Toronto Police Service media relations officer, Caroline De Kloet, who says Blake's name is not in their system which means there's nothing actively underway.

According to several reports, Griffin punched the team's equipment manager during an altercation at a Toronto restaurant ... and broke his own hand in the process.

The other person involved in the fight was reportedly hospitalized for his injuries.

Police in Georgia want to talk to Future to see if he can help them find whoever killed his former bodyguard.

Michael Phillips was shot and killed Monday at his home in Jonesboro, Georgia ... outside Atlanta. Cops say they don't have any suspects in custody yet, but they have several leads. They're interested in talking to all of Phillips' friends, including Future, to see if they have info that could narrow the search for the gunman.

Investigators tell us they don't think it was gang-related, and Phillips wasn't shot in a high crime area.

Freebandz paid his respects on Twitter, after the news broke:

Not everything Jay Z touches turns to gold -- his cologne line is an absolute disaster and it's all his fault ... according to a lawsuit filed by the manufacturer.

Parlux Fragrances is suing Jay for failing to live up to his end of their deal. The company says it made a licensing agreement ... where it would use his name and image to launch Gold Jay Z in 2013.

But Parlux says Jay was supposed to do more -- like make social media posts and promotional appearances, but he declined. The co. says he refused to appear on 'GMA,' at Macy's and in Women's Wear Daily to pump up the scent.

Further, there was supposed to be a line of follow-up fragrances that Jay helped develop, but according to the suit ... he dodged meetings and the new colognes never got off the ground.

Parlux says it expected to haul in about $50 million over 2 years, but instead the whole deal is pepe le pew -- it's losing money, and stores are returning unsold inventory.

Jay's former perfume partners want damages of at least $18 million.

O.J. Simpson's best friend is threatening to sue FX if it dares to paint him in a bad light when 'The People vs. O.J. Simpson' hits the air ... TMZ has learned.

Al Cowlings "despises the media" ... his rep tells TMZ, and he feels like he's being targeted 20 years after O.J. killed Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman.

Cowlings is worried his character in the series -- played by Malcolm-Jamal Warner -- will be untrue and damaging to his reputation.

A porn star claimed shortly after the murders Al -- known as AC -- told her he got rid of the murder weapon, saying the knife "was sleeping with the fishes." He denied saying it.

There was also a lot of unsubstantiated scuttlebutt that he cleaned up Simpson's Rockingham house and 86ing Simpson's bloody clothes.

Nick Carter attacked and choked an employee in the Key West bar where Nick got arrested ... according to the lawsuit that the employee just filed.

Skylar Carden is the bouncer, and in the lawsuit he says the Backstreet Boy was originally escorted out of the Hog's Breath Saloon for his "unruly and disrespectful" behavior. He says that's when Carter got physically aggressive -- "striking and choking" Carden.

Sources connected to the bar described the alleged assault as Carter squeezing Carden's larynx.

We broke the story ... Carter was busted for misdemeanor battery. Nick has said, "the truth will come out."

Carden's attorney, Mark DiCowden, says Carter is nothing more than a "backstreet thug" who inflicted mental anguish, pain and suffering on Carden. He adds his client was just doing his job and didn't deserve the attack.

Jermaine Jackson's wife Halima won't be criminally charged for biting her hubby in the leg, because of what he did to her ... TMZ has learned.

Our law enforcement sources say their investigation shows Jermaine and Halima were engaged in mutual combat. Specifically, they concluded he spit on her, she bit him and they fought like crazy.

In the end, cops say they couldn't decide who the aggressor was, so it's case closed.

Halima was arrested last November for felony domestic violence, but now she's in the clear.

It appears Jermaine and Halima have reconciled.

Sofia Vergara was used and financially abused by a beauty company ... according to a lawsuit she just filed.

Sofia says Venus Concept blew up images of her and used them to promote its products around the world. In the suit, she says the whole thing started with an innocent Instagram post.

Sofia says she got Venus' Legacy treatment -- it's a skin tightening massage -- in August 2014. She posted a pic of herself on the table ... which got about 40k likes.

However, she says she actually didn't like the treatment and found it "a waste of time and money with little in the way of any results."

But she says Venus took the ball and ran with it anyway ... putting up photos of her at exhibition booths and on its website with captions like, "Loved by ... bombshell actress Sofia Vergara."

Sofia's beef is Venus never paid her a dime, and she gets MANY dimes to do this kinda work. She says her going rate to endorse a beauty product is a whopping $15 million!

Florida State has reached a settlement with the woman who claimed she was raped by Jameis Winston in 2012 ... shelling out nearly $1 million to make her lawsuit go away.

The accuser's lawyers announced the terms of the settlement Monday -- saying the cash figure includes attorney's fees. FSU also agreed to make a 5 year commitment to training programs.

The accuser -- Erica Kinsman -- will reportedly receive $250k, her attorneys will get $700k.

As we previously reported, Kinsman sued FSU claiming the university ran a shoddy investigation in an effort to keep Winston on the football team. She had said the response to her accusations was "clearly unreasonable."

Kinsman issued a statement about the settlement saying, "I will always be disappointed that I had to leave the school I dreamed of attending since I was little. I am happy that FSU has committed to continue making changes in order to ensure a safer environment for all students."