Exclusives

According to a lawsuit filed earlier this month, a woman named Winter Sumpter was doing work for a rehearsal the Peas were doing in Burbank, Calif. back in 2007. Sumpter claims she was walking down a flight of stairs when "one of the treads became detached" and she fell through.

Sumpter claims she suffered "severe and permanent injuries." She's suing the Black Eyed Peas, BEP Touring and others for unspecified damages.

Unlike the dummies he sticks his hands inside, comedian/ventriloquist Jeff Dunham is accused of being full of crap -- because a production company is suing him for allegedly being a big, fat liar.

A company called Montivagus claims they approached Jeff in 2006 to appear in a ventriloquism documentary they were making called "I'm No Dummy."

Montivagus claims after they filmed Jeff for the doc, he signed releases giving the company full rights to all aspects of the movie, including distribution.

The company claims Jeff suddenly backed out of their agreement in 2009 ... after Jeff realized he may have "violated other legal obligations" by signing the release -- especially ones he had with Comedy Central.

Montivagus says Jeff's new demands were for "full distribution rights to the Documentary" -- among a bunch of other stuff.

Jeff is being sued for an amount yet to be determined.

TMZ has learned Katherine Jackson has filed legal papers asking the judge in the Jackson probate case to have the estate pay for the burial.

Informed sources tell us lawyers for the estate will neither support nor oppose the motion -- but rather they will leave it to the judge.

A hearing is set for tomorrow at 9:30 AM PST.

The burial is set for Thursday.

In a lawsuit, filed today in L.A. County Superior Court, Francis says it all began in 2002, when 3 "high-level employees" from his company hatched a plan to embezzle money through a new business called "WMR Marketing" -- which they created without Joe's knowledge.

According to court documents, Francis says the men "misused their positions" to approve deals with WMR so they could funnel GGW funds to the new company.

Here's where it gets really nasty -- Francis claims his company's former CFO/ CPA, Michael Barrett, began contacting the IRS and "falsely accusing [Joe] of criminal tax evasion, hoping that the IRS would prosecute and incarcerate Francis -- thereby removing the possibility that Francis could catch the ongoing fraud and theft by Barrett and his cohorts."

Francis was eventually indicted on a tax evasion charge in Reno, for allegedly claiming $20 million in false deductions.

"Murderers and dictators generally are some of the smartest people out there - they just use their brain power for evil purposes.

I don't condone any of their evil behavior, but I was asked about their intellectual firepower... and in my opinion you can't have a low IQ and wreck [sic] that much havoc on the world.

What Hitler succeeded in doing, was deplorable... And I hope we never see such an abusive use of power again."

As for O'Day's claim that she met Castro in the past, Aubrey told us:

"I was a college student on a program called Semester at Sea, through that program chosen political science students attended a half day seminar of Fidel Castro and his thoughts on basically everything except Cuba's relationship with the US, lol. It was very interesting."

The former MTV reality star who may or may not have stabbed her husband while their three kids watched pled not guilty to one charge stemming from the alleged incident.

Sara Stokes -- who was on "Making the Band 2" -- pled not guilty to assault with a deadly weapon Friday morning in Riverside County Court in California.

It's unclear what exactly happened between Sara and her husband last month, because we've been told two completely different versions of what actually went down.

Sara claims her husband accidentally cut himself in the sink -- while cops believe she went on a stabbing frenzy after the two got into a verbal altercation.

Stay tuned...

Defaulting on your student loans -- $58,395.69.

Interest on that amount -- $11,623.43.

Possibly killing Michael Jackson -- definitely not priceless.

Dr. Conrad Murray lost a judgment to Sallie Mae back in March for not paying back his student loans. On Friday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada slapped a tax lien on Murray in an attempt to get their money back.

Sallie Mae does not accept Propofol as a form of payment.

2002 Playmate of the Year Dalene Kurtis thought taking a vacation to Hawaii with her boyfriend was a great idea ... that is, until he allegedly used her as a punching bag and then threatened to kill her.

Kurtis was granted a temporary restraining order earlier this month against an ex she claims pushed her, punched her and choked her during a recent trip to Hawaii. She claims the ex said he was "gonna kill [her]," "slit [her] throat" and that she was a "f**king whore."

She then claims four days later he choked her until she couldn't breathe, stomped on her stomach, punched her, broke her finger, and spit in her face. That's when she (finally) called the cops and had him arrested.

Kurtis was granted a TRO, which includes her two-year-old son. She's scheduled to be in court later today to try to get the order made permanent.

Let's start with Sharon -- who is being sued by a chick she "

" on a VH1 special back in 2008 ... a chick named Megan Hauserman ... who later got her own reality show that starred Ryan Jenkins ... who probably killed Jasmine Fiore.

Megan just filed new papers against Osbourne, claiming Sharon almost killed a process server who tried to deliver legal papers to Ozzy's wife on April 20.

According to the new papers, filed in L.A. County Superior Court, Megan claims the server "approached and was almost run over by defendant to the point where the papers were dislodged from the process server's hand."

So what's the connection to Jacko?

In the suit, Megan says the server tracked Sharon from her home in the very exclusive, private community of Hidden Hills, CA -- where Lisa Marie Presley used to live ... and she was married to Jacko ... who was in "Men in Black 2" with Tommy Lee Jones ... who was in "JFK" ... with Kevin Bacon.

Boom.

So how do you explain not remembering the little dispute you had with your girlfriend -- the dispute that made you a felon?

If you're Chris Brown, you explain it by saying that Larry King badgered you into amnesia.

Brown is reacting to a clip that was released in which he said he didn't remember beating Rihanna.

Here's his statement:

"There have been reports on the Internet that I didn't remember what happened that night with Rihanna. I want to try and set things straight.

That 30 seconds of the interview they used of me was taken from a one hour interview during which that same question was asked something like 4 or 5 times -- and when you look at the entire interview you will see it is not representative of what I said.

The first four times – or how ever many times it was - I gave the same answer -- which was that I didn't think it was appropriate for me to talk about what happened that night. I said it was not right for me and it really wasn't fair to Rihanna. The fifth time – or whatever it was – I just misspoke. I was asked, "Do you remember doing it?" and I said, "No."

Of course I remember what happened. Several times during the interview, my mother said that I came to her right afterwards and told her everything. But it was and still is a blur. And yes, I still can't believe it happened because it is not me or who I am or is what happened like anything I have ever done before.

As I have said several times previously, I am ashamed of and sorry for what happened that night and I wish I could relive that moment and change things, but I can't. I take full responsibility for my actions. What I have to do now is to prove to the world that this was an isolated incident and that is not who I am and I intend to do so by my behavior now and in the future."

Brody Jenner's girlfriend Jayde Nicole is sticking by her side of what went down last week when she and Joe Francis got into an altercation at a Hollywood club -- saying she was "beaten in the face and body" and there are witnesses to prove it.

Jayde's rep just released this statement:

"On Friday August 28 at approximately 1:20 A.M., Jayde Nicole was the victim of a violent assault when she was attacked from behind, thrown down to the ground by her hair, and beaten in the face and body in front of multiple witnesses by a person identified as Joe Francis.

Jayde immediately reported the assault to the police and is continuing to cooperate fully in the ongoing police investigation of Mr. Francis. Because of the ongoing criminal investigation of Mr. Francis, it will be inappropriate to comment further at this time out of respect for the law enforcement process.

Photographs and hospital records of Jayde's injuries and video footage of the attack clearly corroborate the crimes committed by Francis, and it is the hope of those who love and care about Jayde, that Mr. Francis will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

We're told the actress is fine and there were no injuries -- her car was towed away from the scene.

At least one cop arrived on scene to help out.

It appears one of the headlights from Renée's car was shattered and one of the cars lost a license plate in the smash.

Sources close to Renée tell us, "This is not her fault. Someone made a U-turn into her."

UPDATE: Cops tell us the call came in at 11:00 AM PT -- no one was cited for the crash and there were no injuries.

TMZ has learned that Jasmine Fiore's remains will be cremated -- this according to sources close to Jasmine's family.

We're told there will be a memorial service in Las Vegas, but a date hasn't been scheduled yet.

Sources say Fiore's ashes will be scattered in Santa Cruz, where she grew up.

TMZ just received the following statement from Miss California USA honcho Keith Lewis, lashing back at the lawsuit Carrie Prejean filed against him this morning for religious discrimination:

"It appears that suits from both sides are now inevitable against the other.

I would guess Carrie sees it as a chance to get publicity for her upcoming book because in the interviews I have seen, she talks about the suit and the book in the same breath.

We have no problem with her selling lots of books - considering in the current situation we could stand to profit from every copy she sells.

For us, it has never been about her beliefs and we have always just wanted to move on.

But it seems like Carrie really has nothing new to talk about or anything new in her life so the impression is she just keeps looking for ways to rehash her position as a victim because of her onstage answer."

UPDATE: Keith just added a bit more ... "I guess hell hath no fury like a Miss without her crown. We're all looking forward to a less litigious party when we crown the next Miss California USA November 22."

Law enforcement sources directly connected with the death of DJ AM tell us that his death was the result of an accidental overdose and not a suicide -- and there is a tragic, ironic twist of fate.

Our sources say DJ AM, a recovering addict, developed a dependency to Xanax and other benzodiazepines (a group of drugs used to treat anxiety) as a direct result of the plane crash a year ago. We're told AM (aka Adam Goldstein) developed a tremendous anxiety over flying -- something he had to do frequently for his job.

We're told doctors began prescribing Xanax and other anti-anxiety medications to relieve his fear, but the benzos triggered a relapse into addiction. We're told benzos are particularly dicey for recovering addicts.

Our sources say DJ AM's relapse was "recent" -- he was not abusing for a prolonged period of time before his death.

We're also told the OD had "absolutely nothing to do with his recent breakup."

Our sources say the evidence strongly indicates cause of death will be a combination of crack cocaine and benzos.

A witness placed the call about a guy who was "flat on his face" -- but he wasn't sure if the actor was hit or just fell over.

Moore was rushed to the hospital and treated for a broken leg.