Kids

3:31 PM PT -- Timmothy's Aunt and Grandmother have just spoken out, thanking law enforcement and promising that they will never stop looking for Timmothy.

They also asked everyone to join them in praying for Rini, stating, "We hope our tragedy will help to shed some light on the horrific problems of suicide and missing children in our country."

2:05 PM PT -- The story just keeps getting more bizarre ... the kid claiming to be Timmothy isn't a kid at all! Cops say he's a 23-year-old MAN named Brian Michael Rini.

1:48 PM PT -- According to The FBI, DNA testing has revealed the 14-year-old claiming to be Timmothy is NOT the missing child. A statement reads, "A local investigation continues into this person's true identity."

Timmothy Pitzen -- a 6-year-old child who famously went missing in 2011 and was featured on "Live PD" -- has allegedly been found in Ohio after escaping his captors.

The story's pretty wild. A teenager discovered by locals in north Kentucky Wednesday morning claimed to be Timmothy and said he'd just escaped his 2 kidnappers. He reportedly said they'd been holding him for 7 years. The locals then called 911.

Cops went on the hunt, and eventually found the boy in Sharonville, OH ... just outside of Cincinnati. He claims he's 14-years-old now, and managed to escape from a Red Roof Inn ... although he's unsure where the motel was. He describes his kidnappers as white men covered in tattoos on their necks and arms who look like bodybuilders.

It's unclear if the teen, who's now in police custody is, in fact, Timmothy. A DNA test to confirm his identity is reportedly underway and should take about 24 hours.

Timmothy initially disappeared after his mother took him out of school one day for a 3-day vacation, but she ended up being found dead a few days later at an Illinois hotel. A note was found near her body, saying Timmothy was safe with people who'd care for him.

The story was heavily covered at the time, and even featured last year on the popular A&E show, "Live PD." The show produced a visual rendering of what Timmothy should look like now.

12:11 PM -- Felicity's also gone up before a judge and said she understood the seriousness of the charges. She had already surrendered her passport. So with that, she's also done. That was fast.

12:01 PM -- Lori and Mossimo have just appeared before a judge and both have surrendered their passports. The actress reportedly said hi to the prosecuting team, smiled and shook their hands. Lori and Mossimo are now done with their part of Wednesday's hearing.

11:03 AM PT -- Lori Loughlin just showed up to the Boston courthouse, and was quick to get inside. She avoided answering any questions from reporters, but was also met by some fans cheering, waving, and carrying Lori cutouts with them.

Lori gave a quick wave before marching into court.

Felicity Huffman has just arrived to face a judge for her involvement in the massive college bribery scandal.

The "Desperate Housewives" actress appeared in a federal courthouse in Boston Wednesday where she -- along with other parents including Lori Loughlin -- will reportedly know more about the conditions of their release.

As we first reported ... Lori and Felicity could cut plea bargains but prosecutors wanna see the parents do time behind bars. As one official told us, "You can't have people being treated differently because they have money. That's how we got to this place. Every defendant will be treated the same."

Lori and Felicity face up to 5 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.

As we reported ... Felicity and Lori -- recorded on wiretapped calls discussing the scheme with ringleader William Rick Singer -- are accused of paying bribes to help get their kids into elite schools.

Felicity and her husband, William H. Macy, allegedly paid $15k to participate in a college entrance exam cheating scheme on behalf of their eldest daughter, Sophia Grace, who was given twice the amount of time to take the SAT as other students. The feds say the proctor corrected her answers. She scored 1420 on her SAT ... an improvement of approximately 400 points over her PSAT.

Lori and her hubby, Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of paying a whopping $500k to have their 2 daughters -- Isabella and Olivia -- designated as recruits for the crew team at USC ... even though they were never actually on any crew team. Mossimo allegedly sent Singer pics of the girls on rowing machines to make it look like they were indeed athletes.

On the morning the indictment was announced, 7 FBI agents showed up to Felicity's home with guns drawn and arrested her. The feds also showed up to Lori's home but she was in Vancouver. Mossimo was nabbed and later released. Lori surrendered the next day.

47 others were also caught up in the massive college bribery scandal the feds dubbed Operation Varsity Blues. The parents are accused of paying off Rick Singer ... the alleged ringleader who created a fake nonprofit, charitable foundation that served as a front to launder the payments.

The feds also said Singer -- who pled guilty to racketeering charges -- allegedly instructed the parents they could write off the alleged bribes as tax-deductible"donations" ... to his nonprofit.

According to court records, the actresses and others allegedly paid as much as $6.5M to get their kids into various schools ... including Yale, Stanford, Georgetown and USC. In all, the feds uncovered about $25M in bribes.

Lori -- out on $1 million bond -- was mum when paps got her out the other day leaving a yoga session. The fallout from the scandal was immediate. Loughlin's girls withdrew from USC and Loughlin lost gigs with "Fuller House" and Hallmark.

Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman could cut plea bargains if they want 'em -- but they wouldn't be getting off easy ... because prosecutors want prison time, TMZ has learned.

Federal law enforcement sources tell TMZ, any plea would come with a recommendation by prosecutors that the actresses serve some time behind bars. The official told us, "You can't have people being treated differently because they have money. That's how we got to this place. Every defendant will be treated the same."

Prosecutors will not have the final word if the cases are plea bargained. The U.S. Attorney would make a recommendation to the judge, but the judge has the final word.

Lori and Felicity each face a maximum of 5 years in prison if convicted of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud.

Our sources say it is "likely" plea bargain discussions will begin, but we're told no plea deal has been made.

Lori and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, have been accused of paying ringleader Rick Singer $500,000 to get their daughters into USC by falsely claiming they would participate in the crew team.

Felicity is accused of paying Singer $15,000 to rig her daughter's SAT test.

50 people have been charged in the alleged scams, and we're told more indictments are expected.

9:35 AM PT -- Tom's daughter, Adria, has filed a petition with probate court, accusing Dana of ignoring 2 of Tom's wishes as laid out in his will.

According to Adria's docs, Tom's will gives her and her sister, Annakim, equal input on decisions regarding the Estate ... and Dana's standing in their way. Also, Adria claims Dana was required to transfer Tom's "artistic property" assets out of his trust, and into a separate company that would be jointly administered by all 3 women.

Adria claims Dana's refused to make that transfer ... thereby allowing her to keep sole control of the assets. She wants a judge to force Dana to comply with Tom's will.

Tom Petty's widow claims the late singer's 2 daughters are attacking members of Tom's group, The Heartbreakers, and refusing to put out his unreleased tracks.

Dana York Petty claims in new court docs she's the one who runs the Estate but, for some reason, Tom insisted his 2 daughters from a previous marriage -- Adria and Annakim Petty -- be included in the decision-making process.

Dana says the daughters have conspired to push her out and adds they're making it impossible to manage the Estate.

As for the unreleased tracks, Dana claims in the lawsuit, filed by attorney Adam Streisand, both daughters, but mostly Adria, have gone off the rails ... directing their anger at everyone in Tom's orbit, including the surviving members of The Heartbreakers.

Dana points to an email directed at the surviving members -- Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell -- in which Adria rants, "What I don't have the temperament for is having my entire life raped. Being disparaged. My dad being disgraced. And being surrounded by selfish, unreliable people and drug addicts."

She goes on ... "I am sorry i am not a man and can not earn your respect through the work and deeds I do." And, the daughters are blocking the release of new solo tracks that Petty had recorded 25 years ago. Dana says she wanted to include the tracks in a 25th-anniversary box set release of his smash hit album, "Wildflowers."

Dana claims the release would produce upwards of a million bucks in royalties ... possibly more, but the daughters have blocked it. The suit claims Adria gave no real reason for her objection, other than to say the timing was off.

And, there's this ... Tom had a deep connection to the city of Gainesville, Florida, where he was born. The City renamed a park in Tom's honor and asked someone in the Estate to create artwork for a sign. The rep submitted a well-known image of Tom from one of his album covers.

The lawsuit claims Adria approved the artwork, only to later fire off an email to the rep, saying, "Your name is not Petty and you don't have the backbone to protect the estate from a horrible image like this one. Shame on you."

Dana wants an order from the judge asking him to appoint a day-to-day manager for the Estate, and to force Adria, in particular, to act rationally.

Tom died in 2017 of an accidental drug overdose.

Why the hell did Lonzo Ball cover his Big Baller Brand tattoo?

LaVar Ball is about to answer that question for the entire world, and reveal that despite the cover job, BBB is intact, and so is the Ball family.

We spoke directly to LaVar (he was in a loud arena -- that's why he's so close to the phone), and he told us that after Lonzo learned a former business partner allegedly defrauded the company of $1.5 million, he made the decision to dissolve the brand.

"We had a meeting before the story came out, man. And, everybody was in they feelings. What I mean by that is, we're not really thinking. 'Cause I told them we're shutting down everything, 'cause I don't want him to get nothing."

"So, I said it was shut down. And, that's why DMo and everybody heard what I said and was going on them things. Okay, triple B's is done."

LaVar says he came to his senses and decided to keep the brand alive ... but not before Zo's tattoo was covered.

Still, LaVar has no problem with Lonzo covering his BBB tat, 'cause the art was a distraction anyway.

"Lonzo had to cover that Triple B up anyway. You can't play with no band-aid when you not even hurt. It feels weird playing like that. So, you gotta cover it anyway."

As far as stories that the family is estranged ... LaVar calls B.S. on those too.

"The media's making it a big deal, man. Our family stick together. Everything is good. The games still going on, man. My boys still going forward, and my family is still in tact. So, I'm good."

Felicity Huffman and her daughter, Georgia Macy, hit the shops Saturday in West Hollywood.

The mother/daughter duo looked chill in the wake of the Varsity Blues college scandal. As you know, Felicity has been indicted on felony charges for allegedly paid bribery ringleader Rick Singer $15,000 to rig the SAT test of her other daughter, Sophia Grace ... giving her twice the amount of time to take it and then correcting her answers.

Sophia scored 1420 on the SAT, approximately 400 points over her PSAT.

They carted around a pack of Poly-fil ... used for arts and crafts.

Kimora Lee Simmons couldn't resist taking a shot at Lori Loughlin after her daughter got accepted to Harvard all on her own.

Russell Simmons' ex-wife just shared a video of their daughter, Aoki Lee Simmons, reading her acceptance letter into the Ivy League school ... with Kimora adding some not so subtle jabs at Lori and all the parents swept up in the college bribery scandal.

Kimora says she's proud of Aoki for getting accepted to Harvard on the strength of her own merit ... and not because she was on a bogus rowing team.

As we've reported ... Loughlin and her husband are facing criminal charges for allegedly paying $500,000 to have their 2 daughters designated as recruits for the crew team at USC -- despite the fact they did not actually participate in crew. Lori's daughters left USC after the scandal broke, and they could be banned from campus for life.

President Trump heard the outrage loud and clear, 'cause he just announced that he will NOT seek to cut nearly $18 MILLION in funding from the Special Olympics.

Trump's Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos proposed cutting nearly every cent of funding to the organization earlier this week ... and people were PISSED.

TMZ Sports even spoke to WWE legend and Special Olympics ambassador -- Big Show -- who called the idea "bulls**t."

Now, Trump is putting an end to all that talk ... telling reporters at the White House that he's given the order to fund the organization -- like was originally planned.

“The Special Olympics will be funded," Trump said ... "I just authorized the funding of the Special Olympics. I have overridden my people.”

One of the stars of "Little Women: Atlanta" is cutting her time on the show short ... Monie's leaving the franchise after losing a custody battle over her son.

We've obtained this clip from the season 5 premiere ... and you see Monie getting super emotional after coming up short in her legal battle to move her teenage son from Houston to Atlanta. It's her last episode ever, we've learned Monie's quitting the show to move home to Texas and live closer to her 13-year-old.

Monie's starred on the show since it began ... but our sources tell us she feels like her son, Derrick Beckton Jr., needs his mom's influence and care at a critical point in his life -- so she's dropping everything to move to Houston.

As fans of the show know ... Monie's been trying to gain custody of her son for over a year, battling her ex-husband in the Texas courts. She was traveling between Atlanta and Houston for 3 years to see her son, and wanted to permanently move her kid to Atlanta to live with her and her new hubby ... but a judge slammed those doors shut.

Sounds like quitting the show was an easy decision ... we're told Monie will always put her son before her career.

D.L. Hughley is coming out swinging for Dr. Dre ... telling us Dre's daughter needs to appreciate the fact he "pushed" her to go to USC, and also that her dad can afford to LEGALLY grease the wheel for her.

We got the comedian at LAX, and our photog asked him about Dre deleting his post throwing shade at Lori Loughlin and all the other parents swept up in the college admissions bribery scandal.

D.L. says the rap mogul shouldn't apologize for donating $70 million to the University -- and adds even IF that helped his daughter, Truly Young, get in ... it's the least USC can do!!!

As for Truly saying her dad pushed her to attend SC ... D.L. says Dre's just being a good parent, and Truly has 70 million reasons to be grateful.

D.L.'s an expert on the topic ... his daughter's also at USC, and he's hustling every day -- he was just getting back from a gig -- to pay her tuition. College ain't cheap, even when ya do it all legal and stuff.

You gotta see his take on Dre's fam as a whole -- D.L.'s got a feeling Truly won't be its last Trojan.

Dr. Dre had good reason to delete his post throwing shade on Lori Loughlin and her daughters ... because, just like Lori, it looks like Dre was pushing his own daughter to become a USC student.

Dre's daughter, Truly Young, posted last May, "Dad pushing me to go to USC." Her expression seems to tell the story.

He caused a big commotion over the weekend when he posted a pic of him and his daughter holding an acceptance letter from USC with the caption, "My daughter got accepted into USC all on her own. No jail time!!!"

Dre took the post down after getting a rash of criticism ... as we reported, he and Jimmy Iovine donated $70 MILLION to the University. They funded and created the Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology and the Business of Innovation. It was established to promote entrepreneurship, computer science and engineering, audio and visual design, and the arts.

This is not to say Truly didn't get admitted on the merits, but it certainly casts a shadow given the enormous donation.

As for the comparison to Lori Loughlin's daughter, Olivia Jade, you'll recall she really didn't want to go to college, but her parents had a different idea. The feds say Olivia got in after her parents paid $500,000 ... making it seem like she was going to become a member of the crew team when, in fact, she had never rowed.

Tommie Lee shocked her closest friends when she showed up to court drunk ... they say she was in the process of getting sober before her recent relapse.

We broke the story ... the former 'Love & Hip Hop' star is back in jail for being wasted during a court hearing in her child abuse criminal case. We're told her BAC was 0.16 -- double the legal limit.

Sources close to Tommie tell TMZ ... she was trying her best to sober up in recent weeks, staying away from alcohol even though she was surrounded by vices. We're told Tommie was going out with friends who were drinking, and even stayed at a friend's house with a stocked bar inside, but she stayed off the booze.

But, Tommie fell off the wagon before last week's court appearance ... and our sources claim the stress of the case caused her relapse. She was indicted on child abuse charges earlier this year, and she's facing up to 54 years in jail if convicted on all 7 charges.

The wrestling ref who's threatening a lawsuit over the viral dreadlock-cutting incident is "blatantly racist" and has NO CASE ... so says Lil Jon ... who tells TMZ Sports the guy's claims are ridiculous.

High schooler Andrew Johnson -- who is black -- was forced to either cut his dreadlocks or forfeit during a December 2018 match. The story made international news .... and the ref was accused of being racist.

As we previously reported ... the ref, Alan Maloney, is claiming he's been defamed in the coverage following this ... and he's demanding $100,000 in damages.

Enter Lil Jon -- who has famously shown off his dreads throughout his career -- and he explains why Maloney's actions were inexcusable.

"Dreads are considered to be like a man's crown, that's a lion's mane ... it's sacred," Jon says.

"For this guy to be blatantly racist as he was on that one and to claim he can't get work or whatever, well ... too bad, you shouldn't have been an a**hole."

Maloney says he was strictly following the rules that prohibited wrestlers from having long hair ... but many people have called it a bogus excuse to cover up racism.

Lil Jon agrees with them.

Former "American Idol" contestant Chikezie Eze says his estranged wife disappeared more than a year ago and took their children ... but he's finally got the court's help trying to locate them.

Chikezie and his ex, Linda Iruke, have had their issues -- he filed for divorce from her last year shortly after she accused him of domestic abuse and threats -- but this is even more troubling.

Eze tells us Iruke completely vanished in early 2018 and cut off all ties with him and their friends, and even more concerning ... he says her family hasn't been able to contact her either.

According to new legal docs ... the court stated there is reason to believe the children have been "taken, detained, and concealed" and have authorized the L.A. County D.A.'s office to investigate and locate Eze's estranged wife and kids.

He's thankful to have this assistance, and tells us Linda's family -- especially her mother -- have been vital in convincing the court to take action.

Chikezie also has an emotional message for his son -- on his birthday -- and urges anyone who knows about his family's whereabouts to contact the D.A.'s child abduction unit.

Akon's ready to show off the most prized artist on his roster ... his own son!!!

The singer tells TMZ ... his 15-year-old son, Jahvor -- aka Jah -- is getting ready to drop his first EP with some major help from his favorite producer. Akon tells us Jah will appear on his Konvict label sometime in June. We got a sampling from one of the tracks, called "Locked Away" and it features, of course, Akon.

Goes without saying ... Jah's got his pops' voice.

Ya might be thinking ... Jah's song is about his dad doing time behind bars back in the late '90s and early 2000s, but you're dead wrong. Akon tells us, "My son wrote the chorus and his verse to symbolize how a kid could be mentally 'locked up' and can't escape the inevitable ways of the streets [and] becoming a product of the environment."

Deep stuff.

Akon's kids are incredibly talented. His other son, Ty Pittman, was recently featured on MattyBRaps' "Let's Dance" track. It's already racked up over 500k views on YouTube.

As for Jah ... Akon says he's aiming for a June release because that's African-American Music Appreciation Month.

Jordan Belfort could have been linked to Lori Loughlin, Felicity Huffman and the other parents caught up in the college bribery scandal ... but he didn't take the bait.

The real-life "Wolf of Wall Street" was at LAX when we asked him about the admissions scandal involving schools like USC, Harvard, Yale, UCLA and Georgetown, and turns out ... he has a wild personal story about it.

Belfort tells us his son was applying to Georgetown and somehow, a shady character got his number and tried to rope him in ... but he and his son declined. He says the scheme went far beyond the old "wink wink" days of buying your kid's way into college with a donation too.

As for who was behind the recruitment process, Jordan speculates it could have been one of Rick Singer's "finders" ... but he's not certain.

As for Singer -- the ringleader of the scandal -- Belfort has some predictions on the legal ramifications of his crooked scheme ... and it goes beyond jail time.