Legal

Joe Giudice is bailing from the U.S., because we've learned he's on a flight to Italy -- TODAY!!!

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Joe got what he wished for -- a ticket to Rome that leaves the mainland tonight while he awaits the decision on remaining in the United States. BTW ... he's flying economy.

TMZ broke the story ... Joe wants to return to his native land so he can get work and send money back to the States to support his wife, Teresa Giudice, and their 4 daughters ... all of whom live in New Jersey.

Prince's estate is furious with President Trump after he played "Purple Rain" at a rally ... almost exactly a year to the date when Trump's campaign agreed to stop playing the late singer's music.

Trump was in Prince's hometown of Minneapolis Thursday at the Target Center. Before the rally started, "Purple Rain" played throughout the arena on loudspeakers.

The decision to play the famous Prince song pissed off the singer's estate, who in a statement said, "President Trump played Prince’s 'Purple Rain' tonight at a campaign event in Minneapolis despite confirming a year ago that the campaign would not use Prince’s music. The Prince Estate will never give permission to President Trump to use Prince’s songs."

It was just last October when attorneys for Prince's Estate fired off a letter to Trump's team, demanding they never play a Prince song again. In a letter back to the estate, Trump's campaign agreed to never play Prince again ... but that agreement was broken Thursday.

FOX News anchor Harris Faulkner and contributor Angela McGlowan are getting sued by a makeup artist at the channel for allegedly discriminating against him because he's gay.

According to docs, Juan Legramandi claims McGlowan entered a green room in February 2018 and walked past him and another openly gay stylist -- and said, "Ugh! It's like Sodom and Gomorrah in here!"

Juan also claims in September 2017 he was doing Faulkner's hair when a news story involving Hispanic women crossing the southern U.S. border came on a nearby TV. In the suit, obtained by TMZ, he says Faulkner launched into a xenophobic, anti-Latino tirade ... which allegedly included the statement, "Hispanic women are so ignorant."

He says he was shocked and told Faulkner, his mother is Hispanic and he'd been born in Colombia. He claims Faulkner responded, "Your family is from a third world country."

Juan says he filed a complaint with Human Resources at FOX News but claims nothing was done.

After he filed that report, he claims, Jill Van Why -- Senior VP of programming operations -- told him, in June 2018, everyone is replaceable ... which he took as a threat.

Juan says he was later fired -- the lawsuit doesn't mention the date -- by Van Why and Marsheila Hayes, a VP of diversity and inclusion at FOX News.

DaBaby is firing back at the promoters who sued him for bailing on a show ... he's now suing them, and claiming the reason he never took the stage was over a lack of security.

According to new legal docs obtained by TMZ ... DaBaby is suing Nothing To Something ENTertainment for breach of contract related to a scheduled gig back in May at Centro Night Club in Lawrence, MA -- a gig DaBaby never followed through with.

In the docs, DaBaby claims the contract he signed with the promoter promised him two security guards at the club, but the rapper says NTS failed to deliver on the night of the show. DaBaby claims the lack of security is the reason he didn't perform.

As we first reported ... NTS sued DaBaby back in July for bailing on the gig, claiming it paid DaBaby upfront and shelled out even more cash to promote the performance, only for him to dip before the show even began.

It's interesting ... on the night of DaBaby's scheduled gig at the center of the lawsuit, his personal security beat the crap out of a guy outside the venue, and the vicious beatdown was caught on camera.

The man who got beat up by DaBaby's posse, fellow rapper Don Trag, is currently suing DaBaby.

Zac Brown claims he worked on a song with Ryan Tedder for months, only for the OneRepublic frontman to suddenly give the beat to Diplo ... and now Zac is suing for ownership.

According to a new lawsuit, obtained by TMZ ... Zac claims he started working with Ryan in March 2018 on a song for his solo career called, "Nowhere Left To Go," and Ryan got him started with a beat before doing an about-face and handing it over to Diplo.

In the docs, Zac claims there was an understanding with Ryan that Brown would have ultimate control of the musical composition, so he did a rough mix and kept in contact with Ryan.

One of the men arrested in connection with Mac Miller's fatal overdose just pled not guilty to charges he supplied the rapper with counterfeit oxycodone that caused the rapper's death.

Mac's alleged drug dealer, Cameron Pettit, entered his plea during his arraignment Thursday in Los Angeles federal court. Mac's other alleged dealer, Stephen Walter, had his arraignment pushed back to later this month, because he's in custody in San Diego and under quarantine for mumps.

As we reported ... Pettit and Walter were indicted last week by a federal grand jury for allegedly giving Mac a deadly dose of pills.

Cuba Gooding Jr. has just been charged with another crime, although the Manhattan D.A. is being super secretive over the exact nature of the charge and the alleged victim.

Cuba showed up in court Thursday -- everyone thought it was for his sexual assault case -- but apparently that was not the case. The D.A. told the judge there was an additional incident that is the basis of the new charge.

It's unclear if the alleged victim is the same woman who made the initial allegation against the actor. When Cuba was arrested, the D.A. revealed there was an additional incident the NYPD was investigating, but it's unclear if this is the basis for the new allegation.

Cuba will be arraigned on the new charge next week.

The late great Grumpy Cat still has one of her 9 lives left ... to fire off a lawsuit at Internet stores allegedly selling counterfeit merchandise.

The late feline's company -- Grumpy Cat Limited -- is suing to stop corporations and all other entities from producing and selling rip-off gear featuring GC's famous name and furry mug.

According to the legal docs ... the official site for Grumpy Cat t-shirts, hats, coffee mugs and more is grumpycats.com, so it wants the court to help shut down all other Internet shops hawking copycat items.

Kim Kardashian's had the clemency golden touch, but her support for the early release of "Making a Murderer" convict Brendan Dassey won't make any difference ... so says the governor who's making the call.

Dassey has been locked up for more than 13 years for the 2005 murder of photographer Teresa Halbach ... he was 16 at the time of the killing. Dassey's uncle, Steven Avery, was also charged with Halbach's murder.

Last week, Dassey's legal team issued a plea for clemency -- and Kim got behind the motion -- retweeting a handwritten letter from Dassey and saying, "Please @GovEvers Read this letter."

However, no matter how many followers Kim has -- about 62 million -- or how many other prisoners she's helped free ... Governor Evers won't treat Dassey any differently.

You know Marvel's "X-Men" as defenders of justice, but a TV show -- in Hungary of all places -- claims Wolverine and co. are guilty of stealing the theme song to their hit cartoon.

A guy named Zoltan Krisko is suing every media giant you can imagine -- Marvel, Disney, FOX, Apple, Amazon and more -- claiming the TV execs behind the animated series from the '90s jacked the intro music from an even older show ... called "Linda."

Bear with us ... "Linda" aired in Hungary from 1984 to 1991, and according to a lawsuit filed by Krisko it was a hit cop comedy/thriller. Hey, genres are different over there.

Anyway, Krisko says he manages the estate of a Hungarian composer named Gyorgy Vukan, who created and copyrighted the "Linda" theme song in 1983. Krisko says it sounds exactly like the tune the "X-Men" cartoon used years later.

Caitlin Upton, the former Miss Teen USA contestant who infamously mangled an answer about Americans and maps, has hammered out her divorce settlement ... such as the South Africa.

Charles McNeil filed to divorce Caitlin -- who interestingly goes by Caite Upton -- about a year ago, and according to the terms they've drawn up, Caite's biggest concerns were the family dog ... and her frequent flyer miles.

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Caite's leaving the marriage, such as the Iraq, with a bank account worth $263 and their Husky, Aurora.

She also gets to keep her miles, and her personal property ... which we're guessing does not include a book of world maps.

You'll recall, Caite gained worldwide fame in 2007 when she was competing as Miss South Carolina Teen USA.

Todd Chrisley and his wife, Julie, can put their tax woes behind them -- at least at a state level -- but they're not yet in the clear of their federal tax evasion case.

The "Chrisley Knows Best" couple reached a settlement with the Georgia Department of Revenue last week stemming from allegations they evaded nearly $2 million in state taxes between 2008 and 2016 ... and it's mostly good news.

According to the Chrisley camp ... Todd and Julie were found to have incorrectly filed for just one year in that time span, 2009, and in the end they agreed to pay $77,000 in overdue taxes.

The Georgia DOR has subsequently dropped its claim the Chrisleys owe more than $2.1 mil in unpaid taxes, interest and fees.

Todd says, "Julie and I knew all along that we had done nothing wrong and that when all the facts came out, we would be fine."

D.L. Hughley's not necessarily pointing the finger at police following the death of Botham Jean's neighbor ... but he's not yet convinced they have clean hands either.

We got Hughley Monday at LAX, and his take on the shocking murder of Joshua Brown -- who testified against ex-Dallas cop Amber Guyger days before getting gunned down -- is definitely an interesting one.

D.L. said if Brown had testified against a gang member and then got shot, it would be natural to suspect the gang was involved. So, in this case, it only makes sense to wonder if cops had something to do with the slaying.

He says if the police really had nothing to do with Brown getting killed in a Friday night drive-by shooting, they'll be extra motivated to find the true killer. But, if they don't solve the case ... Hughley says they're opening themselves up to serious suspicion.

Antonio Brown is fighting like hell to make sure video of his condo-trashing deposition doesn't see the light of day ... the NFL star just filed docs in court to try to keep the footage under wraps.

As we previously reported ... Brown is accused of being a "belligerent" monster when he sat down for his depo as part of a lawsuit with his old luxury condo complex.

The attorneys for the place -- The Mansions at Acqualina in Miami, Florida -- say AB was not only late for the meeting, but he was also "pugnacious," "defiant" and "profane."

The attorneys also say Brown "chanted, over and over" during the depo ... and they claim all of his actions were recorded on video.

But, in court docs just filed last week, Brown is asking the court to make sure footage from the depo is never made available to the public ... filing a motion to make it all confidential.

In the docs, Brown says if the video is seen ... it'll destroy his ability to get fair treatment in the lawsuit.

As for his actions during the depo ... Brown -- in separate court docs -- said the attorneys' descriptions of his actions were unnecessary, calling them "scandalous, redundant and immaterial."

Brown adds the attorneys only released a description of his depo to "turn this into a media circus" for their "personal gain."

Brown wants the court to NOT impose sanctions against him ... but he adds he IS willing to retake his deposition.

Ronnie Ortiz-Magro is under an emergency protective order, which LAPD issued immediately following his arrest for an alleged domestic violence incident with Jen Harley.

Law enforcement sources tell us the 'Jersey Shore' star must now stay 100 yards away from his on-again, off-again girlfriend and mother of his daughter, Ariana. If, for whatever reason, Ronnie has belongings at Jen's place in Vegas, he must have police escort him.

The order is in place until Oct. 11 ... which will be one week after his arrest.

Of course, Jen can go to court to request a temporary restraining order if she wants Ronnie to stay away beyond the 11.

Evelyn Lozada claims she's out on several endorsement deals because one of her "Basketball Wives" costars called her a racist bigot ... so she's now suing.

According to legal docs, obtained by TMZ ... Evelyn claims Ogom "OG" Chijindu called her a racist bigot on social media ever since Evelyn posted a cryptic message to her more than 4 million followers on Instagram back on September 11.

Evelyn's message read, "Nobody watches you harder than the people that can't stand you." The post included a picture of a laughing orangutan. OG took offense to this and clapped back with a repost of her own that read, "Wow so now black women are monkeys. Everyone boycott this trash box you are disgusting." The post didn't appear to tag or mention anyone.

OG also trashed talked on Twitter: "And there it is..show your true colors you racist bigot. You called Cece 'Ling Ling' Jackie a 'cockroach' & now me a 'monkey.'"