Legal

Lori Loughlin's husband practically admitted to paying big bucks to get their daughter into USC ... according to prosecutors.

In the indictment that brought a new charge upon Lori and Mossimo Giannulli, he's accused of emailing their accountant admitting to working the system to get their daughter admitted.

According to the docs ... Mossimo forwarded a $200,000 invoice he got from Rick Singer to his accountant for payment in April 2017 and wrote, "Good news my daughter...is in [U]SC... bad is I had to work the system."

Prosecutors claim on or about the same day, the daughter received a formal acceptance letter from USC and Mossimo wired the money.

As we reported ... the U.S. Attorney out of Boston filed a new charge of Federal Program Bribery against the couple Tuesday. The 2 allegedly paid $500,000 to the mastermind, Singer, to get their daughters into USC ... and this $200k is allegedly part of that total.

The new charge carries a maximum 5-year prison sentence. They've already charged Lori and Mossimo with various other crimes that could land them in prison for 40 years.

Diddy is looking to reinvent himself again with another name change ... he's taking legal action to switch his name from Sean John to Sean Love.

According to docs, obtained by TMZ ... Diddy filed a petition in Los Angeles County Superior Court for a name change.

In the docs, Diddy says he's changing his name from Sean John Combs to Sean Love Combs. Diddy doesn't expressly say why he's yearning for "Love," he just says there's a desire to change his middle name.

It's kinda interesting ... back in 2017, Diddy joked about changing his name to Brother Love, but he never followed through with an official petition.

Hooters needs to spread its wings and take care of visually impaired folks looking to purchase gift cards ... so says a legally blind man suing the popular restaurant chain.

Marcos Calcano is suing Hooters on behalf of himself and others with vision disabilities because its gift cards do not contain Braille, and he says he's clamoring to buy one ... according to a new suit.

Calcano says adding Braille to the cards is an easy fix that would make it much simpler for people like him to access the $400 billion gift card market ... and it "would restore the dignity to blind persons."

According to the legal docs ... Hooters informed him it does not sell gift cards containing Braille, and he believes the chain has no intention of doing so.

Hooters isn't alone, either -- Calcano claims to his knowledge, the only store that sells Braille gift cards is Starbucks ... even major retail chains like Walgreens, CVS and Target don't offer them.

At the same time he sued Hooters, he also filed against Domino's pizza.

He says he "intends to immediately purchase at least one store gift card" from Hooters as soon as the Braille is added.

Sounds like the guy's got a hankering for a 10-piece pronto ... or he's Christmas shopping early.

Calcano filed the class action suit seeking unspecified damages and wants the court to order Hooters to Braille up.

Antonio Brown is making his return!!!

... to another courthouse -- 'cause the NFL star has just agreed to retake his deposition in his condo-trashing lawsuit on Dec. 12, after the first one ended in complete disaster.

Remember, AB -- who's been teamless since his release from the Patriots last month -- is being sued for allegedly trashing his fancy Miami-area condo last year.

But, during his first deposition in the case last month ... the attorneys for the place -- The Mansions at Acqualina -- say he was a complete monster during the proceedings.

In court docs, they allege Brown showed up late ... "chanted over and over" during questioning -- and was overall "defiant" and "profane."

They also allege AB inexplicably left the depo early ... saying out of nowhere he gave them a 5-minute countdown and walked out of the office building long before the meeting was scheduled to end.

Opposing counsel demanded the judge order AB to sit for a second depo -- but before the matter went before the court, Brown's team agreed to the request.

They even set a date and location ... Dec. 12 (during the NFL's Week 12) at the Dade County Courthouse.

In fact, Brown's hearing is slated for just hours before the Jets kick off against the Ravens on "Thursday Night Football."

Lizzo's going to war -- a legal war -- with three songwriters who've been making a lot of noise, claiming they wrote parts of her #1 hit ... but Lizzo says that's BS.

Lizzo filed legal docs Wednesday in federal court asking a judge to declare the 3 men have no copyright on "Truth Hurts," and no right to share in the song's immense profits.

You've probably seen this bubbling up on social media. One of the songwriters -- Justin Raisen -- has claimed he cowrote a song called "Healthy" with Lizzo last year. He claims Lizzo lifted the signature lyric, "I just took a DNA test turns out I'm 100% that bitch" from "Healthy."

According to the docs, obtained by TMZ, Lizzo says that line is actually from a 2017 tweet that became a popular meme -- and that's why she decided to sing it on the 'Truth' demo. On social media, Lizzo said producer Ricky Reed was the only other person in the room when she wrote 'Truth.'

She says Justin and his brother, Jeremiah, and their reps have on at least 2 occasions acknowledged in writing they have no claim to 'Truth.'

Lizzo suspects they are trying to set up an "opportunistic" lawsuit to cash in on her hit ... which has been #1 for 7 weeks.

Rose McGowan is going after Harvey Weinstein and his former attornies ... claiming they conspired to smear her and discredit her rape allegations against the disgraced studio mogul.

According to legal docs obtained by TMZ ... McGowan claims "this case is about a diabolical and illegal effort by one of America's most powerful men and his representatives to silence sexual-assault victims."

McGowan -- who is also suing Weinstein's ex-lawyers, Lisa Bloom and David Boies -- claims back in 2016 she was going to write a memoir and motivational book called "Brave" that would include details about Weinstein allegedly raping her in 1997 at the Sundance Film Festival.

She then claims that when Weinstein learned about these plans, "he tapped into his team of fixers" with the goal of ensuring McGowan's story never saw the light of day ... "and -- if it did -- that no one would believe her."

McGowan then alleges Weinstein's lawyers -- in conjunction with the international spy agency, Black Cube -- worked together and "tried to steal McGowan's unpublished book" and attempted to buy her silence. She claims that Weinstein's plans were that if they couldn't stop her, they'd do everything in their power to ruin her reputation.

What's more ... she brought up what we had previously reported -- McGowan insisted Weinstein may have had a hand in having coke planted in her wallet back in 2017.

She claims, in docs, her lawyer, Jose Baez, advised her to drop that defense and instead plead no contest, which she did. McGowan says it's odd that 9 days after she pled no contest, Baez then signed up as Weinstein's criminal defense attorneys.

The actress, of course, is one of the first women to accuse Weinstein of sexually assaulting her. She helped spearhead the #MeToo Movement, which prompted scores of women to come forward.

McGown is suing for damages. A rep for Lisa Bloom tells us, "It is inexcusable that Ms. McGowan chose to include my client in her lawsuit. Facts matter. There is simply no credible factual or legal basis for her claims against my client. We look forward to our day in court to set the record straight."

We've reached out to Boies, so far, no word back.

Nelly is putting a sexual assault case behind him by reaching an agreement with his accuser to settle the matter out of court.

A woman in England had filed a lawsuit, about a year ago, against Nelly for allegedly sexually assaulting her after a 2017 concert in Essex. The accuser, who filed as Jane Doe, had claimed the rapper forced her to perform oral sex during a meet-and-greet.

According to docs filed Tuesday in federal court, and obtained by TMZ, the accuser has informed the judge that she and Nelly recently settled their dispute.

Neither side is saying whether money changed hands ... terms of the agreement are confidential.

Nelly's girlfriend, Shantel Jackson, is also in the clear now. The accuser had included her in the lawsuit, claiming Shantel lied when she dismissed the accuser as a liar.

40 Glocc is close to seeing the light at the end of the tunnel in his prostitution case ... he's just cut a plea deal with prosecutors.

According to court docs, obtained by TMZ, the rapper has agreed to plead guilty to 1 felony count of promoting prostitution of an individual. As part of the plea deal ... prosecutors have agreed to drop 2 other felony charges -- fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle and engaging in the sex trafficking of an individual.

Under the terms of the deal ... Glocc can argue for a jail sentence of between 4 and 12 months.

For now ... the rapper will be out on bail until his next hearing in February. Until then, Glocc's gotta keep his nose clean.

A judge still has to sign off on the deal and sentence Glocc before it's all official. So, Glocc's not outta the woods just yet, but he's inching closer.

As we first reported ... Glocc was nabbed in a prostitution ring back in 2017. He had allegedly driven a woman to an unknown location after an undercover cop contacted her through an ad posted on Backpage.com.

Cuba Gooding Jr. is racking up new charges in NYC at an alarming rate -- the D.A. just announced he's been indicted on 2 more counts related to alleged sexual misconduct.

The Manhattan D.A. says the Oscar winner is now facing an additional count of forcible touching and another sexual abuse in the third-degree charge. After last week's indictment that brings Gooding's tally up to 6 charges related to 3 different accusers.

Prosecutors have not said when the new accuser's alleged incident went down. As we reported, the prior accusers are a TAO Nightclub server and a patron at Magic Hour Rooftop Bar and Lounge, both in NYC.

TMZ broke the story ... surveillance video appeared to show some contact between Cuba and the woman at Magic Hour Rooftop back in June, but he adamantly denied touching the woman's breast ... as she claimed to cops.

Gooding will be back in court on Halloween for yet another arraignment. His attorney, Mark Heller, tells us Cuba will plead not guilty ... just as he did for the 4 previous charges.

Zooey Deschanel's husband has pulled the trigger and filed for divorce ... TMZ has learned.

Jacob Pechenik filed legal docs Tuesday citing "irreconcilable differences" as a reason for ending the marriage.

The couple announced their split last month after 4 years of marriage. At the time they said, "After much discussion and a long period of contemplation we have decided we are better off as friends, business partners and co-parents rather than life partners."

Zooey and Jacob met on the set of the Bill Murray comedy "Rock the Kasbah," on which Jacob was a producer.

The couple has 2 kids together ... 4-year-old Elsie and 2-year-old Charlie.

This is the "New Girl" star's 2nd divorce. She split from Ben Gibbard -- lead singer of Death Cab for Cutie -- at the start of 2012.

A famous MLB ump says Paul Lo Duca is lying ... claiming he did NOT "open up" the strike zone for a star Mets pitcher who let him borrow a sick '57 Chevy -- and now he's suing.

The pissed-off ump is Joe West -- a baseball legend who's been working MLB games since the '70s.

West is FURIOUS over claims Lo Duca made during an April 18 podcast on The Action Network ... when the ex-Mets catcher accused West of essentially taking bribes from star closer Billy Wagner.

Specifically, Lo Duca said during a game he was catching around 2006 or 2007 against the Phillies ... he noticed West (the home plate umpire) was being extra generous with strike calls for Wagner.

In fact, Lo Duca claims West called the final 3 batters out on strikes to end the game.

Afterward, Lo Duca claims he asked Wagner why he was getting so much love from West ... and that's when the pitcher winked at him and explained it this way ...

"Joe loves antique cars ... so every time he comes into town, I lend him my '57 Chevy, so he can drive it around ... so then he opens up the strike zone for me."

In his lawsuit, West claims he was FURIOUS when he heard the allegations -- claiming the story is 100% made up and he can prove it.

West says in 2006 and 2007 ... he was only the home plate umpire for a game between the Mets and Phillies ONE TIME -- and claims Wagner did not pitch at all.

In fact, West says that game he umped ended on a home run -- NOT a called strikeout.

West also claims he NEVER received a car from Wagner to use ... and says in the lawsuit he NEVER "opened up the strike zone" for Wagner as a favor.

There's more ... on the podcast, Lo Duca said West had ejected him from a handful of MLB games during his career. But, West says that's also not true -- he only threw Lo Duca out of ONE game.

West is suing Lo Duca and The Action Network for defamation, claiming Paul's claims were reckless and just plain false -- and has hurt his reputation as fair umpire. He's asking the court for unspecified damages.

Monica is officially flying solo -- her divorce from ex-NBA baller Shannon Brown is now finalized after spending a few minutes Tuesday morning before the judge.

The singer and her attorney, Tanya Mitchell Graham, arrived at the courthouse in Fayetteville, GA ... but her now ex-husband, Shannon, was a no-show. That made for a quick, drama-free hearing that lasted less than 10 minutes. The judge granted Monica's divorce and -- as she requested -- restored her maiden name. She's now back to Monica Arnold.

Their split moved pretty quickly, legally speaking. You'll recall, filed for divorce back in March after nearly 10 years of marriage to the former Lakers star. They had separated about a year ago.

They have a 6-year-old daughter together, Laiyah. As for an agreement on child support ... the details were sealed in court. No word on if either will pay spousal support.

Either way ... Monica seemed satisfied with the outcome, as she left court smiling and surrounded by family members.

Lori Loughlin may not go to trial after all in her college admissions case, because our sources say there's an opening now for a plea bargain in the wake of Felicity Huffman's superlight sentence.

Multiple sources involved in the various college admissions cases say Lori's big break came with the probation department's sentencing report for Felicity ... specifically, the part where the dept. says no one suffered a loss as a result of the actress's conduct. Prosecutors argued someone who took the SAT was probably denied admission somewhere because Felicity's daughter scored higher than she should have because of a rigged test. Probation said ... not the case.

As we reported, our U.S. Attorney sources tell us prosecutors wanted a year behind bars for Felicity. The fact that they only got 14 days, and the probation department would have been fine with no prison time and straight probation has caused concern for the U.S. Attorney.

Prosecutors, we're told, are worried it will become an embarrassment for the office if Lori goes to trial, gets convicted and gets a short sentence. And remember, Felicity rigged an SAT test that potentially affects every applicant. With Lori, even though she paid way more ($500,000), the bribe didn't really affect anyone else.

Sources with direct knowledge on the subject tell us the U.S. Attorney is open to plea discussions, and that is far more likely now that a possible sentence for Lori could be measured in weeks and not years. Remember, if you look just at the charges, Lori faces a maximum of 40 years. It won't look good if prosecutors go to trial, win a conviction and she gets 3 or 4 weeks behind bars.

So, the smart money now ... plea bargain before trial.

Future's pulling out (figuratively speaking, that is) all the stops to ghost a new alleged baby mama ... so she claims in a new paternity case alleging he's fathered his EIGHTH CHILD!!!

Cindy Renae Parker has filed legal docs in Nueces County, Texas alleging Future is the father of her 3-month-old son, Legend Ary Wilburn. No, you didn't read that wrong. Anyway ... according to docs, obtained by TMZ, Cindy claims she's made repeated attempts to serve the rapper with papers, but to no avail.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Cindy says Future agreed to a paternity test but then he went radio silent on her when it came time to get it done. We're told taking Future to court was Cindy's last resort and she wanted to solve this amicably and on their own.

Our sources say Cindy got a judge's permission to serve Future's lawyers in his home state of Georgia ... because cause he's harder to track down than Jimmy Hoffa.

This baby mama drama, of course, is becoming a ritual of sorts for Future. TMZ broke the story ... nearly 2 months ago to the date, Eliza Seraphin filed legal docs in Florida alleging he fathered her 6-month-old daughter.

Eliza, like Cindy, alleged Future ghosted her after she gave birth in April. That case is still pending. No word if Maury Povich has volunteered to offer his services.

JWoww hired a home improvement contractor to lay tiles at her Jersey mansion, but she kicked him out for being high as a kite ... this according to a new lawsuit.

According to legal docs obtained by TMZ ... JWoww hired Anthony Dai to do some work on her home, but when he got to the job site she claims he was clearly under the influence. JWoww says the contractor was so impaired she asked him to leave when he finally showed up at 10 PM.

And, get this ... JWoww claims the contractor was so out of whack, he left behind his cell phone and wet saw.

In the suit, JWoww claims she gave the contractor a $1,250 check upfront and purchased the tiles herself, but she stopped payment on the check due to his failure to get the job done.

According to the docs, it was apparently too late -- the dude cashed it -- and the check cashing company sued her for the money.

"Shahs of Sunset" star Mike Shouhed is dumbfounded as to why his longtime friend and costar, Reza Farahan, is taking their beef to the next level by threatening to sue him.

We got Mike out at Equinox in L.A. Friday afternoon and asked about Reza firing off a cease and desist letter, threatening to sue if Mike doesn't stop selling t-shirts with Reza's face.

Quick backstory ... on the last season of 'Shahs,' tensions were running high between Mike and Reza, and they had several heated arguments. One of their biggest issues is the fact Mike's been hawking t-shirts on his website for 3 years ... and one of them has Reza's mug and the words "Reza is My Homeboy."

Reza's known about it, but now that they've been at each other's throats ... he sent the letter claiming Mike's merch sales violate Reza's rights to control the marketing of his own likeness and image.

Mike posted the letter on Instagram with the caption, "Guess he's not my homeboy! lol ... this is what happens when dudes got his panties in a bunch!"

Mike tells us he started selling the shirts as an homage to his friends on the show and he gets EVERYONE'S permission before pimping the shirts. His best explanation for Reza getting lawyers involved -- pettiness.

Mike says he's not trying to go back and forth on social media, and instead says he'll just lawyer up too.