Legal

President Trump is raging over the Jeffrey Epstein files, Kim Kardashian's sex tape war with Ray J heats up and Taylor Swift gets a Las Vegas offer she just might accept!!! So, we gotta ask ...

Chris Eubank Jr. isn’t sugarcoating a thing -- there's REAL bad blood heading into his rematch with Conor Benn ... telling TMZ Sports he straight-up doesn't respect the guy.

The sequel to Eubank Jr. vs. Benn is slated for November 15 at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in the UK -- a must-watch for any boxing fan, but especially if they tuned in to the first fight on April 26.

Eubank Jr. (35-3) guarantees Part Two will be better ... 'cause he's promising to take his opponent out in "devastating fashion."

"I spoke to [President Trump] about it. He said he'd put in a good word for me, and I think that will probably go a long way."

That's what Bo Nickal told TMZ Sports this week -- just days before the UFC star is set to return to the Octagon following his first defeat in an otherwise blemish-free MMA career -- when asked about next year's highly anticipated fights at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

"I would love to be on that card. It would be a big honor for me. Something that would be very special," the 29-year-old told us, adding, "take care of business, one thing at a time, but it's looking good for the White House card."

Jeffrey Epstein has been the talk of the nation all week since his sordid emails were released -- one referencing President Trump spending time with a "girl" -- and now a resurfaced clip shows Epstein getting grilled by a lawyer about his oval-shaped penis as part of a civil lawsuit filed by his underage accusers.

If you've never seen it, the video comes from a 2009 deposition in which Epstein was facing several lawsuits from victims who claimed they were sexually abused as minors by Epstein after he struck a controversial plea deal with prosecutors in Florida.

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution with a minor, and was handed an 18-month sentence in a low-security Florida prison along with a work-release gig. The deal, which Epstein cut with federal prosecutors, violated the Crime Victims' Rights Act because Epstein's victims were never given a heads-up about it.

Jimmy Kimmel’s longtime bandleader, Cleto Escobedo III, died because his heart couldn't pump enough blood to keep him alive, TMZ has learned.

We obtained Cleto's death certificate and it lists cardiogenic shock as the immediate cause of death ... with vasodilatory shock, disseminated intravascular coagulation and alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver as the underlying causes.

The document also says other conditions that contributed to Cleto's death include sepsis, graft versus host disease, immunosuppressed, chronic kidney disease and pneumonia.

Cardiogenic shock is a life-threatening condition that happens when the heart suddenly can't pump enough blood to meet the body's needs ... according to the Mayo Clinic.

Blair Underwood says he's taking his love for bison to a new level ... because he just bought a bison, and he's raising a herd just like cattle.

We got the veteran actor at LAX, and our photog asked him about his latest venture.

Blair says he and a couple others have banded together to raise six bison, which he playfully calls his new "six-pack."

Lance Bass says the only way a potential *NSYNC biopic is ever getting off the ground is if he's a producer ... and he's already got an idea for how to tell the band's story.

We got Lance at LAX on a rainy Friday afternoon, and our photog asked him about a much-talked-about biopic that hasn't quite gotten off the ground.

Lance says it may well happen down the line, but he explains why there are some major hurdles to clear.

5:15 PM PT -- Patrick Beverley has spoken out since news broke of his arrest, saying via social media ... "Please don’t believe everything you see on the internet. Hope all is well LUV."

Letitia Quinones-Hollins, attorney for Patrick, tells TMZ in a statement ... "Patrick Beverley has no criminal record. He cares deeply about his little sister – a young lady, a minor. Given that, when he unexpectedly found her alone in the home with an 18-year-old man in the middle of the night, he was understandably concerned, as any brother would be about his sister. However, we don’t believe what followed happened the way it’s been described and we look forward to the opportunity to address that in court."

Ex-NBA player Patrick Beverly has been arrested in Texas for felony assault, TMZ Sports has learned.

The 6'2" point guard was taken into custody on Friday at the Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office in Richmond, Texas.

According to jail records, the charge against Beverley is Assault on a Family Member/Household Member Impeding Breath or Circulation. It's listed as a third-degree felony.

Tyler, the Creator and his Camp Flog Gnaw cohorts had to make the tough decision to postpone the festivities scheduled this weekend due to heavy rainfall in the Los Angeles area ... leaving some ticketholders' plans completely WASHED!!!

The announcement came just a day before CFG was slated to take over Dodger Stadium ... the new dates are now Nov. 22-23.

To add more drizzle to the downpour, the schedule change now makes it impossible for The Alchemist, Clairo, Don Toliver, Men I Trust, Sombr and TEMS to attend next weekend -- time to phone in some replacements!!!

Guests at the Indianapolis Zoo got a bit more than they bargained for on Friday morning ... because a chimpanzee escaped its enclosure.

The Indianapolis Zoo's senior vice president of external relations, Jake Oakman, told WTHR-TV a female chimpanzee was seen outside of the International Chimpanzee Complex at around 10 in the morning.

He said the zoo locked down and guests were escorted to safe locations.

The errant chimpanzee didn't make it off zoo property ... it was located and sedated returned to the complex.

No guests were injured, and the zoo reopened at noon.

Oakman said staff and security had been prepped for similar situations, and he said they "responded in a textbook and professional manner."

A Florida man has been found guilty of stabbing his adoptive parents to death and evading police for hours.

Dima Tower was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder and one count of fleeing law enforcement at the Sarasota County Courthouse on Friday, according to ABC7 Sarasota.

Tower was born in Ukraine and was adopted by Robbie and Jennifer Tower in 2015, when he was just a teenager. His defense attorney said Tower's troubled upbringing left him "emotionally scarred," according to FOX 13 Tampa Bay.

Tower was 21 when he killed his adoptive parents in their house in North Port, Florida, in August 2023.

He stabbed Robbie while he slept. Jennifer ran to a neighbor's house, but Tower chased her and forced her to return to the house, where he sat her down and explained what he'd done to Robbie ... and then stabbed her multiple times.

Authorities said the neighbor whose house Jennifer had run to called police ... responding officers saw Tower "wrestling around in a car," covered in blood, before he drove away, leading police on a highway pursuit. He ran from the car on foot into some woods ... police located him at a gas station the next day.

5:45 PM PT -- After fans raised eyebrows about Hailey Bieber's name being removed from the Erewhon smoothie menu, an Erewhon employee tells TMZ ... they were told that the collaboration between HB and Erewhon was finished -- at this time, the contract has run its course.

Happy trails to the Hailey Bieber smoothie ... Erewhon has quietly stripped her name from the famous juice drink.

The upscale -- and super expensive -- grocery chain is no longer hawking a $20 Hailey Bieber Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie ... it's now just the Strawberry Glaze Skin Smoothie ... and yes, it still costs an Andrew Jackson.

Erewhon's famous smoothie had featured Hailey's name since 2022 ... it was super popular and a status symbol around Los Angeles.

The Notorious B.I.G.'s son, CJ Wallace, is firing back at the publicist who sued him earlier this summer ... filing his own defamation lawsuit against this publicist for claiming CJ helped lure him to a place where Diddy sexually assaulted him.

We broke the story in July ... Diddy and CJ were both sued by an anonymous man who claimed he was lured by CJ, Willie Mack, and several others to be hand-delivered to an awaiting Diddy ... who allegedly attempted to force oral sex on him.

According to the new legal docs, filed this week in Florida, CJ is now suing Jonathan Hay, who has admitted to being the John Doe in the earlier suit.

Monica Lewinsky's developed thick skin over the years ... but the prospect of Sarah Paulson playing Linda Tripp in "Impeachment: American Crime Story" apparently shook her up.

Lewinsky spoke with Paulson on Thursday's episode of her "Reclaiming with Monica Lewinsky" podcast, and she admitted there were a few moments she "panicked" while the show, which aired in 2021, was in development.

In 1997, Tripp secretly recorded hours of conversations with Lewinsky. Tripp worked at the Pentagon, and Lewinsky had been a White House intern ... the two were 24 years apart in age.

Tripp gave the recordings to investigators during a legal probe of President Bill Clinton. Tripp and Lewinsky had discussed among other things the infamous blue dress that had presidential DNA on it from a sexual encounter with the intern.

Taylor Momsen says it felt like a Christmas miracle to recently reconnect with Jim Carrey 25 years after starring with him in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" ... telling us it feels like her career's coming full circle.

We caught up with the actress and singer in New York City Friday ... and we asked her about posing with Carrey at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in L.A. last weekend. Jim was on hand to induct Soundgarden.

Momsen said it felt surreal and amazing to see him again ... adding Jim "feels like home" to her.

2:25 PM PT -- A source with direct knowledge of the production tells TMZ … the film is based on a book, which Sony owns the rights to.

Tom Holland's set to star in an upcoming biopic about Fred Astaire ... but the late Hollywood legend's widow says the movie never got the green light from Fred's estate.

TMZ obtained a legal letter Fred's widow, Robyn Astaire, fired off to Amy Pascal -- one of the biopic's producers -- and Robyn makes it clear she hasn't authorized or granted permission for any portrayal of Fred in this biopic ... or any other film.

In the letter, Robyn says Fred "was explicit in his Will that he did not want his life story to be depicted on screen" ... and he says she "fully respects and upholds those wishes."