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Nick's attorney, Liane K. Wakayama tells us, "Melissa Schuman has been peddling this tale for many years, but her allegation was false when she first made it back in 2017 - and it still is. A judge in Nevada recently ruled, after reviewing the extensive evidence we laid out, that there are strong grounds for Nick Carter to proceed with his lawsuit against Ms. Schuman for plotting to damage, defame and extort Nick, his associates, his friends and his family."

Liane continues, “In light of our progress in Nevada, this kind of response is at once both predictable and pathetic. But this PR stunt won’t shake Nick from his determination to hold Ms. Schuman and her co-conspirators to account for the immeasurable pain and suffering their extortionate conduct has caused.”

Nick Carter is being taken to court by singer Melissa Schuman, more than 5 years after she pushed for him to be criminally charged for allegedly sexually assaulting her.

Here's the deal -- Schuman is suing the Backstreet Boys singer, claiming he sexually assaulted her in 2002 in Santa Monica ... when she was 18 and he was 22. In the suit, she alleges he forcibly performed oral sex on her, and made her do the same to him.

Schuman, who was in the girl group Dream, claims Carter then took her virginity, despite her telling him she was saving herself for marriage.

She originally accused him of this back in 2017 ... she filed a police report and wanted Carter to face criminal charges, but the D.A.'s office declined to prosecute.

Schuman now believes a new bill amending the statute of limitations for civil actions revives her claim, which is why she's looking to take it all to a judge.

Nick has denied all of her allegations, and, in fact, sued Schuman for $2.3 million earlier this year ... claiming she had been trying to extort money from him for years. That suit was part of his ongoing litigation against Shannon Ruth, who's also accused Carter of sexual assault on a tour bus.

Warren G is fully embracing the TikTok randomness that blended his all-time classic, "Regulate," with Morgan Wallen's hit "Chasin' You" -- so much so, he's updating his bars to the 19-year-old track, pronto!!! 🔥

On Tuesday, Warren teased a remix to the mashup, rapping ... "Riding in my Chevy/I call her 'Blue Lagoon'/Pull up to the liquor store, you know what I'm looking for ... Zig-Zags, bottle and a brown paper bizag."

Warren didn't give fans a remix release date, but did tout it to be "summer vibes" which will be arriving shortly.

Morgan's currently on fire right now ... his song "Last Night" is currently No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. Meanwhile, Warren and Nate Dogg's "Regulate" is the gift that keeps on giving ... just ask Megan Thee Stallion, who blazed the instrumental on her last public freestyle.

Post Malone is taking his love of chicken fingers to the next level ... custom designing a Raising Cane's restaurant near his Utah estate, complete with his own special menu item.

The chicken finger chain tells TMZ ... Post's custom-designed restaurant is opening Thursday in Midvale, Utah and it's the culmination of the rapper's longtime love of Cane's chicken fingers and his friendship with restaurant founder Todd Graves.

RC says after Post moved to Utah, he personally asked Todd for a Cane's location near his massive crib, even offering to design every aspect of the restaurant himself ... from the dining room, to the bathrooms, exterior and landscaping.

Remember ... Post and Todd are super close, with Todd making a cameo appearance in Post's 2021 "Motley Crew" music video.

As you can see, the renovated restaurant is now wrapped in solid pink with Post Malone tattoo imagery and a brushed stainless steel "1" tower. The interior flooring and walls are also solid pink, and the window wraps glow at night.

There's also Post Malone memorabilia displayed on the dining room walls ... including the outfits he wore to the 2019 Grammy Awards and 2022 Billboard Magazine cover shoot. Some of Post's personal guitars are also framed and hung inside.

With Post being a big fan of medieval armor, he designed the restrooms to look like the inside of a medieval castle ... and there's even a suit of gothic medieval armor inside.

Post Malone's also super into beer pong ... and the dining room has a track system with pink ping pong balls running through ... with color-changing filters and light fixtures.

Out in the parking lot, Post put a classic 1974 Ford F250 wrapped in brushed silver as a permanent fixture ... complete with a custom license plate.

Naturally, there's tons of Post Malone-themed merch ... including a pink vinyl-wrapped vending machine stocked with T-shirts, beanies, socks, ping pong balls, magnets, keychains, steel cups and guitar picks

In addition to Post Malone's design overhaul, this location is also serving its popular Caniac Box the "Posty Way" ... it's the custom combo Post always orders, and it comes with 4 chicken fingers, crinkle-cut fries, 2 Cane's sauces, 2 slices of Texas toast, extra salt and pepper packed, and an unsweet tea/lemonade mix to wash it all down.

Raising Cane's says folks who order the "Posty Way" get the meal with a Post Malone napkin, decal sticker and a 32 oz. collector's cup.

Kim K starring in the new "American Horror Story" is raising cynics' eyebrows -- but she's probably gonna knock their socks off, according to one pro who knows TV frontward and back.

We talked to NPR's Eric Deggans Tuesday on "TMZ Live" about Kim's forthcoming role in Ryan Murphy's ongoing horror anthology -- and he believes she's poised to shock the critics with a solid acting performance that could impress the doubters.

Check out what Eric -- who handles all things television for the public radio network -- has to say about Kim and her history in Hollywood. Interestingly, he thinks she's long been underestimated.

While some might just see her as your traditional influencer trying to switch lanes in entertainment ... ED says Kim stands apart from all the other up-and-coming TikTokers and YouTubers who've similarly tried to jump to a much bigger stage.

While it didn't work out for most of those folks, Eric believes Kim's unique in that she can deliver a performance with proper direction. He adds, she's already shown flashes of acting chops.

There's also the Ryan Murphy element. We know the guy doesn't just churn out garbage -- most of the stuff he puts out is quality content, and Eric says he has no reason to believe this will be any different. He also brings up the X factor ... Lady Gaga.

Taylor Swift clearly has a major hold on her fan base, 'cause the pants she wore on her first public single-girl outing have already sold out ... with some fans already looking into a deeper meaning behind her fashion choice.

Taylor wore a pair of "Butterfly-patch Cropped Jeans" from a brand called Area out in NYC Monday night. The pants, which come complete with a bedazzled butterfly on the leg and retail for $673, were still available online early Tuesday morning. However, Swifites were quick to track down the item, causing the pants to sell out from multiple retailers in a few hours.

Like just about everything Taylor does, her fans even hunted for clues in the singer's fashion choice -- believing the butterfly may symbolize rebirth and starting over.

As we reported, Swift wasn't alone for her night out in NYC's West Village, joined by pal Jack Antonoff and his fiancée, actress Margaret Qualley.

It's been less than a week since news broke about Taylor's relationship with Joe Alwyn coming to an end after 6 years together -- and the public outing in NYC was certainly a rare one -- only time will tell if Taylor's deciding to come out of her cocoon a little bit more.

Marques Houston says he's a happily married man and Internet trolls poking fun at the huge age difference between his wife and him ... will just have to find a new hobby.

We caught the R&B vet out Monday evening in L.A. amid the rabid backlash against his TV One special, "Uncensored." The first trailer for it has some people irate because it highlights how he first met his young bride Miya, fueling speculation she was a minor when they started dating.

Marques insists he's not sweating the opinions of strangers, he's well aware everyone has them -- and what he really wanted to clarify is he started dating Miya when she was 18 ... and they were married a year later.

She's now 22, while he's 41. They welcomed their first child in December 2021, and he says it's been bliss ever since.

He says the online misconception began when someone allegedly published the wrong birthdate for Miya ... leading folks to believe she was underage when their relationship began.

Chloe Bailey's new album didn't get the attention she hoped it would, but her good pal Druski's telling her to brush the dust off her shoulder!!!

The '4Lifers' funnyman was out Tuesday in NYC as fans reacted to the news Chloe's debut solo album only ranked #119 on the Billboard 200 ... with just 10k records sold.

The album got a lot of attention for her "How Does It Feel" collab with Chris Brown ... and Druski himself even helped promote the single, "For the Night" -- which was aimed at Gunna -- but the track was eventually scrapped from the final album cut.

Druski tells Chloe to look on the bright side ... she sold more than a lot of other people -- including him, as he has music on streaming services as well.

Druski and Chloe got tight on the set of the upcoming film "Praise This," which also stars his homie Quavo ... and Druski had jokes for him.

The former Migos frontman recently claimed he was open to creating a gospel album, as the film is centered around a church choir, but Druski has known Quavo for years and he thinks he was big capping for the sake of the interview!!! 😂

As for Nick Cannon's intention to have baby #13 ... Druski thinks he's wildin' out and needs to cut it on new fatherhood.

There's nothing like a familiar face for Taylor Swift in the wake of her split from Joe Alwyn ... as she's getting by with a little help from her pal and longtime collaborator Jack Antonoff.

T. Swift hit NYC's West Village Monday night for a bite at Via Carota, and, apparently, has no issues being the third wheel ... now that she's single. She dined with Jack and his fiancée, actress Margaret Qualley.

The timing of the trio's night out for some Italian is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, Taylor's hardly looking super sad -- at least on the outside -- which might support the theory her breakup from Joe didn't go down all that recently.

Secondly, freshly heartbroken folks rarely wanna hang out with freshly in love couples ... like Jack and Margaret, for instance. They got engaged last May after about a year of dating -- so, again, we'd guess Taylor wouldn't be in the mood to catch up on Margaret and Jack's wedding plans ... IF she and Joe had just broken up.

As we reported, news of Taylor and Joe's demise, after 6 years of dating, leaked over the weekend, but they hadn't been seen together in public in a long time -- and some fans noticed he hadn't been at any of her Eras Tour shows either.

So far, neither is saying exactly when they split ... or who called things off.

Of course, TS and singer/songwriter Jack have worked together for years ... he's co-written or co-produced several dozen of Taylor's tracks. Who knows, maybe they hashed out her next great breakup song while breaking bruschetta!

Millie Bobby Brown and her boyfriend Jake Bongiovi are officially taking things to the next level ... the young couple's announcing their engagement.

The "Stranger Things" star shared her big news Tuesday morning by posting a pic of Jake -- the 20-year-old son of Jon Bon Jovi -- hugging her. It looks like the shot was taken moments after he popped the question, because his now fiancée is rocking a stunning diamond ring on her left ring finger.

19-year-old Millie's caption for the engagement post included a quote from Taylor Swift's song "Lovers" -- "I've loved you 3 summers now, honey, I want 'em all".

Jake and Millie have been together since 2021 when they initially met on IG. They became friends IRL, and have been inseparable since.

JB, who happens to be the spitting image of his pops, also made sure to share the special moment with his followers -- the caption on his 2 photos simply read, "Forever 🤍".

It's unclear when exactly the engagement went down ... there had been recent speculation because Millie was seen potentially wearing the diamond ring in another photo, not too long ago.

Well, turns out that rumor is true. Congrats!

Fun fact: Neither Millie nor Jake used to work on the docks (IYKYK).

We covered it all in the latest episode of The TMZ Podcast, available on all podcast platforms!

Nick Cannon says he's open to the idea of having a 13th child ... but you would probably never guess with whom ... except yeah, we told you in the headline.

The "Masked Singer" host sat down Monday with Howard Stern, who asked Nick about increasing his already large family by one if the mother was none other than Taylor Swift.

Although Nick at first wasn't really sure where he stood on the issue, he perked up once he heard the name of the pop star, who just called it quits with longtime boyfriend Joe Alwyn.

Nick couldn't contain his excitement over the Swift hypothetical, telling Howard, "That's the one. I'm all in!"

He then outlined why Taylor would be the perfect mate. "First of all, she's an amazing songwriter," Nick said, adding, "What I do love about Taylor Swift is that she has been so vulnerable and open with all of her music."

Nick noted that Taylor can relate to him through their "very similar" dating histories while joking that his "Spidey senses" were tingling. He ended the Taylor/baby convo with this, "That would be amazing."

As you already know, Nick has a whopping 12 kids by six different women. His latest child, Halo, came into the world in Dec. 2022.

Taylor Swift's music is seeing a huge spike amid news of her breakup with Joe Alwyn -- but the interest is focused on specific tracks, with a specific muse in mind ... take a guess.

The numbers are in -- as aggregated by TS stan SpotifySwiftie -- and it looks like several songs from TayTay's past few albums have seen massive streaming increases in the past 48 hours ... but, perhaps unsurprisingly, they're all tunes rumored to be about her now-ex.

The songs in question span her last 5 projects -- which cover the time frame that she's been with Joe -- and they range in percentages ... from as low a boost as 23% to as high as 106%, and everything in between. There are 11 tracks we're talking about here, BTW.

'King of My Heart' from her album 'Reputation' and 'happiness' from 'evermore,' for example touch the low end of the totem pole (at 23% increases each) ... whereas other songs like 'Sweet Nothing' ('Midnights') and 'the 1' ('folkore') are at 30% and 39%, respectively.

Other songs, however, have even more plays ... cuts like 'New Year's Day' ('Reputation'), 'peace' ('folklore') and 'Daylight' ('Lover') have jumped 40%/48%/58% in streaming stats.

The song of hers that has the largest upswing is 'Cornelia Street' ('Lover') at 106%. Some of the telltale lyrics in there that allude to Joe include this line ... "And I hope I never lose you, hope it never ends // I'd never walk Cornelia Street again // That's the kind of heartbreak time could never mend." It's been reported they shared a home on this NYC street, for real.

Funny enough ... there's actually viral video of New York-based Swifties leaving flowers at the rumored house they used to live in -- mourning the fact that Joe and Taylor are dunzo.

NBA YoungBoy’s new album title "Don’t Try This At Home" apparently applies to everyone but him -- the prolific rapper’s throwing a huge party in L.A. while he's home ... on house arrest in Utah!!!

Sources close to the rap star’s camp tell TMZ Hip Hop the event goes down Thursday, April 20, and NBA’s team is paying $200K to rent party space at Elevate Lounge DTLA.

We’re told Team NBA is pulling out all the stops -- 50 Cent’s Branson Cognac is sponsoring, and there will be fully decked out with customized decor, sounds provided by DJ Carisma and a fan raffle. The winner gets to talk to NBA over the stream during the party.

Might sound like a standard Hollywood event, except the guy hosting will be several hundred miles away ... due to his lengthy house arrest for a gun possession charge.

NBA linked with Nicki Minaj for the album’s latest single “WTF,” which dropped last Friday and already has a couple million views.

Intruders beware at Leon “Roccstar” Youngblood Jr.'s home -- when the "Love & Hip Hop: Hollywood" star found some guy creeping on his roof, he handled it on his own ... according to law enforcement.

Cops say the platinum-selling Chris Brown producer told officers he was awakened a little past 5:00 AM Monday by an alarm alerting him someone was on the garage roof at his Chatsworth, CA home.

He says he went outside and, at gunpoint, ordered the guy off his roof ... but when he came down, an altercation broke out between them.

We're told Roccstar overpowered the guy, and then security for his gated community arrived to help detain the man until cops arrived.

The suspect was evaluated at the hospital for injuries before he was arrested for attempted burglary, vandalism, and possession of burglary tools.

Lil Baby is finally taking last October's No. 1 album, "It's Only Me" on the road ... and he's bringing several of his friends along for the ride.

The rap star revealed Monday GloRilla, The Kid LAROI, GLOSS UP, Rylo Rodriguez and Hunxho will be joining him on the 32-city tour, which kicks off in July.

The 4PF leader and Glo famously linked up backstage last year where she taught him how to do her signature dance, and the relationship has culminated into a power move of concert money!!!

At first glance, DJ Holiday has a new “podcast” that's totally unfiltered ... based on his grilling of Wiz Khalifa and O.T. Genasis.

TMZ Hip Hop obtained the video of Holiday sitting down with both rap stars and coming out the gate swinging … asking Wiz if he still misses his ex-wife, Amber Rose.

O.T. didn't get off easy either -- Holiday had the nerve to ask if he’s ever slept with Keyshia Cole!!!

The good news for all parties involved is ... this isn't a real podcast, it's a scripted scene from Holiday's upcoming "No Stress" video, which features raps from Wiz and O.T.

Still, his questions will definitely push some buttons for fans -- Wiz and Amber successfully co-parent their son, Sebastian, while O.T. had a public fallout with Keyshia after royally butchering her classic track, “Love.”

Cardi B couldn't contain her disgust after seeing the clip of the Dalai Lama asking a young boy, "suck my tongue" -- and even though her criticism made some people go after Cardi, she's not backing down.

An irate Cardi ripped child "predators" Monday, and urged parents to always know what's going on in their kids' lives.

Some fans agreed with Cardi's take on the odd video -- showing the Dalai interacting with a young boy during a public appearance -- but others brought up a shady moment from her pre-stardom past.

You might recall, Cardi admitted drugging and robbing men back in her strip club days.

She addressed the haters, head-on, saying those dudes were adult, drunk lowlifes who attempted to take advantage of her and she just happened to get the upper hand.

Unlike Cardi, the Dalai Lama's office is apologizing for the incident -- from February, BTW -- saying he "teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way, even in public and before cameras."

Doesn't seem like the "Bodak Yellow" rapper is buying what the Dalai's selling.