You Might Want to Rethink

DePaul's former softball coach allegedly punched his assistant in the face and repeatedly verbally abused players ... but school officials did nothing about it -- this according to a new lawsuit obtained by TMZ Sports.

In the suit, one of the mental health doctors DePaul used regularly, Jenny Conviser, alleges she uncovered a pattern of abuse stemming from Eugene Lenti's softball program.

FYI, Lenti is a legend at the school ... coaching there for nearly 40 years and racking up more than 1,000 career wins.

Conviser -- a noted sports psychologist who worked with DePaul from 2005-2018 -- says in meetings with student-athlete patients in 2016 ... they told her Lenti exhibited abusive behavior often.

In the docs, Conviser says players told her the coach often called them "f**king whores" and "regularly punched them about their bodies," among other things.

Conviser says when she brought this to the attention of school officials ... they failed to properly investigate -- and says it's all because Lenti's sister, Jean Lenti Ponsetto, was the program's athletic director.

Conviser says in 2018, a similar incident happened ... when a patient told her Lenti, during a dispute, "had punched in the face his female Associate Head Coach."

Yet Conviser says when she brought this up to the school once again ... she claims officials not only didn't look into the allegations -- they attempted to cover them up.

In the docs, Conviser alleges the school allowed Lenti to "slip out the back door" and quietly retire. She also says the school fired Lenti's entire staff, including the alleged victim of the punching attack.

Conviser also claims the school terminated its involvement with her and her medical companies ... and also defamed her by painting her as a "befuddled and disgruntled vendor crassly using DePaul’s patients’ well-being as an excuse to extort money."

Conviser is now suing the school -- but not Lenti or other officials -- for retaliation, breach of contract, defamation and more.

We've reached out to DePaul for comment, but so far, no word back yet.

As for Lenti, he unretired one year after leaving DePaul ... and was hired as an assistant coach on Auburn's softball staff in 2019. He's currently still on the school's coaching roster.

We've reached out to Auburn for comment as well, but no word back yet there either.

Joe Exotic's infamous pizza venture lives on at another famous joint known for making pies -- and it's even plastered Joe's mug all over the new creation.

Behold the "Dough Exotic" ... the hilarious new menu option whipped up by Tony Boloney's in NJ. It's a giant square pizza made to look like tiger print at first -- but when it's ready to come out of the oven ... bam! It's your good friend, Joe!!!

Specifically, it's Joe's mug shot from when he got busted by the feds for the attempted murder-for-hire plot against his nemesis, Carole Baskin.

See the resemblance?

Tony Boloney's describes the wacky recipe this way -- "This pizza is so big it’s enough to feed all of Doc Antle’s sister wives and we will never financially recover from this! This pizza has bunny blood sauce, a hint of sardine oil, cheese and meat, (but not expired Wal Mart meat out of the back of a truck)."

You'll recall ... Joe and co. dished out some gnarly pies that, by their own admission, included old meat they got free from Walmart.

Anyway, the description's obviously a joke -- Tony's real ingredients consist of prosciutto, vodka sauce, mozzarella and balsamic honey. It's being sold at the pizza joint's Hoboken location.

BTW, Tony's been helping out with the COVID-19 relief effort ... donating hundreds of meals a week to first responders and health care workers.

The coronavirus can unleash a deadly pandemic, but it can't stop thirsty Instagram users from shooting their shot with a gorgeous sunset ... not even close.

Check out these photos TMZ got of a mass exodus Tuesday evening to catch the sunset in the L.A. neighborhood of Playa del Rey. It's on a hilltop overlooking the Pacific Ocean and as you can see, amateur photogs/models are still coming out in droves, despite the stay-at-home order.

It's pretty insane actually ... people were waiting in line in their cars with their hazards on -- all just to pull up to the perfect spot, briefly park, hop out and snap their mug in front with a sunset backdrop. It's like a line for a Disneyland ride.

Now, no one's gonna classify this as an "essential" trip out of your home. Yes, it was a gorgeous sunset on Tuesday, but securing likes and follows for the 'Gram seems slightly less important than say ... getting food or even toilet paper.

At any rate, it appears some of these IG warriors were attempting to be safe and courteous -- many were flaunting custom masks. We can't really tell if that was for protection from the virus or just to get social media shine.

Selena Gomez is done playing games with gaming companies she says are using her fame to line their pockets ... and now she's suing for a whopping $10 million.

Selena just filed a lawsuit against a slew of software and technology firms and the honchos who run them, accusing them of profiting off her image, name and likeness without her permission.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Selena claims she was shocked to learn her celebrity was being peddled to turn profits in the mobile game "Clothes Forever - Styling Game."

In the docs, Selena says the game blatantly ripped off her cover photo from the fashion publication Flare and slapped it on their app, which appeared in the Apple App Store.

Selena says she's worked her entire career to build up a strong brand -- claiming her sponsored posts are worth as much as $800,000 each -- and she says now her rep's being diminished by this unapproved association with a "bug-riddled" game. Yes, she threw in a jab about the game getting terrible reviews.

The pop singer is suing for damages, a cut of the profits and for the game to stop its alleged unlawful activity and business practices.

"Love Is Blind" star Carlton Morton is playing a game of love-ya-today, trash-ya-tomorrow with his one-time fiancee, which is why she's kicked him to the curb ... for good.

Diamond Jack tells TMZ why she recently took the extreme measure of blocking Carlton on social media. He's been barking about it on his page, as he openly pines for her to take him back. She says there's a pretty simple reason for her cutting him off.

Diamond says Carlton was all hugs and smiles with her during the reunion episode, but as soon as cameras stopped rolling ... she claims he turned into Mr. Hyde, and allegedly started bad-mouthing her online and threatening her with legal action.

That was enough for Diamond to completely ax him from her feed. But, there's a bigger reason she thinks he's allegedly been flip-flopping, and it has to do with the forthcoming second season -- which we already know Carlton is openly lobbying to join.

As we reported, the casting call for a new season has already gone out -- and producers are prodding about sexual orientation this time around.

Makes sense, seeing how Carlton's bisexuality utterly blew up his and Diamond's relationship during Season 1.

Speaking of that, Diamond weighs in on the new screening question for the new batch of pod-people. Basically, she sees it as a pivot from a lesson learned more than anything else.

The biggest mystery in Netflix's 'Tiger King' is whether Don Lewis was murdered and, if so, who did him in.

Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister tells TMZ, he's convinced one person could NOT have committed the 1997 murder ... he says someone must have helped and someone got paid.

Although Hillsborough says Don's wife, Carole Baskin, is NOT a suspect or person of interest, he tells us he's suspicious of her and he's also suspicious of others. Watch FOX Monday night at 9 PM for our special, "TMZ Investigates, Tiger King: What Really Went Down?" He explains exactly why he's suspicious.

The Sheriff's looking for someone to come forward -- maybe someone who helped who wants to clear his or her conscience -- and spill the beans.

Sheriff Chronister also makes it clear ... he's willing to deal with anyone who has info, and immunity is on the table.

Carole has strongly maintained she had nothing to do with Don's disappearance.

NASCAR driver Kyle Larson has big problems -- the 27-year-old dropped an n-bomb during a virtual race on Easter Sunday ... with the hard R and all.

Larson -- who drives the #42 car during the NASCAR Cup Series -- was competing in an iRacing event, streamed live to thousands of people on Twitch.

After crashing during Lap 6, Larson apparently had a difficult time communicating with other drivers and that's when things got bad.

"You can't hear me? Hey, n****," Larson said casually.

WHAT?!?!

The comment was immediately met with shock from other drivers, who commented (vocally) on the live stream,

Anthony Alfredo: “Kyle, you’re talking to everyone, bud.”

Aaron MacEachern: “Yup, we heard that.”

Conor Daly: “Yikes!”

Justin Botelho: “Oh, damn! He did not just say that.”

Yeah, BAD.

By the way, Larson is half Japanese and has talked about how the NASCAR "Driver for Diversity" program helped him get to the big show.

He is the only active NASCAR driver of Japanese descent.

FYI, the race itself was called Monza Madness -- at the famous Autodromo Nazionale Monza in Italy -- and featured top drivers from NASCAR, IndyCar, NHRA and the eSports world.

Tracy Morgan's Easter is off to a hopping mad start ... after an alleged run-in between one of his exotic sports cars and an NYC pedestrian.

TMZ obtained this video of Tracy -- next to his red Lamborghini -- and a man yelling at each other near Times Square ... on the corner of 42nd and Broadway. Eyewitnesses tell us Tracy had a green light and started to make a right turn when he nearly hit the dude on foot.

You can hear the guy explain to Tracy where he was walking to and from, while Tracy vehemently disagrees. Seems the debate is about whether he was jaywalking and who had the right of way.

Police drove by, but didn't get involved ... we're told they basically gestured to both men to keep it moving. Tracy checked his Lambo for damage, and the pedestrian walked off, slightly limping.

For what it's worth, they appeared to be nearly 6 feet apart during the dispute. We've reached out to Tracy's reps for comment ... so far, no word back.

Even though NYC's streets are nearly empty during the quarantine ... Tracy's got pretty bad luck in the Big Apple. Last summer, he got into a fender bender on an NYC street in a new Bugatti he'd literally just driven off the lot.

He was ultimately not found at fault in that case.

Kentucky State Police were circling the parking lot of a church that's packed for Easter service -- defying state orders -- and issuing warnings, if not citations.

Maryville Baptist Church in Hillview, Kentucky drew what seemed to be nearly a full house Sunday morning. Reporter Sarah Ladd with Louisville's Courier-Journal captured images in the parking lot ... where you could hear the pastor leading the congregation in song.

Shortly before the service began, volunteers were clearing the parking lot of nails, apparently left there by someone who wanted to discourage the service ... which is violating Kentucky's safer-at-home order. Gatherings of more than 10 people are illegal.

So far, the cops aren't shutting down the service or arresting churchgoers. Instead, they're leaving notifications on the cars in the lot ... informing the owners they are potentially spreading COVID-19.

The notifications also say the health department will contact the car owner, and his or her family members, and require them to quarantine for 14 days.