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The Menendez brothers' family is optimistic about their parole hearings this week ... but, they're not counting Erik and Lyle before they're released.

The Justice for Erik and Lyle Coalition -- a group made up of their family members who have advocated on their behalf publicly over the last year -- released a statement Wednesday ahead of Erik's Thursday parole hearing and Lyle's Friday hearing.

The family says they remain "cautiously optimistic" ... but, they add they know the parole process in California is grueling -- so, they aren't letting their hopes get too high. They say Erik and Lyle are ready for the scrutiny of their respective parole hearings.

As if the crime scene wasn't eerie enough with 4 slaughtered college students ... Bryan Kohberger might have left a seriously creepy imprint on a window outside the murder house that fateful night.

As we reported earlier this month ... two handprints were found on the exterior glass of the window at the Moscow, Idaho home, where Kohberger fatally stabbed the University of Idaho students in November 2022.

Police snapped a photo of the window as they processed the crime scene, releasing the pic as part of a recent document dump after the case closed.

Jillian Michaels is coming out swinging -- telling TMZ the entire 'Biggest Loser' documentary is a giant lie ... and she’s already lawyering up.

The celeb trainer says she’s meeting today with powerhouse attorney Bryan Freedman to plot her next move -- which could include going after Netflix, the producer of the doc, Bob Harper, and Dr. Robert Huizenga in court.

Jillian isn’t stopping there either ... she points out Brandon Riegg -- the exec who bought the doc for Netflix -- was one of the top dogs at NBC during the last several seasons of "The Biggest Loser." Translation: he knew exactly what went down behind the scenes.

Kevin Costner is demanding a judge toss a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against him by a stunt performer who claims she was forced to participate in an unscripted and unscheduled rape scene on the set of the Western film series, "Horizon."

According to new court docs ... Costner says Devyn LaBella was happy as a clam during the film shoot he directed, and she even sent a text to a supervisor that she had a great time after the whole thing wrapped.

Per the docs ... LaBella texted, “Thank you for these wonderful weeks! I so appreciate you! I learned so much and thank you again. I’m really happy it worked out the way it did too. Have a great rest of the shoot and yes talk soon!”

The "Ketamine Queen" -- the last of 5 people charged in Matthew Perry's death -- is going away to prison, for a long time, after agreeing to plead guilty in the federal case.

Jasveen Sangha, who earned her street handle from slinging the drug in North Hollywood, struck a plea deal on 5 criminal charges -- according to the feds, she will plead guilty to 3 counts of ketamine distribution, one count of distributing ketamine resulting in death and one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises.

In exchange for her guilty plea, the feds are dropping all the other charges for which she'd been indicted.

11:32 AM PT -- Drake Bell's attorney, Brittany Staggs, tells TMZ … "At this time, Mr. Bell and his wife would like privacy as they transition into this new phase of their life."

She adds they don't plan on releasing any documents related to the divorce filing at the moment.

Years after his wife filed for divorce in Los Angeles ... Drake Bell is following in her footsteps, filing his own divorce petition in Florida.

On Thursday, the former child actor filed for divorce from Janet Bell in Seminole County, FL, but his petition and its details were not immediately available ... according to online court records. We'll update you once we get our hands on the docs.

Meanwhile, as we first reported, Janet hightailed it to L.A. Superior Court in 2023 and filed for divorce from the "Drake and Josh" star after 4 years of marriage and one child, Wyatt Bell.

Scott Wolf says his estranged wife Kelley told him she's making false claims about him to beat him in court and in the court of public opinion.

The "Party of Five" star spoke out against his wife Friday in a statement to PEOPLE ... saying the 'Real World' star is trying to use bogus abuse claims against him as a way to "gain an advantage."

The estranged couple is going through a nasty divorce after two decades of marriage and three kids together.

Sean Kingston has officially been sentenced in his federal wire fraud case ... receiving a sentence close to what his lawyers asked for.

The rapper was sentenced in a Florida courtroom Friday to 42 months -- which works out to 3.5 years -- in federal prison.

As you know ... Sean was convicted of federal wire fraud back in March, along with his mother, Janice Turner. Janice was sentenced to five years.

Tarek El Moussa's battery case in Las Vegas has been dismissed by a judge ... TMZ has confirmed.

The "Flip or Flop" star was facing a misdemeanor battery charge after being cited by police following a fight in a casino.

New legal docs show the case was dismissed August 5 after Tarek completed impulse control counseling and stayed "out of trouble." The charge was dismissed with prejudice, meaning it cannot be filed again.

Sean "Diddy" Combs is on a heater, at least when it comes to tackling the mountain of lawsuits he's facing ... and now former "Making The Band" singer Sara Rivers is finding out firsthand what kind of roll he's on.

According to new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, a judge just threw out the claims Sara made against Diddy and the other defendants in her lawsuit. They were dismissed with prejudice, meaning they cannot be filed again, although one is still up in the air.

Among the claims dismissed ... racketeering, assault and battery, forced labor, sexual harassment and false imprisonment.

As for the one outstanding claim, the judge wrote the "determination of whether to dismiss, with or without prejudice, Count 15 (the Gender-Motivated Violence Protection Act claim) ... is hereby stayed pending" a ruling from an appellate court.

Jussie Smollett is trying to make a Hollywood comeback, but the hate crime hoax will always hang over his head if he doesn't come clean about what really happened ... at least according to the attorney for the brothers who say Jussie hired them to stage the 2019 attack.

Gloria Rodriguez reps Abel and Ola Osundairo -- the Nigerian brothers who claim Jussie hired them to beat him up on a freezing cold night in Chicago -- tells TMZ ... Smollett is making his comeback attempt harder on himself and wasting his talent by not being honest.

ICYMI ... Jussie recently told Variety the real "villains" in his alleged attack are the Chicago Police Department and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. He also told the outlet he was sticking to his original story that two MAGA hat-wearing Trump supporters in masks attacked him, doused him with bleach, put a noose around his neck and shouted racist and homophobic slurs.

Wendy Williams' guardian is trying to shut down A&E's attempt to depose her early ... arguing issues need to be resolved in guardianship court before they do anything in the civil suit.

Sabrina E. Morrissey made the request in documents filed Wednesday ... basically arguing she could be stuck between a rock and hard place if the judge in the civil case orders something that runs in contradiction to an order by the judge in the guardianship case.

For example, Morrissey argues, the civil judge could decide on certain deposition conditions that the guardianship judge isn't cool with ... and, then she won't know what the heck to do.

Priscilla Presley's lawyer is firing back at the former business partners suing her and alleging she let Lisa Marie Presley die so she could take control of Graceland ... telling us their lawsuit is one of the most shameful, ridiculous, salacious and meritless things he's ever seen.

Priscilla's attorney, Marty Singer, tells TMZ ... the lawsuit against Elvis Presley's ex-wife is "nothing more than a sad and vicious attempt to falsely tarnish the reputation of an eighty-year-old woman."

Singer says Priscilla's legal foes here are on their fourth different set of lawyers and he says the lawsuit is a "disgusting publicity stunt."

3:48 PM PT -- Bri Stern's lawyer Tony Buzbee tells TMZ ... "As expected, Andrew Tate filed a counterclaim against Brianna Stern. This follows the lawsuit Ms. Stern filed against Tate in March for violent sexual assault. The tone of Mr. Tate’s counterclaim isn’t a surprise. He has openly proclaimed himself a woman-hater. He had the audacity to tweet: 'Literally everything females say is r******d.' Tate brags about how he treats women. This is a quote from him: 'Slap, slap, grab choke, shut up b*tch, sex.' When they were together, Tate told Ms. Stern 'If you don’t start being good, . . . I will f***ing rape you. Because that’s what you deserve.'

"He also told her 'if you ever f*** with me, I will f***ing kill you. I mean it. I will kill you.' Tate’s delusion is that he’s so important that he’s above the law. He isn’t. His counterclaim is junk and will be dismissed. More importantly, I can’t wait to get him in front of a Los Angeles jury.  He will finally be held accountable for his years of his outrageous and harmful conduct. Although Tate has attempted to scrub his social media, unfortunately for him, we have it all. Tate is nothing more than a big mouthed bully, but this time he picked the wrong person. Ms. Stern won’t be bullied."

Andrew Tate is going on the legal offensive against his ex-girlfriend Bri Stern ... he's now countersuing her, claiming she defamed him with what he says are fabricated allegations of sexual assault and abuse.

In new legal docs, obtained by TMZ, Andrew claims Bri orchestrated a deliberate smear campaign against him based on false claims that he choked her during sex despite telling him to stop.

Andrew claims Bri spread the false allegations in the media and online ... and he says she was out for profit, fame, and the destruction of his reputation.

Wendy Williams' lawyer is challenging the alleged test results that reportedly prove she has dementia and aphasia ... insisting those spreading the claim are acting out of self-interest.

Joe Tacopina tells TMZ ... Wendy's leaked medical diagnosis is "false" -- and, it's "being spread by a party with a vested interest in keeping Wendy trapped under this excessive and restrictive guardianship."

He adds the leaking of the alleged diagnosis is a total violation of Wendy's rights as a human being.

Kid Cudi says he hated every minute of his time on the witness stand in Diddy's federal criminal trial ... but he ultimately went through with testifying because he wanted to support his ex, Cassie Ventura.

The rapper reflected on his experience with the Diddy case on the "Call Her Daddy" podcast, telling host Alex Cooper he only testified because he was subpoenaed.

Cudi says he told the feds no a couple times, but they forced his hand ... and he explained why he ditched a suit and tie in favor of a more casual outfit when it came time to testify.