Singer Ne-Yo has apparently taken legal action against former manager and friend Kevin Foster for a total of $8 million, according to NY Daily News.

Papers were filed in Manhattan Federal Court, with Ne-Yo (whose legal name is Shaffer Smith) stating that he met Foster back in 2005, and Kevin convinced him to let the accounting firm that Foster was working for at the time handle his “business management and accounting needs.” Foster's job was to manage the singer’s bank accounts, and "ensure Smith was financially situated as to maintain his accustomed lifestyle for the remainder of his life, protect Smith from financial ruin, and mitigate risk of frivolous spending."







Foster eventually left to start his own company, and Ne-Yo went along with him, letting Foster handle his business affairs and finances. However, Foster was said to have moved some of Ne-Yo’s money without his permission. Ne-Yo eventually hired another accounting firm, and those there reportedly "uncovered instances of Foster engaging in self-dealing and inappropriate conduct," which, according to the suit, included forging Ne-Yo's name on loan documents. Foster also reportedly invested major money from Ne-Yo into a water company that was on the verge of bankruptcy (a company that he was the president and CFO over…but Ne-Yo didn’t know that!). The lawsuit seeks $4.5 million, plus $3.5 million for the fees that Ne-Yo paid Foster over the years.

Not that Ne-Yo is in financial ruin, but that is a LOT of money to have lost due to someone else’s fraudulent behavior. I couldn’t deal with being a celebrity and having somebody else manage all my money. I would have to have meetings every month and keep records of everything on my own as well. There’s not too many people you can trust, especially with your money! Here’s hoping that this is an open-and-shut case for Ne-Yo, and he gets the funds he deserves.

Image via Gabriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images

8:27:00 AM

After getting slapped with a lawsuit from reporting that Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries' wedding was a publicity stunt, Kim's ex-publicist Jonathan Jaxson has spoken out on his website. He now says that it was simply his opinion, and that it was based on what he's done with her "in the past." He said that media outlets came to him, and ask him to speak about Kim and Kris. Sigh.

"Two weeks prior to her wedding she knew it was not something she wanted to do," he said in an interview on Good Day LA in November. "Unfortunately they were obligated to honour contracts [with the E! network which had TV rights] otherwise they would have owed a lot of people a lot of money." He also was quoted as saying that she was still in love with Reggie Bush at the time of the wedding.

(UPDATE: Jaxson found this post somehow, and tweeted me saying that he didn't say that she was in love with Reggie, and that his words were twisted). 

Check out his response video below!

He also says that the lawsuit which TMZ was reported was for $200,000 is false and that the suit is being settled in arbitration. It's all a big jumbled mess. 

I'm not the biggest Kim Kardashian fan, but I can't with this guy either. He's apparently struggling to take care of his handicapped brother and family, working on a medium income. He talks about how he attempted suicide from this, which is sad to hear. However, I have to say he brought this upon himself by opening his mouth in the first place to the different media outlets. And your opinion sir, especially in a matter that was as big as this, is not TRUTH. You had to know as a PR person yourself how people would construe your words, even if they were opinion. According to him, he never made any profit from the interviews he did. Right. So you mean to tell me, you put out business about KIM FREAKING KARDASHIAN, right around the time her divorce news was all over the media, and you got no money from it? That's believable. I'm sorry that you attempted suicide, but what did you expect would happen when you go up against the Kardashians? Really.

Who do you believe?

 

9:42:00 PM

Fresh from the news of divorce papers headed his way from Kim Kardashian, Kris Humphries has decided to sue his soon to be ex for $10 million. When I first read the headline from Hollyscoop, I thought that he was suing for the actual divorce, which would have been dumb, but that's not the case.

Kris claims that he had a larger role on the series Kourtney & Kim Take New York than he thought he would. So of course, he would like to be compensated for that role. Mostly, he thinks that he's going to be portrayed horribly in the series, because of the news of the divorce. Read more below!

“Kris has a legal team investigating his options,” a source told  Life and Style magazine, “He’s claiming his role on Kourtney & Kim Take New York is bigger than he was told, and that’s why he wants more money. But Kris is also suing because he’s really worried about how badly he’s going to be portrayed on the series.”

Kris is particularly concerned with a scene where he blows up at Kim’s best friend, Jonathan Cheban, and hurls out homophobic comments. While Jonathan isn't gay, Kris apparently accuses him of being gay, and criticizes him for it.  “Kris used the word ‘gay’ as an insult, to try and hurt Jonathan,” an E! insider said. “He’s the lowest of the low bullying someone like this.”

So now he wants to sue for more money. Kris has retained lawyer Lee Hutton III, who is a sports and entertainment lawyer based out of Minneapolis. Kris insists that most of his appearances on the upcoming season of Kourtney & Kim is scripted and that he’s not homophobic. “Little did Kris know that he was being set up,” said his father William, coming to his defense. “Kris got used – 100 percent used.”

Kris is obviously new to reality TV and stardom. If you said something as dramatic as this, of course E! is going to use it for the series to boost viewership. It's like people don't think before they open their mouth. I know that E! is going to use fights between Kim and Kris, but that's only to be expected. And yeah, Kris should get some money, but $10 million dollars, though? Kim herself supposedly gets about $40,000 an episode, and with probably only about 10 episodes in the series like last season, she'll only bank about $400,000. At most, she might get $1 million because of the publicity, but not $10 million! He has his nerve.  Honestly, I think Kris is obviously upset about the divorce and wants more money from Kim to try to get back at her. And to boost his own income, since he's not getting anything because of the NBA lockout!

What do you all think about Kris suing Kim?

8:21:00 AM

Winning! Charlie Sheen may have been kicked off from the hit show, Two and a Half Men (killed off actually), but he is still making his money. According to Hollyscoop, the actor has won a $100 million settlement from Warner Bros from his lawsuit against the company after he was fired.

Charlie sued Warner Bros and the show's creator Chuck Lorre in a multi-million dollar legal battle after he was fired from Two and a Half Men for personally attacking Lorre and having too many “personal issues," which is a nice way of saying that the guy was spazzing out! Anyway, Charlie will receive a first installment payment of $25 million. This is the money that Charlie was owed for episodes that he shot and profits from the show. When Charlie was fired, WB stopped paying him, so this is just what he was owed.

There's still more money coming his way, though. He’s still going to make money from syndication rights. Even though Ashton Kutcher has taken Charlie's place, episodes of past seasons still come on regularly. So Charlie will receive the remainder of the $100 million over the next 10 years from syndication profits, with about 180 episodes of the show under his belt.

I'm going to say it again. Winning!

8:14:00 AM

According to PEOPLE, Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester is suing her mom Constance for misuse of Leighton's money. The actress was giving Constance money to care for her brother Lex who is dealing with medical problems.

The lawsuit alleges that Constance used the $7,500 a month that Leighton had given her on cosmetic procedures and other personal expenses instead of on Leighton's brother.

A source told PEOPLE., "This whole thing's been really tough on Leighton. Her only concern has always been taking care of her brother. Leighton's really close with her brother and her dad – her parents are divorced. Leighton's a sweet girl – she cares about work, friends and family."

Even though it hasn't been officially proven in court yet, I could see it. Leighton claims Constance threatened to sue her for $3 million if she didn't raise the monthly allowance to $10,000. Uh huh. Sometimes money changes people. Other times it changes the people around you. People see others they know making it, and figure that they should be making it too. And that's not the case. Not saying that a famous person making money shouldn't give back to their family, community, etc. I definitely would if I had the funds. However, you aren't about to be mooching off of me, using my money for things that we haven't discussed, getting Botox or whatever this lady was doing. That's a NO. I hope that Leighton gets this all resolved, and gets her money.

12:49:00 PM

Morning yall! Back on the work grind, but surprisingly, I have more time to blog lol. Hope everything is good with you guys.

Interesting story I read this morning on OMG! Yahoo. Musician Courtney Love has been in a fight with designer Dawn Simorangkir who has been demanding repayment from Love on a couple of thousand dollars' worth of clothes. In March of last year, Courtney took to Twitter and hurled out insults at Dawn to her followers. Courtney said that Dawn was a drug-pushing prostitute with a history of assault and battery, had lost custody of her own child, and had used Courtney for her fame. "She has received a VAST amount of money from me over 40,000 dollars and I do not make people famous and get raped TOO!" Courtney had tweeted.

Courtney's tweets led Dawn to file suit against her last year. The trial will take place January 18, and is the first high-profile case of defamation for a celebrity's tweets. "There has never been anything like this case before," said Dawn's attorney Bryan Freedman. Apparently, Courtney's tweets have had a negative impact on Dawn's fashion career, and Dawn is suing for millions of dollars in damages. Read more after the jump!

Now this case is making people consider if celebrities with all of this impact should be held accountable for deliberately publishing untrue comments about others.

"We don't believe there's any defamation, and even if there were defamatory statements, there was no damage," says James Janowitz, one of Courtney's attorneys.

Hate to get all legal on you all first thing in the morning lol, but I found this case interesting because I've always wondered if courts would start taking Twitter and Facebook into account as far as libelous statements are concerned. People talk soooooo much mess on these social media sites, or even blogs like Spotlight [YES, it's possible to be sued for defamation on a blog. I'm a nice blogger though :)]and quite frankly, it's possible for statements like Courtney's to have a negative impact on someone else's career. Talked about this plenty of times in my communication classes. A defamation case is a hard one to win, however. It can be dismissed if the statements that were made were OPINIONS rather than fact; were true, or are considered "fair comment and criticism." Also, the statements have to be believable, and the plaintiff has to prove that the statements were deliberately made, as well as prove that they were in fact damaging.

I'm interested to see how all of this goes down. I mean, to win a case of defamation because of somebody's tweets? That's got to be one for the history books. Be careful what yall Tweet.

PEACE.

5:46:00 AM