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Ryan Phillippe has hired a high-powered civil litigator to go after the woman claiming he beat her up ... and he's using the "Taylor Swift" model of lawsuits ... TMZ has learned.

Sources connected with Ryan tell us, Ryan's plan is to file either a defamation or malicious prosecution lawsuit against Elsie Hewitt, who has claimed in her own lawsuit Ryan was under the influence on July 4 and allegedly attacked her and threw her down the stairs.

Ryan has said she made it all up and was actually the aggressor who attacked him after he broke up with her.

Ryan wants an acknowledgement from Hewitt she was lying or, short of that, he wants a judge or jury to make the point. And, ala Taylor Swift, Ryan will donate any money he gets to domestic violence orgs, although he doesn't think she has money to pay.

The murder of one of Drake's longtime friends was caught on video, and cops just released it.

Anthony Soares was gunned down last week in Toronto by 2 men.

The video shows Soares standing in his apartment lobby when the 2 hooded men run up from a car in a nearby parking lot and begin shooting through the lobby glass. It appears they fired off at least 10 shots.

A few days ago Drake posted, "RIP to one of our family members ... our brother ... I still can't even believe this morning was real. It was a honor to have shared years together and I will always keep your memory alive. Forever Fif" [Fif was his nickname].

Police have no suspects.

David Hasselhoff must continue paying alimony to his ex-wife, because she's earned it after 16 long years of working for him behind the scenes ... according to her, anyway.

A rep for Hasselhoff's ex, Pamela Bach, tells TMZ ... she worked hard on David's behalf during their marriage, which is more than enough reason to continue supporting her now.

We're told Pam contributed a number of services toward his career -- everything from consulting, accounting and handling administrative duties to keeping up with the house and kids ... whom she still considers under her parental care, even at 25 and 27.

We broke the story ... David's asked a judge to end his $10k/month alimony payments because he says it's time Pamela started paying her own way.

Pamela thinks David still owes her, and believes the judge will agree. And BTW, sources say she isn't sitting on her ass -- she's trying to get back into acting.

Jared Fogle has officially been ordered to ante up $50,000 ... money that he's forking over to avoid officials seizing vehicles that he used to commit the crime of traveling to engage in sex with a minor.

Fogle, who is serving 15 years in prison, was sentenced in November 2015 and the $50k forfeiture was part of the agreement. Now the feds have issued a formal order seizing the money.

Holy crap this is disgusting -- a jogger is defecating all over a Colorado neighborhood, and yeah ... residents have had it up to here with her s**t.

The prime suspect, we'll call her suspect #2, has allegedly been pooping all over Colorado Springs, but has taken a liking to one Cathy Budde's yard in particular. She says her kids caught the runner mid-squat and yelled ... "There's a lady taking a poop!"

Cathy says she confronted the woman, who said sorry before running away. But she tells KKTV, the runner with the runs came back several more times.

Cathy spotted her each time, and thinks she's doing it on purpose -- she comes equipped with napkins. She snapped a shot of suspect #2 ... and now police are on the lookout.

Ryan Phillippe is strongly denying he laid a hand on his ex-girlfriend.

His camp tells TMZ ... "As a staunch advocate for the health, well-being and equality of women, Ryan is completely devastated that these false allegations have been made and circulated. Domestic violence is an incredibly serious issue and fabricated and proven false claims should not be used to unjustly slander the falsely accused."

As we reported, Elsie Hewitt got a protective order against Ryan and also sued him for more than $1 million ... claiming he attacked her in a drunken rage and threw her down a flight of stairs.

Kevin Hart partied with a woman -- who is now at the center of the sexually explicit video -- for an entire weekend last month, and we've learned she's a stripper who hits up whatever clubs she can book.

Her name is Montia Sabbag, although she sometimes spells it Montiah Sabagg. She's 27, lives in Long Beach, CA and met Kevin during a pretty wild weekend in Vegas back in August.

The first frames of the 4 minute and 47 second video are a pic of Kevin and Montia. You can't see who's on the bed during the most explicit portion of the tape, but after the bed scene 2 people who look like Kevin and Montia are walking around in various stages of undress.

We're told Kevin had never met her before and has not had any encounters with her since.

As we reported, she denies she had anything to do with shooting the video, but authorities are not so sure. We're told there were other people present during the weekend and investigators are tracking them all down, with the intent of serving search warrants as quickly as possible.

The brass ring for law enforcement is decoding the encrypted emails the extortionist sent to Kevin's people and figuring out the sender's identity.

As we reported, Montia lawyered up almost immediately after Kevin's team contacted her, and her lawyer said she would sit for a lie detector test if Kevin paid her $420,000.

Our sources say before making a multi-million dollar demand to Kevin in return for keeping the video a secret, the extortionist tried to get at least one media outlet to pay $15 million for the highly produced video.

LeBron James just smashed all rumors about the Cavs not liking Khloe Kardashian -- because he gave her a big ol' bear hug after a night out with her in L.A. and TMZ Sports has the video.

LeBron hit up Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios on Friday with teammate Tristan Thompson and his girlfriend, Khloe K.

Witnesses at the park say Kourtney Kardashian and Russell Westbrook were also there -- but you don't see them in the video.

After the big night out, the group said their goodbyes at the valet stand -- with LeBron and Tristan sharing one of their famous dancing handshakes before going their separate ways.

Mel B's efforts to get her domestic violence case sealed have fallen short ... the judge shot her down.

According to docs, the judge denied her request to have the courtroom closed, and to have all the records sealed from the public. As we reported, Mel says Stephen Belafonte will expose explicit sex tapes -- some of which feature the couple -- as evidence in the case ... and she doesn't want her children to find out about them.

The judge addressed that concern directly, saying "salacious details" like sex tapes are generally not reason enough to seal a case. He did acknowledge things directly related to the children, such as visitation schedules, would NOT be revealed in open court.

Gisele Bündchen was flyin' solo Monday, arriving at Boston Logan Airport shortly after former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci strongly insinuated Tom Brady didn't attend the Super Bowl celebration at the White House because Gisele had a jealousy thing over Ivanka Trump.

Gisele had been in Brazil to attend the Rock in Rio concert.

Scaramucci co-hosted "TMZ Live" Monday and suggested Tom and Ivanka had dated back in the day, and Gisele didn't want the 2 to interact. Sources connected to Ivanka told us, Tom and Gisele were friends but had not dated. BTW, in 2004 Trump mused it would be cool if Ivanka and Tom hooked up.

Hollywood was rocked by a relatively minor earthquake Monday night -- but it was still enough to get several celebs shaking in their boots ... hysterically.

The 3.6 quake hit shortly after 11 PM, and rather than running for cover ... most celebs seemed to grab their phones and post reactions -- the funniest of which came from Kim Kardashian, her panicked friends and Chrissy Teigen.

Barbara Corcoran was hangin' onto Keo Motsepe for dear life ... hangin' onto his junk.

The "Shark Tank" star and her pro dancer scored a 14 on the season premiere of "Dancing with the Stars" Monday ... but the bigger story was Barbara grabbing onto Keo's crotch as the judges were dishing scores.

What's unclear is if Babs was oblivious or conscious that she was in the region.

Karrueche Tran really put her ass on the line for dinner at Catch.

Karrueche strolled into the WeHo hot spot wearing completely sheer pants with just a thong underneath. Other patrons might have hated to see her go, but we're guessing they loved watching her leave ... based on the crowd's reaction outside the restaurant.

That old "no shirt, no shoes, no service" rule might need to be updated if KT keeps up these wardrobe choices.

Or not. As you can see -- NO ONE was complaining.

Taylor's rep tells TMZ, "This is a ridiculous claim and nothing more than a money grab. The law is simple and clear. They do not have a case."

Taylor Swift's massive hit "Shake it Off" was not really hers ... so claim 2 accomplished songwriters who wrote a hit song with similar lyrics 16 years ago ... at least that's what they're saying in a new lawsuit.

Sean Hall and Nathan Butler say they wrote a song entitled "Playas Gon' Play" back in 2001, and it Hit #81 on Billboard Hot 100. It was recorded by a big girl group, 3LW.

Among the lyrics ... "Playas, they gonna play and haters, they gonna hate."

Not hard to figure out the rest. Hall and Butler say 20% of "Shake it Off" is their song.

BTW, Butler has worked with the Backstreet Boys, Christina Milian, Aaron Carter and Victoria Beckham. Hall has worked with Justin Bieber, Lionel Richie, Pink and Maroon 5.

Butler is being repped by Gerard Fox Law and Julian Everly Shervington Wright.

They want a ton of money.

Sean Spicer's riding high off his surprise appearance at the Emmy Awards, and while it got him plenty of applause in the room ... it did NOT get him a sit-down with Melissa McCarthy.

Sean seemed pretty damn happy Monday night as he arrived back in Washington, DC ... and talked about keeping his cameo under wraps -- as well as his simmering beef with Melissa.

It's not fully heated beef between Spicey and McCarthy, but he's definitely been critical of her 'SNL' portrayal. So, with his moment in the Hollywood sun ... you'd think the duo could have seized the opportunity to meet. Maybe even at the podium.

Sean's take seems to be -- it'll happen, but he ain't rushing it.

Rick Caruso says O.J. Simpson is free to roam the grounds of The Grove once he gets out of prison later this year ... just so long as he's nicer, and more respectful than Donald Trump.

We got the billionaire developer, who owns The Grove, Monday at his famous shopping center and asked if O.J. was welcome. Surprise! Holiday shopping just got more interesting in L.A.!

Rick explained he only has issues with folks who are, essentially, meanies ... like he once thought Trump was when he initially banned him. Ditto for Manny Pacquiao.

As we told you, O.J.'s Florida-bound, so the point could be moot -- but Caruso, at least, is open to give him a second third chance.