Halle Berry is suing the paparazzo who snapped pictures of her four-month-old daughter recently. The photo captions said that mother and daughter were “out and about,” but they were actually in Berry’s garden. Berry is accusing the photog of trespassing on her property in order to get the shots; in California, that’s a criminal offense. Earlier, Berry told the AP: “I have long since come to terms with the fact that choosing a career as an actress has made me a public figure, but my baby has made no such choice, and unless and until she does, I will do everything I can… to keep her out of the public eye.”

Two Muslim women in Dearborn, a Michigan city with a huge Muslim population, are suing a local McDonalds after they were told that they could only work there if they removed their hijabs. This particular McDonalds is so aware of its predominately-Muslim clientele that it serves halal Chicken McNuggets (there are only 2 McDonalds in the country that do this), which makes it even more surprising that the management would not allow the two women to wear their hijabs at work.

Dawud Walid, head of the Michigan branch of the Council on American Islamic Relations, said it’s upsetting that a restaurant with such a large Muslim community around it would discriminate against Muslim women seeking jobs.

“They’ll take Muslim dollars, but won’t hire Muslim female employees,” Walid said.

[Guardian]

• Diddy and Cassie are not getting married, says Diddy. [People]

• Chris Brown is set to star in the one millionth dance competition show on television. [EUR]

• Something went terribly wrong between the time the wax statue of Tyra Banks at Madame Tussauds’ DC location looks a lot better than the one in New York. The hair is spot on, though. [C&D]

• Lil Wayne messes with the Rolling Stones, gets sued. [Bossip]

I wonder if Lil’ Kim knows that after Simon & Schuster gave her a $40,000 advance to write an novel in 2003, they turned around in 2005 and gave Foxy Brown, of all people, $75,000 for a memoir called Broken Silence, which I’m going to take a wild guess was meant to be about her sudden hearing loss.

But I guess it doesn’t really matter that one was paid more than the other — neither woman actually wrote, or hired ghost writers to write, their books. The publishing house is now suing them. Contractual obligations often fall by the wayside when one is sent to jail. [ND]

Sixty-seven residents in the majority black neighborhood of Coal Run in Ohio have just been awarded a total of $11 million by a federal jury, which found that a the local government had denied them public water service because the were black. Each plaintiff was awarded between $15,000 and $300,000 to cover monetary loss and pain and suffering that occurred between 1956 and 2003, when the town finally received public water. Prior to 2003, residents were forced to dig wells, collect rain water or haul water for cisterns in order to cook, clean and bathe.

CONTINUED »

Makeda Barnes-Joseph, Remy Ma’s babysitter-turned-shooting victim, is on a litigious rampage, filing a $10 million suit against Remy Ma, who likely has $10 million dollars like I have $10 million dollars, Universal Music Group, and Manhattan’s The Pizza Bar, which is where the two were partying the night of the shooting. She says the label encouraged Remy’s violent behavior and lyrics and the bar kept serving her drinks even though she was “visibly” intoxicated. Remy Ma, despite a creative escape attempt, is now on year one of an eight-year sentence for the shooting. [SS]

Really, you can only be accused of setting your own $2.4 million dollar house on fire when your son is inside so many times before you take some sort of action, which is why 50 Cent has slapped the now-homeless, very upset mother of his son, Marquise, with a $20 million defamation suit.

On Shaniqua Tompkin’s side, she was granted an order of protection from 50 Cent last Friday and did not let the impending lawsuit against her stop her from making accusations. “He always threatened me,” she said. “If someone threatens you on Monday and you jump out of a second floor window on Friday, that’s the facts, you decide.” The fire department has ruled the fire that destroyed the house that 50 Cent owned and Tompkins lived in “suspicious,” which is sort of an understatement. [People]

• The pin-making vendors who produced that stupid “Black House” pin have a history of repulsiveness. [Jezebel]

• Keep waiting for that phone call from the Obama camp, J-Hud. [Bossip]

• Speaking of Obama (for a change, right?), he delivered a personal apology to the two women that were barred by volunteers from standing behind him at a campaign event. [Politico]

• Don Cornelius has officially stepped off the Soul Train. It was a long ride. [BV]

• 50 Cent’s now suing his baby mama for defamation. Yawn. [EUR]

At this point, I’m not sure how hard up for work one has to be in order to accept employment with known-abuser Naomi Campbell. On the other hand, going to work for her might be part of some elaborate plot to get horribly mistreated — both physically and verbally — and then retire with a nice settlement from the notoriously furious model. Ex-housekeeper Ivona Lovas hit pay dirt after Campbell made her life “a living hell” during the four months she worked for her. They’ve settled out of court.

Perhaps they came to a nice agreement after playing a late night trust game together. I’ve heard Naomi likes to do that.

• Shaquille O’Neal wants to buy your mortgage and save you from home foreclosure. Really. [EUR]

• Mark Wahlberg says he won’t be reuniting with the Funky Bunch because he’s too old to rap. It never stopped LL Cool J. [SP]

• A boxer/personal injury lawyer is suing Jay-Z for biting his style. [AHH]

• A new website from the brain behind What About Our Daughters, keeps a close eye Michelle Obama attacks from the media. [MOW]

• See some stills from Spike Lee’s putting-his-money-where-his-mouth-is movie. [BV]