Wendy Williams Gets Night Out for Dinner With Don Lemon, but Not Her Lawyer

Wendy Williams is being forced to choose her friends very carefully ... at least if she wants to be allowed to leave her assisted living facility.

Wendy was all smiles Thursday night in NYC, as she was granted permission to go out to dinner with her niece Alex Finnie, Don Lemon, and his husband Tim Malone. The foursome hit up Italian eatery Il Cantinori in Greenwich village, and it's no wonder Wendy looked so happy -- because just 24 hours earlier, the guardianship refused to let her leave the facility.

TMZ broke the story ... Wendy was less than an hour from a Wednesday night dinner reservation when her guardian blocked her from leaving. While Wendy wasn't told why she couldn't go, it's looking clearer now.

On Wednesday, she was going out to eat with her niece ... and also powerhouse attorney Joe Tacopina -- he's now Wendy's personal lawyer, and intends to push hard to end the guardianship.

As we reported, Wendy's guardian, Sabrina Morrisey, had her lawyer send TMZ a letter ... claiming Wendy is free to leave the facility to see family whenever she wants -- so, Wednesday night's denial seems to fly in the face of that.

The only difference between Wednesday and Thursday ... the presence of Mr. Tacopina, who's gotta be feeling like the guardianship doesn't want him conferring with his client ... especially after he rejected the guardianship.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... the guardianship reached out to Joe to represent it in an ongoing lawsuit against A&E over Wendy's docuseries -- a suit Wendy has told us she does not want to pursue.

We're told Joe turned down the guardianship, and instead chose to rep Wendy. That's the big picture here.