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Any rabid animal -- like this fox -- is nothing to mess with ... but the woman it attacked is no slouch either, as this surveillance video shows her putting up one hell of a fight and likely saving her life.

The wild incident went down in July in Ithaca, NY ... you can see the fox doesn't even hesitate as it sneaks up on her as she's chatting on the phone in her yard, and starts chomping on her leg nonstop.

She gives the animal a powerful kick, launching it into the air, but it doesn't give up ... eventually clamping its jaws down on her hand and doesn't let go while she tries to shake it off. A neighbor eventually shows up and scares it away.

Her hand seemingly got the worst of it, as these gnarly pics after the attack show. She must've gotten some extremely painful rabies shots, too.

According to her husband, who uploaded the video, the fox attempted to do the same to someone else nearby, but it was killed ... the body was taken to the vet lab at Cornell University, where they discovered rabies was in its system.

Megan Thee Stallion's following up her "Traumazine" album release by playing some legal hardball -- forcing J. Prince and Carl Crawford to sit for depositions in the lawsuit over her contract.

Megan filed docs Tuesday notifying the court her lawyers will be grilling 1501 Entertainment honcho Crawford, as well as Prince ... the Rap-A-Lot Records founder, who Megan claims has been advising Crawford on business dealings.

The date and place are already set ... J. Prince goes first on October 24, and Crawford follows the next day -- both depos will be taken at an office building in Houston, and they will be recorded on video.

It's a major power move for Megan, who, as we've reported ... is suing her label, 1501 Entertainment, because she believes she satisfied the terms of her contract with her last 2 albums -- "Something for Thee Hotties" and last week's release, "Traumazine."

Megan says Crawford and co. aren't viewing those projects as albums, simply to keep her tied to 1501 -- but she says she's done with the label. She wants out, and she wants a judge to force Crawford to cough up royalties and other money she says 1501 owes her.

She says that number is at least $1 million, but wants a proper accounting to determine the actual damages.

Tensions boiled over on Tuesday morning ... when Megan, Prince and Crawford all volleyed accusations that ranged from the 2 men mishandling her business to Megan conspiring with Roc Nation to get out of her contract.

Getting an industry powerhouse like Prince to sit for a deposition is no easy task, and Megan's hope could be this forces Crawford to settle the lawsuit beforehand.

While Migos continues dodging break-up rumors, Offset's going to war with the group's record label ... filing a lawsuit over his solo career.

Offset filed docs, which TMZ Hip Hop obtained, and in them he accuses Quality Control Records of ignoring a deal they made back in January 2021.

According to the suit, filed Tuesday, Offset says he negotiated his solo deal, and "paid handsomely" for his artist rights ... but now that he's dropped a new solo project, he says QC isn't honoring the deal.

He just released the Baby Keem-produced solo single, "54321" … which he says QC incorrectly tried to claim as its own, an action he calls "hostile."

Offset also plans on releasing another song entitled "Code" with Moneybagg Yo this Friday, presumably just on Motown Records, the label he signed with for his solo career.

Migos sparked break-up rumors earlier this year when Quavo and Takeoff began releasing music under the moniker "Unc & Phew." Quavo was willing to talk about everything -- except the alleged split.

Offset's Migos deal with QC remains in place -- but when it comes to his solo work, he wants the court to declare QC does NOT own anything he's made since January 15, 2021, or in the future.

Vanessa Bryant has endured two weeks of emotional testimony ... thankfully, she hasn't done it alone 'cause her support system is strong -- with U.S. soccer star Sydney Leroux joining VB and Natalia Bryant in court Wednesday.

The 32-year-old Olympic gold medalist and World Cup winner was photographed walking into a Los Angeles courtroom this morning with Kobe's 19-year-old daughter, Natalia, and Vanessa ... for closing arguments in the trial over photographs taken by L.A. County Sheriff's Deputies, who are accused of taking and showing off gruesome photos from the crash scene.

Leroux, who also attended court late last week, is a longtime friend of the Bryant family. In fact, Kobe was a mentor to the 2012 London Olympics and 2015 Women's World Cup winner.

After Kobe and Gianna tragically died, Leroux, who like Gigi, wore #2 ... the soccer star got the number tattooed on her body as a tribute to Vanessa's daughter.

Sydney isn't the only famous friend supporting Vanessa. Ciara and Monica have also attended the trial this week.

The attorney for Chris Chester, the co-plaintiff in the lawsuit, who tragically lost his wife and daughter in the helicopter crash, has asked for up to $32.5 million from L.A. County, calling the county's actions "inhuman and inhumane."

Vanessa Bryant has not specified the amount she is seeking.

Olivia Wilde is taking the gloves off when talking about her ex, Jason Sudeikis -- now saying the move to serve her court papers while she was onstage was a dangerously hostile act.

The actress dished about the awkward moment from back in April at CinemaCon -- where she was showcasing the trailer for her new flick, "Don't Worry Darling" -- as a random person walked right up to her in the middle of her presentation and laid a manila envelope at her feet.

As it turned out, they were custody docs from Jason ... who was trying to settle a legal matter about their shared children and where they should live. In the end, that didn't go his way.

Olivia had already telegraphed she was utterly outraged by what she considered a deliberate sabotaging at the hands of Jason -- even though he's denied knowing that's how she'd get the docs -- and now, she's going even further in Variety ... calling the event "vicious."

Olivia says this happened at her "workplace," which she finds astoundingly inappropriate. She also sees it as scary, considering the amount of hurdles that the process server must've gone through to get in that day ... which, in her mind, means it was planned well in advance.

She also had this to say ... "I hated that this nastiness distracted from the work of so many different people and the studio that I was up there representing. To try to sabotage that was really vicious. But I had a job to do; I’m not easily distracted."

Olivia takes another personal jab, adding ... "But, you know, sadly, it was not something that was entirely surprising to me. I mean, there’s a reason I left that relationship." Oof!

As you know ... Jason and Olivia were together from 2011 until 2020, when they surprisingly split and shocked Hollywood. Not long after, she started publicly dating Harry Styles -- who also stars in her new movie -- and they're still going strong.

It's interesting ... both Olivia and her current bf graced different magazine covers this week, but it seems HS was a bit more chatty about their relationship ... opening up about how some have gone on the attack against her due to her affiliation to him, which he regrets.

Tom Brady is denying he left Bucs camp to be a contestant on the newest season of "The Masked Singer," but the show is definitely leaning in to the possibility he DID exactly that!!!

Check out this clip from the upcoming season TMZ Sports obtained ... it shows Ken Jeong, a judge on the show, guessing that TB12 is one of the new undercover, crooning celebs this year.

In the footage, you can see Jeong trying to guess who's in the Hummingbird costume. The comedian says the look and performance is "screaming out like a football legend."

Initially, he believes it could be Peyton Manning, but then he moves on to a different theory -- "I think this could be the greatest of all time."

Ken even adds ... "He just got fined for not showing up to training camp because he is here on 'The Masked Singer'. This is seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady!"

Of course, the clip cuts off before we see who the contestant actually is ... we're not THAT good. Season 8 officially wrapped taping on Aug. 20, but the show won't start airing until Sept. 21 -- and Fox notoriously keeps all the celeb IDs under lock and key.

For what it's worth, Tom just happened to show up at Bucs camp on Aug. 22 ... 2 days after taping ended.

Brady, though, has insisted it ain't him ... saying on his Twitter page Monday that despite disappearing from Bucs training camp for 11 days earlier this month, "[I] wasn’t on the masked singer last week."

The first rule of the show is ya don't talk about the show ... so could it really be him?!

Every second wedding's gotta have a second honeymoon -- seems like that should be a rule -- and that's why Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez are back in Europe for another romantic vacay.

Witnesses tell TMZ ... Ben and Jen pulled up to the Grand Hotel Tremezzo in Lake Como, Italy Tuesday -- arriving by private water limo, naturally.

The tables to the left of them were apparently kept empty ... even a glass facade was moved so they could get a better view of the iconic lake.

Security was also nearby to make sure their night went uninterrupted.

And yes, we're told they couldn't keep their hands off each other -- they put a pause on the kissing so Jen could head off to the bathroom, but when she came back they got right back to it!!!

Sounds like Ben was taking a look at Jen's wedding pics on Vogue's IG page -- truly her #1 fan.

As you know, they said "I Do" for a second time at his Georgia estate over the weekend ... after first eloping in Vegas last month. Wedding #1 ended with a family trip to Paris for their honeymoon.

Lil Yachty may have been born in August -- but the trendsetting rapper celebrated his 25th birthday with Drake like he was October's Very Own!!!

Yachty, Drake and several other friends took a coast on Drake's "Air Drake" private jet ... toasting to more life over chicken wings and Sprite.

Yachty was clearly in OVO mode -- debuting a new owl tattoo and even pulling up to Drake’s PJ wearing the Canadian megastar’s Chrome Hearts jeans, which he accidentally ripped!

Released as a merch rollout to support Drake's 2021 album "Certified Lover Boy," the collection has since grown hard to come by online ... and is extremely expensive.

Drake and Lil Yachty have been friends for years … Yachty recruited Drake for his platinum "Oprah's Bank Account" and cameoed in Drake and Future’s diamond-selling "Life Is Good" video.

Kanye West has been wearing a lot of black lately, but he's thinking blue for his future ... at least when it comes to landing a logo for his clothing line.

Ye's filed two new trademarks, obtained by TMZ, for a bizarre blue design he hopes to lock down as a logo. Unclear what the motivation is behind the logo ... it's a solid blue circle encased by another blue circle with jagged edges.

Interestingly enough, Kanye filed for another variation of the logo back in July, one without the color blue ... but it appears he's changed his mind.

However, this time the docs state, "The color(s) blue is/are claimed as a feature of the mark." Kanye fans might recognize the shade of blue is slightly similar to the same one he used on his "Jesus is King" album ... but we can't see any correlation between the album and logo.

As for the logo's use, the documents state it'll be for retail stores, online ordering services and online retail store services including clothing, footwear and headwear.

TMZ broke the story, Ye recently filed docs to land a trademark for "YZYSPLY" for retail stores -- so it's always possible the new logo and stores could go hand in hand.

A woman who went missing while hiking in Utah has been found dead -- this after flash floods besieged the area ... and her being swept away may have even been caught on video.

The body of 29-year-old Jetal Agnihotri was discovered Monday in Zion National Park where she'd been hiking with friends on Friday before going missing that evening. Park officials say she ended up near some sandstone cliffs, known as the Court of the Patriarchs along the Virgin River ... rather far from her last known whereabouts.

Agnihotri had stayed behind when a downpour hit Zion, wanting to explore the Narrows before meeting up with her group. The Narrows is a popular hike, where people are often knee-deep in water as they traverse the winding trail within the park's canyons.

When she didn't show at a rendezvous, her party notified staff ... and a multi-day search got underway with upwards of 170 professionals fanning out to look for her -- an effort that included search dogs. Now, an autopsy will be done to determine her cause of death.

Her family has told local media they believe her being carried away by an extremely powerful current was actually captured on camera by another group of hikers further down the trail in the Narrows.

The clip shows two people -- a man and a woman -- floating in debris-filled water that's at an incredibly high level. The woman is barely visible, almost slumbered entirely as people scream and look on.

Agnihotri was eventually found 6 miles from where she went missing ... so it would seem she was taken downstream quite a ways. That's how strong the water can get there, especially during monsoon season ... running from July through September at Zion.

The woman was a graduate student at the University of Arizona, and was expected to start school again in the fall.

The Cubs vs. Cardinals game Tuesday night was a snoozer -- but the action in the outfield seats sure as hell as wasn't ... 'cause fans got into a wild tiff there where one man ended up being hurled down several rows of bleachers.

The chaos appeared to happen in the eighth inning of the Cardinals' 13-3 blowout of the Cubs ... when several fans got into an altercation at Wrigley Field.

It's unclear what started the tiff -- but you can see in video of the fracas, a guy wearing an Anthony Rizzo jersey was pushed so hard during the scuffle, he actually fell head over heels down a few rows of seats.

Fortunately, he was able to get up seemingly uninjured ... but the same couldn't be said for another dude who was involved in the fight -- 'cause footage shows that guy was bleeding from his eye area.

Multiple security guards raced to the scene to try to restore order -- and after a few moments, it looked like they succeeded.

Unclear if any arrests were made, we've reached out to cops, but so far, no word back yet.

Kodak Black is lending a major hand to Haitians cut off from food and water -- due to extreme gang violence -- by sending more than 35,000 bottles of H2O.

Kodak heard about the Caribbean nation's crisis, and decided to do something to help the situation -- dropping $50k to get tons of bottled water shipped there from Florida ... according to the rapper's attorney, Bradford Cohen.

We're told Kodak is using cargo ships to send over alkaline water, and the labels on the bottles read "LAST" because Kodak wants this to be the last time anyone in Haiti goes without water.

Once the shipment reaches Haiti ... Kodak and his team are working with Haitian government officials to ensure the bottles get to their intended destinations.

Cohen says Kodak is calling for a ceasefire in the rising gang violence that's turning Haiti into a war zone ... and the water donation is just his latest step in an ongoing effort to help the island.

Sad news in the football world ... Kansas City Chiefs legend Len Dawson has died, his family announced on Wednesday. He was 87 years old.

Dawson's family said in a statement the Hall of Fame quarterback passed away with his wife, Linda, at his side.

"He was a wonderful husband, father, brother and friend," Dawson's family said. "Len was always grateful and many times overwhelmed by the countless bonds he made during his football and broadcast careers."

"He loved Kansas City and no matter where his travels took him, he could not wait to return home."

Dawson had reportedly entered hospice care in Kansas City earlier this month ... and in the family's statement, they thanked his doctors and nurses for showing him "tremendous amounts of love and compassion."

"The franchise has lost a true legend," Chiefs Chairman and CEO Clark Hunt added in a statement Wednesday. "Our thoughts and prayers go out to Linda and his family."

Dawson -- who was taken by the Pittsburgh Steelers with the No. 5 overall pick in the 1957 NFL Draft -- eventually became the starter for Dallas Texans in 1962 ... and went on to become one of the franchise's all-time greats after the team moved to Kansas City and became the Chiefs in 1963.

The righty played for the org. for a total of 14 years -- and helped lead the team to Super Bowl I in 1966 ... but lost the game to the Green Bay Packers. He eventually got the Chiefs a Super Bowl win, though, beating the Minnesota Vikings in SBIV in 1969.

Dawson piled up 28,711 passing yards and 239 passing TDs in his career, and eventually retired following the 1975 season. He went on to become an ultra-successful football broadcaster.

Dawson was elected to the Hall of Fame as a player in 1987, and as a broadcaster in 2012. His #16 has been retired by the Chiefs as well.

#RIP.

Jenelle Evans is leaving "Teen Mom" and not looking back ... with her management telling us she's on to bigger and better things in the reality TV world.

Jenelle's manager, August Keen, tells TMZ ... Jenelle is officially NOT returning to MTV's "Teen Mom" franchise after the two sides could not reach an agreement on a contract.

We're told MTV wanted to sign Jenelle to an exclusive deal, but her manager says it would have limited other career opportunities for Jenelle.

Despite leaving "Teen Mom" behind, it sounds like Jenelle is not done with TV ... we're told Jenelle "has a new dynamic series in development, keeping the concept under wraps for now."

Jenelle's manager says the show is going to be picked up by a major network.

We're also told Jenelle is focusing on building her brand as an entrepreneur, and an exclusive deal with MTV just did not make sense for her.

Jenelle's time on "Teen Mom" was not without controversy ... including when her husband David Eason killed the family dog, resulting in Jenelle's 2019 firing from MTV.

The nasty letter John Lennon wrote to Paul McCartney in the '70s has sold at auction after 17 days of bidding ... with the winner coughing up some serious dough for the piece of Beatles drama.

Dylan Kosinski, a rep for Gottahaverockandroll Auction House, tells TMZ ... the Lennon letter sold on Saturday for a total of $70K -- a winning bid of $56K, plus the buyer's premium of $14K -- the fee for participating in the auction.

As we reported, John fired off a letter to Paul days after an interview critical of him and The Beatles appeared in a November 1971 issue of British music magazine Melody Maker, and John's reply is mostly scathing ... but also thoughtful and pleading.

John's frustration with Paul is clear from the jump ... telling Paul he's ungrateful for all the money he's getting from The Beatles.

As the 3-page letter rambles on, John takes issue with Paul dismissing his song "Imagine" and berates Paul for allegedly threatening to "get us whatever the cost" -- "us" referring to the rest of The Beatles.

The piece was estimated to fetch between $30-40K ... we're told there were 11 bidders gunning for the letter, with a total of 14 bids in 2 1/2 weeks' time.

A piece of NFL history can now be all yours thanks to Hakeem Nicks ... TMZ Sports has learned the former NY Giants star has decided to part ways with his Super Bowl ring -- putting it up for auction this month.

Bidding on the bling -- which Nicks helped Eli Manning and the Giants win in an epic game against Tom Brady and the Patriots back in 2012 -- is currently at $25,000, but officials at Heritage Auctions tell us it could ultimately get up to over $80,000.

The ring is massive, it's a size fifteen piece that's so loaded with diamonds and blue sapphires, it weighs in at a whopping 95 grams.

It also has plenty of history attached to it -- because Nicks was a huge reason why NY was able to upset Brady in the SBXLVI game.

The former first-round pick totaled 10 catches for 109 yards in the contest -- and had some huge grabs for Manning in the team's fourth quarter, game-winning drive.

It's unclear why Nicks is selling the piece -- but according to Heritage Auctions, the ring comes with a letter of provenance from the former wideout and we're told a portion of the proceeds will go to charity.