Exs

Chester Bennington's ex-wife just scored a major victory ... the executor of his Estate is earmarking 50% of the Estate's Linkin Park royalties to her.

Samantha Bennington -- who was married to Chester between 1996 and 2005 -- filed a claim with the Estate demanding the royalties as well as child support. The child support portion was withdrawn back in June. They had one son together.

The executor filed legal docs with the probate court, stating that he would allow Samantha's royalties claim, which includes a share of the non-touring merch, publishing rights and a share of the master sound records.

The executor made no mention of child support.

What's interesting ... the executor is Chester's widow, Talinda, so she seems down with Samantha getting her cut.

Eva Marcille is taking round one in the child custody battle her ex-BF started, now that a judge in Georgia's told him to kick rocks ... back to Cali.

According to new legal docs obtained by TMZ ... the 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' star will maintain full custody of her and Kevin McCall's 5-year-old daughter, Marley Rae. The reason's simple ... Kevin failed to show why the case belonged in Georgia when an L.A. Superior Court judge issued the original custody order.

As we first reported, Eva and Kevin have been going at it in court for some time now. She begged the judge NOT to give him custody ... claiming he's a violent "ticking time bomb."

Last month, Kevin went to court to plead his case but that went south too. He got into a tussle with a cop in court, and took a nasty tumble down an escalator. Kevin believes he was the victim in that incident.

And, it gets worse for Kevin ... according to legal docs, there's a warrant out for his arrest in L.A. for missing a court date in his felony domestic violence case involving another woman.

Monica is officially flying solo -- her divorce from ex-NBA baller Shannon Brown is now finalized after spending a few minutes Tuesday morning before the judge.

The singer and her attorney, Tanya Mitchell Graham, arrived at the courthouse in Fayetteville, GA ... but her now ex-husband, Shannon, was a no-show. That made for a quick, drama-free hearing that lasted less than 10 minutes. The judge granted Monica's divorce and -- as she requested -- restored her maiden name. She's now back to Monica Arnold.

Their split moved pretty quickly, legally speaking. You'll recall, filed for divorce back in March after nearly 10 years of marriage to the former Lakers star. They had separated about a year ago.

They have a 6-year-old daughter together, Laiyah. As for an agreement on child support ... the details were sealed in court. No word on if either will pay spousal support.

Either way ... Monica seemed satisfied with the outcome, as she left court smiling and surrounded by family members.

Liam Hemsworth is the one who's pulling the plug on his marriage, because TMZ has learned he just filed for divorce from Miley Cyrus.

Liam filed legal docs in L.A. ... citing the standard "irreconcilable differences."

Sources connected to the couple tell TMZ, Liam and Miley had a prenup, keeping their earnings during the marriage separate, so there won't be a fight over money. And, since there are no kids, we're told the divorce will be easy breezy.

The handwriting was on the wall for weeks ... Miley and Liam announced their separation August 10, after less than a year of marriage. Our sources tell us Liam is "over the marriage" and just wants to move on.

The day before telling the world she split from Liam, Miley was spotted making out with her longtime friend, Kaitlynn Carter, at Lake Como in Italy. There were allegations of infidelity, although it appeared the couple had split months before.

The date of separation is relevant, not so much legally, but in terms of PR. In the docs, filed by disso queen Laura Wasser, she does not list a date of separation ... it reads TBD -- to be determined.

Here's what's interesting ... our sources say, despite appearances, Miley had made overtures as recently as this week, saying she wanted to work on the marriage, but Liam was steadfast that it was over. We're told fact is, Liam's people said he would be "insane" to jump back in.

Liam and Miley had been drifting apart for some time ... Liam was photographed in June grocery shopping without his wedding ring.

The breakup started out amicable, but it quickly turned nasty, with claims of drug use and infidelity. She released a song last week, "Slide Away," which we're told is her version of the split, blaming it on Liam's alleged penchant for whisky and pills ... something he strongly denies.

Miley and Liam tied the knot back in December, hosting friends and family for a wedding celebration at their home in Nashville.

Liam Hemsworth did not seem the worse for wear Saturday as he hit-up a bar in Australia with some mates.

Liam was chillin' at a bar and restaurant in Byron Bay, where he's been hangin' since his split with Miley Cyrus was made public.

Seems like Liam's the only one who hasn't hooked up since the split. Miley's been with Kaitlynn Carter, Brody Jenner's ex. Brody's been with Josie Canseco, and then there's Liam. Don't get us wrong ... he has options.

Miley released a song a few days ago, essentially saying what we reported last week ... her team says she was frustrated Liam was abusing substances, including booze and pills -- something his side strongly denies. His side claims the breakup is all about Miley's behavior. His side claims she hooked up with Kaitlynn before the split ... her side says they split months ago.

Wendy Williams is not backing down from Bow Wow ... sources close to her say his recent body-shaming attempt won't stop her from defending Ciara, or from trashing him in the future.

Bow Wow and Wendy have been exchanging insults ever since he dissed Ciara at a performance earlier this month, telling the crowd, "I had this bitch first."

Wendy quickly took Ciara's side and took a swipe at his height on her talk show, and Bow Wow fired back Sunday with a body-shaming tweet ... which Wendy is now shaking off.

Sources close to Wendy tell TMZ ... Bow Wow's attempt at attacking and trying to intimidate her from saying anything bad about him in the future won't work.

We're told Wendy isn't the slightest bit worried about his shade ... and she's doubling down on her defense of Ciara by maintaining Bow Wow shouldn't have said anything bad about his ex in the first place.

Wendy's position is ... Bow Wow should keep Ciara's name out of his mouth, unless he's giving her props for being smoking hot and killing the game.

Mod Sun says Bella Thorne getting up in arms over girl code is ridiculous ... because she doesn't play by the rules in any of her relationships.

The rapper was out near Hollywood Thursday when we asked about his ex-girlfriend beefing on Twitter with her ex-girlfriend, Tana Mongeau -- who's also sort of his ex-GF -- and he clearly sides with Tana.

For the uninitiated, Bella dated both Mod and Tana -- at the same time -- and all 3 were cool with the arrangement ... until Bella had breakups with both earlier this year.

Then, after Mod was spotted getting dinner with Tana this week, Bella tweeted she was "no longer good" with Tana ... because she broke girl code.

Mod tells us this new rift is definitely about him hanging with Tana. As we've reported ... things haven't been good between Mod and Bella since their split, so it seems pretty clear she's upset Tana's still cozy with him.

Mod thinks that's totally unfair, though, because he's close with Tana from their time together while he was also dating Bella ... and he says they also worked on music together.

Josh Duhamel knows Fergie sings "Big Girls Don't Cry," but he also knows she could definitely use a little pick-me-up after her national anthem debacle -- and Josh delivered.

Fergie's ex showed up at her house Monday with a bouquet of roses and their 4-year-old son, Axl ... pretty much what the doctor ordered. The uproar over her All-Star Game 'Star-Spangled Banner' has been so intense, the singer felt the need to apologize.

Apparently, he dropped off Axl to cheer up Fergie ... Josh left the house after just a few minutes, according to photogs. The flowers, btw, came with a note from Axl to his mom.

Pretty classy move on Josh's part.

As Fergie said in her apology ... she tried her best. Ditto for Axl and Josh, we think.

Harvey Weinstein's low on cash flow, so he's telling his ex-wife he can't afford to pay child support for a year ... maybe more ... according to her, anyway.

Eve Chilton made the claim in docs submitted when she tried to get a one-time advance payment to cover $5 million in child support Weinstein still owes for their 3 daughters. The judge denied that request, citing Weinstein's track record of not missing any previous payments.

As we reported ... Chilton, who divorced Weinstein in 2004, was worried their daughters wouldn't get the money because Weinstein was using it to fight numerous lawsuits.

The timing's interesting here -- Weinstein just reached a divorce settlement this week with his most recent ex-wife, Georgina Chapman ... reportedly in the $15 to $20 million range.

He'll still have to make regular child support payments, as scheduled, to Chilton.

It's officially a Squad-wide epidemic ... Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik are breaking up.

They've only been together for about 6 months ... and she's 21, while he's 23 -- so breaking up is kinda what you do. However their split comes right on the heels of Squad leader Taylor Swift's with Calvin Harris.

Makes ya think -- is this coordinated?

Neither is saying why they're calling it quits, but a source close to Gigi tells TMZ the writing was on the wall. We're told the fact she never introduced Zayn to her family is "very telling" ... since normally her mom and dad always meet her BFs.

Karlie Kloss' guy is now on notice.

Gwyneth Paltrow has just filed legal docs, asking a judge to officially end her marriage to Chris Martin ... but we know the docs aren't what they seem.

Gwyneth has asked the judge to enter a default judgment, because Chris never responded to her divorce petition. On the surface it sounds like Chris isn't playing ball, but we know it's the exact opposite.

As we reported, the former couple's business manager has been working out a property settlement, and Chris never responded to the divorce petition because he and Gwyneth didn't want lots of stories written each time documents were filed.

We're told the property settlement is now complete, and they agreed long ago to joint custody of their kids.

So the judge will enter the default and the property settlement will almost certainly remain confidential.

Mission accomplished.