Netflix

The so-called "Tinder Swindler" isn’t the only one who got a bad rep from the Netflix documentary -- his bodyguard thinks he did too, and now he's threatening legal action.

If you’ve seen the doc, you know we’re talking about Piotr -- who was prominently featured as the personal security guard for Simon Leviev ... and some people think the doc makes it seem like he was in on Leviev's alleged scams.

That’s what’s he and his team are saying anyway -- and they think it's hurt Piotr's reputation and ability to work, so they’ve fired off a cease-and-desist letter to Netflix. Much like Simon dealing with one of his GFs ... they have a lot of demands.

In the letter, obtained by TMZ, attorney Joanna Parafianowicz says she wants Netflix to yank the 'Swindler' doc altogether.

Not just that, she's demanding Netflix publish an apology to Piotr on its official websites.

Of course ... Piotr is also asking for money due to what he characterizes as irreparable harm to his reputation and career. All in all, he's asking for 5 million Euros (about $5.6 mil).

His rationale for all this is ... Netflix never got permission to use his image or likeness, nor did it include his side of things. Piotr’s attorney says the current depiction of him as it stands -- namely, that he knew what Simon was doing -- is completely false. They insist Piotr was completely out of the loop on that front.

These new pics of Simon Leviev make ya think -- somewhere a woman is crying about losing a big stack o' money, 'cause the guy's perusing super pricey sports cars in his native Israel!!!

The so-called 'Tinder Swindler' -- the title of the Netflix documentary about Simon -- was spotted on the prowl over the weekend in Tel Aviv at a luxury dealership, and naturally ... he was checking out Ferraris.

As you can see, SL rolled up in an SUV with what appear to be bodyguards trailing behind -- protection from his "enemies," no doubt -- and wearing a Gucci jacket worth thousands.

But that's nothing compared to the whips he's eyeballing! Some of the Ferrari models in his sights, including a 296 GTB, which go for as high as $250,000 MSRP. And not only did Simon take a good hard look at the exteriors, but he actually got inside at least one of 'em to get a feel from the inside.

From the outside looking in, Simon would definitely seem to be rolling in the dough to be able to shop for a prancing horse.

We should note -- for the sake of any impressionable women seeing this -- that Simon did NOT cruise away in any of the cars.

Considering his history of alleged fraud -- the documentary claims he bilked women out of more than $10 mil -- you gotta wonder if this is all just for show, or if he's legit rich.

Simon Leviev, aka "The Tinder Swindler," is saying goodbye to scamming women and has just scored an actual paying job ... this time, he's making money being his real self on Cameo.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... the 'Tinder Swindler' joined the site Tuesday and got a wave of requests from fans to make messages. We're told he made $30K within his first 3 days, charging $200 a pop for personal video and $2k per video for businesses.

Folks have requested everything from birthday shoutouts to pep talks, happy anniversary videos, and more. He says in his profile he's excited to be on Cameo to wish folks whatever they need. In a few videos, he jokes his enemies are after him.

If you haven't seen it, Simon's the focus of a new Netflix doc, "The Tinder Swindler" ... accused of scamming women in shocking fashion out of a fortune. It was like a Ponzi scheme, where he'd take money from one woman and use it to impress the next before he took money from her.  In all, he pilfered around $10 million.

Netflix is turning the page from Dave Chappelle's 'Closer' controversy by staying in business ... with Dave Chappelle, and rolling out new comedy specials with his fingerprint all over 'em.

Dave and the streaming platform announced a new standup comedy series Friday called, "Chappelle's Home Team" ... which will focus on comics handpicked by DC himself. The first of 4 episodes are set to drop February 28, featuring Earthquake.

Remember, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos refused to remove "The Closer" last year when LGBTQ groups, and others, accused Chappelle of transphobia and staged several protests at Netflix HQ.

Sarandos said the company fully supported all comedians' right to express themselves ... and stood by Dave. The new specials are proof positive of that continued partnership, which has been extremely profitable for both parties.

He's released 10 standup specials on Netflix since 2016 and, by some reports, has made north of $200 mil.

'Tiger King' star Jeff Lowe and his wife just copped plea deals in their drunk driving case ... and they will NOT serve any time behind bars.

Prosecutors in Oklahoma tell TMZ ... Jeff and Lauren Lowe each pled no contest to a misdemeanor charge of DWI and will pay a fine and court costs to put the incident behind them.

We're told there will be no jail time or probation for either Jeff or Lauren ... with prosecutors saying this is a typical outcome for these types of cases in Oklahoma City.

TMZ broke the story ... Jeff and Lauren were busted back in June after cops pulled them over in a white Range Rover. Police said they were both driving before the bust, which is why both were ultimately hit with the charge.

Simon Leviev is looking to turn his "Tinder Swinder" fame into a legit career, because he wants to break into Hollywood.

Sources close to Simon tell TMZ ... he's already signed with a talent manager, and wants to write a book, star on a dating show and host a dating podcast. Yeah, no shocker ... the guy's got big plans.

Simon's new Hollywood manager is Gina Rodriguez with Gitoni Inc, and we're told they've already discussed a bunch of plans to parlay his newfound Netflix fame into profit and an entertainment career.

We're told Simon's idea for a potential dating show includes women competing for his love ... and he's interested in sharing dating dos and don'ts on a potential podcast.

As you know ... Simon's the subject of the new Netflix documentary in which women -- and law enforcement -- claim he flaunted a lavish lifestyle to women on Tinder, and once he got them hooked, he would convince them to "loan" him money.

When they did, he'd ghost them and allegedly make off with their dough.

Almost like a Ponzi scheme, the Netflix doc claims Simon would use one woman's funds to wine and dine the next, and so on. All told, Simon allegedly swindled over $10 million from his alleged victims before his 2019 arrest.

So, why in the world would anyone trust him -- in or out of Hollywood???

Kanye West showed up Friday night for a screening of the Netflix doc on his life ... and there was no Julia Fox, no Kim Kardashian, but there WAS someone else.

Ye showed up at L.A.'s new hot spot -- Mother Wolf restaurant -- with Chaney Jones to watch the new Netflix show, "Jeen-Yuhs," who lots of folks say has jacked Kim's look. Lots of celebs showed up for the screening, including DaBaby, Taraji P. Henson, Quavo, Roddy Ricch and Jason Lee.

Kanye was chill, wearing a black leather jacket and a hoodie. He took a bunch of photos with guests and chatted everyone up.

As for Chaney ... she wore the Kardashian-esque super-tight bodysuit, along with gloves, boots and yes, black sunglasses.

Kanye's still waiting for Billie Eilish to apologize for supposedly shading his pal, Travis Scott, at her concert last week. The apology isn't coming, because Billie has talked about stopping shows when someone is in distress long before the Astroworld tragedy. Ye says if she doesn't apologize, he won't headline at Coachella.

Julia Haart, the star of Netflix's "My Unorthodox Life," is getting dragged into court by her estranged hubby ... who claims she made off with $850k from a company account.

Silvio Scaglia and Freedom Holding Inc. are suing Julia ... claiming she misappropriated the funds after finding out she was going to be dismissed as the CEO at Elite World Group.

Silvio runs EWG, a subsidiary of Freedom Holding, and in a lawsuit, he says she made the huge withdrawal on Tuesday, the day after finding out she was getting the ax.

It's interesting ... the alleged withdrawal went down the day before Julia filed to divorce Silvio after 3 years of marriage.

In docs, obtained by TMZ, Silvio claims he gave Julia a 50% stake in Freedom Holding back in 2019, and she became the CEO of EWG that same year ... a job that gave her access to the company bank account.

Julia's ex claims they met in January to discuss company finances and agreed to place limits on what she could withdraw ... no more than $250k to cover a mortgage, rent and living expenses, and he claims she took out $250k shortly after that agreement was made.

Silvio says EWG sent a letter to Julia outlining reasons for her dismissal, and it cites an alleged increase in costs and expenses beyond the budget. It also blames Haart for the company's failure to raise new money.

Silvio claims Julia swiped the money as retaliation for getting fired, and he's suing to get back the $850k, plus damages.

We reached out to Julia ... so far, no word back.

Jerry Harris has pleaded guilty in his child pornography case .... TMZ has learned.

The "Cheer" star was in Chicago Federal court Thursday where he entered the plea to 2 charges -- receiving child porn using interstate commerce and traveling over state lines with intent to illicit sexual conduct with a minor.

Harris had been under investigation by the FBI for allegedly soliciting minors for sex back in May 2019. The feds say Jerry requested sexually inappropriate photos from teen boys, which they sent to him.

The judge told Harris sentencing guidelines call for him to get up to 50 years in prison -- but it's ultimately up to the judge who will announce Harris' sentence in a June 28 hearing.

Jerry rose to fame in Season 1 of the popular Netflix series ... but things quickly took a turn for the worse, when he was arrested in Illinois for child pornography in Sept. 2020.

According to the criminal complaint, Jerry was 19 at the time and the alleged victims were 13.

The feds claim the teens' parents say Harris had contacted both of them online and repeatedly asked for pornographic photos and videos.

Harris allegedly started contacting the boys back in December of 2018.

The alleged victims provided law enforcement with screenshots of exchanges with Harris via Snapchat and text messages, among other evidence.

Harris was ultimately charged with producing child pornography. He's still dealing with a civil lawsuit from the 2 alleged victims ... who claim he groomed them into sending the nude photos and he demanded sexual acts.

Simon Leviev -- aka the "Tinder Swindler" -- is gonna have a hard time finding new victims on dating apps ... because he's been booted from just about everywhere!

A rep for Match Group -- owners of OkCupid, Hinge, PlentyofFish, OurTime, Meetic, Pairs, and Match -- tells TMZ that Simon has been permanently banned from all of their properties ... leaving him out of options when it comes to scamming women.

The rep says he violated the terms of service at Tinder and therefore the other partner companies will also not allow him to create a profile on the other apps.

As we reported ... a Tinder spokesperson told us Simon -- and his many aliases -- would no longer be allowed to open an account on their platform, as he violated their terms of service ... specifically, impersonation and asking for money.

According to the new documentary, Simon would show off his lavish lifestyle to women on Tinder, in hopes of getting their trust and affection. Once hooking them, he'd convince them to "loan" him money ... before he ghosted and made off with their cash.

Much like a Ponzi scheme, the documentary claims he'd use one woman's money to impress the next, and so on. All in all, he allegedly took more than $10 million from his victims.

He was eventually arrested in 2019 and sent back to Israel, where he was released after just 5 months in prison.

Harry Jowsey is backing Khloe Kardashian who has already shot down rumors the two are dating ... but that doesn't mean he's opposed to hooking up with her.

We got the "Too Hot To Handle" star at Pressed Juicery in L.A. and asked about the dating buzz.

Harry says the online sleuths have it twisted ... explaining how the Bentley he was driving around with flowers in the passenger seat was not meant for Khloe, as many assumed.

In reality, Harry says the Bentley was more of a test drive and the bouquet was for his "queens" at Netflix ... the streaming platform that made him famous with last year's reality dating show.

The Harry-Khloe dating rumors were also based around alleged DMs between them ... but Harry says that was a one-way street, and he actually deleted the DM he sent Khloe a while ago, because he was embarrassed about his pickup line.

The reality check is sure to bum out those who thought there was something brewing ... but Harry says he would absolutely date Khloe if given the chance.

Hall of Fame QB now ... Emily Cooper's new love interest next?!?

Peyton Manning says that might just be his path ... telling "The Tonight Show" on Monday that after his hilarious "Emily In Paris" skit over the weekend, he could be getting a huge role in the next season of the hit show.

The NFL legend broke it all down for Jimmy Fallon ... explaining the reaction to his "Saturday Night Live" appearance has been so great -- it could lead to him rubbin' elbows with Emily on Netflix in France soon.

"I think I'm going to be asked to be in Season 3," Manning said. "Like, a big part."

Manning wasn't being entirely serious with the prediction -- but it certainly wouldn't be farfetched given the response to his "Emily In Paris" jokes on Saturday.

If you missed it ... Manning hilariously told Colin Jost that he missed NFL playoff games because he was binge-watching Season 2 of the Netflix show instead.

Manning fired off punchline after punchline about the show -- and even broke out a telestrator to explain it all. It was laugh-out-loud funny.

The wildest part about it all, though? Manning told Fallon on Monday he's actually never watched an episode of it!

Andy Cosferent – the assistant coach and star of Netflix's "Cheer" – noticeably disappeared in the middle of the second season ... causing viewers to wonder if the fan-favorite was axed from the show. Andy tells us ... that simply wasn't the case.

Andy says there were a few reasons why he vanished in the middle of the season ... one being that his main job kicked back up when things started opening after the pandemic began subsiding.

Andy explains he isn't just an assistant coach for the Corsicana, TX team ... he also works for a company that helps coordinate cheer camps, and when things opened back up, there was a huge demand for him to get back to work.

The other reason is he was secretly spearheading "Cheer Live" -- which will be a live cheer tour across the country involving cheerleaders from both Navarro and Trinity Community College. Andy says he's working with Monica Aldama behind the scenes to organize the tour, so any rumors about bad blood between the duo are just nonsense.

Joe Exotic, will get out of prison earlier than expected -- but not as early as he had hoped -- the court just knocked one year off of his 22-year sentence.

A judge this past summer ruled the sentence for the murder-for-hire conviction was erroneous, because the trial court miscalculated the 2 charges on which Joe was convicted.

There was a chance the 22-year sentence would be reduced to 17 years, but that didn't happen. Rather, a federal appeals court just shaved a year off the 22-year sentence ... clearly not what Joe was hoping for.

Joe's serving time for allegedly trying to hire two men to kill his nemesis Carole Baskin, as well as crimes against animals. Baskin and her husband attended the hearing Friday as well.

Back in November, TMZ broke the news that Joe had been transferred from his prison in Texas to a facility in North Carolina … as he battled aggressive cancer and needed more medical attention. He originally requested to be let out of prison for treatment, but we don't yet know the decision on that.

Joe's team has yet to respond to the news.

Sofia Vergara really stands out on the set of her new Netflix show ... because she looks exactly like Sofia Vergara, and nothing like the infamous cocaine godmother she's playing.

Ya gotta see these shots of Sofia filming scenes in L.A. for "Griselda," a Netflix limited series about Colombian drug queenpin Griselda Blanco ... it might as well be a scene for "Modern Family" because Sofia pretty much looks like she always does.

It's pretty funny -- some folks who've seen Sofia on set claim she's "unrecognizable in costume" as Griselda. Ummm ... say what??? Look for yourself, this ain't fooling anyone.

She's reportedly wearing facial prosthetics for the role, and there is a slight difference in the nose and cheeks -- but c'mon ... that's Sofia.

For reference, here is what the real Griselda looked like back in the day -- she was assassinated in 2012 in Colombia.

Jeff Lowe's sticking to the old adage of the show must go on, but this time it's gonna be in Spanish -- he's taking the zoo 'Tiger King' made famous out of the country to skirt a U.S. government ban.

Jeff tells TMZ ... he just signed a deal to build a zoo down in Mexico, on a 35-acre property between Playa del Carmen and Tulum. He says the new spot will be built among a lush jungle with natural water features, and he already has all the necessary permits for construction and possession of animals.

The plan is to open the zoo in the next 12 to 16 months ... and Jeff says it will mostly showcase big cats, as well as lemurs, sloths, giraffes and a pair of elephants.

Jeff says he's still working on a name for the zoo ... but naturally, it will be related to the 'Tiger King' brand.

Despite how things played out with Joe Exotic, Jeff's not shying away from partnerships. He says he's working on the Mexico project with an old friend who already owns a small zoo in Playa del Carmen.

We're told the plan is to move his large animals into Jeff's new zoo.

The move to Mexico comes on the heels of the feds banning Jeff and his wife Lauren from ever exhibiting animals again in the States -- a judge ruled they'd violated the Endangered Species Act by delivering, carrying and exhibiting animals without a license. However, the DOJ dropped all of the civil charges against the Lowes.