Diddy, the “richest person in hip-hop,” has changed his name several times in an effort to rebrand himself and clean up mistakes from his past name changes.

In August, 2005 he changed his name to just “Diddy,” but he was born Sean John Combs and puts out a clothing line under the “Sean Jean” name. He previously called himself Puff Daddy, P. Diddy and Puffy, and may have had to get rid of his “Puffy” moniker after having legal issues with the Japanese band “Puffy AmiYumi.”

Now Diddy has been ordered to change his name again, because it conflicts with a British music producer who also goes by Diddy. He also has to pay damages to the guy:

Why doesn’t he just go by Sean Jean? That would be a lot easier, and people won’t have to remember what name to call him this month. More money, more name changes, more problems.

Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson’s divorce was finalized in early July. Nick was offered an insulting $1.5 million settlement by Jessica’s creepy father, Joe Simpson, in early June. The couples joint assets are valued at well over $30 million, so that was truly a piss poor amount. (Albeit one that would change most anyone else’s life.)

Nick was said to be holding out for a relatively paltry $8 million, which he lowered to just $5 million.

Now Nick and Jessica have reached an undisclosed settlement, but Nick’s share is said to be well less than half of the couple’s assets:

Lachey’s people could have leaked that news to make him seem like a good guy, but he is a good guy. There’s no blaming Simpson, since she generally seems to do what people tell her and simple math is probably way above her head. Now she’ll have more cash to buy terrible ill-fitting fashion thanks to her daddy playing hardball.

Here is Jessica in NY yesterday. Photos courtesy of SweetKisses.net

Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox were photographed canoodling at a party in Malibu over the weekend. I’m not sure who the older woman is, but Aniston is majorly sucking up to her while Courteney looks kind of annoyed. Aniston is also all too aware that she’s being photographed.

No wonder Aniston is so self-conscious around the paparrazi. She just settled a lawsuit for an undisclosed amount with a photographer who took topless photos of her sunbathing at her place. Aniston is going to donate the settlement to cancer research, cause she realizes that she’s not known for charity work and better improve her public image fast.

The paparrazo’s defense is pretty weak and kind of laughable. He said that he “didn’t go looking” for Aniston topless, even though he was outside her house with a telephoto lens, and that he uh, didn’t want to sell the naked pictures, even though he mailed them to magazines.

This is Aniston’s second settlement with a photographer over nude photos. She got 1/2 a million dollars in 2003 for nude pictures of her that were taken and published in 1999. No word what she did with that cash.

Here are Aniston and Cox at the party. [via]

Lindsay Lohan probably thinks it’s cute or whatever to wear her Pink Taco boyfriend’s undershirt out in public for all the paparrazi to see. She could have fit one of those white diaphanous shirts she likes to wear into one of her giant purses for the day after, but it was already stuffed full with three bikinis.

Lohan is probably going to have to give a statement in the suit against her mother, Dina, who is being sued for switching Lohan’s record label to get a more high-profile deal. Now that Lohan’s music and acting career is taking a nosedive, that settlement is going to be worth a lot less.

Here is Lohan looking all busy and unable to balance her accessories while gleefully showing off her store-bought goodies. Her shirt isn’t as see-through as Jessica Simpson’s, but she’s working with what was in her boyfriend’s closet.

“You, Me, and Dupree” is not doing so bad at the box office, and is in fourth place on its second weekend out. “Pirates” is still kicking ass at first place, of course. “You Me, and Dupree” is supposed to royally suck, though, and is getting panned by critics.

Kate Hudson won a recent libel award from the British arm of The National Enquirer. Celebrities sue the British and Irish offshoots of US gossip magazines to get around US libel laws, which shield publications from damages unless it can be proven that they acted from malice. (So basically the US gossip rags can make shit up and no one can sue them.) Britney Spears is now suing 8 gossip magazines from offshore in the hopes of scoring some cash to feed her estranged husband’s fast lifestyle.

Hudson was refuting a report that she was dangerously thin and that her mother, Goldie Hawn, was worried for her health. She won an undisclosed settlement from the magazine.

Here is Hudson looking like an elf at the July 23rd Australian premiere of “You, Me, and Dupree” with annoying Owen Wilson. She shouldn’t wear her hair back because it certainly isn’t flattering to her face. [via]

Britney Spears claims the glowing happy pictures that came out in US Weekly of her posing with Kevin were, like, totally stolen. She’s said to be “evaluating legal options” against the magazine. You know that Britney released the photos herself after her “Dateline” debacle, and is just saying that to make it seem like they’re really stolen:

We seriously doubt this is true because the pictures are all cute and seem to come at a time when she needs good publicity and wants to make it seem as if everything is fine in her marriage. It’s also seems like too much of a coincidence when compared with the recently leaked Brangelina baby shower pics.

Reader Missy notes that Britney and Kevin may look happy and privileged in these pictures taken on a private jet, but that Kevin is suspiciously hiding his ring finger. Someone must have “forgotten” to wear their wedding ring.

You’ve undoubtedly heard about the Brangelina baby shower pics that were released to a few blogs and media outlets with the promise of 450 more. It turns out that Angelina’s kissing brother, James Haven, took his camera to BestBuy in LA but forgot to remove the memory card. BestBuy outsourced the job to Precision Camera in Enfield, Connecticut, where two guys thought they hit the jackpot. They might have, if they would have been smart enough to take basic precautions like using a proxy server and an anonymous e-mail address. Instead they used an easily traceable account and the feds raided their place of employment and one of their homes to recover the pictures. They probably would have been caught anyway, but it might have taken a couple of extra days.

They dodged a legal bullet since it was determined they didn’t do anything illegal:

What I want to know is why the secret service got involved in a stupid celebrity photo leak case. How much taypayer money did that cost?

The two guyswho leaked the pictures, Bill Keyes, 36, and Adam Beckwith, 20 something, may not be arrested or charged, but Brangelina’s lawyers are out for blood and they’re going to get them to pay. Hopefully they’ll get some decent pro bono support and will be able to avoid being sued.

Here are the Brangelina baby shower pics.

J.Lo’s first ex husband, Ojani Noa, is unable to publish a tell-all book about their relationship now that Lopez won a case against him publishing the book. He signed a confidentiality agreement with Lopez in late 2005 as part of his settlement payout for a breach of contract lawsuit against her. Noa claimed that Lopez had him unfairly fired from his manager position at her Pasadena restaurant, Madre’s.

In April Noa told Lopez’s attorneys that he’d put the book out unless she paid him a cool $5 million. Of course the diva wasn’t having that and sued him in an attempt to block the book, which is said to have juicy details like J.Lo cheating on P.Diddy in 1999 with Marc Anthony. Unfortunately J.Lo was successful and we won’t be able to get our hands on the novel, but one detail did come out: Noa claims Lopez does Santeria on her enemies to get back at them:

I believe this, because Lopez was said to have consulted a Santeria advisor at the time of her upcoming wedding to Ben Affleck. The voodoo guru told her to call it off:

That’s pretty funny and we hope more dirt gets released on Lopez even though the book was blocked. If she’s gullible enough to believe in voodoo, maybe Lea Remini will successfully convert her to Scientology.

Here she is in the videoshoot for “I’m gonna be alright,” which was released in 2002. [via]

Britney is planning to sue 8 different tabloids for reporting that her marriage is in trouble, but she’s not going to do it from the states, where celebrities are considered public personalities and are fair game by law - she’s filed suit in Ireland, where her chances of winning are much higher:

It doesn’t seem fair that celebrities can just file suit from England or Ireland in order to get around US libel laws, but major corporations avoid paying taxes by incorporating overseas. Exploiting tax and legal loopholes is just one of the ways that people hold onto their undeserved millions.

Here is Britney with Sean Preston and her mom and sister outside of Nobu. K-Fed was there, too, but is not pictured. There was supposedly a paparrazi fight as photographers jockied for pictures of the pregnant star. TMZ has a video of it, with people saying “back off” and swearing, but it doesn’t seem as exciting as they make it out to be. We were hoping for some punches and hair-pulling.

Pictures and tabloid story [via]

Paris’ car trouble just doesn’t end. She was videotaped backing her SUV into a honda in a parking lot this weekend, and now she’s getting sued for a multi-car pileup in LA. Paris wasn’t driving and wasn’t in the car - her cousin caused the accident with Paris’ car. (If Paris was around, you would have heard of this already.) The suit claims she’s legally responsible, though:

There are two other lawsuits pending against Paris. One is a $10 million defamation case filed by Zeta Graff. Paris falsely claimed that Graff attacked her at a London club in July of last year and arranged to have the story leaked to the tabloids.

Another lawsuit is by party planner Brian Quintana, who Paris called a “dirty Mexican” and reportedly harassed after Quintana is said to have told Paris’ boyfriend, Stavros Niarchos III, to dump her to get back with Mary-Kate Olsen. Quintana said he would drop the suit if Paris would show up at the opening of one of his clubs. We’re not sure if Paris followed through, but it means that she could avoid at least one of the three lawsuits against her, not that the careless party girl cares much.

And Paris may be back with Stavros for the third time, because the two were spotted buying DVDs together. They seem to have picked up Kathy Griffin’s comedy DVD.

Since splittling with Stavros in early May she was linked shortly with NFL quarterback Matt Leinart and with the hot guy who played her love interested in her new music video.

Stavros is said to have begged Paris to take him back, and to have sampled Lindsay Lohan’s spicy wares.

Here is Paris making sure the paparrazi get a shot of her new CD as she heads to a pilates class in Brentwood. [via] Paris and Stavros picture [via]