50 Cent

Fitting that we ran a story yesterday regarding Dr. Dre's continued toiling on The Detox, as his protégé 50 Cent (real name: Curtis Jackson) is now -- shockingly -- in the headlines. You may recall a good-natured open letter Taco Bell aired to the public recently, encouraging 50 to "think outside the bun" and alter his surname to 79, 89, or 99 cent. Some time later, the MC reportedly got wind of the promotion, as well as sporadic fan outcries of "sellout," and has subsequently sicked his legal team on the franchise to the tune of $4 million. The papers ostensibly accuse the Gordita-peddling purveyors of using his name unjustly and without permission, and in such a way that has besmirched his reputation.

Now, we're in no position to debate how seriously a man who openly shills his supposedly authentic persona to Vitamin Water and Reebok should safeguard his good name. And let's not even get into the fact that by the very nature of its campaign, Taco Bell made no clear insinuations of 50's direct involvement, and probably shouldn't be held responsible for some 15-year-old message board languisher's lack of inference. But given his lawsuit against advertising agency Traffix, Inc. last year (for allegedly using his likeness in one of those silly shoot-the-celeb cartoon banner ads) and general prevailing interest in currency, one has to gather his lawyers clued him in to a possible money-in-the-bank scenario, followed by his PR team providing righteously enraged ammo for related interviews.

So, always keeping the interests of 50 or any other member of G-Unit in mind, we brainstormed a few other targets the platinum-selling superstar and his legal entourage might want to shake down for loose change:

To see the list of potential 50 Cent lawsuit victims, keep reading on page 2.