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Money, Finance & the People Behind the Headlines.

Joined October 2026
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Dave Portnoy sold Barstool for $551 million. His ex-wife still has full access to his bank account Shannon Sharpe: what if she spends $500,000 on a wedding to another man? Portnoy: "100%" Then Shannon tells him to cut her off. His answer is in the video below Her name is Renee. They married in 2009. He says they once lived at her parents' house They split in 2017. That is right when the money started coming in 2016: The Chernin Group buys 51%. The whole company is valued at $10 to $15 million 2020: Penn buys 36% for $163 million 2023: Penn buys the rest. Total price: $551 million Six months later Portnoy buys it all back for $1 He is reportedly worth around $150 million. He says Renee has access to all of it Shannon can't believe it. Portnoy doesn't blink: "I trust her implicitly" "She was there when we couldn't afford a hamburger" "We kind of separated when we started making it. So she doesn't get to enjoy any of that. To me, that's not right" "I won't even notice if it's gone" Here is the part most people miss. Per People, they never finished the divorce. On paper, she is still his wife He also says she could have emptied the account years ago. She never did Do the math. A $500,000 wedding is a third of one percent of $150 million. For someone with $30,000 in savings, that is $100 The case for: she stood by him when he was broke, and he refuses to pretend that never happened The case against: you do not hand a blank check to someone you are no longer with, no matter how good the history is Is Portnoy the most loyal man in America, or is this a mistake waiting to happen?
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Chris Brown's 2025 tour grossed $298,381,915 in four months. His daughter's mother says he pays $7,000 a month. She has $10,000 to her name He says: "I LITERALLY PAY FOR EVERYTHING" In the video below, she asks: "Did you smoke a little bit too much this morning?" Her name is Diamond Brown. Their daughter is Lovely In October she asked a Los Angeles court for at least $30,000 a month. Her proposed monthly budget was over $45,000. She says she makes about $1,500 a month as an esthetician and influencer Chris fired back on Instagram: "I LITERALLY PAY FOR EVERYTHING, her cars(2), her HOUSE, SCHOOLING, MEDICAL, and 10K a month" Then: "I haven't seen my daughter in 7 months" She answered on camera: "Where's the 10K? I don't have 10K" "You don't give me $10,000 a month" "I have receipts and my attorney has receipts" "You did also subtract money when you found out I was dating" "You couldn't pay me to be bitter, baby" His girlfriend Jada called her "ungrateful," per TMZ. The mothers of his other kids lined up to defend him Per her filing, she has Lovely about 90% of the time, he hasn't asked to see her in 6 to 7 months, and he asked to take a 4-year-old on tour on alternating weekends On November 9 it escalated. Her lawyers subpoenaed his business managers for his bank records. They objected, and both sides are at a standstill, per TMZ Do the math. His current tour with Usher averages about $7.8 million a night, per Pollstar. One of those nights would cover about 93 years of $7,000 a month The case for Chris: a tour gross is not a paycheck, he says he covers her house, two cars, school and medical on top of the cash, and he says she's the reason he hasn't seen his daughter The case for Diamond: $7,000 a month from a man who grossed $298 million in four months, and she says he cut it when she started dating Is Chris Brown underpaying his daughter, or is Diamond trying to get paid off his tour?
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Kelly Clarkson had primary custody of her kids. A judge still ordered her to pay her ex-husband $195,601 a month He had asked for $436,000 a month Then a state labor commissioner ruled he owed her $2.6 million In the video below: "I was destroyed, like on the ground" Brandon Blackstock was her husband and her manager. He booked her deals with The Voice, the Billboard Music Awards, Wayfair and Norwegian Cruise Line The commissioner ruled he had no license to book them and ordered him to pay back $2,641,374 Before that, the court had her cover $1.25 million of his legal fees. The 2022 settlement: $1.3 million up front, $115,000 a month in spousal support until 2024 and $45,601 a month in child support Her kids, she says, would tell her: "I wish Mommy and Daddy were in the same house" In August 2025, Brandon died of cancer at 48. She postponed her Las Vegas shows to be with their children. In February 2026 she announced her talk show would end Should the parent with custody ever have to pay the other one?
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In 2022, Ethan Klein mocked a YouTuber for cheating on his wife with an employee "He probably got a fat payout," he said. "You gotta pay him off to get him out" 4 years later, his wife says he had a 6 month affair. Now he's giving up his stake in everything they built Hila says it went from "just a kiss" to "emotional cheating" until he "finally admitted he'd been in an affair for over six months" His own crew refused to work with him "involved or profiting in any way." H3 is now on indefinite hiatus Ethan says he is "urgently" removing his "ownership and financial stakes" in the podcasts, Teddy Fresh, Teddy Glow and "any joint venture that I would profit from" On November 2, Hila filed for divorce after 14 years of marriage and 3 sons. She hired Kim Kardashian's divorce lawyer, Laura Wasser, and is asking for spousal support Ned Fulmer, the man he mocked in 2022, posted on X: "Karma's a b*tch, huh?" He gave up his stake. She still wants spousal support Fair, or not enough?
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He married a wealthy 59-year-old woman two months after meeting her online. She paid $6,500 a month for their bayfront house and covered everything else. He kept telling her that her kids only wanted her money. He wasn't a doctor. He had multiple names and Social Security numbers. When she finally cut him off, he posted her nude photos online, set her car on fire and went after her youngest daughter with a knife. The daughter took the knife and stabbed him 13 times. Her name is Debra Newell. In the video below, she says out loud why she thought he'd kill her. Wait for the second sentence October 2014. Debra was an interior designer in Orange County with her own business, grown kids and plenty of money. She told herself she had everything except love She met John Meehan on a dating site for people over 50. His profile said doctor, divorced, Christian. He said he'd served in Iraq with Doctors Without Borders. He called every day and told her she was the soulmate he'd been waiting for Five weeks later she signed a lease on a $6,500-a-month home on Balboa Island. Three weeks after that, they were married in Las Vegas He had no car, so he drove her Tesla. He wore surgical scrubs everywhere, even when he wasn't working. Her daughters saw red flags from day one He had an answer for that too. Her kids didn't really love her, he said. They just wanted her to die so they could take her money The records told a different story. Multiple names. Multiple Social Security numbers. A former nurse anesthetist with a trail of women behind him. His first wife says she found a box of fentanyl and other anesthesia drugs pushed to the back of a top shelf Debra left. Went back. Left again. In April 2016 she filed for an annulment and cut him off from her money Then came the threats, the nude photos, the car on fire. A private investigator told her to switch hotels every few nights. Her lawyer told her to rewrite her will. "He feels that this man is going to kill me because of the money," she said August 20, 2016. He was waiting for her daughter Terra on the roof of her apartment's parking garage. He grabbed her and stabbed her in the arm She kicked the knife out of his hand, picked it up and stabbed him 13 times. He died four days later Terra was never charged. It was self-defense The man who said her kids only wanted her money ended up dead at the hands of one of them Her daughters saw it from the first week. She married him anyway and paid for everything. Blind love, or something she should have seen coming?
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Before he was Rocky, Sylvester Stallone was homeless and did a softcore porn film for $200 "It was either do that movie or rob someone," he said Five years later, with under $100 to his name, he turned down a reported $360,000. Then he told his wife exactly what would happen to him if he took it Her name was Sasha. In the video below, he repeats what he told her. Watch the first 7 seconds 1970. He'd been evicted and was sleeping in a New York bus station. A cheap film called The Party at Kitty and Stud's needed a muscular lead. Two days of work. $200 "Instead of doing something desperate, I worked two days for $200 and got myself out of the bus station" Five years later he wrote Rocky. The studio loved the script. They just didn't want him in it The first offer was $20,000. His manager said take it. His agents said take it. He had "maybe under a hundred bucks" He'd already sold his dog for about $40 because he couldn't feed him. "It's the only thing I could sell" He kept saying no until the offer reportedly hit $360,000. The studio finally let him star, on a budget of about $1 million Rocky made over $225 million and won Best Picture The first thing he bought was his dog. The new owner knew he was desperate and charged $15,000. "He was worth every penny," Stallone wrote Then the porn film came back from the dead. Producers retitled it "Italian Stallion" and rented it to theaters for $10,000 a night. The movie that paid him $200 now made that much every few minutes His reaction: "Hell, for $10,000 forget the movie! I'll be there myself!" When a woman's porn past comes out, it often ends her career. His became a punchline. Double standard, or just a different era?
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When her mom found out she was doing porn, she texted her: "You lied to me" A million dollars later, she says her parents are proud of her "because I made money" Her psychiatrist saw it differently: "You don't have any values" Her name is Sky Bri. In the video below, she tells NBA champion Michael Porter Jr. everything. Wait for what she calls "the best day of my mom's life" She started OnlyFans while working at Target. She shot photos in the work bathroom, still in her uniform. It paid "maybe 1,500, 2 grand a month" Her parents thought she moved to LA to model On No Jumper, Adam22 asked her body count. "I'm pretty sure it was like three. I said it was 11" "I had to pretend to be way more crazy than I actually was," she says Then her mom's side of the family found her porn on Twitter. At that point she had "little to no money" Her breakout came on a Sidemen video with KSI's crew. She offered to flash one of the guys on camera, and cleared it with production first. "Everything I've always done is very, very calculated" "I got half a million followers on Instagram overnight. I instantly made like a million dollars on OnlyFans in a few weeks" Her dad still won't bring it up. "We've never had that conversation" Then came the anxiety and depression. "I have a lot of money and followers, but what did I do to get this?" She quit porn. Fans still tell her she's their idol. Her reaction: "You need a better idol" And her parents? "If I had done porn and miserably failed, they would probably think a lot differently of me" Do the math. Target bathroom: about $2,000 a month After the Sidemen video: about $1,000,000 in a few weeks At her old pace, that's 500 months. Almost 42 years Somewhere in between, "You lied to me" turned into "proud" Are her parents wrong, or would most parents react the same way?
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The night before her last porn scene, the man she spent Valentine's Day with told her: "I know you're going to f**k someone tomorrow" She was Penthouse Pet of the Year. She quit studio porn the next day Before porn, she'd been with four people. After? "I don't even know" Her name is Kenzie Anne. In the video below, she tells Holly Randall about that night. Wait for how she answered him Two years earlier she was a student doing e-commerce modeling in downtown LA for $100 an hour Two girls from her high school were camming. "I'm not the only girl from my high school doing it," she remembers thinking She went faceless on Streamate. "I was making like 10 grand a month just not showing my face" Then Vixen slid into her DMs and asked if she'd shoot a scene During the pandemic, a photographer friend sent her photos to Penthouse. They bought them. She became the 12th Pet of the year, the only one who wasn't "planned and paid." Then she won Pet of the Year One aunt wrote letters to the whole family telling them to "exile me out of the family" "That's not going to work," she says. "My family loves me" Then came Valentine's Day, and that sentence "It was me quitting porn for me," she says. "I just don't want to feel this way about myself anymore" She's not fully out. She's still on OnlyFans and calls herself "still a sex worker" And when strangers ask what she does? "I usually say I'm in social media" Do the math. Modeling: $100 an hour Faceless camming: about $10,000 a month She'd need 100 hours of modeling every month to match it Would you date someone who does porn, or is that a dealbreaker?
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A 21-year-old saw a $33.8 million fighter jet in a Pepsi commercial. The price on screen: 7 million Pepsi points. He found a loophole that turned it into $700,000. He raised the money and mailed Pepsi the check. Pepsi mailed back coupons Then Pepsi took him to court It was 1996. The ad showed a teenager landing a Harrier jet outside his school. On screen: "HARRIER FIGHTER 7,000,000 PEPSI POINTS". His line: "Sure beats the bus" John Leonard, a business student, read the fine print. You only needed 15 real points. The rest you could buy for 10 cents each People asked why he didn't just get a T-shirt. "When there's a Harrier out there for 7 million Pepsi Points, why not... aim your sights a little higher" Five investors put up the money. In March 1996 he sent Pepsi 15 points and a check for $700,008.50 Pepsi's reply: the jet "is not part of the Pepsi Stuff collection". Enclosed: "some free product coupons for your use" Wait for what Pepsi's spokesman says about him on camera In 1999 a federal judge sided with Pepsi: "no objective person could reasonably have concluded that the commercial actually offered consumers a Harrier Jet" Pepsi never cashed his check. It kept the ad on air and changed the price to 700,000,000 points Do the math. The jet: about $33.8 million His check: $700,008.50, about 2 cents on the dollar and about $1.5 million in today's money Earning the points by drinking Pepsi, per the judge: about 190 Pepsis a day for the next 100 years The case for Leonard: Pepsi named a price, its own rules let him buy the points, and he paid The case for Pepsi: nobody sells a military jet in a soda ad, and the court called it an obvious joke Was he a genius who got robbed, or a guy trying to cash in on a joke?
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A man in West Virginia won $315 million in the Powerball on Christmas Day 2002 He gave his teenage granddaughter $2,000 a week and 4 cars. Within 2 years she was dead Then he went on ABC and said he wished he'd torn the ticket up Tonight's jackpot is $835 million His name was Jack Whittaker. It was the biggest single-ticket jackpot in US history at the time He was 55 and already worth about $17 million from his construction company He takes the cash. $113 million after taxes He gives 10% to churches, buys the deli manager who sold him the ticket a house and a Jeep, and puts $14 million into a foundation for poor families In the video below, ABC asks him about his granddaughter, Brandi. At the end, you hear him say it himself He carries cash everywhere. Asked why he has $545,000 in his car, he says: "Because I can" August 2003. That $545,000 is stolen from his car outside a strip club. 2 club employees are charged in a plot to drug and rob him A month later, Brandi's boyfriend overdoses and dies in an empty house Whittaker owns. His father says the lottery money killed his son December 2004. Brandi is found dead. Cocaine and methadone in her system. Nobody is ever charged He says over 400 legal claims were filed against him or his companies. Fighting them costs at least $3 million Caesars Atlantic City sues him over $1.5 million in bounced checks he wrote to cover gambling losses 2008. His 42-year marriage ends up in divorce court 2009. Brandi's mother, his daughter, is found dead at 42 2016. His house burns down. He says it wasn't insured "I pretty much lost everything I held dear in my life," he told ABC He died in 2020 Tonight's cash option is $357.9 million. More than double the $170.5 million cash option he took The case for the money: he gave away at least $50 million to churches, strangers and poor families The case against: by his own words, it took everything he cared about Knowing his story, would you still want to win tonight?
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Institutional traders on Kalshi put $2 million on Greg Abbott last night A couple of hours later, he lost. Texas just elected its first Democratic governor since 1990 2 years ago, a Frenchman made $80 million betting against the polls. This time, the polls won July 2026. Kalshi gives Gina Hinojosa an 8% chance The money is on Abbott's side. Elon Musk is his biggest donor in the last filing period, with a $5 million check. He outraises her $26 million to $17.5 million Late October. Someone drops $500,000 on Abbott through a private block trade, the kind only institutions and the very rich can make. Days later, another $500,000 The final New York Times/Siena poll: Hinojosa 48, Abbott 47 The market doesn't care. Monday it still has Abbott around 60% Election night. Polls close with Hinojosa at 37%. Over the night, $2 million more goes in on Abbott Then the race is called for Hinojosa. Her price on Kalshi goes to 100 cents The poll said 1 point. With 94% counted, she's up 7 On Kalshi, a losing contract pays $0. If they held, that $2 million is gone The chart below: 8% in July. 100% this morning. $107 million traded on this one race Now rewind to 2024 A former bank trader from France who called himself Théo didn't trust the polls either. He paid YouGov to ask voters who their neighbors were voting for He sold almost everything he had, bet about $80 million on Trump and walked away with more than $80 million in profit Same move. Opposite result The case for the Abbott money: institutions use these markets to hedge. That $2 million could be insurance on something else they own The case against: the last poll had it within 1 point, and the market still priced Abbott at 60 cents on the dollar Polls or prediction markets: which one would you trust with your own money now?
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The Michael Jackson movie made $1 billion this year. His daughter says the trust he left his three kids still hasn't been funded. 17 years after he died. Last week Paris asked a judge to move $600 million into it Here's how she talks about him: "that was my best friend" When he died in 2009, he owed more than $500 million His will put his lawyer John Branca in charge. Branca turned it around. Catalog deals, Neverland, a $750 million Sony deal By the end of 2024 the estate had about $850 million in cash, Paris says in her filing Michael's plan, per her petition: income for the kids at 21, the big money at 30 Prince is 29. Paris is 28. Bigi is 24 She's also challenging about $109 million in pay tied to Branca, his lawyers and the late co-executor. Just for 2023 and 2024 The estate says it can't fund the trust while the IRS fight is open. The IRS wanted about $700 million. It says more than $200 million has already gone to the kids Paris got about $6.3 million in benefits in 2024, per the estate's own accounting $109 million in pay she's fighting. $6.3 million for his daughter. $0 in the trust, she says. Is she fighting for what her dad wanted, or trying to cash out early?
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