Money

Gabrielle Union -- the future Mrs. Dwyane Wade -- took her brand new million dollar 8.5 carat diamond ring out in public yesterday ... but not without some serious hired muscle to keep it safe.

Gabby and Ring arrived to the Staples Center in L.A. ... flanked by private security ... to watch their man dominate the Kobe Bryant-less Lakers.

Funny, Kobe knows a little something about expensive jewelry ... in fact, he may have bought the most expensive ring out of ALL the NBA players ($4 million) .. except his wasn't a "Will You Marry Me" diamond -- it was a "FORGIVE ME!" diamond.

Evelyn Lozada got a helluva Christmas gift this morning from Dodgers star Carl Crawford ... a 14.5 carat DIAMOND ENGAGEMENT RING ... and sources tell TMZ the ring's worth $1.4 MILLION!!!

Crawford -- who's in the middle of a $142 million contract -- popped the question this morning ... and the "Basketball Wives" star said YES!

Just like Dwyane Wade, Crawford picked up the ring from go-to celebrity jeweler Jason of Beverly Hills.

For the record, the ring Wade gave to Gabrielle Union was ONLY 8.5 carats ... but size doesn't really matter, right???

Evelyn has been married before -- she tied the knot with Chad Johnson back in 2012 ... but divorced him later that year after the NFL star headbutted her during an argument. Before Johnson, she was engaged to NBA star Antoine Walker (but they never married).

As for her new man, she started dating Crawford earlier this year ... and Evelyn is 7 months pregnant with his child.

Congrats!

The actor who voices the Spongebob's best friend, Patrick Star, is lookin' fresh these days, because his estranged wife just took him to the cleaners ... TMZ has learned.

Bill Fagerbakke and his wife, Catherine, just got legally separated. For some reason, without even getting divorced, they entered into a property settlement agreement ... obtained by TMZ.

Here's the lowdown:

-- Catherine gets 50% of all earnings, including what Bill made on "Coach" and "Spongebob" -- he averages around $700K a year.

-- Catherine gets the $2.4 million family house

-- Catherine gets $13,500 a month in spousal support

-- Catherine gets a 2010 Lexus hybrid SUV

-- Bill gets to keep his $3,000 security deposit on the home he's renting

-- Bill gets to keep his hoopty -- a 2011 Mini Cooper

But one bright light for Bill ... he gets to keep his cherry '54 Chevy.

"Vampire Diaries" star Paul Wesley is rightfully sucking the joint bank account dry ... we've learned he's getting the lion's share of loot in his divorce from Torrey DeVitto ... a divorce that is now final.

Turns out Paul and Torrey -- who also appeared on the show -- signed a prenup -- obtained by TMZ -- that keeps all their earnings separate ... and he made WAY more than her. On top of that, the prenup provides he gets all the money he fronted for the purchase of their home -- $730,593 -- and she gets what she put in -- a measly $10K.

They were certainly into motor vehicles. He gets to keep the Prius, the Triumph Bonneville chopper and an Audi Q5. She gets an Audi A4.

The couple married back in April 2011 and separated in July. They have no children together.

So who's the sucker now?

Every kiss begins with ... an engagement ring that costs MORE THAN MOST PEOPLE MAKE THEIR WHOLE FRICKIN' LIVES -- if you're Gabrielle Union and Dwyane Wade, that is.

Dwyane popped the question Saturday night with an 8.5 carat cushion cut diamond ring (pictured below) made by go-to celeb jeweler Jason of Beverly Hills ... and TMZ has learned it goes for nearly 1 million bucks.

We're told Dwyane had been on the hunt for months for the stone of her dreams ... and his jeweler made 3 trips to Miami looking for the perfect jewel ... and third time was a charm.

Bravo.

Master P will be doing his part to resolve California's debt crisis ... he just got hit with a giant tax bill.

P -- aka Percy Miller -- was slapped with liens for unpaid California taxes in 1999 and 2000 ... according to docs filed by the state tax board.

The documents show he owes $237,027.41.

The rapper/entrepreneur scored his biggest hit with "Make 'Em Say Uhh!" in 1998.

Charlie Sheen loves 2 things a lot -- charities and hot chicks ... he just dropped $50,000 for the young and the homeless.

We got proof Charlie anted up to My Friend's Place -- which services homeless young people in Hollywood -- they sent him a thank-you note that we obtained.

My Friend's Place is the latest beneficiary of Charlie's sizable bank account. In the last few months he's donated:

-- $25,000 to the PREDA foundation, a Philippine relief fund

-- $10,000 to The Walk to End Epilepsy

-- $150,000 to 3 charities chosen by the producer and director of "Scary Movie 5"

-- $75,000 to the family of a young cancer patient

-- $100,000 to Lindsay Lohan

The war is over ... Tom Cruise has settled his epic $50 million libel suit against a magazine publisher that accused him of abandoning his daughter Suri ... and part of the settlement included a carefully-worded apology.

The terms of the settlement are sealed. Each side will pay its own legal fees.

Part of the deal was that the defendants issue the following statement: "Bauer Publishing, 'In Touch' and 'Life and Style' never intended to communicate that Tom Cruise had cut off all ties and abandoned his daughter Suri and regret if anyone drew that inference from anything they published."

As we reported ... Cruise sued Bauer Media Group last year over a cover story that appeared in Life & Style magazine claiming he had "abandoned" his then-6-year-old daughter Suri in the wake of his divorce from Katie Holmes.

The conflict was pretty insane -- you'll recall, Tom sat for a deposition in the lawsuit and compared acting to fighting in Afghanistan.

A&E will continue to profit off Phil Robertson and his family during Christmas week -- despite the fact that they benched Phil for his recent anti-gay comments -- because the network will be airing SEVERAL huge "Duck Dynasty" marathons.

DD is pretty much taking over A&E's Christmas schedule. The network will air 4 separate rerun marathons of the show in 4 days (December 22-25) totaling 35.5 hours of air time.

December 22 -- 5PM-4AM EST
December 23 -- 7PM-4AM EST
December 24 -- 6PM-9PM EST
December 25 -- 3:30PM-4AM EST

So we gotta ask ...

Clint Eastwood thinks his soon-to-be ex-wife should fend for herself ... because he's asking a judge to DENY her any spousal support.

Clint filed legal docs in the divorce case triggered by Dina Eastwood. He's trying early on to shut down her request for support. We're pretty sure the reason Clint is drawing the line is because there's a prenup that lays out their rights pretty clearly.

It seems there's a fight on another front ... custody of their 16-year-old daughter Morgan. Dina has asked for full physical custody. Clint wants joint physical custody.

Clint says their 17-year marriage crumbled more than a year and a half ago and they actually separated in June 2012.

Eminem got an offer he COULD refuse -- an offer to sing at the NFL Owners Party during Super Bowl week that did not meet his price -- $2 MILLION!

Sources connected to the party tell TMZ ... reps from the event were looking for a headline act for the party that followed the dinner, which will be attended by 1,500 lucky folks. When Eminem's agents laid out the financial terms, we're told the owners group passed.

We're also told the owners were interested in Kanye ... but his fee was too high as well. As one source put it, "It was $1 million, plus plus plus a lot of other perks."

There will be a slew of singers performing at various events in NYC during Super Bowl week. We're told DJs are the big thing ... and the big ones are going for between $750K and $1 million.

Ryan O'Neal shockingly just won a huge lawsuit over who owns an extremely expensive Andy Warhol painting of Farrah Fawcett.

The University of Texas -- Farrah's alma mater -- sued Ryan, claiming the actress had gifted the painting to the school in her will. Ryan, who is in possession of the Warhol, claimed the artist himself gave him the painting to show his appreciation for setting up the portrait sitting with his ex.

The value of the picture could be as high as $12 mil on the open market.

It seemed the will was going to sink Ryan, but the jury sided with Ryan.

Good thing. Last week he told TMZ ... if he didn't win he'd die.

Shaq's blocking Shaunie O'Neal's reality show out of spite ... because of his own failed reality show attempts -- and demanded a ransom of $1 million to give her the go ahead -- so Shaunie claims in new legal docs, but Shaq is calling BS.

Shaunie tried to get a judge to effectively green light her attempt to put her kids in a new reality show with her ... something Shaq is strongly against.

But in her legal docs -- obtained by TMZ -- Shaunie says it's all sour grapes, claiming Shaq tried and failed 3 times to do a reality show with his kids. But sources close to Shaq tell us ... it's simply not true, and if a network wanted a reality show ... he's way more marketable than her.

Shaunie also claims in the docs that Shaq was ok with her show ...as long as she gave him $1 million, which she refused to do. Our Shaq sources say, ridiculous ... the last thing he needs is $$$.

Shaunie grouses that she needs to do the show to pay the bills, because she gets no alimony. But we've learned Shaq pays her $100,000 A MONTH in child support for their 4 kids.

Shaunie says Shaq barely gives two craps about the kids and only sees them 8-10 days a YEAR. Shaq sources tell us Shaunie's lying ... he sees the kids "plenty" and is very involved in their school.

Card shark Phil Laak -- who's made millions on the pro poker circuit -- just got dealt a lousy hand ... against an opponent who almost never loses-- the Tax Man ... TMZ has learned.

The Unabomber (it's because of his hoodies and sunglasses) was hit with liens for unpaid California taxes in 2010 and 2011 ... according to docs filed by the state tax board.

The docs show Laak owes a total of $24,874 in taxes for the 2 years -- a pretty small stack for Laak, who's earned almost $3 million dollars on the tournament circuit ... including a $263K purse at the 2010 World Series of Poker in Europe.

Gotta know when to fold 'em.

Marc Anthony and Jennifer Lopez are a couple of show-stealing rip-off artists -- so claims a guy who says their reality show "Q'Viva! The Chosen" was his idea ... so he's suing for $25 MILLION.

John Jacobs filed the lawsuit in New York, claiming he contacted Marc Anthony Productions and J.Lo's Nuyorican Productions about his show idea "Miami Beach: The Game" in 2007 and 2008.

According to Jacobs, his idea was to combine two well-known Latino celebrities who would travel in search of the next big superstar.

Jacobs says both companies initially expressed interest, but ultimately ignored his phone calls.

Fast forward years later -- Jacobs says he starts seeing ads for "Q'Viva!" starring Marc and Jennifer (which aired in 2012) and he was blown away by the similarities to his own show concept. In the lawsuit, Jacobs claims in 11-year-old fashion, "They were so similar that they were twins."

He says he followed up with both companies as well as Univision to get to the bottom of the alleged thievery, but never heard back. Now he wants at least $25 million.

Famed director Nick Cassavetes is going after one of his buddies ... suing him for a $72,000 check that bounced all over L.A -- and sources tell us it's a big fat gambling debt.

The director of "The Notebook" is suing L.A. business mogul Kevin Washington for the loot. Kevin gave Nick a handwritten check for $72,600 and allegedly stopped payment.

Nick has famously gambled huge sums of money at private homes around L.A. We broke the story ... Nick was sued in 2011 by the trustee of a convicted hedge fund manager over a $73,000 poker debt. Nick won the loot in a poker game and the trustee said it was dirty money that the hedge fund manager stole from investors.

As for Kevin -- he certainly has enough money for the check to clear. His dad owns Montana Rail Link -- the largest privately owned railroad company in the U.S. Kevin's a partner in an aviation company.