Money

Joe Jackson has a mysterious benefactor ... who just bailed him out of tax debt ... and we think we know who that person is.

Joe owed just over $70,000 in back California taxes ... way back, as in 1996.

Joe just didn't pay ... but suddenly -- 4 days ago -- the debt was cleared.

Joe doesn't have a lot of spare cash lying around these days, so who paid the dough? It's highly unlikely/out of the question that the Michael Jackson Estate anted up for Joe.

So the logical person is the one we're going with -- Katherine Jackson, who gets around $100K a month from the Estate. And even though Katherine and Joe don't live together, he has a lot of influence over her. And there's this ... his last known address is Katherine's house.

Educated guess, but we'd put money on it.

Lisa and Brittny Gastineau aren't just a couple off small-time jewelry thieves ... they're ripping off one of the most famous jewelers in American history -- so says the famous jeweler herself.

Loree Rodkin -- who has designed jewelry for Michelle Obama, Cher, Madonna, Sting, Steven Tyler, Elton John, and others -- is suing Lisa Gastineau and her daughter over their new jewelry line Tres Glam ... claiming their designs are Tres Stolen.

Loree claims she's so famous ... her Michelle Obama ring and jewelry designs from the 2009 inaugural ball are part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

Loree claims Tres Glam has been shamelessly ripping off SEVERAL of her recent designs -- which are copyrighted -- including the below "Spider Web Bondage Ring" ... and she's demanding the Gastineaus put an end to it ASAP.

Loree is suing for at least $150,000 per alleged copyright infringement ... and she's demanding they stop selling the products asap.

Calls to the Gastineaus weren't returned.

It's an enormous sea change ... one of the most successful shows in the history of TV -- a show that has made BILLIONS of dollars in profits -- will actually LOSE money this year ... multiple sources connected with the show tell TMZ.

The reasons for "American Idol" going into the red for the first time all have to do with the bottom line. The show pays a fortune to the stars -- we're told Jennifer Lopez gets north of $15 Mil and Ryan Seacrest gets around that amount as well. They spent between $5 and $7 million on a new set this year. They are also still paying the 2 executive producers they fired after last season.

In addition we're told the show will spend at least $5 million on viewer phone calls.

And ... the ratings are down 26% from last season -- and that translates into advertising dollars. Some of the ad losses can be deferred until next season ... but they are losses nonetheless.

For years "Idol" scored hundreds of millions of dollars in raw profits in a single season.

That said ... we're told the show almost certainly will NOT be cancelled after this season. Sources say it will be back next year, in no small part because FOX cancelled "X Factor" and there would be way too many holes in its primetime schedule if both shows went away.

Now perspective ... "American Idol" is one of the most successful shows ever on television. Almost no shows make it to season 13 and the ratings for the show's run have been unbelievable.

Brandi Glanville will not go down without a fight, now claiming ex-hubby Eddie Cibrian is making a play for money that could send her and her kids to the poor house.

Sources connected with Eddie tell TMZ ... Brandi's lawyer, Ron Rale, fired off a letter to Eddie in response to his claim that he overpaid her support money to the tune of $114,738 ... and he wants that deducted from her share of their financial settlement.

We're told the letter Eddie just got is blistering ... accusing him of trying to sandbag Brandi with a bill she simply can't afford to pay.

Tyga doesn't need drugs to get hieroglyphic ... he just dropped $20,000 on an Egyptian-made tomb for his new L.A. store ... and it's pretty rad.

Sources tell us, Tyga spent more than $120,000 decorating the newly-opened Melrose clothing store called Last Kings -- the tomb was just a drop in the bucket.

We're told $100,000 went toward painting the place's ceilings like the Sistine Chapel -- and the remaining money went toward the tomb, as well as a bunch of other Egyptian-made Pharaoh-phernalia ... like the black and gold guard statues ... and sand.

Yes, Tyga actually paid to import sand from Egypt ... and his store is 10 miles from the beach.

At least it looks cool.

Screw Geico, Terrell Owens can save a whole bunch of money on child support ... just by visiting his kid -- this according court docs obtained by TMZ Sports.

T.O. -- who's had some serious money issues in his life -- just cut a huge deal with one of his baby mama's who thinks the best way to get the ex-NFL star to visit his kid is by luring him with cash.

Here's the deal ... according to court docs, obtained by TMZ Sports, Terrell has to shell out $2,250-per-month to Melanie Smith, one of T.O.'s 4 baby mamas.

But the catch ... if T.O. flies to Georgia and spends at least 6 hours with his daughter, he may deduct the cost of the flight, up to $250, from the next month's child support check.

T.O. can only use visit deduction 3-times per year -- and only once a month.

If a cash discount can't inspire T.O. to be a good dad, what will?!

Rapper Ludacris wants to do something so shocking, it will send shock waves through the rap community -- he's fighting for CUSTODY of his kid.

Luda and baby mama Tamika Fuller are duking it out in an Atlanta court over custody and child support. They had a baby girl 2 months ago and Tamika's been taking care of the kid.

The rapper now says in legal docs he's a "fit and capable parent" and should get full physical custody. He offers up his parental resume, saying he's always been "an active father" to his 12-year-old girl.

Now the plot thickens.

Luda has also asked the judge to force Tamika to pay HIM child support. That's interesting, because Tamika was asking for $15K a month in child support and Ludacris pleaded poverty, saying Paul Walker's death derailed "Fast & Furious 7" and his cash flow dried up. The judge awarded her $7K a month.

You can see the pleasure in Mel Gibson's face as he left a restaurant in Malibu Friday. He didn't want to talk about Oksana Grigorieva and the fact that she has gone belly up ... filing for bankruptcy. But you can see a certain peacefulness and calm that hasn't been exactly front and center.

As we previously reported ... Oksana could have been set for life if she didn't reject Mel's $15 million settlement back in the day, when those tapes were just between them. But she got greedy, and ended up with $750K and lots of lawyers bills. And half of that money was taken away because she blabbed about Mel ... violating their confidentiality agreement.

Fact is ... Oksana is still riding Mel's gravy train. He's paying $20K a month for child support, and that will likely last until Lucia turns 18.

But Mel clearly had a good day in the Bu.

DMX may be whacked out most of the time ... but he's still crafty enough to beat the bank in the foreclosure game.

Mr. X has a house in Mt. Kisco NY ... worth just south of $1 million. Problem is ... he's falling behind on his mortgage ... hundreds of thousands of dollars, so the bank initiated a foreclosure action.

Truth be told ... the rapper hasn't paid a penny for 1400 DAYS ... since 2008. He currently owes $258,927.

Somehow, the bank hasn't sealed the deal and taken the house back. The foreclosure action is still active ... but DMX is still the owner.

Arizona wasn't as kind to Mr. X. Back in 2009 ... the bank dropped the hammer on his house near Phoenix while he was in the slammer.

WhatsApp has been down all day and RedFoo isn't laughing his ass off one bit ... in fact, the singer says it's totally messing with his business -- so he's taking his patronage elsewhere.

The popular messaging app has been down for a few hours -- just days after being sold to Facebook for 19 BILLION FREAKING DOLLARS -- and RedFoo was pretty pissed about the whole thing.

The LMFAO singer says his girlfriend is also mad ... 'cause he's been MIA without WhatsApp.

Darius McCrary is not only Charlie Sheen's co-star on "Anger Management" ... he's his comrade in arms on the subject of prenups ... which he believes destroys marriages.

Darius was hilarious as he arrived at Carvin Guitar Shop in Hollywood. He has high hopes for Charlie's 4th trip down the isle and thinks Sheen is 100% right ... you can't mix business and marriage.

Donovan McNabb's people were IN NEGOTIATIONS for the former Philadelphia Eagles QB to appear at the roast of his arch-enemy Terrell Owens Thursday night ... but things fell apart days before the event, TMZ Sports has learned.

We spoke with comic Joe Conklin -- one of the organizers behind the charity event -- who tells us roast honchos initially reached out to McNabb hoping to reunite the former teammates.

We're told McNabb's people responded -- and said D.M. was interested ... for the right price. We're told McNabb's people threw out a number and roast organizers considered it for a couple of days.

But when roast organizers finally called back to agree to Donovan's rate -- the QB changed his mind and decided it wasn't worth it ... and ultimately, didn't appear at the event.

According to Conklin, there was talk that McNabb didn't bail because of T.O. -- but rather because he heard boxer Bernard Hopkins was considering attending the event and he didn't want to be in the same location. FYI -- B-Hop's been talking all sorts of smack about McNabb lately.

We reached out to McNabb's camp for comment -- so far, nothing back.

The stripper who was fired for taking photos with Katy Perry -- INSIDE A STRIP CLUB -- has moved on to bigger and richer things ... Floyd Mayweather Jr.

The stripper -- Devon -- Instagrammed the photo Wednesday night in Vegas after randomly running into Money May ... who's worth a reported $170 million ... way more than Katy Perry.

TMZ broke the story ... Devon lost her stripper job in Santa Barbara earlier this month after management found out she'd been taking pics with Katy inside the strip club ... where Katy spent thousands of dollars.

TMZ later posted the photos.

Katherine Heigl's hit hard times ... telling us she needs to hang onto every penny and is in NO position to donate cash to finish her new movie.

Here's the thing ... Hollywood hasn't exactly been beating down Katherine's door since she foolishly left "Grey's Anatomy" and trash talked Judd Apatow's movie -- she even admits it in this clip.

So now she's counting on a crowd funding campaign to raise $150,000 to complete her indie film "Jenny's Wedding" -- and makes it clear she won't be pitching in because she just ain't got it like that anymore.

Terrell Owens was ROASTED at a charity event in Philadelphia last night ... and NOTHING was off-limits ... including his child-support issues, divorce and financial problems, TMZ Sports has learned.

The whole thing started off with some jokes about how broke he is ... with Brent Celek's ex-wife Susie Celek, along with Jon Dorenbos' wife Julie, taking shots.

-- "Since Jerry Rice doesn't need any money and T.O. is officially out of food stamps, let's get this thing underway!!!"

-- "Tonight, these people are gonna make fun of you. They're gonna say you're desperate and washed up and a cry baby ... Don't listen to them T.O., they're just bitter and jealous and RIGHT."

We're told Owens spent most of the evening playing on his cell phone while various people tried to make fun of him ... that is until comic Joe Conklin called him out in front of the crowd.

"Pay attention T.O. ... 'cause you're sure as hell not paying child support."

Conklin went on to roast about T.O.'s habit of impregnating just about everyone he meets -- "Now I see why you got the hamburger commercial, because the condom commercial fell through."

Keith Haring's artwork is among the most recognizable of the 20th century -- but the authenticity of roughly 80 paintings has been called into question ... and now, a group of art dealers is suing for $40 MILLION, claiming it's being falsely accused of peddling fakes.

The Miami-based dealers are suing the Keith Haring Foundation after it accused them of selling bogus Harings at an exhibit in March last year called "Haring Miami."

Days after the exhibit opened, the Haring Foundation sued the dealers, seeking to block the exhibit. The Foundation claimed the vast majority of the 80+ paintings in it were counterfeit.

The "Haring Miami" organizers subsequently pulled all but 8 pieces of art from the exhibit.

Now the dealers who supplied the artworks are pissed, insisting ALL of them are the genuine work of Keith Haring -- who passed away from AIDS in 1990 -- and they're worth between $500,000 and $1 million a piece.