Money

If you blinked, you might've missed the fact Justin Bieber's got himself a new set of diamond whites in the form of a grill ... and it costs a fortune.

The Biebs showed off his new bling Tuesday on Instagram, but only barely. You gotta look close, but he's got the grill laid out over the lower half of his teeth -- he left his upper deck untouched, but that bottom row sure is shiny when you see it up and close.

JB was a bit modest in showing it off, but we got you covered!!!

The grill was commissioned by an L.A.-area jeweler who goes by Gold Teeth God -- with a name like that, he's gotta be pretty good, right?!? He is, 'cause Justin gave him a buzz.

We're told JB asked for the grill two weeks ago, and just got it delivered this week. It's called an "Invisible Set Princess Cut Diamond Grill" ... which means the teeth aren't individually outlined and appear flush. It ain't cheap -- it runs about $50,000.

It comes fully loaded too -- we're told the grill was designed to cover 8 teeth with white gold and white Vs1 diamonds at a clip of 7.65 carats total.

This is at least Bieber's second grill -- you'll recall ... he got an all-pink one made for him a couple years back that ran a clean $15k (top and bottom too at the time).

Rafael Nadal just bought a fully decked-out custom yacht ... and it's AWESOME!!!

The 33-year-old tennis superstar (he's only 33!) is a huge fan of luxury floaty boats -- he's in the middle of selling his OTHER yacht, Beethoven, for $3 million ... but he just couldn't wait to get the ball rolling on his new toy.

The yacht -- an 80 Sunreef Power catamaran -- isn't finished being built yet ... but it should be good to go by 2020. Hey, something to look forward to!!!

Nadal's got great taste .... the yacht comes with an awesome bar, multiple sun decks, huge garage and can fit up to 12 of his closest friends.

Jacksonville Jaguars superstar cornerback Jalen Ramsey is out for a big contract this season ... and to drive that point home, he reported to training camp Wednesday in a BRINKS TRUCK!

"Ya'll know what time it is," the driver of the truck said on a bullhorn while announcing Jalen's arrival to the crowd.

"This man's coverage is so good, he's gonna have his own cell phone service! The man's so good, they're gonna give him his own jail called Jalen County because these receivers are on 24-hour lockdown."

"If you check his pockets, he's got 8 Master Locks in his pocket, they are on lockdown all season."

Finally, it was time to announce "the man, the myth, Jalen Ramsey" ... with the hype man telling the crowd, "It's time to get this money, money!"

Subtle.

Jalen has made the Pro Bowl the past 2 seasons and is widely considered to be one of the best cornerbacks in the league.

He's entering the 4th year of his rookie contract which will pay him a $3.6 million base salary in 2019. He's expected to make $13.7 mil in 2020.

But, Ramsey has previously stated he's gonna be a monster when it comes to renegotiating his deal ... saying, "I'mma ask for so much money, they have to put me on layaway."

Wendy Williams says rappers should absolutely follow the money if it leads them to Sweden ... she says there's no point in turning down shows in the country because of A$AP Rocky.

We got Wendy out in New York City Tuesday and she told us she's totally against the proposed rap industry boycott of Sweden ... because it's money over everything.

The beloved talk show host says rappers have to do what's best for them, and if that means booking shows in Sweden, so be it ... after all, she says they've got to pay their bills by any means necessary.

Wendy's stance on the potential boycott is opposite Slim Jxmmi's position ... the Rae Sremmurd rapper said Monday there's no reason for artists to perform in Sweden as long as A$AP is rotting in a Swedish jail.

Wendy wants A$AP freed, and she feels like he was baited into the street brawl that landed him behind bars ... but she doesn't see the sense in others hurting their bottom lines as a show of support.

Aretha Franklin's son says the rep who controls his mother's estate is on a spending spree -- with the singer's fortune -- and he wants a judge to put a stop to it ... stat.

Aretha's son, Kecalf Franklin, wants a judge to grant a temporary restraining order against the estate's rep, Sabrina Owens ... barring her from making any decisions on behalf of the estate until the court decides whether Owens -- who is also Aretha's niece -- should even have that authority.

Kecalf claims Sabrina has sold property, personal items and spent money to advertise the items for sale. Kecalf also says Sabrina transferred a car to her name and received money on behalf of the estate ... though he doesn't name a specific amount.

It was first believed Aretha died without a will in 2018 but Owens found 3 wills in Aretha's home. Now, according to the docs -- obtained by TMZ -- the family wants the court to decide which will is valid.

Zion Williamson has finally decided on which shoe he'll be wearing when he suits up in his first NBA game ... and he's going with Jordan!!

The #1 overall 2019 NBA Draft pick has been weighing his options since his decision to go pro ... getting MASSIVE attention from Nike, Adidas and Puma.

In fact, we know Puma had been making a very serious run at Zion -- and our sources tell us  Nike considered Puma their #1 competition in landing the New Orleans Pelicans star.

Zion even tested out some Puma kicks during the NBA Summer League earlier this month.

But, Tuesday morning, the 19-year-old rookie made it official ... announcing he's a member of Jordan Brand, which is part of the Nike family.

He even released his first Jordan Brand promo video to celebrate the announcement.

Zion will join other Jordan Brand stars like Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, Chris Paul and more.

He WON'T be joining Kawhi Leonard who left Jordan Brand in late 2018 to sign a deal with New Balance. Not a bad replacement if you're Nike.

No word on how much Zion will be paid in his new deal with Jordan Brand -- but legendary ex-Nike exec, Sonny Vaccaro, previously told us he wouldn't be surprised if the contract hits the 9-figure mark.

In other words, ZION'S GETTIN' PAID!!!

Michael Jordan released a statement on the signing ... saying “Zion’s incredible determination, character and play are inspiring."

"He’s an essential part of the new talent that will help lead the brand into the future. He told us he would ‘shock the world,’ and asked us to believe him. We do."

The champ is here ... and Andy Ruiz is picking Manny Pacquiao to BEAT Floyd Mayweather if they can work out a deal for a rematch.

After 40-year-old Manny's impressive victory over Keith Thurman this weekend, there's more talk than ever about a Pacquiao vs. Mayweather II.

And, since Andy was AT the Pacquiao vs. Thurman fight, we asked the heavyweight champ for his professional opinion ... who wins?!

"I think Manny because hes been more active," Ruiz told us on his way out of Trejo's Tacos in Los Angeles.

Andy cautions people not to count out Floyd because "Mayweather is Mayweather. He's always good. He stays in shape, takes care of himself ... but it would be an awesome fight."

But, when push comes to shove, Andy says he'd put his money on Manny.

Of course, the first time Floyd fought Manny back in 2015, Floyd won by unanimous decision ... though it was later revealed Pacquiao had a shoulder injury going into the fight.

Even though Floyd hasn't taken a real pro fight in years, it's obvious why he would be open to a rematch -- Floyd reportedly made around $300 mil for the first fight, Manny is said to have raked in around $100 mil.

As for Andy, he's working on a rematch with Anthony Joshua ... the undefeated fighter he BEAT earlier this year to win the title.

The stakes are not only high for A$AP Rocky in his Swedish assault case ... the European nation itself could be forced to pay UNTOLD MILLIONS if he's ultimately cleared.

There's something we found about Swedish law that ups the stakes dramatically ... if someone is charged with a crime and is found not guilty, the country could be on the hook for all the money the victorious defendant lost as a result of incarceration and the trial.

In A$AP's case ... that's a fortune. He's already been in jail for going on 3 weeks and it's all but certain he'll be formally charged Thursday with aggravated assault. The chances of getting sprung from jail once he's charged are slim to none, because Sweden considers him a flight risk.

By the time he goes to trial, months may have passed, and that means a bunch of scheduled concert dates will go down the tubes.

He's already had to cancel 12 shows and is booked for 7 more through the month of September.

It's unclear exactly how much Rocky gets paid for each gig -- but between 2014 and 2017, reported booking fees from each concert range from $80k to $120k. It's 2019, so let's just say his flat quote these days is north of $100k.

The longer he sits in jail, the more the stakes go up ... $2 mil, and maybe a lot more.

Young Simba just can't wait to be king, and he's already reaping the benefits of royalty ... because JD McCrary scored a fat check to do some voice work for the 'Lion King' remake.

TMZ has obtained JD's minors contract from the new Disney movie ... and it says the 12-year-old made $5,000 a day to be the voice of Young Simba.

But, there's more ... he gets $50,000 for each song in which he performs lead vocals -- he has one, "I Just Can't Wait to be King."

He also gets $25,000 a song for duets -- sorry, no duets, but he gets $15,000 for group songs, and he's on "Hakuna Matata" with Seth Rogen, Donald Glover and Billy Eichner.

And, not to forget ... he gets royalties on the album. It says 10%, but we're guessing the definition is less impressive.

JD has been in the biz for a minute, but "The Lion King" is by far his biggest gig ... he's also had parts in a bunch of TV shows, starring in "The Paynes" on the Oprah Winfrey Network and playing Young Michael Jackson in "American Soul."

Jon Favreau directed the remake, and he found a small part for his daughter, Madeleine. According to her minors contract, she pocketed $814 for one day of work as a singer.

It's the second Disney payday for Madeleine ... she previously played Raquel the Rhino in the 2016 'Jungle Book' remake.

"Lion King" dominated the box office in its first 3 days in theaters ... raking in a whopping $191.8 million across North America.

The good news ... Scar can't get his paws on JD's or Madeleine's money.

Kawhi Leonard DOES have a wild side -- just check out the shoes!

The Los Angeles Clippers superstar was spotted out in Irvine, California on Saturday with an attention-grabbing pair of shoes on his size 14 feet.

We did some digging ... here's what we know -- the shoes are the unreleased New Balance 997 "Animal Print" with the Kawhi Leonard logo right on the tongue.

Of course, Kawhi signed on with New Balance in late 2018 after leaving Nike. As we previously reported, Kawhi is suing the Swoosh claiming they jacked his famous KL logo without permission.

Nike fired back in a countersuit of their own denying the allegations ... though they acknowledged the final logo was inspired by a sketch Kawhi created himself back when he was in college.

By the way, after this photo was taken ... Kawhi surfaced in Las Vegas where he got the VIP treatment at the Manny Pacquiao vs. Keith Thurman fight.

We're guessing Kawhi -- who just signed a 3-year, $103 million contract with the Clippers -- hopped on a private jet to get to Sin City.

Live Nation's provoking the ire of concert lovers everywhere, because it's fessed up to the shady practice of putting tickets directly on resale sites ... before the public even has a chance to buy them at face value.

The touring company's admission comes on the heels of a Billboard report detailing a secretly recorded phone call between a Live Nation honcho and an event promoter for Metallica in February 2017 ... days before the band announced its WorldWired North American stadium tour.

During the call ... the 2 parties agreed to put 88,000 tickets directly on secondary market sites like StubHub, so people never got a chance to buy them on sites like Ticketmaster, which is actually owned by Live Nation.

The company's admitted to facilitating this scalping practice for "about a dozen artists out of the thousands we work with" ... but other than Metallica, the bands remain unknown.

Live Nation says it did it because bands know face value of its concert tickets are often lower than market value ... so the tactic allows them to recapture a cut of that money.

According to the report ... Live Nation used various covert methods to place tickets on resale sites immediately, including having employees transfer thousands of tickets into single accounts to be listed and sold on secondary market sites.

So, the next time a show sells out immediately online ... eyebrows shall be justifiably raised.

Kamala Harris seems to have Hollywood squarely in her corner as she continues her campaign for POTUS -- and she's got manager-to-the-stars Scooter Braun to thank for it.

The California senator attended a fundraiser that Scooter threw for her on Saturday, which took place at his own home in Los Angeles. Some very famous faces dropped by as well, including Ariana Grande, Katy Perry and Demi Lovato ... two of whom are Scooter's clients.

It was an RSVP event, and was slugged as a "Fireside Chat" with the presidential hopeful.

Scooter posted his own photos of the event, where it appears he and Kamala were seated in front of a crowd of people in the backyard of his place, with microphones in each person's hand. He captioned his pics, "Such as incredible night of supporting our brilliant friend...candidate for President of the United States of America @KamalaHarris."

He also posted pics of him, Ari and Demi at the shindig, and called them "Fam."

Now, here's where things get interesting -- beyond the celebs just being there, we mean. Scooter's feud with Taylor Swift is coming into the picture, and him hosting Kamala appears to have pissed off a lot of her fans, with tons of Swifties calling Kamala and co. sellouts, and some even vowing not to vote for her come primaries.

As you know ... Scooter now owns the master recordings to Taylor's old catalog of music, which she lashed out at him over last month.

Interestingly enough, Taylor seems to have been pretty down with Senator Harris in the past ... retweeting her here and there. But, she's been an even more vocal supporter of one of Kamala's Democratic rivals ... Cory Booker. Taylor shouted him out when he backed the Equality Act in June.

To make matters even more tangled ... Booker was out in L.A. this weekend as well, and had his own bundle of stars ... like girlfriend Rosario Dawson, Sophia Bush and Tiffany Haddish.

The live-action 'Lion King' reboot was swimming in money this weekend here in America -- making it one of the best openings ever ... this in spite of critics kind of sh***in' on it.

Jon Favreau's latest re-imagining -- he also did the live-action version of "The Jungle Book" in 2016 -- hauled in a monster box office number in the North American market over the past few days, making an estimated $185 million ... and soaring past expectations.

The huge payday launched 'Lion King' into the 9th slot for highest-grossing opening ever (under "Avengers: Endgame," 'Infinity War,' 'The Force Awakens,' and other behemoths at the top) while also marking the largest July opening for a PG flick ever. In short, Disney made lots o' $$$$$$$$.

The funny thing is ... the movie is relatively so-so, according to critics anyway. It's got a 55% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and Megacritic -- which ain't good -- but folks still shelled out.

The biggest gripes about Disney's latest live-action revival is that the lions don't have any discernible facial expressions regardless of what's happening -- unlike the cartoon, which is very expressive throughout the roller coaster of events (RIP, Mufasa).

Not only that, but the biggest showstopping songs are a shell of themselves, and Beyonce barely gets any screen time -- yeah, we've seen it ... critics are sorta spot-on.

Soulja Boy is making some huge changes to his lifestyle following a stint in county jail ... and that means shrinking his social circle and shying away from social media.

Sources close to Soulja tell TMZ ... his three months in L.A. County Jail served as an eye-opener, and now that he's back home, he's cutting people off and cutting off his time on Twitter and Instagram.

The biggest change ... we're told Soulja kicked a bunch of people out of his crib in the San Fernando Valley, the same home that was burglarized when he was locked up.

TMZ broke the story ... crooks hit Soulja's home and made off with $500,000 in cash, jewelry and his iPhone -- which the alleged thieves used to go live on Soulja's IG account -- and when SB caught wind of the burglary in jail, he was convinced it was an inside job.

Soulja's inactivity on social media is also related to the burglary ... we're told he's still upset about it, and he just wants to keep to himself and stay away from the masses.

As we first reported ... Soulja was sprung from jail last Sunday, getting out 146 days early due to a combo of good behavior, time served and overcrowding. Back in April, SB was sentenced to 240 days and 265 days of community service for violating his probation.

Pablo Escobar's bro wants to squash his "flamethrower" beef with Elon Musk ... by proposing they go into business together, but only if Elon can convince Prez Trump to issue a pardon.

Yeah, things just got weird.

The Colombian kingpin's bro, Roberto, fired off a letter to Elon -- or as Roberto calls him, "smart gringo" -- to offer several ways they can put their bad blood behind them. As we first reported ... Roberto claims Elon's The Boring Company committed intellectual property theft when one of its engineers jacked the idea of making a toy flamethrower.

Roberto starts the letter -- obtained by TMZ -- by giving Elon a nickname ... La Mosca (The Fly). Read the letter ... Roberto explains why he gave him the nickname. What's more ... one of Roberto's proposed solutions is to get Elon to speak to Trump and pardon him ... so they can build the company "Escobar Musk Enterprises." No joke.

Roberto's second solution ... roll up their sleeves and start a weed biz!!! Seriously ... Roberto's even got a company name picked. Roberto also offers a third solution ... if ya wanna call it that.

Well this is a twist ... Donald Trump just said he's personally guaranteeing bail for A$AP Rocky if Swedish authorities release him ... meaning the President would be on the hook if Rocky skips out.

It's a bizarre turn in the case. Trump just tweeted, "Just had a very good call with @SwedishPM Stefan Lofven who assured me that American citizen A$AP Rocky will be treated fairly. Likewise, I assured him that A$AP was not a flight risk and offered to personally vouch for his bail ..."

Trump didn't use the word, but it sounds like he's saying he's willing to become a guarantor on Rocky's bail application.

As we reported, a judge ruled Friday A$AP is a flight risk and therefore can't be let out of jail while the case grinds on.

So, he's now spoken to the Swedish Prime Minister who really promised nothing ... especially if he views what's going on as fair. As we reported, A$AP has been jailed for more than 2 weeks and not a single criminal charge has been filed against him. Prosecutors say they need another week to investigate -- even though any lawyer out of school for a year could process this one quickly, since there's video -- and they convinced a judge to hold Rocky in custody while they figure it out.

And, by the way, prosecutors blew it by sending out a press release saying they plan to indict him ... so why the charade of pretending the investigation is continuing? When we contacted them they told us they mistakenly put that info in the press release and then removed it. The mistake was clearly just that they played their hand.

The reality is this ... Trump and his State Dept. have already made a full court press to get Rocky out and it fell on deaf ears. Good that he's trying, but Swedish authorities up to this point have been immovable.

As we reported, Kanye called Trump Friday and made a plea for the President to get involved.