Money

Lil Xan says he suffers from anxiety and that's what everyone saw on display when he keyed his whip ... but he's good now, and so is the G-Wagon.

We got the rapper Tuesday at LAX, and asked what led to his mental breakdown a couple weeks ago. You'll recall, LX kicked the crap outta his brand new Mercedes SUV and keyed the ride -- all while going off about being a slave to his management. He also bitched about having zero control of all the money he's making.

Lil Xan's definitely looking and feeling better now. He especially dug the Audrey Hepburn compliment our camera guy gave him. But, it's interesting, as LX started breaking down what drove him to key his car, his manager yelled from off-camera ... warning him not to say anything stupid.

6:14 AM PT -- A spokesperson for Batali's brand licensing company tells TMZ, "There have been no sales of Mario Batali sauces by our licensee since December 2017 as retailers discontinued carrying the product at that time. Mario Batali has received no royalty or payment of any kind since that time. We apologize for any confusion and have asked our licensee to take down the website.”

Mario Batali's website claims it struck a deal to donate proceeds from its sauces to a women's group ... but TMZ's learned the organization hasn't received a dime because no deal was ever struck.

We noticed this huge banner posted on mariobatalisauces.com's landing page back in December 2017 shortly after sexual misconduct allegations first surfaced against the disgraced chef. The banner claims the makers of Batali's sauces are donating its proceeds to Women Employed, hailed as one of the nation's most successful advocates for working women.

But, we checked with the organization and a rep tells us, "Summer Garden Food Manufacturing reached out to WE last year about donating proceeds from the sale of its Mario Batali-labeled products to our organization. At no time did Women Employed have a partnership, agreement, or discussion with Chef Mario Batali."

The statement continues, "While WE appreciates that Summer Garden Food Manufacturing reached out to us, this donation did not move forward because distributors did not want to be associated with Batali and pulled the product from their shelves.”

As we reported ... Batali was dumped by his partners on the heels of new claims of sexual misconduct. We reached out to Batali's sauce makers to ask for an explanation for the banner, so far no word back.

Diddy's adopted son says his father isn't just dabbling in high-priced art ... the music/tv/fashion/liquor mogul is diving headfirst into the art world.

We got Quincy Brown -- whose biological father is Al B. Sure! -- at LAX Monday, and asked what he thought of Puff dropping $21.1 million on Kerry James Marshall’s '97 painting, “Past Times," during a Sotheby's auction last week.

Quincy says this is the next logical step for his old man, seeing as how he's conquered just about everything else. The fact he dropped serious cheddar for the piece should tell you Papa ain't playing around, according to his son.

Wanna bet Johnny Manziel will be the starting QB for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats when the CFL season kicks off in June?

Well, the odds are definitely against you ...

With Johnny inking his deal to play in the CFL, the gamblers are already trying to figure out whether or not to bet on him or against him.

In fact, BetOnline.ag -- one of the biggest online gambling sites in the world -- is already taking bets on if Johnny will be the opening day starter.

Will Johnny start game 1?

-- Yes +$200

-- No -$300

Translation ... if you bet $100 for Johnny to start, you can win $300.

Not starting? You have to lay $200 just to win $100.

There are more bets ...

You can bet on how many starts Johnny will have during the 21-game season. The over/under is set at 7.5 games.

And get this ... think Johnny will still be on the roster during game 21? The odds are in his favor on that one too (Yes is -200, No is +150).

Katy Perry treated her hometown to free booze at a concert this weekend -- but might've spoken too soon ... 'cause much of the crowd went runnin'.

Katy performed Saturday night at the Santa Barbara Bowl for what she dubbed 'Witness: Coming Home' -- a benefit show to help relief efforts for the wildfires and mudslides in the area earlier this year. All ticket sales were donated, including Katy's cut.

Toward the end of the performance, Katy offered to buy the entire audience "all drinks" on her dime, per eyewitnesses. True to form ... many in the SB crowd immediately hit the bar.

You can hear Katy try to call them back in to catch the rest of the show, but it was too late. Santa Barbara Bowl's general manager, Rick Boller, tells TMZ that her offer amounted to about one free drink per person to anyone who swung by. No word yet on the total tab.

Holy lord ... Beyonce now has her very own church!

Queen Bey's the new owner of a stone structured, 7,500 sq. ft house of God in The Big Easy. The New Orleans church -- which is more than 100 years old -- was listed at $850,000 ... but it's unclear if she got a divine discount.

We're told Beyonce's church was built in the early 1900s, but has been out of commission as a place of worship for some time due to its church members passing away.

Looks like it could be revival time though ... and Beyonce shouldn't have any issues finding folks willing to get in formation and join her congregation. Her sister, Solange, lives nearby, too.

Speaking of ... a San Francisco church held the first ever "Beyonce Mass" a few weeks ago and had more than 900 people show up for it.

Tito Ortiz says he's 100% committed to making Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell III happen ... and when it does "it's gonna be the hugest fight in MMA history."

TMZ Sports broke the story ... Liddell and Oscar De La Hoya told us they were working on finalizing a deal for the MMA legend to make his return to the cage ... and the desired opponent? Tito.

Ortiz and Liddell have history ... Chuck beat Tito in 2004 and 2006 -- and the guys have been rivals since.

Tito says the match -- "the fight that all the fans want to see" -- is all but set, with a target date of October or November of 2018.

For the people saying 48-year-old Liddell and 43-year-old Tito Ortiz are old and washed up?

"I feel healthy," Ortiz told us, "I'm the million dollar man. Let's make a couple more million kicking Chuck Liddell's ass."

Kylie Jenner's pop-up shop damn near shut down an entire major city ... and this ain't lip service.

Kylie was in San Francisco where more than 2,000 crazed fans of the pouty reality star/makeup mogul took over ... as lines snaked around Union Square. How intense and important was this for Kylie fanatics? Tons of fans reportedly camped out and started lining up since Wednesday. Yikes!

Several streets had to be shut down in order to reign in the chaos. The shop opened at 10 AM. The draw wasn't just her famous lip kits, Kyshadows or Kyliners -- but Kylie herself.

Legendary trainer Bob Baffert says American Pharoah is old news ... telling TMZ Sports his new horse, Justify, is a "superior" animal to the 2015 Triple Crown winner.

Seriously!!

Justify DOMINATED ... winning the Kentucky Derby, making some people think Pharoah might have company as a TC winner pretty soon.

We got Baffert at LAX earlier this week, and he told our camera guy the Triple Crown winner isn't in Justify's company at all, because Baffert -- who trained both horses -- thinks Justify is better.

"He's a superior horse," Bob says. "And he's come really quick. He's done it a little bit quicker than Pharoah."

Stevie J got a get out of jail free card from a judge Friday, even though prosecutors were gunning to lock him up ... TMZ has learned.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of NY ... the 'Love & Hip Hop' star will not have to serve any prison time despite repeatedly failing to pay back child support and violating his probation from a 2017 plea deal.

In addition to not giving him any prison time -- we're told the judge took Stevie off of supervised release. So, he's completely free.

He's not out of the woods yet, financially speaking -- he's still on the hook for the $1.3 million he owes in back child support. We're told he'll have to work with the feds' Financial Litigation Unit to square up the massive debt.

The 'Survivor' contestant who broke her NDA by allowing herself to be featured in a photo with her castmate isn't out of the woods yet ... 'cause there's more evidence of wrongdoing.

TMZ has learned that Kara Kay had been filmed in multiple videos taken by fellow 'Survivor' contender Alec Merlino in the days leading up to their now-infamous photo ... as well as in clips after it went up. She's seen hamming it up for the camera in all of them.

The videos make it clear -- Kara knew she was being recorded by Alec for his Instagram stories ... despite their $5 mil NDAs saying they were strictly forbidden from associating on social media. The pair apparently had a "F*** it" attitude ... just like the caption.

As we reported ... Alec is the only one punished for now. Producers are withholding his appearance fee of $10k and disinviting him to the finale taping.

It looks like punishment for Kara is in the works. True, she wasn't the one who posted the photo, but sources close to the production tell us the various videos she shot are ample evidence she broke confidentiality.

Stay tuned ...

Megan Fox got duped into buying a Malibu home that turned out to be a hellhole ... according to a new suit.

The actress claims Cynthia Pett-Dante -- who happens to manage Brad Pitt -- was part of a seller group that convinced her to drop $3.2 million on a Malibu house in 2016, but failed to mention it was riddled with major problems.

According to the docs ... Fox was pregnant at the time and raising 2 toddlers, and led to believe she was buying a "paradise in bucolic Malibu where she could raise her young family.."

Instead, Fox claims the home is a "nightmarish living hell." For starters, she says it's on a slope that needs to be regraded, and a bunch of features are not up to code -- including animal pens, a gazebo, stone walls, and a storage building for livestock feed.

According to the docs ... there was also mold all over the house upon moving in, including in the master bedroom and bathroom and the kids' rooms.

Fox is suing for more than $5 million in damages

We reached out to Pett-Dante ... no word back so far.

From one Oriole to another ... MLB star Adam Jones just bought Cal Ripken Jr.'s insane $12.5 million Maryland estate!!

As we previously reported ... Ripken's been trying to part ways with the 24-acre estate since 2016 -- initially asking for $12.5 mil before knocking it down to $9.75 milli back in April 2017.

The Hall of Famer found a buyer in the current Baltimore slugger ... and according to Seth Rosenthal of The Athletic, Jones -- a real estate enthusiast -- couldn't pass up the sweet deal.

Jones' new crib comes with 6 bedrooms, 15 bathrooms, a home theater, 10-person spa, private hiking trails, pool, baseball field, indoor basketball court, full gym and a private fishing pond!!

While the final selling price has not been made available, the 32-year-old has made nearly $100 million during his long career ... so yeah, just a drop in the bucket for Jones.

A NY attorney wants an order protecting the information the FBI seized from Michael Cohen's office ... because of attorney-client privilege and his fear that Stormy Daniels' lawyer, Michael Avenatti, is shady.

The lawyer's name is Peter Gleason, and he claims he's had discussions with Cohen about political corruption in NY state. He says he's uncertain if Cohen's notes about those meetings are among the seized documents, but it's clear he doesn't want Avenatti -- who's trying to intervene in the FBI's case -- to get his hands on them.

In the docs, Gleason calls Avenatti's behavior "reckless and wanton." He refers to Avenatti as having "questionable tactics" and a "fast and loose style."

As for the questionable tactics, he says Avenatti attributed certain "fraudulent" wire transfers to the wrong Michael Cohen. He also says he claimed to have bank records belonging to Cohen ... something that isn't kosher.

'Survivor' producers have dropped the hammer after a couple contestants broke their NDAs by posing together for a photo -- but only punished one of them ... TMZ has learned.

Sources close to the production tell us Alec Merlino got the short end of the stick in the discipline department after posting a photo with fellow contestant Kara Kay and captioning their pic with a defiant "F*** it." We're told there's no decision yet on punishing Kara.

As for Alec ... sources say showrunners are withholding his appearance fee -- not prize money -- for the show, which comes out to about $10,000. He's also been disinvited to the finale episode broadcast, in which cast members come together and reflect on the season.

We're also told an email was sent to the rest of the cast addressing Merlino and Kay, explaining Alec had been punished ... and that others shouldn't follow suit.

All in all, we suppose Alec should consider himself lucky that he wasn't taken to court for violating his $5 million NDA. BTW ... Alec has since removed the photo from IG.

Izabella Scorupco -- the main Bond chick in "GoldenEye" -- got way more than she bargained for when she bought a multi-million dollar crib ... a freakin' trespasser.

Law enforcement sources tell TMZ ... Izabella recently bought a sick 5-bedroom, 8-bathroom pad in the L.A. area for a whopping $6.478 million. It includes picturesque views of downtown L.A.'s skyline, the Hollywood sign, as well as an incredible pool deck.

Oh, and apparently a trespasser.

Sources tell us Izabella hasn't moved into the house yet but, after reviewing security footage, she noticed a woman had made herself at home ... eating there and hanging out. We're told Izabella called cops who checked out the pad but didn't find the woman.

Cops are on the hunt.