Money

Vanna White has got Sony spinning these days because she won't continue on "Wheel of Fortune" unless she makes at least half of what Pat Sajak has been making ... sources tell TMZ.

Sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations say Vanna is clear -- she's the cohost of the long-running show, so the pay disparity between her and Pat needs to be squarely addressed. Point of fact ... they're introduced this way on 'Wheel' -- "Here are the stars of our show, Pat Sajak and Vanna White."

So they're introduced as equals, but their salaries are anything but. We've confirmed Vanna's salary -- $3 million a year. And get this -- we've confirmed that's what she's made for the last 18 YEARS. She has not gotten a single pay increase in all that time.

Pat reportedly makes around $15 million a year. Vanna isn't asking for that, but we're told her lawyer, Bryan Freedman, is demanding half the amount Pat makes.

One source connected to Vanna put it this way ... "After 41 years as a model employee and more the face of that show than him [Pat], asking for 50% of what he makes seems like a no-brainer."

Sony, we're told, is not on board, at least not yet. One source with direct knowledge described the negotiations as "very difficult."

Our sources also say Vanna feels like the issue is bigger than her. As one source says, "She feels like it's a statement for all women."

We're told Vanna wants to stay on the show, but if she doesn't get what she believes is "a minimum of what is fair," that's a real possibility.

Sony may be in a tough spot here because Vanna provides continuity when Ryan Seacrest takes over for Pat a year from September. It's pretty clear ... they don't want to lose Pat and Vanna at the same time.

We covered it all on the latest episode of The TMZ Podcast, available on all podcast platforms.

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is gunning to accomplish an incredible feat in the world of commercial space travel -- and if successful, puts him on a short list with the likes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.

Branson's company is having its first commercial launch Thursday, dubbed Galactic 01. The VSS Unity is taking off from New Mexico attached to a carrier plane, eventually detaching and soaring about 3 times the speed of sound above the earth before coming back down.

Despite the commercial aspect, the trip is more about business than pleasure -- the space vessel will carry members of the Italian Air Force and a research engineer, collecting data while airborne.

As we reported, the VSS Unity turned Branson into the first billionaire in space in 2021 when he and a handful of others went into sub-orbital space ... paving the way for Thursday's big milestone.

The view inside the vessel was almost as cool as what they were seeing on the outside -- especially the look on Branson's face when the Unity shot toward space!

Kevin Costner's estranged wife says she will pack up and move out of their home under one condition ... he's got to pony up more dough.

According to new legal docs, obtained by RadarOnline.com, Christine Baumgartner says she will move out of the beachfront home in Carpinteria, CA on August 31 ... as long as Kevin provides financial support as determined by the court.

Christine claims Kevin wants her to find a new place to live ASAP without a financial plan in place ... and with three kids, she says it's not in their best interests for her to move into a new place until she knows how much money she's going to be getting from Kevin.

Remember ... Kevin says Christine has so far refused to move out of the home he insists he owns, and he says their prenuptial agreement makes it clear Christine had 30 days to vacate the home when she filed for divorce on May 1, a deadline she's already missed.

Kevin, as we've reported, already says he's shelled out $1 million for Christine to find a new place to live ... and he's been asking the court to get her out of the home, claiming she's using her position as leverage to make him agree to her financial demands.

In docs filed earlier this month, Christine asked a judge to force Kevin to pay $248,000 a month in child support ... a figure Kevin says amounts to highway robbery.

There's a court hearing coming up July 12, and Christine says when she finds out then how much she's getting from Kevin, she'll have a better handle on where she can move and will be out of the home by the end of August.

English actress and model Vanessa Angel was 29 years old when she was cast to play the role of Claudia -- the beautiful and funny girlfriend who hilariously schemes her way to winning lots of money -- in the comedy film "Kingpin" back in 1996.

Woody Harrelson starred as the kid who was raised to bowl before his hand is injured in a match, Roy, Bill Murray as the hustler and cocky bowler willing to do whatever it takes to win, Ernie and Randy Quaid as the Amish farmer who keeps his bowling talents hidden from his family, Ishmael.

Jake Paul put some of his enormous fortune to good use, buying a brand new Ferrari for nearly half a million bucks ... AND THEN HE BROKE THE CAR THE SAME DAY!!

The Problem Child, very much living up to his nickname, hit up Ferrari Puerto Rico in San Juan ... where he spent $421K on the new, very rare whip.

The Ferrari 296 GTB is pretty amazing. It goes 0-60 MPH in 2.7 seconds, and 0-100 in 5.1 seconds. It does the standing quarter mile at 9.9 seconds and has a top speed of over 200 MPH.

26-year-old Paul documented the purchase in his latest vlog ... picking up the car, and putting it straight to the test.

Yeah, no breaking-in period here.

Jake took the Rari to an open parking lot, turned the wheel, and stomped on the gas ... executing a bunch of donuts.

The 296 GTB didn't like Paul's driving -- with just about every warning sign flashing on the dash, including a warning that simply said ... "go to dealer."

It's unclear if Jake got the supercar fixed ... or just parked it in the garage of his new $15+ million mansion.

The big purchase comes at a time when Jake's company, Betr, is taking off. In fact, the company was valued at $300 million during a recent round of funding.

Jason Derulo wants everyone to follow their dreams and not be bogged down by following the silly rules drummed into their heads by their parents!!!

The "Swalla" singer checked in with "TMZ Live" as his new book “Sing Your Name Out Loud: 15 Rules for Living Your Dream" is flying hot off the presses.

Jason thinks the key to success is not to be afraid of failure. He says failed at the majority of the risks he's taken ... but still, the failures don't define him -- the successes do.

Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are his inspirations — for the sheer volume of shots they missed to achieve greatness.

Jason says he's living proof being fearless in life works, and his book is the blueprint.

Kroy Biermann took out a line of credit for a gambling trip in the Caribbean and never paid the money back ... at least according to a new lawsuit.

The former reality TV star and NFL player is being sued by Sky Warrior, which apparently handles the credit lines at the famous Baha Mar Casino in the Bahamas.

According to the suit, obtained by TMZ, Kroy obtained a $100,000 line of credit for use at Baha Mar Casino in advance of a November 2021 trip, and he ended up using $52,500 to gamble.

Sky Warrior claim Kroy agreed to pay back any money he gambled and promised that he had the money in his SunTrust bank account ... but they say he drew $52,500 in chip markers at the casino and didn't repay the amount before leaving.

The suit alleges Kroy still hasn't settled up ... and Sky Warrior say they have been unable to get the money from Kroy's bank account.

It's more financial trouble for Kroy ... he and estranged wife Kim Zolciak allegedly owe the IRS north of $1 million, he's being sued for allegedly missing lease payments on a Rolls-Royce and he's claimed Kim has a gambling problem in their nasty divorce.

Sky Warrior is going after Kroy for the $52,500 they say he owes ... plus interest and attorney's fees.

Here's Lauren Sanchez showing off her skills as a helicopter pilot ... touching down in Jeff Bezos' chopper on a floating landing pad.

Lauren hopped in her billionaire fiancé's helicopter Wednesday off the coast of Sardinia, taking the controls and zipping around before successfully landing on the support yacht for the Amazon founder's superyacht.

Yes, Jeff's new $500 million superyacht, Koru, also has a $100 million support vessel ... it's named Abeona, the Roman goddess of voyages and departures, and it's got a helipad.

It looks like Lauren was practicing takeoff and landings, because she went up and down a few times.

Our sources say Lauren pilots this helicopter often, usually to airports where the couple hops on private jets, and this wasn't her first time landing on Abeona.

Lauren's parents are both pilots and she got her helicopter pilot's license from a flight school in Los Angeles ... she also had her own aviation company and now she's landing choppers on yachts parked off Italian islands.

Before Wednesday's takeoff and landing, we saw Lauren and Jeff returning from land on a souped-up speedboat as they continue their early honeymoon across Europe.

Bellator star Cris Lencioni is starting to show signs of improvement after suffering cardiac arrest earlier this month ... but despite the positive update, there are many uncertainties surrounding his future.

Lencioni's wife, Marca, told MMA Fighting doctors believe the heart attack may have been caused by Long QT syndrome (a heart rhythm disorder that can be fatal) ... and an MRI revealed the fighter suffered brain damage as a result of the terrifying incident.

Lencioni is out of the ICU, but remains in the hospital ... where he has started the rehab process.

Marca said the 28-year-old is taking steps in the right direction ... recently moving his hand out of a bag of ice and smiling, and even attempting to stand up on his own.

"Ten percent of people survive this," Marca told the outlet, "and the fact that he is moving, and trying to get up and, like, doing what he’s been doing ... he drank water today for the first time."

"It’s blowing [the nurses'] minds, and it’s blowing my mind."

Marca said the professionals are refraining from speculating on Lencioni's future and potential recovery ... as it all hangs on how he responds.

Marca added the doctors want to move Lencioni to a facility in Idaho to continue recovery, but he is uninsured ... so she is asking the MMA community to continue to donate to a GoFundMe set up to help with medical costs.

Elon Musk is already hitting the training mats in anticipation of his huge fight with Mark Zuckerberg ... throwing and slamming a famous black belt who recently trained with Elon's fellow billionaire.

Popular podcaster Lex Fridman says he had an impromptu training session with Elon on Monday, sharing a photo of Elon slamming him to the ground.

Lex, a black belt in jiu-jitsu, says he came away super impressed with Elon's fighting prowess.

"I'm extremely impressed with his strength, power, and skill, on the feet and on the ground," Lex said. "It was epic. It's really inspiring to see Elon and Mark doing martial arts, but I think the world is served far better if they train martial arts but not fight in the cage."

Don't get it twisted, Lex wants to see Elon and Mark do battle ... just like everyone else.

Lex adds ... "That said, as Elon says, the most entertaining outcome is the most likely... I'm there for them, no matter what."

It's interesting to see Elon and Lex training ... Lex recently had Mark on his podcast, and they trained some jiu-jitsu.

In addition to Lex, Elon's accepted an offer to train with UFC legend Georges St-Pierre ... while Jon Jones recently offered Mark his services.

As TMZ Sports first reported, Dana White told us both sides are for real about getting in the Octagon together ... and now Elon's showing just how serious he is.

Jason Derulo is sweeping up his recent viral comments about never wanting to clean his own house ... but the fact still remains he never wants to clean his own house.

TMZ Hip Hop caught up with Jason out in NYC on Tuesday as he promoted his new book “Sing Your Name Out Loud: 15 Rules for Living Your Dream," which contains the quote many on social media deemed a little too rich for their blood.

Jason explained to us the quote is motivational and stems from his impoverished upbringing in Broward County, Florida. It even rubbed his mother the wrong way at the time but he ended up making it big time and he wants to share the wealth ... hence his new book.

He just celebrated his son's 2nd birthday ... and the party ran his pockets a cool $30k.

Nicki Minaj is fully in the corner of the Chicago 14-year-old who shot and killed a man to protect his mom while she was being attacked, saying she's willing to help him go to college.

The rapper chimed in on the viral case, which has spurred a lot of conversation online over the past week or so. She took to IG to sound off, and it's clear she believes the 14-year-old and his mother did absolutely nothing wrong here ... even if it cost a life.

Nicki passionately writes, "That 14-year-old boy that backed dat hammer out when that grown ass man was punching his mother in the face as if she were a MAN; is a true hero."

She continues ... "If he wants to go to college, I'd love to help. It's what ANY son should've done for their MOTHER. She raised a dope kid & should be so proud. Also, God knew b4 she knew; that she'd be attacked that day & made sure they had protection on DECK."

NM finishes with a simple message, "God is GOOD." Now, as for her offer of assistance for higher education -- she didn't really elaborate ... but ya gotta figure she's talking about cash here. If the kid sees this, it'll be interesting to see if he takes her up on it.

As for the case itself ... it's a doozy. Carlishia Hood and her son were charged with first-degree murder after the teen shot and killed 32-year-old Jeremy Brown on June 18 at a restaurant ... this after an argument ensued inside, and Brown was filmed repeatedly punching Hood in the head.

Right as he's wailing on her, her son enters the restaurant from outside and opens fire on Brown. Cops say Brown then fled, but allege that Hood ordered her son to finish the job and continue shooting him outside ... which he then did. Brown died from gunshot wounds.

Amid a lot of uproar, Cook County prosecutors dropped all the charges against the mother and son ... saying they didn't have enough evidence to proceed with a prosecution. Since then, Hood has sued the City of Chicago and a few cops too ... claiming she was unjustly arrested/charged -- and that the whole ordeal has caused a lot of emotional distress.

Her legal team has been echoing what a lot of others have argued -- namely, that the use of deadly force here was justified and that Hood/her son were simply defending themselves.

OnlyFans business isn't what it used to be for Larsa Pippen ... 'cause the reality star says her subscribers aren't happy ever since she started dating Marcus Jordan.

The convo popped up during Pippen and Jordan's Q and A with fans on their new podcast, "Separation Anxiety" ... when one supporter asked Michael Jordan's son how he felt about his GF's OnlyFans page.

"I don't have a problem with it," the 32-year-old said Tuesday. "As long as it makes you happy, you enjoy it ... and look, I think it's a source of income for you."

"I would never want to block your success or well-being."

Pippen -- who previously told Andy Cohen she made $200k within a few weeks from just one subscriber on her OnlyFans -- admitted their love life hasn't really been "good for business" ... as her fans dislike her new relationship with Jordan.

"Literally, the people that write me on there are like not happy that I'm in a relationship with you, but it's fun," Larsa said.

Despite Jordan being okay with her making content on the subscription-based social media platform, Pippen said she wouldn't hesitate to pull the plug if he ever changed his mind.

Is that Sauce Gardner or Tom Brady?!

The G.O.A.T. decided to give defense a try when he hit up a Fanatics charity event in Miami on Tuesday ... and TB12 put the clamps on a young girl who dared test the 7x Super Bowl champion!!

Check out the clip -- the newly retired signal-caller might've missed his calling. The young wide receiver tried to shake Brady with a 5-yard hitch, but he wasn't fooled, reaching in his arm to break up the pass.

Then it was tip drill time ... the ball floated in the air, Tom intercepted it, and took it to the house, shaking a would-be tackler with a move that would make Barry Sanders blush (not really).

The whole Fanatics shindig, called "Merch Madness," was pretty amazing -- more than $20 million in sports apparel was handed out to underserved families throughout the country as part of the organization's Merch Madness: Fan Gear Giveaway.

Cities like L.A., Philly, Miami, and New York all hosted events ... with Brady, DJ Khaled, and Odell Beckham Jr. all making appearances at the Carver Ranches Boys & Girls Club for the Florida location's festivities.

The event will take place every year.

Diddy's ongoing lawsuit with alcohol dealer Diageo just took a nasty turn, with the booze brand announcing they were cutting ties after he filed suit last month ... but Diddy is firing back.

Diddy's attorney John C. Hueston tells TMZ Hip Hop Diageo's attempts to shut out the Bad Boy mogul is essentially like "firing a whistleblower who calls out racism. It’s a cynical and transparent attempt to distract from multiple allegations of discrimination."

Hueston says Diddy repeatedly raised concerns regarding Diageo's senior execs allegedly using racially insensitive comments prior to filing the lawsuit, which they claim caused biased decision-making on the company's part.

For it's part, a Diageo spokesperson tells us, "We are saddened that Mr. Combs has chosen to recast a business dispute as anything other than that and chosen to damage a productive and valued partnership. Mr. Combs’ bad-faith actions have clearly breached his contracts and left us no choice but to move to dismiss his baseless complaint and end our business relationship. Mr. Combs has repeatedly undermined our partnerships and threatened to publicly defame Diageo if we did not meet his unreasonable financial demands."

They continue, "Diageo believes strongly in the CIRÔC and DeLeón brands and remains committed to their success, which is why we tried for years to salvage the broken relationship with Mr. Combs. We funded the purchase of DeLeón for the joint venture and proceeded to invest more than $100 million to grow the brand. Despite having made nearly a billion dollars over the course of our 15-year relationship, Mr. Combs contributed a total of $1,000 and refused to honor his commitments. We have exhausted every reasonable remedy and see no other path forward."

Diageo is said to have acknowledged the issues by specifying in Diddy's contract that they'd treat his DeLeon tequila the same as other tequila brands, and he only filed the lawsuit in hopes to enforce the contract's fine print.

Jake Paul calls himself the Problem Child, but it certainly has nothing to do with his business ventures ... 'cause the social media superstar/boxer's Betr company is now worth $300 MILLION!!

The social media and betting platform -- which the 26-year-old co-founded alongside Joey Levy in 2022 -- just raised $35 million in new funding, which was led by Fuel Venture Capital and Roger Ehrenberg of IA Sports Ventures and Eberg Capital.

Of course, Betr is all about sports betting content as well as micro-betting ... and is now moving into becoming a full-fledged sportsbook as well.

Jake is all in on Betr -- he even got the company's logo tatted on his leg to show how serious he is about his faith in the brand.

It's a huge deal for Paul ... as Betr is well on its way to becoming a billion-dollar company in a short amount of time.

Jake has made a killing in the ring as well ... he claimed to have made over $30 million on the Tommy Fury fight alone.