Empires fall. Lessons stay.
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Theo Sterling retweeted
Olivia Munn says that when she brought lunch to Brett Ratner's trailer on a movie set in 2004, the Rush Hour director masturbated in front of her. She wrote about it in a 2010 book without his name. The next year he went on TV and said he had "banged her a few times." Days later, on Howard Stern's radio show, he admitted that was a lie. Two years after that, a company he co-founded signed a $450 million financing deal with Warner Bros.
The TV show where he said it was Attack of the Show. Munn used to host it.
In the video below, she tells Entertainment Tonight: "He admitted that he lied about all the things that he said about me. And then just a few years later he gets this huge, you know, a few hundred million dollar financing deal with Warner Brothers."
In 2017 the Los Angeles Times published her story and five other women's. Natasha Henstridge, star of Species, said that when she was 19 he blocked the door of his New York apartment and forced her into oral sex.
His lawyer told the paper that Munn and Ratner had been in an intimate relationship. She called that a lie.
"No woman has ever requested or received any financial settlement from my client," the lawyer, Martin Singer, said in November 2017.
Ratner denies all of it. In January his first film since the accusations, a documentary called Melania, came out. Amazon reportedly paid $40 million for it.
Munn never asked him for money and never worked with him. He went on to a $450 million deal with one studio and a $40 million film at another.
If you ran Amazon, would you have paid $40 million for his film?
Olivia Munn says that when she brought lunch to Brett Ratner's trailer on a movie set in 2004, the Rush Hour director masturbated in front of her. She wrote about it in a 2010 book without his name. The next year he went on TV and said he had "banged her a few times." Days later, on Howard Stern's radio show, he admitted that was a lie. Two years after that, a company he co-founded signed a $450 million financing deal with Warner Bros.
The TV show where he said it was Attack of the Show. Munn used to host it.
In the video below, she tells Entertainment Tonight: "He admitted that he lied about all the things that he said about me. And then just a few years later he gets this huge, you know, a few hundred million dollar financing deal with Warner Brothers."
In 2017 the Los Angeles Times published her story and five other women's. Natasha Henstridge, star of Species, said that when she was 19 he blocked the door of his New York apartment and forced her into oral sex.
His lawyer told the paper that Munn and Ratner had been in an intimate relationship. She called that a lie.
"No woman has ever requested or received any financial settlement from my client," the lawyer, Martin Singer, said in November 2017.
Ratner denies all of it. In January his first film since the accusations, a documentary called Melania, came out. Amazon reportedly paid $40 million for it.
Munn never asked him for money and never worked with him. He went on to a $450 million deal with one studio and a $40 million film at another.
If you ran Amazon, would you have paid $40 million for his film?
At 14, Q'orianka Kilcher played Pocahontas, and the LA Times ran her photo. James Cameron used it. She says her lips, chin and jaw became the face of Neytiri, the blue heroine of Avatar. Avatar made $2.9 billion, more than any movie in history. Nobody asked her. She says she was never paid. Years later, he gave her a signed sketch instead.
She hung it over her fireplace. She says she only learned what it meant 15 years later, from a video of him.
In the video below, James Cameron says: "The source for this was a photograph that was in the LA Times... So this is actually her, her lower face."
The sketch came with a note: "Your beauty was my early inspiration for Neytiri. Too bad you were shooting another movie. Next time." She says she was never even given an audition.
"I believed it was a personal gesture, at most a loose inspiration," she said when she sued Cameron and Disney in May 2026. "That crosses a major line."
Her lawsuit says the film "grossed nearly $3 billion worldwide" and was "built in material part on the misappropriation of a minor's biometric facial features." In September a federal judge threw out one of her claims and let her refile.
Cameron says Neytiri changed the moment Zoe Saldana was cast, and his lawyers say she waited 16 years to sue.
The movie made $2.9 billion. She got a signed sketch.
If your face at 14 ended up in the biggest movie ever made, would a signed sketch be enough, or would you want a cut?
Jennifer Lawrence won an Oscar in 2013. In the movie she made that same year, American Hustle, she got 7% of the profits. The three male leads got 9%.
She found out from hacked emails, like everyone else. In 2015 the same studio agreed to pay her $20 million for Passengers, more than her co-star Chris Pratt.
In the video below, she says: "I knew that there was no one to blame but myself. I knew that it wasn't Sony's fault."
In December 2014 hackers dumped thousands of Sony Pictures emails online. One showed Amy Adams also got 7%, while Christian Bale, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner and director David O. Russell got 9%.
In February 2015 Amy Pascal, who ran Sony's film studio, was asked about it on stage. "I run a business. People want to work for less money, I pay them less money," she said. "Women shouldn't work for less money. They should know what they're worth."
In October 2015 Lawrence wrote an essay about it. "I didn't get mad at Sony. I got mad at myself. I failed as a negotiator because I gave up early." She said she didn't want to seem "difficult" or "spoiled."
Lawrence signed the deal herself, and Pascal says Sony paid her a lot more after that.
She got 7% while the men got 9%. Then she got $20 million and Pratt got less.
So did Sony underpay her because she was a woman, or because she didn't ask for more?
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Bo Duke from The Dukes of Hazzard owes his ex-wife about $3.7 million. John Schneider, who played him, now admits the debt in court documents reported by TMZ, and she wants half his Social Security.
In the video below, he says: "Do I look like a guy who's got an extra $19,000 a month?"
Elvira, his wife of 21 years, filed for divorce in 2014. He says he "lost everything in 2016," when a flood hit his Louisiana movie studio.
Of her support claim, he said in 2018: "Currently, I see no end to greed or ignorance."
That year a judge sentenced him to three days in Los Angeles County Jail for not paying. Overcrowding got him out the same day.
So he wrote to the judge and asked to go back: "I am willing and able to accept the punishment." Her lawyers moved to strike the letter and wanted him questioned in court about his money.
His new filing says he is not "financially capable of satisfying the accumulated arrearages." Celebrity Net Worth estimates he is worth about $200,000.
He is not asking to erase the debt, only to keep her away from his Social Security. The court has not ruled.
He is 66. Should a court be able to take half a man's Social Security for alimony, or is a debt a debt at any age?
Theo Sterling retweeted
Dustin Diamond, Screech on Saved by the Bell, says his father spent his TV money on camera lenses. At 29, he was selling T-shirts to raise $250,000 and save his house.
In the video below, he says: "He bought all this stuff with my money and I had no say so because I was a minor."
He says he tried to get emancipated at 16. At 18 he got the 25% California law protects for child actors.
He filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and also said he made major tax errors. In 2006, a foreclosure order hit his Wisconsin home. "This is definitely a low point," he said.
That same year he released a sex tape. He says he and a friend saw a TV report claiming Paris Hilton's made $14 million, and the friend told him: "Screech tape has got to be worth at least a million." He calls it "my biggest regret in life" and says a stunt double did the explicit parts. Asked if he made any money on it: "I did, but not as much as you'd think."
Diamond died in 2021. Then, in May 2026, his father Mark answered him on Investigation Discovery: "Why are you throwing me under the bus?" After the agent, taxes, gas and headshots, he said, "This didn't leave much money for us to do anything. In fact, nothing."
Would you have taken your own father to court over that money, or let it go?
Dustin Diamond, Screech on Saved by the Bell, says his father spent his TV money on camera lenses. At 29, he was selling T-shirts to raise $250,000 and save his house.
In the video below, he says: "He bought all this stuff with my money and I had no say so because I was a minor."
He says he tried to get emancipated at 16. At 18 he got the 25% California law protects for child actors.
He filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and also said he made major tax errors. In 2006, a foreclosure order hit his Wisconsin home. "This is definitely a low point," he said.
That same year he released a sex tape. He says he and a friend saw a TV report claiming Paris Hilton's made $14 million, and the friend told him: "Screech tape has got to be worth at least a million." He calls it "my biggest regret in life" and says a stunt double did the explicit parts. Asked if he made any money on it: "I did, but not as much as you'd think."
Diamond died in 2021. Then, in May 2026, his father Mark answered him on Investigation Discovery: "Why are you throwing me under the bus?" After the agent, taxes, gas and headshots, he said, "This didn't leave much money for us to do anything. In fact, nothing."
Would you have taken your own father to court over that money, or let it go?
Theo Sterling retweeted
Liza Minnelli's husband sued her for $10 million, saying she beat him in alcoholic rages. Nineteen months earlier, Michael Jackson had been best man at their $3.2 million wedding.
In the video below, David Gest tells Dateline: "She started coming after me and just hitting, hitting, hitting, hitting."
In 2002, he had sat next to her on Larry King and called her the "best wife in the world." They separated in July 2003.
"Liza has denied ever hitting you," Dateline's Stone Phillips told him in 2004. "Liza is a liar, point-blank," he said. "I didn't marry her for anything that she could give me as far as financially."
She went after his money too, suing for at least $2 million she said he stole from her shows. He denied it.
Then it got stranger. Her medical expert said his headaches came from a herpes strain, not from beatings. His lawyer said his doctor found no sign of the virus. In September 2006, the judge threw out the $10 million suit.
In January 2007, they settled and agreed to a no-fault divorce. "The terms of the settlement are confidential," a lawyer said.
Gest died in 2016. In her 2026 memoir, she writes: "I was his prisoner." On camera she says: "I did not see that he was using me."
If you had been on a jury, would you have given him the $10 million?
Liza Minnelli's husband sued her for $10 million, saying she beat him in alcoholic rages. Nineteen months earlier, Michael Jackson had been best man at their $3.2 million wedding.
In the video below, David Gest tells Dateline: "She started coming after me and just hitting, hitting, hitting, hitting."
In 2002, he had sat next to her on Larry King and called her the "best wife in the world." They separated in July 2003.
"Liza has denied ever hitting you," Dateline's Stone Phillips told him in 2004. "Liza is a liar, point-blank," he said. "I didn't marry her for anything that she could give me as far as financially."
She went after his money too, suing for at least $2 million she said he stole from her shows. He denied it.
Then it got stranger. Her medical expert said his headaches came from a herpes strain, not from beatings. His lawyer said his doctor found no sign of the virus. In September 2006, the judge threw out the $10 million suit.
In January 2007, they settled and agreed to a no-fault divorce. "The terms of the settlement are confidential," a lawyer said.
Gest died in 2016. In her 2026 memoir, she writes: "I was his prisoner." On camera she says: "I did not see that he was using me."
If you had been on a jury, would you have given him the $10 million?
Gretchen Carlson sued the head of Fox News, saying he fired her for refusing his advances. Fox paid her $20 million, and she signed an NDA she says bars her from discussing what really happened. The man she accused left with $40 million.
In the video below, she says: "It's not because I don't want to answer you. I do. It's because I can't."
Carlson, a former Miss America, was a Fox & Friends anchor. She alleges that Roger Ailes, the network's founder, told her: "I think you and I should have had a sexual relationship a long time ago."
"Gretchen Carlson's allegations are false," Ailes said. He blamed her ratings. Within weeks, he was out.
September 6, 2016, Fox apologized "for the fact that Gretchen was not treated with the respect and dignity that she and all of our colleagues deserve." Ailes denied the claims until his death in 2017.
Then Hollywood made the movie. Nicole Kidman played her in Bombshell. Asked if it was her story, Carlson said: "I can't comment on the accuracy of it."
In 2019 she asked Fox to release her. "I want my voice back," she said.
If you were her, would you take the $20 million and stay quiet, or turn it down and tell everyone what happened?
Angus T. Jones was the highest-paid kid on TV, about $350,000 an episode for playing Jake on Two and a Half Men. At 19, he begged his own fans to stop watching the show that paid him.
In the video below, he says: "If you watch Two and a Half Men, please stop watching Two and a Half Men. I'm on Two and a Half Men. I don't want to be on it."
He got the role at 9. In the same interview, he says he had been baptized and asked a friend what he would do in his place. The friend's family might lose their house. He said he would stay, "simply for the money."
Jones called the show "filth." He still had a year left on his contract. The next day he put out a statement.
"I apologize if my remarks reflect me showing indifference to and disrespect of my colleagues," he said on November 27, 2012.
Then CBS cut him to a recurring role. He never appeared that season. In 2014 he said he had been "a paid hypocrite."
Would you have walked away from $350,000 an episode, or kept quiet and cashed the checks?
Theo Sterling retweeted
Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew's ex-wife, was secretly filmed asking a businessman for £500,000 to "open doors" to Andrew. The businessman was an undercover reporter from the News of the World, a British tabloid.
In the video below, she tells him the money will "open up all the channels, whatever you need, whatever you want," and "then you meet Andrew and that's fine."
It was May 2010, and Andrew was Britain's trade envoy. She wanted the rest by wire transfer: "If you give me the bank account details, I'll arrange that no problem at all." Before he left, she picked up a $40,000 cash deposit in a black computer bag.
The paper ran the footage on May 23. The palace said Andrew was "unaware of the meeting." She apologized the same day for "a serious lapse in judgement."
Then the story flipped. In 2016 the reporter, Mazher Mahmood, known as the "Fake Sheikh," was jailed for 15 months for tampering with evidence in a different case. That year she sued the paper's owner. By 2018 she wanted £40 million in lost earnings, including two TV shows.
In January 2018, the owner's lawyers called her case "defective and embarrassing" and stood by the story. No ruling on her claim has been reported.
If a reporter lies to catch you saying something real, should his paper owe you £40 million?
Sarah Ferguson, Prince Andrew's ex-wife, was secretly filmed asking a businessman for £500,000 to "open doors" to Andrew. The businessman was an undercover reporter from the News of the World, a British tabloid.
In the video below, she tells him the money will "open up all the channels, whatever you need, whatever you want," and "then you meet Andrew and that's fine."
It was May 2010, and Andrew was Britain's trade envoy. She wanted the rest by wire transfer: "If you give me the bank account details, I'll arrange that no problem at all." Before he left, she picked up a $40,000 cash deposit in a black computer bag.
The paper ran the footage on May 23. The palace said Andrew was "unaware of the meeting." She apologized the same day for "a serious lapse in judgement."
Then the story flipped. In 2016 the reporter, Mazher Mahmood, known as the "Fake Sheikh," was jailed for 15 months for tampering with evidence in a different case. That year she sued the paper's owner. By 2018 she wanted £40 million in lost earnings, including two TV shows.
In January 2018, the owner's lawyers called her case "defective and embarrassing" and stood by the story. No ruling on her claim has been reported.
If a reporter lies to catch you saying something real, should his paper owe you £40 million?
Theo Sterling retweeted
Alanis Morissette's business manager quietly took $4.8 million from her accounts. When his firm asked about the missing money, he claimed she had invested it in an illegal marijuana farm.
In the video below, she tells Alex Cooper on Call Her Daddy: "I just kept going into the new business manager's office over and over and saying, I need more information because something's up and I don't know what."
The manager was Jonathan Schwartz. He took the money between 2010 and 2014, while she trusted him to look after it.
Her husband finally spotted the gaps in the paperwork. The first answer she got back was a question: did she spend a lot of cash on valet?
Then they met in court.
At his sentencing in May 2017, she said she had realized "he also stole my dreams." Schwartz blamed a gambling addiction and called what he did "stupid."
"I will spend the rest of my life asking for forgiveness," he told the judge. She gave him six years.
Would you ever let someone else handle your money again?
Alanis Morissette's business manager quietly took $4.8 million from her accounts. When his firm asked about the missing money, he claimed she had invested it in an illegal marijuana farm.
In the video below, she tells Alex Cooper on Call Her Daddy: "I just kept going into the new business manager's office over and over and saying, I need more information because something's up and I don't know what."
The manager was Jonathan Schwartz. He took the money between 2010 and 2014, while she trusted him to look after it.
Her husband finally spotted the gaps in the paperwork. The first answer she got back was a question: did she spend a lot of cash on valet?
Then they met in court.
At his sentencing in May 2017, she said she had realized "he also stole my dreams." Schwartz blamed a gambling addiction and called what he did "stupid."
"I will spend the rest of my life asking for forgiveness," he told the judge. She gave him six years.
Would you ever let someone else handle your money again?
Theo Sterling retweeted
Cher says her husband Sonny Bono owned 95% of a company called Cher Enterprises. His lawyer owned the other 5%. Cher owned nothing.
In the video below, she tells Howard Stern what she said to Sonny: "I was there with you every day for 12 years. I was there with you. I was by your side. I was there when we crashed."
The crash came in the late 1960s. "We're broke, Cher. We owe the IRS $270,000 in back taxes," Sonny told her, in her telling. She says they ended up borrowing money from their own chauffeur.
Then their TV show made them rich. After they split in the 1970s, music mogul David Geffen read the contracts Sonny had her sign.
"Sweetheart, this contract is involuntary servitude," he told her. "You work for Sonny. You have no rights, no vote, no money, nothing."
Cher asked Sonny when he decided to take her money. "Because I knew you'd always leave me," he answered, she says.
A 1978 settlement gave her half of their royalties. Sonny died in 1998, and Cher gave the eulogy at his funeral. Years later his widow, Mary Bono, tried to cut off Cher's half. In May 2024 a federal judge ruled Cher has a "contractual right" to 50% and was owed more than $400,000. Mary Bono appealed.
Cher forgave him. If your husband kept 95% of a company with your name on it, would you?
Cher says her husband Sonny Bono owned 95% of a company called Cher Enterprises. His lawyer owned the other 5%. Cher owned nothing.
In the video below, she tells Howard Stern what she said to Sonny: "I was there with you every day for 12 years. I was there with you. I was by your side. I was there when we crashed."
The crash came in the late 1960s. "We're broke, Cher. We owe the IRS $270,000 in back taxes," Sonny told her, in her telling. She says they ended up borrowing money from their own chauffeur.
Then their TV show made them rich. After they split in the 1970s, music mogul David Geffen read the contracts Sonny had her sign.
"Sweetheart, this contract is involuntary servitude," he told her. "You work for Sonny. You have no rights, no vote, no money, nothing."
Cher asked Sonny when he decided to take her money. "Because I knew you'd always leave me," he answered, she says.
A 1978 settlement gave her half of their royalties. Sonny died in 1998, and Cher gave the eulogy at his funeral. Years later his widow, Mary Bono, tried to cut off Cher's half. In May 2024 a federal judge ruled Cher has a "contractual right" to 50% and was owed more than $400,000. Mary Bono appealed.
Cher forgave him. If your husband kept 95% of a company with your name on it, would you?
Theo Sterling retweeted
Jewel's own mother wanted 50% of her income as a salary. Jewel said no. At 34, she was about $3 million in debt.
In the video below, Jewel tells Joe Rogan: "She'd always wanted 50% of my income as a salary... I was like, no, you're not having 50%. So she just took it."
Her mother, Lenedra Carroll, co-managed her career. She talked Jewel out of having a business manager: "We can just hire accountants."
Jewel found out during a lawsuit. Her old manager sued her, and a judge told them to settle. Outside, Jewel told her mom the amount she had agreed to pay. "My mom goes, we don't have it."
Her accountants think the missing money was "at least north of a hundred million." Jewel says she doesn't know for sure. The bank statements she had been seeing "weren't real."
To end it, her mother asked for $500,000. Jewel borrowed the money and paid her. "It was the last time I ever saw her."
Carroll has not publicly responded to Jewel's claims.
Would you have taken your own mother to court?
Jewel's own mother wanted 50% of her income as a salary. Jewel said no. At 34, she was about $3 million in debt.
In the video below, Jewel tells Joe Rogan: "She'd always wanted 50% of my income as a salary... I was like, no, you're not having 50%. So she just took it."
Her mother, Lenedra Carroll, co-managed her career. She talked Jewel out of having a business manager: "We can just hire accountants."
Jewel found out during a lawsuit. Her old manager sued her, and a judge told them to settle. Outside, Jewel told her mom the amount she had agreed to pay. "My mom goes, we don't have it."
Her accountants think the missing money was "at least north of a hundred million." Jewel says she doesn't know for sure. The bank statements she had been seeing "weren't real."
To end it, her mother asked for $500,000. Jewel borrowed the money and paid her. "It was the last time I ever saw her."
Carroll has not publicly responded to Jewel's claims.
Would you have taken your own mother to court?