California Divorce and Family Law

Shaq's Expenses Revealed In Divorce Court...$26,560 a month in babysitters??

Shaquille O'Neal, 35, and wife Shaunie are in the middle of divorce proceedings which they filed in September after five years of marriage.

His monthly expenses are $1.3-million a month, according to court records obtained by CBS4 news partners The Miami Herald. 

Consider Miami Heat center's monthly expenditures:

• $156,116 on mortgages.

• $110,505 on vacations.

• $60,417 on gifts.

• $26,560 on baby-sitters.

• $24,300 on gasoline.

• $22,190 on maids.

• $17,220 on clothes.

• $12,775 on food.

And the tax man gets about $500,000 a month in income taxes.

The couple has four children, and each partner has one child from previous relationships.

At $20 million a year, O'Neal is the second-highest paid NBA player, behind only the Boston Celtics' Kevin Garnett.

From CBS4.

Bobby Brown Tries To Overturn Whitney Houston Divorce, Is Denied

Yesterday, singer Bobby Brown's attempt to overturn his divorce with Whitney Houston in Orange County Court was denied.  A judge in California turned down Brown's request to change the terms ex-wife pop   diva Whitney Houston set forth in their divorce case.  Why? Brown didn't show up.

"His motion was denied because there were no appearances or phone calls from Mr. Brown today for a scheduled hearing," a spokeswoman for the Orange County Court said.  "As of now, there are no more pending court dates in this case."

In April, Houston was awarded sole custody of their daughter, 14-year-old Bobbi Kristina, after a default judgment left Brown with visitation rights and no financial awards.  Bobby sued Whitney a month later over the terms, but failed to show up for subsequent court dates.

Source: Connie Talk.   

Billionaire Marriages: Why Get Hitched?

With Google CEO Larry Page's wedding planned for Dec. 8, BusinessWeek takes a look at what billionaires risk when they tie the knot

Google co-founder and Chief Executive Larry  Page's wedding this weekend is supposed to be a secret affair. But his own search engine is undermining the effort. A recent Google search for "Larry Page marriage" revealed a number of details about the event. Page will definitely be married on Dec. 8 to a woman named Lucy Southworth at an "undisclosed location." According to one blog post, Page might be married on Necker Island, Richard Branson's 74-acre estate in the British Virgin Islands.

In this Web-friendly age, billionaires, politicians, and others who live in the public eye have a hard time keeping information about their lives private. Because the public is so interested in the marriages of the rich and famous, every detail of a billionaire's personal life—from courtship to wedding to, if they're unlucky, divorce—ends up shooting through millions of fused networks and popping up on millions of strangers' computer screens. It's true if you're Bill Gates of Microsoft, Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway, or Oprah Winfrey of Harpo Entertainment. Page is no exception.

Yes, the rich really are different from you and me. For most people, a wedding is a simple, joyous occasion. Family and friends gather to celebrate the ceremonial joining of you and your true love. For billionaires it's more complicated, with stresses and strains that others don't bear. They don't just have to choose a florist and a band; they usually need a good lawyer, too.

Marriage Means Business

Attorneys familiar with billionaire marriages urge their clients to proceed with care and caution. "A billionaire has to treat an upcoming marriage as a merger. But it's a merger with a potential enemy," says New York divorce lawyer Raoul Felder.

Prenuptial agreements are important, but they're no guarantee of a satisfactory split if things go south. Consider the divorce of Steven Spielberg, now at DreamWorks Animation, and his first wife Amy Irving. She claimed their prenup was invalid because it had been written on a napkin and she hadn't had legal representation. A judge tossed it out; Irving got $100 million.

The prenup of Bob Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, held up, but it still cost him plenty. He agreed to a deal with his wife, Sheila Johnson, in which she would receive half of their assets if they split up. By the time they did get divorced in 2002, his media empire was worth billions—and she got her half. "Very rich people have trouble sometimes knowing exactly what they're worth," says Felder. "Worth is often ephemeral."

Valuations are tricky, too. Donald Schiller, of Chicago's Schiller, Du Canto & Fleck, the nation's largest matrimonial law firm, says valuing a billionaire's worth is particularly complicated when real estate and other privately held property is involved. "You can't evaluate them the same way you can evaluate assets traded on the New York Stock Exchange," he says.

Dishing Dirt

Another issue that comes with prenups is privacy. Agreements can include confidentiality clauses to prevent one of the parties involved from giving out information about a marriage in case of divorce. That can mean barring anything from TV interviews about the ex to writing a book. "Prenuptials often waive a spouse's rights to develop intellectual property from details of the marriage," says Schiller.

He continued, "If it's a well-done premarital agreement and well-documented, the person trying to get out of it could end up with a lot less [if he or she goes public]," Schiller says. "You have to make it…very expensive…for somebody to give a lot of personal information out to the public."

Friendly Divorces Are Rare

It's possible to have an amicable divorce, even if you're a billionaire. When Tim Blixseth, the billionaire founder of the Yellowstone Club, split from his wife, Edra, in 2006, they divided up $2 billion in combined net worth in a single afternoon.

But that is the exception. You're more likely to see a high-profile mudfest like the one Roman Abramovitch, the Russian oil magnate, got into in March, 2007. His wife, Irina, learned that Roman was dating a 23-year-old Russian model, Daria Zhukova. Irina hired two prominent British lawyers, filed for divorce, and ended up with half of her husband's assets.

Given all of the billionaire marriages that have ended badly, Larry Page may well have a prenup ready before he takes his vows on Dec. 8. Money doesn't buy happiness, even if you're capable of spending billions.

Still, Page could give up half his wealth and still be plenty rich. With Google's stock trading near $700, his stake in the search engine is worth nearly $20 billion.

From Businessweek.

Heather Mills Is Dumped by Divorce Lawyers

Heather Mills has been dumped by the lawyers representing her in her high-profile divorce to Sir Paul McCartney. 

The former model, 39, was told by lawyers at Mishcon de Reya they could no longer represent her in her battle with the former Beatle following a string of print and television interviews mentioning the divorce.

A spokesman for law firm says, "We are not representing her any more."

According to reports, the firm acted because Mills defied a gag on talking about the couple's daughter Beatrice, 4. 

A source tells Britain's The Sun, "She was warned against going on TV and talking about Paul, their marriage and anything about her daughter. But she just refused to listen."

Via SFGate.

FEDERLINE HEARD ABOUT DIVORCE ON RADIO

KEVIN FEDERLINE was unaware his ex-wife Britney Spears had filed for divorce until he heard the news on the radio.

According to the dancer's new girlfriend Nicole Narain, Spears failed to tell Federline when she filed for divorce from Federline citing irreconcilable differences last year (06). Narain tells Britain's Closer magazine, "Kevin didn't even know she'd filed the divorce papers until he heard it on the radio."

From Pr-Inside.

Quote by me in Time Magazine about Britney Spears Custody Case

Should Britney Lose Custody?

The February 2006 photo of Britney Spears steering her SUV out of a Starbucks parking lot in Malibu, Calif., with her infant son, Sean Preston, slumped on her lap was the first sign for many of us that the young mom might not be ready for parenthood. By the time a Los Angeles judge temporarily stripped the pop singer of custody of Sean, now 2, and Jayden James, 1, on Monday, Spears had provided dozens more images that suggest she is unable to care for two young children. From her impromptu head-shaving to her trips to rehab to her recent listless shuffle around the MTV Video Music Awards stage, Spears, 26, seems incapable of taking care of herself. Today she and her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, will face a judge to determine the next step in this increasingly ugly custody battle.

The judge, L.A. Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon, didn't make public his reasons for separating Spears from her sons Monday, but family law experts say such a dramatic move is rare. "A change of custody is very difficult," says Muriel Savikas, a divorce mediator and child psychologist in Manhattan Beach, Calif. "The courts don't normally do that without some real concerns about safety."

The judge had ordered Spears to submit to twice-weekly drug and alcohol testing, undergo co-counseling with Federline and receive parent coaching. Spears' lawyer, Sorrell Trope, told People magazine the judge revoked custody after Spears failed to take a random drug test and provide a valid California driver's license. "That might do it, but probably not," says Orange County divorce attorney Jeffrey Lalloway. "California policy is to have frequent and continuing contact with both parents." (Trope was unavailable for comment). The ruling came after Spears' former bodyguard told the court and the Today show that he had seen her doing drugs, and it also followed Spears being charged with a hit-and-run and driving without a valid license for allegedly crashing into a parked car in August.

Celebrities enjoy — and sometimes suffer — their own unique version of justice. The press and public intensely scrutinize their cases and the best attorneys money can buy litigate them. Judges, meanwhile, may see an opportunity to make an example of a celebrity in trouble, as L.A. Superior Court Judge Michael T. Sauer apparently did in ensuring that Paris Hilton serve an atypical 23-day jail sentence for driving with a suspended a license. So is Spears and Federline's judge looking to make a statement about neglectful parenting? Odds are he's just being exceedingly cautious, says Joanna Grossman, a law professor at Hofstra University.

The worst-case scenario for this judge is that Federline says his children are being harmed while in Spears' custody, the judge ignores the allegations and something happens to the kids, Grossman says. "Then everyone's going look to the judge and say why didn't you do something? We all knew she was on this downward spiral. We saw the pictures, we saw her performance on the VMAs, we all knew she was a terrible mother."

Spears is certainly not the first celebrity to be captured in a subpar performance as a parent. Alec Baldwin recently called his 11-year-old daughter a "thoughtless little pig" in a voice mail; David Hasselhoff's 17-year-old daughter videotaped him lounging drunk on the floor of his Las Vegas hotel room, rambling and trying to eat a hamburger; and Michael Jackson dangled his child out a window to show off to fans. Baldwin's custody case is still pending, but the other two men have retained custody of their children.

Spears, ultimately, may do the same. The fact that the judge took away custody as of 12 noon today, and scheduled a hearing for 1:30pm the same day suggests he isn't trying to separate this family permanently. "This is just a wake-up call for Britney," says Grossman, "to send a message to her that this is real, that you could really lose your kids because of the way you're behaving." Whether the wake-up call will be effective isn't certain. Spears' first stop after turning over her sons two days early on Monday was to a Bel-Air tanning salon.

Thanks to Rebecca Winters Keegan. Read it all at Time.

Spears Ordered to Give Kids to Federline

Britney Spears' continuing downward spiral took a devastating turn on Monday when she was ordered to relinquish custody of her children by a judge who had cited a troubling lifestyle fueled by drugs and alcohol.

Superior Court Judge Scott M. Gordon ruled that ex-husband Kevin Federline will take custody of Sean Preston, 2, and Jayden James, 1, beginning Wednesday "until further order of the court."

The order stemmed from an unspecified oral motion made by Federline's attorneys and was handled in a closed-door hearing. The judge's order didn't state the reason for the change in custody and all transcripts of the proceedings were ordered sealed.

Phone messages left for representatives of Spears and Federline were not immediately returned Monday.

Last month, Gordon said Spears engaged in "habitual, frequent and continuous use of controlled substances and alcohol." He ordered the pop star to undergo random drug and alcohol testing twice a week as part of her ongoing custody dispute with Federline.

Spears also was previously ordered to meet weekly with a "parenting coach" who was to observe and report back to the court about her parenting skills. Both Spears and Federline must complete the court's "Parenting Without Conflict" class.

Spears, 25, and Federline, 29, were wed in October 2004. She filed for divorce last November and it became official in July. The two have joint legal custody of their sons, but Federline is seeking a greater share of custody.

Since Spears became single, her troubles have played out in the tabloids. First she was photographed at various Hollywood hotspots partying with Paris Hilton. Some photos captured Spears without panties. Then Spears shaved her head, beat a car with an umbrella and ended up spending a month in rehab.

An MTV Video Music Awards performance last month meant to herald her comeback was universally panned. The following week, Spears' management firm dropped her and her divorce lawyer resigned.

She then was charged with misdemeanor counts of hit-and-run and driving without a valid license for allegedly crashing into a parked car in August.

Spears' new album will be released Nov. 13.

From news My Way.

Scaife's Wife Gets Giant Settlement After Messy Divorce -- Claims Newspaper is 'Hobby'

The estranged wife of billionaire and newspaper owner Richard Mellon Scaife, the Pittsburgh banking heir turned media mogul, was awarded $725,000 a month in temporary support during their acrimonious divorce, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Sunday.

Scaife, 75, and his second wife, Margaret Ritchie Battle Scaife, are battling on several fronts, from how to assess and divide his wealth to custody of a yellow Labrador retriever named Beauregard, the newspaper said.

A judge may also have to decide whether the $20 million to $30 million a year she claims he spends to support the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review constitutes a business loss, as he contends, or spending on a hobby, as she sees it. Scaife owns the newspaper - a rival to the Post-Gazette - along with the Tribune-Review of Greensburg and several smaller dailies and weeklies.

Forbes magazine this year estimated Scaife's wealth at $1.2 billion, ranking him No. 799 on its list of the world's billionaires. The divorce papers, though sealed, were available online for several days last month on Allegheny County court's Web site, the Post-Gazette said.

"Wife cannot possibly expend the guideline amount of support no matter how lavishly she chooses to live," Scaife's lawyers wrote in court papers seeking to have the award reduced.

Margaret Scaife's lawyers, Gary Gentile and William Pietragallo II, put his monthly income from earnings on nine trusts at $3.9 million.

Records filed in the case suggest Scaife has spent $140 million to $244 million, depending on whom you believe, to subsidize the Tribune-Review since its inception in 1992. Scaife's other papers are generally profitable, the divorce papers state.

Tribune-Review Editor Frank Craig, reached Sunday by cell phone in Japan, said he had not seen the story and declined comment to The Associated Press. Ralph Martin, the paper's president and chief executive officer, did not return a message left at his office Sunday.

The reclusive Scaife is known as a staunch political conservative who spent millions funding a series of investigations into President Clinton.

Margaret Scaife, 60, kept a separate residence in Pittsburgh after the couple married in June 1991 and has been arrested twice since their split over domestic confrontations at his nearby mansion, the Post-Gazette reported. The trespass and assault charges were later dismissed.

She filed for divorce last year alleging infidelity, while he filed divorce papers this year, the Post-Gazette said. They do not have a prenuptial agreement, the newspaper said. He has two children from his first marriage to the former Frances Gilmore.

Margaret Scaife's alimony could grow higher depending on how Judge Alan Hertzberg views his income. He has asked for briefs due Thursday before making a final decision on the temporary award, which was set on a preliminary basis by a hearing officer last year.

Albert Momjian, a divorce attorney in Philadelphia, said he had obtained the previous $275,000 record for a temporary alimony order in Pennsylvania.

"I can't conceive of any alimony amount that would be that large," Momjian said of the Scaife case. "That's gigantic."

Lawyers for both spouses declined comment for the Post-Gazette story, citing the order sealing the file, and none returned phone messages left at their offices Sunday by the AP.

"It's highly confidential and we're not really prepared to talk about it at this point. I don't think anybody will," Scaife's lawyer, H. Yale Gutnick, told the Post-Gazette.

From Editor and Publisher.

Diamond, Spielberg top Forbes celebrity divorce list

The bigger they are, the harder they fall -- especially in the world of celebrity divorce.

Basketball great Michael Jordan, singer-songwriter Neil Diamond and Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg top a new Forbes magazine list on Thursday of the 10 most costly divorce settlements of the stars.                        

Jordan's pending divorce from his wife of nearly 18 years, Chicago bank officer Juanita Vanoy, could end up as the most expensive in entertainment history, Forbes said, if his estranged spouse walks away with half his fortune.

With Jordan having earned much of his wealth during his marriage, most of it through endorsement deals, Vanoy (who filed for divorce last year) stands to collect more than $150 million, the magazine said.

A close second would be the estimated $150 million settlement Diamond paid to onetime TV production assistant Marcia Murphey, whom he married in 1969 before his breakthrough album, "Touching You, Touching Me," went gold, Forbes said.

They divorced in 1996. Diamond later said Murphey, his second wife, was "worth every penny," according to Forbes.

Spielberg's first marriage, to actress Amy Irving, ended in 1989 with his ex-spouse awarded roughly half of the filmmaker's fortune, about $100 million, ranking No. 3 on Forbes' list.

The magazine said Irving won that settlement after successfully contesting their prenuptial agreement, reportedly scribbled on a napkin, because she had lacked legal representation.

Actor Harrison Ford ranks No. 4 on the list with an estimated $85 million paid to his first wife, Melissa Mathison, who Forbes said negotiated a piece of his future earnings from films made while they were married.

Fellow screen star Kevin Costner landed in fifth place for an estimated $80 million settlement obtained by his first spouse, Cindy Silva, whose 16-year marriage to the actor spanned his peak earning years.   
Forbes ranked the pending divorce between former Beatle Paul McCartney and ex-model Heather Mills at No. 6, based on reports suggesting she may collect more than $60 million of Sir Paul's $700 million net worth.

Another rock superstar, Rolling Stone Mick Jagger,got off much easier, giving up a fraction of his estate -- $15 million to $25 million -- to Texas supermodel Jerry Hall after he successfully challenged the legality of their 1990 Balinese wedding ceremony and obtained an annulment.

Still that sum was enough to land Jagger on Forbes' list at No. 10.

Rounding out the roster are film director James Cameron (No. 7), who paid an estimated $50 million -- half of what he earned for "Titanic" -- to settle his divorce from actress Linda Hamilton; Michael Douglas (No. 8) for an estimated $45 settlement to his first wife, Diandra; and singer Lionel Ritchie (No. 9) for an estimated $20 million he paid to his second wife, Diane.

From Yahoo News. 

Federline Turns Down $25 Million Divorce Settlement? Not bad for a couple years of work!

Britney Spears' estranged husband Kevin Federline has turned down a $25 million divorce settlement offered by the pop star, according to media reports.

The former back-up dancer was reportedly looking for a $50 million settlement from the singer and the mother of his two children, Sean Preston and Jayden James. A source tells Star magazine, "Kevin says that Britney offered him $10 million to walk away from their marriage and to relinquish custody of their kids, but he just laughed. "Then she came back with $20 million, which he turned down, too.

Now he says she's offering a whopping $25 million and that's her final offer. He told her to take a hike!"

Part of the settlement offered by Spears reportedly includes a condition that would have Federline severing his ties with his young sons. The sources adds, "He loves his two little boys, and there's no way he's going to disappear from their lives."

This incredible tale from SFGate.