In MrBeast's lawsuit, he accused VDC of creating "low quality" and sometimes "inedible" food that carried his name. Furthermore, MrBeast's lawsuit claimed he had not earned a single dollar over the course of the three year partnership despite millions of burgers being sold.

VDC's suit say that it was MrBeast himself who undermined their shared business endeavors by making disparaging statements and driving away customers.

In a press statement a week ago, VDC called MrBeast's lawsuit "meritless" and "ill-advised". VDC also claimed it was all a ploy for him to get out of their contract.

Now, VDC is taking its response to court, and the lawsuit is nothing if not strongly worded:

"This case is about a social media celebrity who believes his fame means that his word does not matter, that the facts do not matter, and that he can renege and breach his contractual obligations without consequence. He is mistaken."

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"This wanton conduct has caused Plaintiffs to suffer enormous financial harm," the suit states, and now they're seeking a reported $100 million in damages:

"Donaldson's baseless and unlawful disparagement had the intended effect: MrBeast Burger's reputation was materially damaged if not destroyed, customers abandoned the Brand, Plaintiffs' hard-won relationships with vendors, partners, and suppliers were shattered, causing damages to Plaintiffs that, according to the evidence and Donaldson's own statements regarding the value of MrBeast Burger, are in the nine-figure range."

The suit also points to tweets made by MrBeast complaining about the quality of VDC's MrBeast Burger products, and lamenting his "bad deal" in agreeing to license out his name and likeness for the ghost kitchen delivery burgers.

MrBeast is not the only celebrity who has had a VDC partnership. Others include Mariah Carey, Mario Lopez and DJ Pauly D.

Read more: MrBeast Now Facing $100 Million Lawsuit From Ghost Kitchen Company Behind His MrBeast Burger

The ECF, formerly known as The Actors Fund, is set up to give financial assistance to those striking workers who don't have the resources of their famous counterparts like MacFarlane, as well as other famous donors to the fund including, per the Variety piece:

"The Katie McGrath & JJ Abrams Family Foundation, Stacey Abrams, Annette Bening, Tom Bergeron, Greg Berlanti, Rachel Bloom, Rosanne Cash in memory of Johnny Cash, Suzanne Collins and Cap Pryor, Vince Gilligan, Lynn Nottage, Michelle Pfeiffer and David E. Kelley, Shonda Rhimes, and Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw."

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Altogether the fund has raised $6.3 million since the WGA strike began in May, not just from high-profile donors like MacFarlane and the ones listed above but from a total of more than 7,500 donors.

Annette Bening, chair of the Entertainment Community Fund, issued a press release on the fundraising efforts:

"The Entertainment Community Fund is overcome with gratitude to the prominent leaders in our community who have donated in support of film and television workers in need…Each day, the calls for help increase; these gifts will immediately assist so many in our industry who are still struggling to recover after the pandemic. We also hope that these impactful gifts will inspire others, if they can, to donate to support our crucial work."

Guild members are able to request emergency funds from the ECF, and those requests have understandably skyrocketed since the strikes began, going from about $75,000 per week in distributed funds to between $400,000 and $500,000.

And there are other funds in place for the same cause. Dwayne Johnson recently made headlines with a donation of an undisclosed amount to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation's Emergency Financial Assistance Program that according to the foundation was the largest donation they've ever received from an individual.

Read more: Seth MacFarlane Makes $1 Million Donation To Film And TV Worker Strike Fund

Swift's Eras Tour may go down as the most successful concert tour in history, so it's only fitting that all of Swift's fellow performers, technicians, drivers, roadies, and everybody else that has a job to do on a massive tour would get a bonus for the end of the US leg of the tour.

Other than the $100,000 given to each of the tour's 50 truck drivers, specific dollar amounts haven't been reported, although a source tells TMZ that the bonus checks were all for a "very generous amount."

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Mike Scherkenbach is the CEO of Shomotion, one of two trucking companies charged with moving all the equipment from city to city during Swift's US dates. He spoke to USA Today about the bonuses, which reportedly also came with personally handwritten letters of appreciation for their work:

"[Taylor Swift's father Scott Swift] gave a short speech and said how much he appreciated the service and what they've done for the tour for the last 24 weeks…They've been out there nonstop, the men and women that drive for us have been away from their families for 24 weeks.

"The funny part is, they just glanced at the letter quickly and didn't look at the amount, so one driver read it as $1,000, another driver read it as $10,000. And then another driver said, 'Oh, this has to be a joke. $100,000?' which then made the other ones reopen their letters."

Swift is scheduled to hit Mexico before heading overseas to close out the tour in August of next year, so if you're a music professional undecided on whether or not touring with Taylor Swift is a good idea, this could be something that makes your mind up for you.

Read more: Taylor Swift Just Gave $55 Million To The Workers On Her Current "Eras" Tour

MrBeast branded burgers and fries began showing up on food delivery apps and the MrBeastBurger site in December of 2020, with the following goal, stated in the recently filed lawsuit: "relying entirely on the strength of MrBeast's brand, the business would create a virtual restaurant with a selection of MrBeast-branded food items, but would then partner with existing restaurants who would prepare those items and share in a significant portion of the revenue from their sales."

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But, the suit says, VDC quickly came up short when it came to delivering satisfying meals to hungry MrBeast fans:

"Virtual Dining Concepts was more focused on rapidly expanding the business as a way to pitch the virtual restaurant model to other celebrities for its own benefit, it was not focused on controlling the quality of the MrBeast Burger customer experience and products."

The lawsuit says that MrBeast Burgers were often "delivered late, in unbranded packaging, fail to include the ordered items, and in some instances, were inedible," and it includes thousands of screenshots of online reactions from dissatisfied customers illustrating this. The complaint goes on:

"Customers have referred to the burgers as being 'disgusting,' 'revolting,' and 'inedible.' They have claimed that 'it is sad that MrBeast would put his name on this,' 'MrBeast is being cancelled over burgers;' 'never had something so nasty;' 'inaccurate marketing;' 'Orlando's worst burger;' 'big name, poor food;' 'very upsetting for the high price;' and 'likely the worst burger I have ever had.'"

The suit also claims that MrBeast himself has not made any money from the "millions of dollars" in revenue generated by the partnership.

The MrBeast brand and likeness, as of this writing, still appears on the website for Virtual Dining Concepts, which hasn't yet responded to the lawsuit.

Read more: MrBeast Files Suit Against MrBeast Burger Food Delivery Service For "Low Quality" And "Inedible" Food

• The Prestige
• The Dark Knight
• The Dark Knight Rises
• Interstellar

Jonathan then co-created HBO's Westworld, which ran from 2016-2022. He also created the upcoming Amazon Prime series "Fallout."

So that's Jonathan. Christopher Nolan doesn't really need a background.

But what about the third brother, Matthew Nolan?

Matthew Nolan has reportedly taken a very different path in life from his two famous brothers. While his brothers have lit up movie theaters for over two decades, the mysterious third Nolan brother was once accused of being a professional hitman. If that's weird enough, Matthew at one point reportedly operated under the alias "Oppenheimer."

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Matthew worked in real estate in his chosen home of Chicago, far from the film and TV industry favored by his two famous brothers. He married into money in 1999, but he was allegedly leading a mysterious double life of intrigue and murder for hire, an accusation that has never been proved but which has been levied against him in court. He denies all accusations.

In 2005, authorities in Costa Rica filed charges against Matthew for the kidnapping, beating, and murder of financier Robert Cohen, a charge he always denied. Nolan's body was found shortly after he had run afoul of a notorious underworld figure in Costa Rica on the matter of $5 million in missing jewelry, yet another touch that makes the story feel more like a movie than real life.

Nolan was even arrested in Chicago in 2009 on the charges after Costa Rican law enforcement filed an extradition request, which is where the story gets even more dramatic and like something out of the work of his two brothers.

Nolan appears to have made quite an impression on Pablo Araya, the FBI agent who tracked him down and arrested him when he showed up at his own bankruptcy proceeding in Chicago:

"Matthew Nolan was the most arrogant person I have talked to…I grabbed him after he had eluded me for one or two years, and when I arrested him his words to me were, 'You would never have got me if it wasn't for the bankruptcy.' But it was his greed that got him – because of his bankruptcy."

At that point, the case against Nolan fell apart and the presiding judge denied Costa Rica's extradition request on the grounds that there wasn't sufficient evidence linking him to the Cohen case. But before that happened, Nolan reportedly pleaded guilty to preparing an escape attempt from jail involving the old standby of rope tied from bed sheets. Here's Araya again:

"It was make-believe stuff. Prison guards had his cell turned over and he had ropes made up. The guard said it was the best rope they had ever seen made."

The case against Nolan still turns up online and as a startling showbusiness urban legend that is at least partly based on fact. The last known development in the case happened in 2014, when a spokesperson for the Costa Rican Public Ministry told the Daily Mail that it was still open:

"The Costa Rican Public Ministry and the respective Costa Rican authorities have done everything possible to submit Mr. Nolan to legal procedure, which is still open against him because of such matters committed against and harming Mr. Cohen."

But that was nearly a decade ago, and there don't appear to have been any successful legal moves in those efforts since. Cohen's daughter Alisha spoke to the Mail with her thoughts on Nolan's involvement:

"My mom and I want justice. We believe Matthew Nolan should stand trial in Costa Rica for the murder of my father. I believe that, if Nolan was not from a famous family, it would be a different situation."

The alleged "Oppenheimer" alias has been an insignificant aspect of the Matthew Nolan case for years now, but it takes on new dimensions now that his younger brother Christopher has a hit movie with that title in theaters.

Read more: Christopher Nolan Has Two Brothers: One Is A Successful Writer/Producer. The Other Was Accused Of Being A Hitman Who Went By The Name "Oppenheimer"

The deal was closed after "a 'lengthy' and complex negotiation," per a source close to the matter, and when you delve into the details of the deal you'll understand why. Karol G will be retaining a large level of control over her work compared to most artists who sign with major labels, continuing to release music under her own Bichota Records, with Interscope handling distribution and promotion. As the source puts it: "It is one of the most ambitious deals signed by a Latin artist in recent memory."

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The deal is also unusual in that it seems to fall completely under the purview of Interscope's English-language division rather than any Spanish-language imprint. In previous eras, multilingual singers like Shakira or Enrique Iglesias have maintained separate business arrangements for their Spanish and English language music, but Karol G's deal reportedly falls entirely under the Interscope umbrella. "Even though Interscope doesn't have a Latin division per se, it has a Miami office run by Latin music veteran executive Nir Seroussi and it works Interscope's Latin projects, which also include Kali Uchis and Cuco," the Billboard story states.

In a press statement, Karol G is enthusiastic about the deal:

"I'm continuously amazed at the support my fans give me, which motivates me to deliver the best of me, and I'm certain that this partnership with Interscope and their incredible team will help us continue building and making history. I'm thrilled to see what's to come."

If all goes to plan, a new level of crossover success is what's to come for Karol G. And it seems that she didn't have to sacrifice much in the way of artistic or business autonomy in order to make the deal happen.

Read more: Karol G Signs "Ambitious" $100 Million Record Deal With Interscope

That's a little more than $1 million per show, which would be remarkable under any circumstances, but it's even more so thanks to the fact that the band took the tour as an opportunity to fight alleged price-gouging by ticket brokerage services like Ticketmaster, slashing the price to attend to an average of $68.54, some 37 percent less than the average price of artists on Billboard's list of the top 50 touring acts for midyear 2023. That list includes The Cure, and only one other band on it (The 1975) had a lower average ticket price over the course of their respective tour.

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Robert Smith's fight against unaffordable concerts generated a lot of publicity which could have helped them pack venues that might have had a little more empty seats under different circumstances. Or you could look at it another way, which is that the band left millions on the table. In any case, there don't seem to be too many complaints about how the tour went, except maybe from the people at Ticketmaster and other companies.

Before this summer, The Cure's previous highest-grossing North American tour was in 2016, when they took in a reported $18 million, a figure they more than doubled this time around. And that's not all due to inflation, either, since if you break it down by number of tickets sold, the more recent tour's attendance figure of roughly 547,000 tickets sold handily overtakes the 402,000 tickets they sold back during their 1992 tour, much closer to the band's commercial heyday.

Read more: The Cure Made More On Their Recent Tour Than They Ever Have, Even With Unusually Low Ticket Prices

The figure provided by a source close to the company is $565 million in online orders. The inventory was pulled off of store shelves back in October stemming from multiple explicitly antisemitic remarks made by West, and it's been sitting in an Adidas warehouse ever since. Now, after putting the sneakers back on the market, the brand reportedly sold 2 million pairs of Yeezy sneakers within a 48-hour period.

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Demand was so high that some of those orders aren't even able to be met by Adidas right away, although the company is said to have plenty more in storage. Revenue from the sell-off will put a significant bite in the beleaguered company's annual operating loss for the year, which was previously estimated to come out at more than $700 million.

Adidas had previously announced a portion of the proceeds from its eventual sale of the leftover Yeezy products will be donated to a variety of non-profit organizations, the Anti-Defamation League and the Philonise & Keeta Floyd Institute for Social Change being two of them. That figure hasn't been set in stone yet, but a source puts it at around $9 million, and it could end up being a lot higher since the plan is for a "significant share" of the profit to be given away for obvious public relations reasons. West himself also stands to earn a piece of the profit from the sale of the Yeezy stock, although it is unclear exactly how much.

Adidas has not commented publicly on the sale as of this writing.

Read more: Adidas Sold $565 Million Worth Of Its Unsold Yeezy Stock

If it does, Baumgartner will be getting a little more than half of the $248,000 per month she was asking for, and which Costner took her to court over. Of course, it's also quite a bit more than Costner's initial offer of $51,940 per month (plus covering additional expenses for their three kids), so perhaps both parties are walking away a bit dissatisfied, the mark of a good compromise.

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Baumgartner filed legal documents calling Costner's offer "completely inappropriate," asking for $248,000 per month, plus extra time and money to get a new place. Baumgartner's refusal to vacate a California home belonging to the former couple was a whole other aspect of their court battle, and a judge recently ruled she needed to be out by the end of the month per their prenuptial agreement.

While Costner had reportedly agreed to cover their kids' education and medical expenses in addition to the formal child support, the new ruling splits those expenses down the middle between them. But Costner is now also on the hook for $200,000 for Baumgartner's legal fees, plus another $100,000 for "forensic costs" relating to the trial.

Attorneys for both of them have their work cut out for them, since another hearing will be scheduled in the next several months to determine a permanent child support arrangement, and both Costner and Baumgartner will present evidence to have the figure lowered or raised. Although, as stated before, it usually doesn't change much if at all.

Read more: Judge Orders Kevin Costner To Begin Paying $130,000 Per Month In Child Support

If you haven't been following the story you might not be aware that Baumgartner had claimed in court that she didn't have enough time or money to vacate the former couple's $145 million beach home in Carpinteria, CA, despite Costner's citing of their prenup and some $1.5 million he claimed to have given her for that purpose. He argued that she was using the home as leverage to get him to agree to pony up $248,000 per month for child support.

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A judge has now formally agreed that Baumgartner was in violation of their prenup by staying on at the property, and has ordered her out by July 31st. Baumgartner was asking for the deadline to be extended to August 15, a request that was shot down. And it could be a sign of even worse news to come for her.

A hearing specifically on the validity of the former couple's prenup is scheduled for November, and if it is ruled entirely valid Baumgartner will be on the hook for Costner's legal fees in having the prenup affirmed. Not only that, she might have to pay back the $1.5 million Costner has already given her to get settled in a new place.

The judge's recent decision reportedly focused heavily on the language in their disputed prenup, so this decision could be a sign that the agreement will be ruled valid in Costner's favor in a few months.

Read more: Judge Rules That Kevin Costner's Estranged Wife Christine Baumgartner Has To Vacate $145 Million House By July 31